The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-13 00:00:00

the national interest!, but he thought the time selected for
introducing it was peculiarly ill-chosen. He assured the
Noble Viscount opposite (Goderich), that in forming his
judgment on this subject, he had taken his advice to dis-
card all party considerations. There would not be the
slightest tinge of party feeling in the vote he should give
that evening in cordial opposition to the Bill, unless it was
modified by the Amendments which had been proposed.
The Earl of DARNLEY had no disposition to enter
into the discussion opened by the Noble Earl (Harrowby)
as to the prohibiting system. The only question before
their Lordships was, whether in the schedule of the Bill,
the right point of departure bad:seen fixed upon. He cer-
tainly was of opinion, that the b.st mode of obviating the
inconvenience that might result 'emu the variations of the
averages, would be to adopt the proposition of his Noble
Friend (the Earl of Malmeshury' to fix the rate of duty at
the time of importation, and no: to leave it open to spe-
culators to throw an immense surply on the market at any
time when they might find it their interest to do so. He
thought it might also prove useful to confine the amend-
ment of the Noble Duke to the cern now in bond. There
never had been a season within his memory, when the
appearance of the harvest was more propitious. There
was every reason to expect that the next produce of
corn would be more abundant than any for a long series
of years. Under these circumstances, it would only
be fair to the house-grower to secure him in the first in-
stance against a great influx of foreign corn into the market,
and give him time to adjust himself to the subsequent
operation of the Bill. As a permanent measure, he ap-
proved of the Bill, but he was glad to avail himself of the
Noble Duke's Amendment for the purpose he had describ-
ed. He felt it his duty, therefore, to move an Amend-
ment to the effect he had stated. Their Lordships would
perceive, that his Amendment was contingent on that of
the Noble Duke. If they rejected the latter, his, of course,
fell to the ground. He concluded by reading his Amend-
ment, by which he restricted the former Amendment to
corn now actually in bond, excluding from its operation
that which might be brought into the warehouses after the
Bill had passed.
Lord GODERICH said, the effect of his Noble
Friend's Amendment would be, that all the foreign corn
warehoused after the passing of this Act, and entered for
home consumption, would be admissible on payment of
the duties in the schedule, while the corn which was
now in the warehouses would be excluded till the average
price was 665. This, he thought, would be a measure
exceedingly harsh towards the present holders of bonded
corn. The Noble Earl's Amendment would permit the
whole world besides to come into competition with the
home grower. He could conceive nothing more objection-
able to that principle than this proposition, to which for
one, he (Lord Godericb) could not accede.
_ .

After a few words from Lori GODERICH and Earl
DARNLEY, which we c3uld not bear,
The LORD CHANCELLOR put the question, whether
it was their Lordships' pleasure that the word " after"
should stand part of the clause. His Lordship declared
that the contents had it.

Lord CALTHORPE thought that the bill, though not
the best that might have been framed, would yet be pro-
ductive of some good. He was decidedly opposed to the
amendment of the Noble Duke (the Duke of Wellington);
and, as to what had been said respecting their Lordships
being influenced by their characters as landholders, it was
an insinuation utterly bereath notice.

The Earl of HABEWOOD spoke in so low a tone
of voice as to render several of his observations inaudible
below the bar. We understood him to vote for the
amendment proposed by the Noble Duke (Wellington)
in the discharge of his public duty. He was most anxious
at the same time that his vote should not be misunder-
stood, either by that House or the public. He voted for
the clause, as a means of restraining the warehousing sys-
tem, which at present he thought to be inexpedient, and
because he was also desirous of giving the agriculturists a
greater protection than was afforded by the Bill in its
original shape. He was, :n fact, anxious to provide, in
adverse seasons, a compensating price for a diminished
production.
The Marquis of LANSLOWNE observed, that he had
heard a good deal of the necessity of altering the title of the
Bill, to make it better suit the real object of its framers;
but upon this suggestion all he should say was, that no al-
teration in the title would have facilitated that great alter-
ation in the substance, which would have admitted or
justified any one of the suggested amendments; and more
particularly that of the Noble Luke to which so much sup-
port had been given. Under these circumstances, he
thought it of the first importance that their Lordships
should deliberately consider w:iat was the proper title of
the Bill, and what was the 1 roposed Athendmeet. Of
the latter, indeed, they had had already ample oppor-
tunities of being thoroughly 1111)1-med. The object of that
amendment, as stated by the Noble Duke, differed singu-
larly enough, and most materially, from the reasons as-
signed by several Noble Lords rho had given it their sup-
port. As the amendment came from its Noble Author, it
was perfectly consistent with his avowed support of the
principle of the warehousing system : others followed in
its advocacy, but on the ground that it checked that system,
while there were still more who gave it their support
because it extinguished—what ? Why, that very ware-
housing system altogether, which now, forsooth, it was
deemed advisable to extinguish, after its adoption into the
policy of the country for a series of thirty or forty years,
sanctioned by successive Acts of Parliament, and im-
proved and extended by various practical regulations
which the experience of circumstances suggested. This
policy was, however, now for the first time discovered,
by some new lights, to be inexpedient ; for be it remem-
bered that among those who talked most disparagingly of
" new lights," there were gleams of their own which shot
forth, and which were as muck opposed to, the dicta and
authority of the greatest statesrueu, and to the wisdom of
successive Parliaments, as any that had ever been advocated
by the most speculative political economists in their wildest
and most absurd crudities.—(Hear, hear.)--Now their
Lordships had learned that a measure which he and others
had always apprehended had extended the warehousing
system, and which was uniformly avowed to have been in-
tended for that purpose, was for ided upon quite a different
basis ; and this they had be a told by a Noble Earl
(Bathurst) who had himself baen a party to the measure
of 1625, which according to his construction, was meant
to limit and restrict that system, although, if looked into,
there could not be a doubt but its framers had meant
exactly the reverse. For what else was the power given
to the Lot& of the Treasury to extend the warehousing
system to other ports ? and he defied the Noble Earl to
show him a single clause in any one of the Acts to justify
any thing like the restriction which was now contended for.
Earl BATHURST, in explanation, referred to the second
clause in one of the Acts.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE did not mean to com-
plain of this interruption, nor was he prepared at this mo-
ment to go clause by clause with the Noble Earl through
all these acts of Parliament; but at the same time he felt
the fullest confidence, that he could show from the general
spirit of every act, from the first to the last, respecting the
warehousing system, that the intention of the Legislature
was not to check but to extend and protect that system,
which, under every wise view of the whole question, was to
give the fairest scope to agricultural industry, and to the
security of its reasonable profits. To depart from that po-
licy at present, would not be, as was supposed, to give a
better protection to agriculture, but to V. ithdraw that ca-
pital which had heretofore, and by a great extension during
the last 10 years, been employed in the warehousing sys.
tern ; and thus reverse, by an incidental clause in a Bill, the
whole current of your salutary policy—and upon what
grounds? When Noble Lords referred to the warehousing
system, they looked to it as a bugbear of alarm, and, in
doing so, he really thought they regarded it more from ap-
pearances suggested by their own imaginations than by the
reality of the view. It was quite clear that if they abo-
lished the warehousing system, foreign grain would not
come into the market, as it now did, to await their good
time of giving them a benefit and a remedy for a great
evil, against which they all admitted they were bound to
guard. Nobody went so far as to propose the exclusion of
foreign corn ; on the contrary, it was universally admitted
that there was a necessity to stipulate for its admission,
and the only difference was, as to the time when that
necessity ought to arise. But some Noble Lords
appeared to have ent rely overlooked the advantage of
lodging that foreign supply in a depot which was pro-
vided in the safest poesible manner, for it was totally
independent of the movements of foreign politics,
or, indeed, foreign controul; and where its entrance into
the market was regulated, so as to have operation exactly
at the moment required by the pressure of the country's
wants, and at no other. If it be (as it obviously must)
th!interest of the farmer to get the benefit of any rise of
price, as soon as possible after circumstances furnish the
opportunity, and of the consumer to get the supply ex-
actly at the season of went, the warehousing restore fur-
nished the direct means of securing this accommodation for
both, with the greatest quickness and certainty. Whereas,
if the country was left to depend upon the movements of
foreigners for supply, as must be evident if they departed
from what he believed to be their better system, the agri-
culterist would then be exposed to a glut in the market,
exactly at the time when his interest would require that
the supply should be gradual, and in proportion only to the
exigency of the case. WILh respect to the suggested ope-
ration of the amendment (by this clause) upon the ave-
rages, he must at once deny that a single fraud could be