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

The Jury found the prisoner Guilty of stealing only, and
not "stealing in a dwelling-house."—Sentence deferred.
George Thompson, 22, was indicted for stealing three
watches, two pairs of sugar tongs, and twenty spoons, of the
:clue of 201. and money to the value of 21., the property of
Edward Burch, of the Bell Tavern, lireolwieh.
It appeared 'that this robbery had been committed at the
time the King or Prussia- embarked for the Continent. The
prosecutor's house was much crowded. On the day in ques-
tion, the 4th February, a policeman, who was there in plain
clothes, was at the Bell, where he Faw two persons standing
at a bed-room door on the first floor. From suspicion he en=
tertained he went to the landlord, and spoke to him on the
subject. The landlord went up stairs, and one of the per-
sons on the landing immediately ran down. The witness,
hearing a cry, secured the man as he came down stairs. A
gold watch, chain, and seal, were- found upon him, but on his
being brought before the magistrate, h • was discharged. The
prosecutor stated, that on his proceeding up stairs, he met the
prisoner coming out of the room. The spoons in question,
were deposited in that ro.m. The prosecutor immedi-
ately seized the prisoner, and cried out " murder, thieves !"
The bed-room door was then open, and a person inside, and
unseen by the prosecutor, struck at him. • The wife of the pro.
secutor with the assistance of the maid servant, secured the
prisoner. The bed-risorn was all in disorder, and lie missed
the articles from the chest of drawers. Five of the tea spoons
were picked up from the stairs ; the locks of the chest of
drawers were all picked. The prosecutor's wife heard the live
spoons fall near to the prisoner on the stairs. The spoons were
thoFc she had deposited in the morning in the bed-room.
The Learned Judge having summed up the evidence, the jury
re: urned a verdict of Guilty.

Tim SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY. EVENING, MARCH 3, 1841.

only from his conviction that the measure of 'the
Government would not give satisfaction; and would
effect nothing towards allaying the restlessness
and . discontent that had already began to
show themselves, that he was induced to over-
come his reluctance to address the House. He had
no doubt but that, if the question had been merely
between him and the Right Honourable Baronet oppo-
site, their difference would be found to be a narrow one.
The Right Honourable Baronet admitted, with him,
that the agriculturist should be protected to a certain
point only ;. but the Right Hon. Baronet went further,
and said that when corn had reached a certain point the
interest of the consumer only should he consulted. The
main point at issue between him and the Right Hon.'
Baronet was, as .to whether. the duty should become
fixed when the price rose to a certain amount.
That was the question at issue between him and the
Right Hon. Baronet ; but the question between him
and the Right Honourable Gentleman the Member for
Dorchester, and the Right Honourable Baronet the
Member for Kent, was much narrower ; they said
that a fixed duty would be the best plan, provided it
could be maintained. He (Mr. E. Buller) had to slew
that a fixed duty could be maintained. But as he had
undertaken to bring forward a scale and place it
in competition with the scale of the Right Hon. Baronet,
he felt it his duty to point out what he considered to be
the defects in the Right Hon. Gentleman's scale. The
great difference between the scale proposed by the Right
Honourable Baronet, and his (Mr. E. Buller's) was,
that whereas the Right Honourable Baronet proposed
to withdraw the duty when the price of wheat
rose to 695., he (Mr. E. Buller) proposed that it
should be maintained. The Right Honourable Baronet
admitted that the present law had acted with undue se-
verity on the consumer, and had held out sufficient in-
ducement to make the holders of corn in bond
withhold it from the market ; but he said that
the plan which he proposed would effectually reduce
that inducement to fraud, and that the new proposal
would net therefore have the effect of the old law.
Here he (Mr. E. Buller) joined issue with the
Right lion. Gentleman, and he would tell the Right
lion. Gentleman that though he had lowered the in-
ducement to fraud, yet, inasmuch as he had left the
maximum of price, and the minimum of duty where
they were_ before,- he had afforded no assistance what-
ever to the consumers when prices were high.
The Right Hon. Gentleman said that corn would be in-
troduced when it was wanted, and not until then. He
said the reservoirs would be always kept full, and
never overflow ; but such was the language held by
all the advocates of former sliding scales. It was
the language of Mr. Canning in 1827, and of the
Noble Lord who brought forward the present scale in
1828. He (Mr. B.) was of opinion that the present
scale would hold ma no greater inducement than the
one it was intended to supersede. On comparing the two
scales, he found that when the price was 715., an
inducement was held out under the one scale,
to the holder of corn in bond, to keep back
his corn, because he had a prospect of ss. gain in the
duty, and of ono in the article. Now, in the one
case, there was a prospect of gain of 55., and in
the other there was a prospect of loss ; and he
would ask would not a prudent man be as likely
not to bring corn to the market in one case as
in the other. The only difference was, that the
trade would be carried on to a greater extent.
In 1841 the price was 725. Bd., the duty 2s. Bd. There
were at that time in bond, no less than 1,500,000
quarters of eorn ready to come int') the
market. Of that quantity, only 8,000 quarters
were introduced at a duty of 2s. Bd. On the 6th September
the price was 725. 11d. There was at that time on board,
ready to be brought into the market, no less than 1,200,000
quarters ,• but of that quantity 28,000 quarters only were
introduced at a duty of 2s. Bd. In November,
1831, there were in bond 200,000 quarters ; the price
regulating the duty was 725. 6d. the duty was 25.. Bd.
but 1,000 quarters only were introduced. In the first
week of Nov., 1828, the price governing the duty was
725. 2d., the duty itself 2s. Bd. There were at that time
between 400,000 and 500,000 quarters of corn ready for
the market ; but out of that quantity only 1,000 were
introduced. These facts showed that the pros-
peet of the gain of 2s. Bd. was sufficient to coun-
teract the effect of the Right Hon. Baronet's scale.
Perhaps it might be said that that was not so much
.owing to the amount as to the certainty with which the
corn dealers can engage in their trade. It might be said,
too, that this certainty arose from the combinations that
at present existed among the corn dealers,but when the law
was altered corn would pass through a greater number of
hands, and there would not be so great an inducement
to combine, while combination would be more difficult.
He (lid not believe in the combination of the
corn-dealers ; he did not think it possible that
they could combine, so as to produce this result.
At the same time the effect of the law was precisely the
same as if the combination did actually exist, and the re-
sults that looked like combination would equally exist un-
der the law of the Right lion. Gentleman. He would venture
to say that whenever the price rose to a certain amount,
it indicated a necessity of a foreign supply, and that
the duty must fall to the lowest point. He would ven-
ture to assert that 665. was a price that indicated
the necessity of a foreign supply. There was not
a single instance in which, when the price had
reached 665. it had failed to rise to the
maximum price. Before the last harvest, in 1838,
on the 19th of July, the price was 665. 6d. ; on
the 18th of October it was 665. again ; on the 17th of
of December it was 725. ; on the 20th of August, 1841,
it was 745. 7d.-(Cries of " Divide.") His object in
referring to these fluctuations was to show that
under the scale of the Right Honourable Baronet,
when the price was 665. there was an inducement
to the holder of bonded corn to keep it back until
the price .reached 735., so that the Right Ho-
nourable Baronet must fail in his calculations.
There was an artificial inducement of ss. to keep corn
in bond, under the proposed measure of the Right
Honourable Baronet, and that was sufficient to force
the price up to 735. It was clear that the operation
of the sliding scale at the present moment was to force
the price up to 735., and the proposed scale
would undoubtedly have the same tendency ; and if they
wished to afford any relief to the consumer, and at the
same time to maintain the sliding scale,.the only way to
do so would be to lower their maximum price. There were,
in fact, four locks on the'door keeping corn in bond, and
the master key unlocking the whole of thein, was the
maximum price. The Right Honourable Baronet had
removed two of the locks, and contended that by so doing
he was facilitating the opening of the door. He (Mr. E.
Buller) contended that the two locks remaining would be
amply sufficiently to keep the property secure, and that
under the new sliding scale, as under the "old one, the
door would only openon the application of the master key,
which was the maximum price and the minimum duty.
He would next say a few words on the scale of the Right
Hon. Baronet. If that Right Hon. Gentleman still
adhered to the views he had expressed on a
former occasion, this scale would not only
not benefit the consumer, but would fail in the other ob-
jects which it had it in view. His (Mr. Buller's) propo-
sition of having a duty of 6s. when wheat was at 345.
a quarter, would have the effect of giving to the
country the absolute advantages of a free trade in corn.
His proposition would materially improve the scale of
the Right Hon. Baronet, inasmuch as during the time
the country was supplied from the home growth
the highest price was 645. He could not propose a
fairor test of his proposition, and the measures of
the Government, than to show what would have
been their comparative effects in the last year. In the
early part of-1841 the price of corn was gradually and
steadily rising, but not 'a quarter of corn was let into
the market, nor would there have been if the
Right Honourable Baronet's • scheme was in full
operation. But there were at that time 558,000 quar-
ters of corn in bond, which had been bought at Dantzic
for 40s. a quarter, and which, with the cost of freight and
other charges would have been sold in the British
markets for 565. exclusive of duty, and the whole quan-
tity would have been let in. The revenue
and the consumer would both be betiefitted
by the scale which he submitted for the approval of the
the House ; and the markets would be relieved at an
earlier period. He confessed that the proposed law
would be as oppressive as the present one, and if they
were to fix the time when the duty was to vanish, it
would have precisely the same effect as the scale laid
on the table by the Right Hon. Gentleman, for it
would have the effect of forcing prices up to a point
where the duty would vanish. If they adopted the scale
which lie (Mr. E. Buller) proposed, corn would be ad-'
mitted at 6s. when the price was 645. Most Hon. Gen-
tlemen had read Mr. M'Culloch's work, and they must
admit that it was his opinion that the 6s. duty should be
maintained for the interest of the consumer. Now, if
they looked to the state of agriculture in the year 1816,
they found that great distress existed. The average im-
portation was not more than 400,000 quartet's, and the
average price was 755:.10d. In 1817, when corn was at
the unusually high price of 945., . there were wily
1,070,000 quarters imported. In 1818 the price was'
845., and only 1,700,000 quarters were imported. If
they turned to the state •f the Corn-laws, -in 1839,
when the price was 665., there were 2,700,000 quarters
smported. In 1840, when the price was 61s. 7d,.
2,287,000 quarters were imported. In 1841, when the.
price ranged from 61s. to 735., the importations were
upwards of 3,000,000 of quarters. They; therefore, had'
no reason to expect that the proposed scale would be.
any relaxation of the -law. He feared that he wearied
the House-(Hear, hear)7-but it was impossible to
bring forward such statements as these without weary-
ing the House. He knew that statements of figures
were never ' listened to with patience by the
House, and his: address had been almost
tirely composed of figures.--,(Hear, hear.) He
hoped he had strictly confined himself to the sub-
ject; and, however inefficiently lie might have introduced
the subject, he felt it to be his duty to call the attention
of the House to it. The Hon. Gentleman concluded by
moving the following scale, as an amendment to that
proposed by the Government

Under 510. , Duty 20s.
51s. and under 525. -19 i.
525. - 535. -18 s.
53,3. - 545. -17 s.
Ms. - . 555. -16 s.
555. - 565. - - 15s.
565. - i7s. -14 s.
575. -58 s. . - 13s.
58s. - 595. -12 s.
595. -60 s. • -11 s.
60s. -61 s. -10 s.
Gls. - 625. _ - 9s.
625. - 635. - Bs.
635. - 645. - 7s.
645. and upwards - 6s.
Mr. HUTT, as we understood, after some time, seconded
the motion.

Sir R. PEEL said that, althotnzh the Hon. Gentleman
had said that his (Sir R. Peel's) scale pleased nobod.t,
his own could not be very satisfactory, as he had found
such difficulty in obtaining a person to second it.—(A