The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-09 00:00:00

imprrial Vatitairant.

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HOUSE OF LORDS.—TuuasnAT.
Lord STANLEY moved for a copy of the address which
bad been received by the Government from the House of
Assembly in Canada.
The Earl of DALitoustE hoped for the indulgence of
the House while he defended himself from an imputation
which bad been thrown upon him in the other house, to
the effect that, when he had said he had no reason to be.
lieve that the sentiments of the Canadian colonists were
unfavourable to the :Ministerial project, he knew that the
address for which. Lord Stanley had just moved had
arrived, declaring in the strongest terms their hostility to
a free trade in corn. He could only say that on applica-
tion to the proper quarter he had learned that the steamer
which brought the address in. question Tad not reached
Liverpool until after the debate on the Corn Laws in
their Lordships' House was over, and, therefore, it was a
physical impossibility that he could have been aware of
its. existence.

Lord STANLEY, after asserting that there was never
any intention of casting the slighte-t suspicion on the ve-
racity of Lord Dalhousie, reminded the House that his
apprehensions for the ill effect which the modification of
the Corn'Lows would produce in Canada had been treated
as chimerical, and yet before twelve hours bad elapsed
this address arrived, in which, after expressing their
alarm and apprehension, the colonists ended by expres-
sing their doubts whether their continuing a portion of
the British empire was of that paramount interest which
they had hitherto found it to be.
After a few words from Lord LymErox and Earl
GREY the motion was agreed to.
The Earl of DALHOUSIE then moved the second read-
ing of the Customs Duties Bill, and stated.,generally the
grounds on which it was based. Since the year 1842, the
Government had brought forward a series of measures
tending either to the removal of prohibitory duties. or the
relaxation of those which were protective. The effects of
these reductions had been shown not merely in the in-
creased import of .partitular articles, but the stimulus
given to the general exports and imports of the country.
With respect to the 'Customs the sum of the whole was
—" That in the four years 1842, 1843, 1844. and 1845,
there bad been reductions in the Customs duties to the
amount of £4,214,400, and yet the Customs revenue
amounted in 1845 to £19,800,000, whilst in 1842, it
amounted to only £lo,6oo,ooo—that was to say, that
whilst there bad been a reduction in the Customs duties
of £4.200,000 in four years, the Customs revenue was
larger in the last of those four years than in the first by
£260,000. He did not wish the House to believe that the
whole of this increase in the Customs revenue was owing
to the; eduction of dutiea, but it was clear that the re.
venue had not suffered, as it had been asserted would•be
the case, by the Ministerial-policy. Encouraged by these
results, the. Government had now resolved to propose still
further reductions, which he would now lay before the
House. The noble Lord here went through the detail of
the several articles in the tariff on which reductions were
proposed, and concluded by repud'ating the notion that
the measure was one of pure free trade, and therefore did
not go far enough ; it was no free trade measure at all,
but one for the removal of prohibitive, and the gradual
repeal of protective duties.
Tile Duke of RICHMOND thought, that the only reason
for the reduction of these duties was to be found in the
hostility of those who disliked the agricultural interest;
his real objection to all free trade measures was that they
tended to reduce wages of our own artisans and labourers.
After the decision, however, which their Lordships had
come to the other evening, he felt it was of very little use
to trouble them at any length; he should, therefore, con-
tent himself with moving that the bill be read a second
time that day six months.
The Earl of WICKLOW thought the whole conduct of
the Government in this matter had been stamped with in-
tolerable injustice.
Earl GREY complained that the bill wanted any clear
and distinct principle. He could understand the views of
those who, like the Duke of Richmond, considered that
every article of home production should be protected ; and,
on the other hand, he could understand the position of
those who, like himself, asserted that all protective duties
were wrong, and should be done away ; but he could not
understand any measure between the two, and yet this
was the plan of the Government. He accepted it, how-
ever, as a valuable instalment, and as a step in the right
direction.

Lord ASHBURTON objected to the bill as most inju-
rious to the interests of the country. He saw no reason
why the present prosperous state of the country should
not continue, if it were not destroyed by immediate mea-
sures; and he defied the Government to show that this
increased prosperity had anything to do in the alterations
of the Customs duties.

Lord MONTEAGLE thought the liberal commercial po-
licy of the Govetnment one of the main elements of our
recent prosperity; the present measure was not only a
step, but a great and considerable one in the right direc-
tion. He for one had hailed the announcement that the
principles of free trade were those of common sense, for
he knew it must lead to great and useful results.
The bill was then read a second time, and ordered to be
committed on Monday week.