The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-15 00:00:00

Sunderland contended that no measure should be brought for-
ward, which would have the effect of interrupting the progress of
then, on the other hand, he thought the Government ought to
Government measures. That proposition was reasonable ; but
give every facility on motion night for making a Reuse ; and
not to take advantage of a whipping out to resist the motion
(Hear, hear.) What did Mr. Canning say on that subject?
Mr. Canning sail, he considered that the most impoitant
duties of a certain class of gentlemen connected wilt the Go-
vernment, such as Lords of the Treasury, under Secretaries of
State, Clerks of the Board of Control, anti gentlemen of that
genius—(Great laughter)—he considered that their duties
were divided into three classes; their first duty was, to make a
nous? ; then, second, to keep a House ; and then, third, to
cheer the Minister.—( Great laughter.) It was too delicate a
subject for the Right Hon. Baronet to mention to those lion.
Gentlemen, and he was sure, therefore, that he would feel very
much indebted to him (Mr. T. Duncombe) for th?, allusion.--
(Continued laughter.) He thought they ought to know who
was really responsible for making a House, that Hon. Gentle-
men who gave notice of motions might not be defeated by being
told, " This is a Government night, and we must, therefore,
vote against you." He should certainly have voted with the
Hon. Member for Sheffield last Thursday, and not being like
I the I"oble Lord (Lord Howick), he would vote for him on that
oceasion.—( Hear, hear.)
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and the House di-
vided, when there appeared—
For the motion ll5
Against it ..
Majority against the motion ll5
The House then went into Comittee on the Bill, Mr. G Lk:ENE
in the Chair.
The first clause was agreed to without discussion.
On the second clause being proposed,
Mr. VALENTINE BLAKE, pursuant to notice, rose to
move " in consideration of the increasing an unexampled depres -
sion of trade, and the destitution consequent thereon, which
now unhappily prevails throughout the entire of
the manufacturing districts, the insertion of a
clause to suspend the payment of all the specified
duties till from and after the Ist day of April, 1843."
The Hon. Baronet went on to say that when he considered
the likelihood of thousands being sacrificed by the pressure of
the present measure, and that the persons thus exposed to
suffering had been the foundation of the trade and the pros-
perity of this country, Parliament ought to pause. He re-
gretted that the Noble Lord (Lord John Russell) had lost
the advantage he once possessed of wielding the destinies of
this empire, and had thrown his power into the hands of the
Right lion. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government,
who had only to shake his ambrosial curls—(Laughter)--to
give the stamp of fate and the sanction of a god to any mea-
sure for the oppression of the people. With respect to po-
tato-flour, he might be permitted to say that the soil of Ire-
land was particularly adapted to the growth of potatos. The
constant succession of showers and sunshine in that country
favoured in an especial manner the growth of that root in it.
It was well known in his (Sir V. Blake's) part of the country
that when a married pair had no children, the potato—( The
rest of the sentence was lost amids the roars of

laughter that r. se from all sides of the House. )
There was another burden which bad been alighted on in a
former instance, that had been omitted in this. One burden

had been discovered in the fact, that the landed gentlemen
formerly had to keep the soldiers' wives. —( boars of laughter. )
Were he not afraid of incurring the displeasure of the House,
he would give them some more particulars connected with the
subject on good authority. The Hon. Member then pro-
ceeded to give the House a sketch of the natural history of
the potato, stating that it was a root which grew wild
in South America, was brought to this country in
1588, but was not generally cultivated till—some date
which was lost amid the loud and general cries
of question, which compelled the Hon. Gentleman to conclude
with proposing his clause, that To duty be paid on the impor-
tation of corn till after the first of April, 1843. The mention
of the date produced fresh bursts of laughter, amid which the
Hon. Member sat down.

The motion was negatived without a division.
Mr. J. PARKER rose to propose a clause which he be-
lieved would have the effect of correcting one of the great ob-
jections of the sliding scale. The observations of the Hon.
Member were very indistinctly heard, but he was understood
to contend that the sliding scale in its present form, ren-
dered regular trade with distant ports almost imj ossible.
The trade thus became of a very speculative character, and it
precluded any trader from carrying on I. regular ssstem of
commerce with those countries. A clause, of the nature he
should have the honour to propose, would, he thought,
tend to obviate the objection. The clause was,
also, founded on the representation of the Amer.caa
merchants of the Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool, stating
the advantage of extending the time of taking the averages ,
this, it was considered, would tend to increase the trade with
America. He only suggested his motion to the House as a
proposition ; he was not enamoured of his own clause,
as he was aware of the great difficulties connected
with the subject.—( Hear.) The time occupied in
rending a vessel to Odessa, freighting her and the voyage back,
was not less than four months, and he could not include Odessa
unless he extended the period in his clause to that time. He
therefore moved as a clause that it shall be lawful for " any
person, on payment of the duty on any quantity of foreign corn,
or on giving bond for the payment of the same, at the I ate of
duty then ruling, or on giving bond for the payment of such
duty at the rate which shall be ruling on the day of clearing
out such corn from any foreign port, to enter the aforesaid
qu'antity of corn, or any part thereof, for home consumption,
although not actually in bond, provided it be imported within
a limited number of days from the time of sueh entry."
Sir ROBERT PEEL said that the Hon. Member had
stated his clause to be rather obscure, and had just observed
that he was not very much enamoured of his own proposition.
He apprehended that the purport of the clause was this, that
supposing the duty on corn was Is., the party importing might,
on the payment of that duty on an unlimited number of quarters,
enter that quantity for consumption. Thus, find ng the duty
at Is., he might enter that quantity, by paying twenty thou-
sand shillings, or even without paying it, since he could do it
by giving his land for the payment, and had four months to do
it in. This appeared to him a most extraoreinary proposi •
tion.—(Hear, hear.) In the first place, it would have a very
material effect in discouraging the bonding system.—
( Hear, hear, and cheers.) There would not be the least
necessity for bonding corn at all; there would not
be any encouragement for bonding corn, even at Rotterdam
or Antwerp, as it might be bonded at Odessa. It was not to
be necessary to pay the duty, it being merely necessary to give
a bond for the payment ; this appeared to him a most extra-
ordinary system to introduce. It seemed to him, that if
frauds could be practised in the averages, this
clause would give fresh inducements to practise
them for not only could the party banding corn, but all specu-
lators; who undertook to pay the duty of Is. a quarter, having
four months to conduct their operations, might influence
the average prices. But this clause appeared to
be intended to benefit the part of Odessa.—( Hear, hear.)
He did not see why Odessa and the United States should be
benefited at the expenad of the ports of the Baltic. Of the
many propositions proposed by Hon. Gentlemen opposite, one
was that 1,000,000 quarters should be admitted every yeir free
of duty ; the one now before them was in effect to enable corn
speculators to conduct their business at Odessa. He ~‘ ould
beg of those Hon. Gentlemen to try and frame a whale Corn
Bid themselves, and then they would see how difficult it
was for him to balance all the opposing interests and places
concerned in this question. But he was sure the Hon. Gentle-
man's clause would defeat its object, for it would have the
effect of depressing the market. He (Sir R. Peel) must
oppose the clause.
Lord HOWICK supported the clause, as tending to break
down the monopoly which otherwEe the neighbouring ports
would have. The Right Hon. Baronet taunted his Noble
Friend, and also the Hon. Member for Paisley, for ignorance
of legislative routine, and asked them to frame a Corn Bill
themselves. Now he (Lord H.) wovld say, that if his Hon.
Friend, the Member for Sheffield, framed a Bill, it would be
more simple, intelligible, and reasonable than the measure'
now before the House. —(Laughter and cheers.) If there
were any fault in the clause, it was because it was encum-
bered by the faulty principle of the Right Hon. Baronet.—
( Laughter, and hear, hear.)
Mr. HASTIE referred to the speech of the Right Hon.
Baronet on a former night, and endeavoured to show that the
falling off in the American trade, which was only 6 per cent.
on our whole exports, nor the operation of the Joint Stock
Banks, whose bills did not exceed 560,000/. cou ! have had no
cause in producing the general distress, which the Right Hon.
Baronet had at iast admitted.

Mr. PARKER did not want to persevere in his cline, hut
would be happy to yield to a modification of it made by the
Right Hon. Paroriet himself.
Sir R. PEEL assured the Hon. Gentleman that he (Sir R.
Peel) meant nothing in the least degree disc mrteous or dis-
respectful in the allusion he had untie to them.
Mr. P. SCROPE proposed .a clause to the effect, that
foreign corn entered for consumption from ship be admitted on
the requost of the importer at the duty ruling on the day cn
which such ship cleared out from the port whence the corn
was exported.
Sir R. PEEL said that:there was one general, and, in his
mind, conclusive objection to the proposed clause, that it would
effect a positive discouragement to the warehousing system in
this country.
Mr. HAWES hoped the Right Hon. Baronet would give the
clause a further consideration. It would have the effect of re-
medying one of the greatest evils of the sliding scale,
which was, that it excluded us, in an emergency, from being
supplied rom distant countries. He would recommend the
postponement of the clause for the present, that the Right
lion. Baronet might more maturely weigh its probable effects.
Mr. S. WORfLEY oppost4 and Mr. Howaan supported
the amendment.
After a few words from Mr. THORNELY,
Mr. POULET SCROPE withdrew his amendment, and
the clause was agreed to.
Clause 3 was agreed to with some verbal amendments.
Clause 4 was then agreed to.

On clause 5 being proposed,
Mr. LABOUCHERE wished to call the attention of the
Vice President of the Board of Trade to the clause which was
copied, word for word, from the existing law. On the other
evenino. the Right Hon. Gentleman had stated that a great por-
tion of Canadian flour imported into this country was the
produce of American wheat. He (Mr. Labouchere) had con-
sidered that the wording of this clause was sufficient to prevent
any such surreptitious introduction, but on inquiry he found
that such was the case, and, therefore, he would suggest the
propriety of amending the clause in such a manner as to remedy
the abuse complained of.
Mr. GLADSTONE agreed that the words of the clause
appeared sufficiently stringent to prevent the introduction of
American wheat under the guise of Canadian flour, but ac-
cording to another of the Customs Acts, manufactured goods
were always taken to be the produce of the country in which
they were manufactured, and under that clause the
flour had been introduced as Canadian flour. It it should be
thought advisable to introduce words, enacting that no flour
should be considered as colonial flour that was not manufactured
from wheat grown in the colony, they might be introduced into
this clause.

Mr. LABOUCHERE thought it would be by no means de-
sirable to reenact a clause which had already proved impe-
rative.

Mr. S. O'BRIEN wished to a-41( the Secretary for the Co-
lonies, or the Right Hon. Gentleman at the he d of the Go-
vernment if there would be any objection to permit colonial
corn to be imported duty free, or at a nominal rate of duty, pro-
vided the Colonial Legislatures would place a duty on foreign
corn imported into the colony, eqttal in amount to the protec-
tion given to home-grown corn ?
No answer having been given to the q ,estion,
The clause was agreed to, with some verbal amendments.
Clauses 6 and 7 were then agreed to.
On clause 8 being proposed,
Mr. WODEHOUSE asked if there would be any objection
to introduce a clause ordering Consuls to inform the Govern-
ment immediately of any prohibition being_ issued by Foreign
Powers against she exportation of corn, and to the publication
of those despatches in the London Gazette?
The answer was totally inaudible in the gallery.
The clause was then agreed to.

--
On clause 9 being proposed,
exportt every
Captain PECHELL rose to prnpoie the following insertion
in n
vessel importing foreign corn,
a
British manufactured goods, shall,
and which
hclicahuse
shall :upon proof of such exportation, be entitled to a drawback of
:uch part of the duty which was payable upon such corn at the
"Tha
time of its entering into port, as hereinafter mentioned; that
is to say, if the value of the goods so exported shall, according
to the fair market price thereof, to be certified by
1 , be equal to or exceed the value of the corn so lin-