The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TuEsnAir

The adjourned debate was resumed by Mr. Slim., who
contended that it was futile to struggle against the slave
trade by means of differential duties, which raised the price
of a necessary of life to the labouring classes without bene-
fiting any class of the community except the monopolists.
The right hon. gentleman read several extracts from the opi-
nions of Mr. Huskisson, in order to show that he considered
the corn laws in the light of a serious burden on the prodnc-
tive classes of the country, and that they could not be con-
tinued. He denied the claim of the West Indian proprietors
to the continuance of the monopoly as an integral portion of
the indemnity to be given them for the emancipation of the
negroes. The ransom paid by the people of England by its
munificence dazzled the world, and it certainly ought to be
considered as a receipt in full by the planters. He was
astonished that the noble lord the representative for Liver-
pool (Lord Sandon) should have esteemed it almost a matter
of indifference whether the treaty with Brazil should be re-
newed or the contrary, and he much doubted whether the
constituents of the noble lord would be equally indifferent.
The right hon. gentleman concluded by expressing his belief
that it was only by cultivating friendly relations with foreign
powers that they could hope ultimately to abolish slavery,
Mr. HERMES said that the finances of the country had
certainly been reduced to a most alarming condition. This
he attributed to the government, who should have kept up a
surplus revenue, and who were the first ministry in this coun-
try
which had ever failed to keep up a surplus in time of
peace. In war time it might be excusable if the expenditure
exceeded the revenue, but such a state of things was un-
pardonable when the country was at peace. The right hon.
gentleman charged the ministry with the most flagrant mal-
administration of the finances, thereby entailing a great na-
tional calamity on the country. They now proposed to re-
medy the evil by allowing the produce of our colonies to be
displaced by foreign produce, the effect of which would be to
give, perhaps, a fatal blow
I to the experiment now in progress
for the abolition of the slave trade—a course of proceeding
which, he sincerely hoped, would not be tolerated by the

house.
Mr. VILLIERS expressed much disappointment that the
right hon. gentleman had not pointed out what he thought
should be the remedy for the serious evil he complained of.
For his own part, he rejoiced at the progression of doctrines
which he had himself always advocated, and w:lich, though
formerly met with derision, had made so many conveits that
all those who had spoken in the early stages of the debate
avowed themselves advocates of free trade until the noble
lord (Stanley) threw a damp on their avowals of commercial
liberality. He did not hesitate to say that he looked upon
protection as a positive tax upon the community at large for
the advantage of a particular class. When the working
classes of the people asked for protection against machinery
they were condemned for their ignorance, whereas there was
nothing more absurd in such a proposition than in the claims
to protection made by the wealthier classes of the kingdom.
The hon. gentleman read a number of communications in
order to show the increased and increasing state of distress
in Preston, Blackburn, and other places amongst the opera-
tives, as co:apared with what it was in former years. This
distress was so intense, that it became in some places a sub-
ject of discussion amongst the poor, as to .whether it was
more criminal to take away the life of a child before it knew
the value of that life, or to let it iive, telling it to eat if it
could find food, knowing that it was almost impossible that
it could, in its circumstances, be saved, from the• horrors of