The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY,-JUNE 19, 1845.

The House of Lords did not sit last evening.
The Commons met at at Four o'clock.
Mr. Sergeant MURPHY moved the committal of the
Common Law Process (Ireland) Bill.
Mr. O'CONNELL moved, as an amendment, that the
Bill be committed that day six months.

The amendment was agreed to, and the Bill was, con-
sequently, lost.

The other Common Law Process Bills tv, re likewise
thrown out.
The Small Debts IStii was ortietal to be read a second
time that day six months,
Mr. F. KELLY giving notice that he should bring in a
fresh Bill on the subject on Monday.

The adjourned debate on Mr. C. BULLER'S motion on
the subject of New Zealand was resumed by Captain
Rous, who defended Captain Fzrznoy, and vituperated
in the strongest terms the conduct of the New Zealand
Company.

Mr. AGLIONBY had never regretted his connexion
with the New Zealand Company, which was composed
of honourable and high-minded men, united together,
for the purpose of carrying out a benevolent object.
The complaints of the Gallant Officer who had last
spoken, were all founded on misapprehension. He
implored the Government to reconsider their policy,
so as to promote the permanent interest of the colony.
The House was subsequently addressed by Mr.
BARELY, Sir R. INGLIS, Mr. HAWES, Sir 11. DOUGLAS,
and Lord HowicK, after which, on the motion of Mr.
MANGLES, the debate was adjourned.

But a few years ago a perfeet apathy prevailed
throughout the country respecting the most impolitic
and unjust law ever passed by the Legislature—we
mean the corn-law, first brought forward in 1815, and
continued to the present day, modified certainly in some
points, but still retaining all the more objectionable
restrictions which characterised it at first. When it was
proposed, the public were so shocked at the pretensions
of the landowners, that nothing but a foreign war pre-
vented a civil commotion, or a signal defeat of the Bill
from sheer terror. The houses of the leading members
of the Government were attacked, the lives of the
Ministers themselves were not without danger, and the
victory of Waterloo and a general peace, which
caused such universal joy, alone made the community
submit patiently to the plans of a Government who
had been so eminently successful abroad. But still
the glaring defects of this law did not escape the eyes
of men acquainted with the principles of free trade and
the best interests of the country—repeated attacks were
made on this obnoxious impost, aed for little less than
twenty years have we been fighting against it, often
single-handed, though at times supported by
other journalists, yet the county Members were
still too powerful. The task was regarded as ut-
terly hopeless, and vast numbers looked upon a re-
peal of the Union, or the restoration of the heptarchy, as
probable as the repeal of the corn-laws. But " water
weareth the stones," and perseverance in a good cause
never fails of its legitimate effect. The eyes of
the public were opened at last. They began to
see the hardships to which they were subjected
by a law which did not even benefit its authors►
and latterly all commercial men have enter-
tained but one opinion as regards its ruinous results
on the vital interests of the nation. That general opinion
gave rise to the League, which was scoffed at by the
landed interest and their organs—denounced, by them,
as an illegal association, and stigmatised as a
body of selfish traders, who looked only
to their own personal advantages. But impartial
Englishman took a different view of the question. They
approved of its principles, admired the constancy and
boldness with which it fought, and finally lent their aid
by subscribing larger sums than had ever been collected
for similar purposes in the memory of man. It soon
became a national question, and though the landlords
were numerous and powerful—nay, almost omnipotent
in the Legislature—the small voice of wisdom
at last prevailed. The victory of argument was
entirely on one side; even the Minister " elect" of the
landed interest, whilst he opposed the change, was
wofully deficient in reasons ; the very advocates of the
injurious law dwindled down to a mere junta of senators
without influence or eloquence, and have latterly exhi-
bited such a lack of prudence, skill, and knowledge of
true legislative principles, that the " strong Ministry "
have been compelled to throw them overboard. Sir IL
PEEL and Sir JAMES GRAHAM are now good repealers,
and they want only time. When the proper season
comes they promise to walk as fast as Mr. COBDEN.
This is one of the greatest triumphs effected by pert e •
verance in right principles. Mr. COBDEN might w(11
ask the great meeting at Covent-garden last night
why that which was admitted to be just, and
politic, and urgent, should be delayed till
it pleased PitOVIDENCE to visit the country with
famine ? "It was rather hard," said he, "to main-
tain an injurious law for the benefit of the farmers, who
were, after all, but 250,000 out of the 27,000,000 who
form the population of these islands. But wlyy eves
heard it urged that it was for the benefit of the people
that the law had been passed ? Sir ROBERT PEEL wa,
very fond of talking of the great and important interest!.
which had grown up under this law. I plead foi
greater and more important interests which are nos
crushed to the earth by the pressure of this law ; and it
they want proof of this, why I bring their own Horn(
Secretary, with his prison reports and his statistical tables,
and I put him into the witness-box, to show what the law
has done for that class which is most numerous in this
land. I apply for the total and immediate repeal of
the corn-laws, on the ground of expediency, and be-
cause it could now be better effected than at another
time. I apply for it on the ground of justice, because, it
the law be a bad one, it should be at once annulled.
And what will be the effect on the great body of the
people, when the time comes which Government con-
templates—for they are going to repeal the law in s
season of distress ? And suc...h a season may come—
aye, three weeks of showery weather, when wheat
is in its bloom, will repeal this corn-law ? But
how ? We have the experience of 1839, 1840,
and 1841, and are the people of this country to be
subjected to another such infliction before this law is
repealed ? What provision is made for btleh a cala-
mity ? This is an important consideration at this
moment. Divine Providence may repeal the corn-laws
by a had harvest, but at present He mitigates by his
bounty the rigour of the landlord's corn-law." We have
little space to add more on the subject, but words are
not now required—the fate of the core-law is sealed; the
very farmers' friends have turned against it, and next
session, we confidently trust, it will be classed among the
things that " were."

Mr. C. BULLER, on submitting to the House of Com-
mons a series of " resolutions" relative to the government,
relations, condition, and usage at the hands of the Govern-
ment of the noble colony of New Zealand— (a series, by th,
way, in its protracted extent worthy of the extensively
projected coastline of the island-chain to which they re-
ferred)—made a very clever, a vigorous, amusing, and
pointel speech. We have perused the report of it with
great pleasure, and are fully prepared to concede to it no
ordinary degree of praise. It was a speech honourably
distinguished from the general run of Parliamentary
orations on analogous subjects, by the bold reliance of
the speaker on his own powers of illustrating its official
and statistical details. Confining himself, strictly encugh,
within the limits prescribed by the forms of the House
and the real exigencies of his subject, he yet availed him
self abundantly of every legitimate opportunity that
presented itself for expatiating into large and well consi-
dered views of European statesmanship in its adminis-
tration of that policy which should direct its views of
colonial connexion. It manifested, also, a becoming
scorn for that sort of cant—that overt zeal for Church
Propagandism which, in the case of New Zealand, as in
very many other instances, has been intimately connected
with covert selfishness and grasping avarice on the part
of men calling themselves " Church missionaries." In
addition to these qualities of excellence, Mr. CHARLES
BULLER'S speech showed a mastery of its matter—a
richness and variety of details—and a lucidity of ar-
rangement as agreeable and instructive as they are rare
in discussions on colonial affairs, in which it appears to
be the fashion with either House of Parliament to sup-
pose,-1. That the Colonial Department must be omnis-
cient as to the facts, motives, and opinions, involved in
the history of any questions wising within its jurisdic-
tion ; 2. That all human information, possible or actual,
to which any character of authenticity can apply, must
be comprised within the mystic pages of those " Blue
Books," that, like the Sybilline leaves of yore, are for
ever being blown out of the recesses in which they are
elaborated with the certain fate of being gathered up
and perused by no men, or proving utterly beyond the
comprehension of the men who do gather up and con-
sult them. Mr. BULLER not only diffused his materials
with a lavish hand throughout his elaborate address, but
took care that they should tell with all who heard them.
But, entertaining these notions of the speech, we must add
that it did not accomplish, in our opinion, more than one
of the two main objects for which, we presume, it was de-
signed. It was a masterly exposure of the bad faith, the
ruinous mistakes, the undignified petulance manifested
by Lord STANLEY and his subordinates in the Colonial
Department in the history of the transactions that were
recapitulated by the Learned Member for Liskeard.
But it was not to our mind anything like an
adequate vindication of the New Zealand Company, of
which Mr. BULLER himself is a most active and an in-
telligent Director, or a successful apology for the still
unexplained, aye, and unatoned delinquencies of a direc-
tion which then, we believe, boasted, as it now boasts,
of Mr. SoMES, the Conservative Member for Bridport,
for its governor, or chairman. We do not see that any