The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-03 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, MARot 2.

The Bishops of Ely, Clogher, and Killaloe, the Earl of Hope-
town, Lord Beresford, and the Duke of Newcastle, took the
oaths and their seats.

Mr. Chaplin, and others from the Commons, hrought up two
private Bills.

CATHOLICS.
The Bishop of ELY presented two petitions from
e Dean and Chapter, and from the Archdeaconry of Ely, against
granting further concessions to the Catholics.
Similar petitions were presented by Lord ROLLE from several
places in Devonshire ; by the Earl of Winchelsea, from several
places in the county of Kent ; by the Bishop of Exeter, from the
parish of Newton, Devonshire ; by the Bishop of Bath and Wells,
from the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Bristol ; by Lord Ken-
yon, from a parish in Flintshire, and from several places in
Shropshire ; by the Bishop of London, from the Inhabitants of
Colchester ; from the Clergy and Archdeacon of Colchester; and
from the Inhabitants of -, Essex.

The Earl of KINGSTON presented petitions,
praying for relief from the Roman Catholic Inhabitants of the
City and County of cork.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL expressed his
opinion, that these petitions did not speak the sense of the inha-
bitants of the City of Cork. He, was sure the great majority of
the inhabitants were adverse to the claims of the Catholics.
After a brief conversation between the Noble Peers, the peti-
tions were received.

The Earl of CLANRICARDE presented similar
petitions from several places in the County of Galway.

NAVIGATION LAWS.
Lord FEVERSHAM presented a petition from
the Shipowners of Whitby, Yorkshire, praying their Lordships to
re-enact the Navigation Laws:

CORN LAWS.
Lord CARBERY presented a petition from the
Millers of the neighbourhood of the City of Cork, praying for pro-
tection, if the Corn Laws should be altered.
_ _ _

Lord ROLLE presented several petitions from
parishes in Devonshire, praying their Lordships not to alter the
Corn Laws.
The Earl of KINGSTON presented several peti-
tions from parishes in the County of Tipperary, praying their
Lordships to grant them protection, should they alter the system
of the Corn Laws.

Similar petitions were presented by the Earl of WINCH/LS/A
from several parishes in the Eastern part of the County of. Kent
by Lord TEYNHAM, from the Hundred of Manshead, Bedford•
shire; by the Duke of. NEWCASTLE, from Newark-upon-Trent
and from several places in Nottinghamshire.

Earl STANHOPE, in rising to present a petition
from the Agricultural Society of Holderness, in the East Riding
of the County of York, begged to say a few words to their Lord-
ships, out of deference to the petitioners themselves, and out of
of deference to the importance of the subject. He agreed entirely
with the petitioners in their wish not to see the Corn Laws al-
tered for any untried projects ; but there was one point in which
he dissented entirely from them. They stated to their Lordships
that they regarded 265. as an adequate duty, but he (Earl Stan-
hope) did not ; and he would spew their Lordships, from what
the petitioners themselves stated, that this sum would not be suf-
ficient. It wag a fact, as stated in the petition, as he could prove,
that at Hull, the great storehouse for foreign grain, wheat had
been imported and offered for sale at 245. per quarter ; if this
were added to the protecting duty, the petitioners proposed, the sum
would amount to 505., which would not remunerate the English
grower. He did not doubt the fact ; and if their Lordships went
into an inquiry, he should be ready to prove at their Lordships'
Bar that wheat could be imported and sold at Hull for 245. per
quarter. This did not surprise him at all. It accorded with, the
information supplied by his Majesty's Consuls abroad, which
he thought was quite as much to be relied on as that of,Mr.
Jacob. In their reports it was stated that the average price of
wheat in 1825, in the ports of the Baltic, and on the German
Ocean, was ISs. 7d. per quarter. They had also •klded, that the
expence of freight was such,that it might he imported into this coun-
try for 245. per quarter. Their statement, therefore, agreed with
the fact, of wheat having been imported into Hull at this price.—
The prayer of the petition was at variance with the allegations
of the petitioners. They stated that the expences on the cultiva-
tion of wheat in Yorkshire, arising from taxation, could not be
estimated at less than 325. per quarter, and they ought not,
therefore, to be contented with a less protecting duty than that
sum. If, according to their statement, sixty-four shillings was a
remunerating price in Yorkshire, a still higher sum must be re-
quired when wheat was cultivated on poorer soils. The peti-
tioners asked a protecting duty of 265., and what would they
now think when they heard that the duty was only to be 20s.
when the price was 60s. per quarter? Was this the protection
which it had been said had been granted to the British Agricultu-
rists ? and was this a scheme which was most favourable to their
interest ? He happened that very day to hear the opinion of some
eery intelligent agriculturists, on the measure which had last
night beep proposed in another place, and they said, if it were
passed, it would ruin them, and they were resolved, if it did pass,
to leave this country, and retire to the Continent; they would
quit, they said, a land which, whatever other advantages it might
posstase was a land in which this measure convinced them no
right was sacred, and no property secure. It was a strange
project this, and strangely intended. It was described as in-
tended to prevent fluctuations in prices. But, were fluctuations
in price the consequences of the Corn Laws ? He denied it.
Did they lower the price of Colonial produce? Their Lordships
would not forget Mr. Peel's Bill, which had carried desola-
tion into every part of the country. -Neither would their
Lordships forget the measure that was introduced to miti-
gate the evils caused, though the Ministers had not the cou-
rage and the candour to avow their purpose. He hoped that
there would be many opportunities—and he was sure there
could not be too many—for their Lordships to express their
opinions on the measure which had been proposed ; and
he was sure, if their Lordships regarded the welfare of the
country—if they thought of the estimation in which the public
would hold them—that they would never consent to pass such a
measure on no other authority than that of Mr. Jacob. There
were two subjects on which be thought their Lordships ought to
institute an inquiry. The first was, at what price foreign corn
could be imported into this country ; and the second, what price
would be a fair remunerating price for the home grower? much
had beep said about a famine price, and odium had been thrown
on the agricultural interest by using this word. But he wished
their Lordships to eoosider, that what was called the famine price
was,a nominal price, and it peght to be compared, not to the nomi-
nal price in other countries, hut to the wages of labour and the
amount of taxation. He happened to know from a great landed pro-
prietor what were the wages of labour, and the amount of taxation,
in one of the best-governed countries of Europe, and in which the
peasantry were very well off. In Austria, the country to which he
alluded, the price of wheat was I ss, per qr., but the wages of labour
were sd.per day, or just one-fourth of what they were here. As to tax-
ation, taking the whole of the inhabitants, the amount of taxation
paid in Austria was 7s. 6d. per head, while, taking the gross amount
of taxation in Great Britain, not the sum which actually reached
the Exchequer, the sum was 51. per head. In Austria the taxes
were paid by IS days' labour, here it required 60 days' labour to
pay them. And let their Lordships look at the effect of this state
of things on the farmer. In Austria he paid his taxes by half a
quarter of wheat, but he must in this country give one quarter
and two-thirds. Under such circumstances, it was not possible
for this country to compete with foreign countries. If Ministers
would reduce taxation, and if they would alter all the existing ob-
ligations of the country, he should have no objection to see the
trade in corn entirely free. He would then readily go
the Noble Baron near him (Lord King), and say, give us a free
trade in corn. Nothing, he contended, had been shown which
could authorise altering the existing state of the law. What were
the circumstances in the situation of the country at present which
made the measures of 1815 and 1822 now mischievous?—
The onus probandi lay oil those who had introduced those
measures, and now proposed to alter them, without giving
their Lordships any reason whatever for making the alter-
ation. He hoped the alteration would not be carried, for it
would be highly detrimental to the country, and would pro-
mote to excess that very spirit of speculation it was said to be
likely to repress. His Lordship concluded by saying, that he
had also another petition to present from the farmers, occupiers
of lands, agricultural labourers, and artizans, being inhabitants of
Holderness.and its vicinity. He did not know whether he was
quite in order in alluding to this petition, but he wished to call
their Lordships' attention to the class of persons who signed it,
who were, some of them, of the very class the law was said to
injure. Yet the Corn Laws were described as the landlords'
laws, and as intended to levy a tax for the benefit of the landlords.
But he would ask their Lordships, if large districts of the coun-
try were to be thrown out of cultivation, would it not injure the
husbandry labourers as well as the landlords ? He did not deny
their Lordships' power, or the power of Parliament, to alter the
laws ; but he would ask them, were they prepared by, any mea-
sure of theirs to deprive of the means of exercising their industry