The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-09 00:00:00

were injurious to trade. In '1835 and 1836, N't h m there
was a temporary prosperity, he then expressed his
opinion that the Corn-laws were at work to the in-
jury of that .property.—(Hear.) What they wanted
was employment for the people, and he never was spore
convinced, than at the present time, that nothing could
restore the °Amerce and prosperity of the country but
the abolition of those laws. As a proof of the distress
which now existed, he would read an extract from a re.
port made by Mr. Muggeridge, or. emigration ; and he
would call the particular attention of Hon. Members to
it. It was dated the 20th July, 1836. It stated the total
number of paupers transmitted to the manufacturing dis-
tricts for employment was 435 families, comprising 3,454
persons ; of these, 329 families, or 2,673 persons, ar-
rived at their destination ; 43 families refused to work.
after employment had been found them. From Bedford-
shire there were 18 families ; from Buckinghamshire, 47
families ; Cambridgeshire, 5 families ; Dorsetshire, one
family ; Essex 4 families ; Hampshire, 48, and Suffolk,
184 families, ail sent into the manufacturing districts.
All these individuals were, at the present moment,
starving without the means of being maintained. He
would ask whether it was possible to raise, by private
charity, even one day's wages of the whole manufactur-
ing population of this country? If any disturbance was
to arise it would be impossible to make up even one
single day's wage§ of the manufacturing people by pri-
vate subscription. Under these circumstances it be-
hoved them to look this distress fully and fairly in the
face. He felt that nothing but a repeal of the Corn-laws
would give employment to the population of this country.
He had entertained that opinion when the question was
neither popular with one party •in that House or popular
with the other. When he had first a seat in 'that House
he had said that the duty on corn ought to gradually de-
cline fur ten years, when the duty should cease altogether.
He was then thought Quixotic by parties who now enter-
tained the same opinions on the subject which he did.
He felt certain that the repeal of the Corn-laws would
benefit every class and interest in this country, and none
more so than the • agricultural interest itself. If there
were not an improvement in the legislation of the coun-
try, such as might lead to an improvement in manufac-
tures, he was convinced that the whole bur then of the
national debt must be borne by the land, until the over-
whelming distress of the people would bear down all the
institutions of the country.

Mr. R.YORKE said that there had been much contra-
diction on the subject of the distress of the country—one
party declaring that it was general and grievous, and
the other maintaining that it was partial and temporary.
He thought inquiry in such circumstances most desir-
able, and he supported the motion.
General JOHNSTON could not think it possible
that the responsible Minister of the Crown could leave
the people in their present distress without in-
quiry, or an attempt to relieve them. He
could not undertake to point out a remedy,
but something should be tried. The distress
was not exaggerated, and it would be shortly more
severe, for his experience as an agriculturist enabled him
to say that the ensuing-harvest would not be an average
one. He hoped that, before the close of this debate, the
Minister of the day would hold out to the starving peo-
ple some better hopes for the future than could be found
in any of the measures hitherto proposed.
Mr. GRIMSDITCH denied that the repeal of the
Corn-laws would afford a remedy for the distress which,
he was sorry to say, was undeniable. For the last
twenty years he had seen, with sorrow, the wages of the
artisans in Lancashire taking a downward course. He
attributed this distress to the improvement of ma-
chinery, by which human labour was displaced, and ho
feared, whilst the introduction of machinery went on, no
Corn-law regulation would prevent distress. There was
already in this country sufficient machinery to supply
with cotton goods the whole of this world and another
as large.—(Hear, and a laugh.) Much had been said
of the value of the American trade ; but was it not the
fact that this country was a loser by that trade ? At
the present moment America owed our manufacturers
nearly 50,000.0001., which was an important item in the
causes of our distress. He believed that a repeal of the
Corn-laws, so far from relieving, would only aggravate
the existing distress, inasmuch as such a step would
bring ruin on our agricultural population ; and he be-
lieved that the number of labourers engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits was greatex.than the number of those who
found employment from manufactures. He should give
his decided vote against the motion of the Right Hon.
Membrr for Greenock.

Mr. LEADER did not wish to give a silent vote
upon a subject so interesting to his constituents, and to
the country at large, as the motion then before the.
House. He was surprised at a good deal of what had
fallen from the Hon. Member who had just sat down.
The Hon. Member seemed te.. think that the evils under
which the country suffered were mainly owing to ma-
chinery, and to the state of our relations with America.
The Hon. Member, however, had also admitted that
much of the existing distress irr!,i,lit be traced to the
fact, that our production was so great that we
had not markets enough to supply. Now he (Mr.
Leader) believed that to that point the ques-
tion would really come. We had not markets
enough, because the great ',:--article of corn, which
was the 'main production of many other nations,
could not be received here in exchange for our manufac-
tures. That was the main source of the distress which
now pr,wailed roughout the country ; and that' system
was the result t, 'lass legislation. The present Govern-
ment had held out magnificent promises for the relief of
the country ; but how had those promise: been realised?
The Government har' ...troduced an Income-tax, which,
would be severely felt by our entire population ; and al-
though they had effected some improvements in the
tariff, they had left materially untouched the principal
articles of subsistence. The wishes of our working
classes had been contemptuously overlooked by Minis-
ters, even when those wishes came recommended by
three millions of signatures. Again, the Government
had failed to place upon a better policy our commercial
relations with other countries. The promised commer-
cial treaty with France had not only not been granted,
but the French Government had, a few days age, imposed
au additional duty upon one of the most important of our
manufactures. While speaking upon the subject
of our commercial relations with other countries,
he wished to say a few words relative to the attack of
the sleeping Member opposite (the Hon. Gentleman;
a amattrj-, wns• -Ilt 'tCle moment
asleep in his seat) upon the policy of the late Govern-
ment in India and in China. Now he would ask what
would foreign Governments think of a Cabinet, a leading
Member of which had thus denounced a policy which
the Cabinet was determined to continue?—(Hear, hear.)
In his (Mr. Leader's oelief ,the remedy for all the evils
under which the country suffered • was to he found in
making our tarit more liberal than it was at present,
and in adopting, to the fullest extent, the principles of
free trade.—(Hear, hear.) He was persuaded that un-
less they adopted such a course they would lose the
markets which they now had, and as to those they had
already lost, he. was afraid it would be impossible, under
any system, to regain them. Looking to the present
state of the country, he should say that he never
expected an adequate remedy for that condition until
the people at large were fully and fairly represented in
Parliament.

Mr. C. BULLER wished to discuss this question with-
out any reference to the party questions of the day, or
any wish to impute all the blame of the present distress
to the present Government. The policy of the late Go-
vernment with regard to China and Affghanistan had,
been alluded to by the Noble Lord, as partly the cause
of the present distress.. But. no one interest could be
named that had been affected by this policy. The war
in China had been undertaken with a view to restore the
state of things that previously existed ; and in addition
to this, the fact that the importation of tea had continued
—that tea had even fallen in price since the com-
mencement of the war; proved that it had caused
no interruption of British commerce. The introduction
of English goods into the countries watered by the Indus
had increased since the invasion of Affghanistan, and the
cultivation of tea had been, for the first time, established
in India since the system of policy of the late Govern-
ment had been commenced. An impulse had been given
to the whole commerce of India. No question ought to
be so impartially approached ; there was a danger of
raising unfounded hopes of relief ; ano ,ney might
waken vain hopes as to the power of the Legis-
lature to afford relief. He considered the present
period as a great crisis in the history of the country. The
distress that prevailed presented different features to
what had existed at former periods. In the first place
it was more extensive—it extended from the cotton trade
to the woollen and iron trades • it also prevailed to a
great extent in the South of England, in such towns as
Plymouth and Exeter. It had affected the Metropolis.
Notwithstanding the brilliant appearance of the season,
and the number of carriages that were to he seen in their
public places, he believed that no season had had so lit-
tle effect on the revival of trade as the present.
one. He might take as a criterion, the state of the
bookielling business, which was in a state of unprece-
dented depression. The Right Hon. Baronet had used
an unsound argument, when he referred to the increased
import of cotton, and the activity of their manufac-
turers. This, he thought, was the most alarming fea-
ture of all. It proved that the manufacturers were re-
sorting to small profits on large quantities of goods, in
order to make up for the decrease of profit on the annual
amount of production. There never was a pe-
riod when the people were more ready to work.
The cause of their distress was entirely the want of a
market for their manufactures. And how could they
raise a market for their produce ? The want of a
market arose from their absurd system of commercial
policy. They expected to be able to carry on a one-
sided trade. Let them resort to the principles of fair
barter—let others gain by them, if they expected to gain
by others. The object of legislation with regard to
corn, was, in the beautiful language of the Paymaster
of the Forces, to keep the country gentlemen in
their present position.—(Hear, hear.) The introduction
of the tariff was made in an admirable speech ; the prin-
ciples laid down in that speech were the consistent prin-
ciples of free trade ; but those principles wero most in •
consistently carried out in the tariff. He believedipat
speech was made not only for that tariff, but for the
future one. It seemed to him that the tariff was most
ingeniously nontrived to steer clear of every one of the
great articles used in the consumption of the people.
(Hear.) He would mention the articles, to show that
the people could derive no advantage from the altera-
tions. Nothing was done for sugar, bread, cheese,
butter, malt, tea ; on coffee there was a reduction—he
hoped the people would find it out— of 2d. a pound.
On soap and candles there was no reduction; and in
short, like all the reductions of the tariff together, there
was no one groat article of consumption reduced in
price. Even the reduction on meat was only made
under the solemn assurance of the Right Hon. Baronet
that ao meat could possibly be imported, and the reduc-
tion in this ease would be perfectly useless.
There was a second mnfle, in which it was said that the
country might be relieved, 11,____Eimg1i, means of a wide
spread system ofemigration. What hailP this pyerpment
tlone in the way of promoting emigrattp4 y 40,0 R,