The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-09 00:00:00

be very much abridged by this than
say that a number of countrie

_ Hon
take the Uni

example) because you won't take their corn, they won't t
your manufactured goods; but that if you will take t 1

corn, the United States will consul;

1 enormous
Well

quantity of our manufactured products. , oupposui,
price of corn to be so much reduced, as to produce a s
largely increased consumption, then I can understand, tlia
a very large increase in the consumption by this count' y wil

cause a proportionate increase in the amount of our n

factures disposed off. But, inasmuch as I rather apprehend
that neither foreigners, nor any other persons, are willing tc
give us their corn for nothing at all, the effect, if there is h.
be no large reduction in the price of corn, will be no large
increase in the consuption of corn ;—(hear)—and if there be
not a large increase in the consumption of corn, then there
will be no exchange of commodities to drive out foreign
manufactures, and to encourage and foster the increase of
manufactures. This will happen,—you will increase your
foreign trade very likely ; but what will become of your home
trade in the mean time. You may increase the export of your
manufactures a million, or two millions ; there is no limit to
the amount to which manufacturing industry may be carried.
provided its produce meets with a market ; but of what ad-
vantage will it be to the manufacturer, if he increases the
amount of the exports, by the encouragement given to the
import of foreign corn, and at the same time he chec:
produce of commercial industry, and the growth of British
corn, which would give him at least an equal return for an
equal proportion of his manufactures ? (Great applause.)
Gentlemen, these are subjects not to be approached without
thegreatest deliberation and acquainted with the details and the
propable workings of these great questions ; and I will
venture to press upon the good sense of the electors of this
county, and upon that which is in fact the governing body
of this country, that it is not to be led away by a cry of fan-
cied advantage, and plausible statements of enormous bene-
fits to one portion of the community, without, at the same
time, sifting to the bottom the soundness or the folly of those
statements ; and ascertaining, before they commit themselves
to hasty and imprudent legislation, that those measures ar3
brought forward with full deliberation, with ample informa-
tion, without any ulterior objects, or different objects to

serve, except to promote the general interests of tliecoun-
try ; and that they are brought forward by men in whose
judgment, in whose sagacity, in whose prudence and good
management of the general affairs of the country, and of the
community at large, it can place undivided and unlimited
confidence. These great experiments, once made, cannot
be unmade. You cannot tamper with these great interests.
and then fancy that you will undo the mischief you have
done. It will require, I fear, years yet to undo the mischief
that has been done, by the appeal which has been made to
the passions of these people, upon this occasion. I fear it
will require years to allay those exasperations, and to remove
those plausible fallacies, by which it has been sought—cer-
tainly not without the countenance of the present admini-
stration, if not directly through them—to delude the people
of this country into adopting measures, upon the strength
of which measures that government hope they shall avoid
that discussion and inquiry which they deserve and ought to
have, as to the whole of their measures, and as to the whole
of their claims upon the public confidence. Now, even in a
financial point of view, these things are not to be decided
rashly. I admit frankly that, in the long run, a judicious
reduction of import duties frequently tends to the increase
s I of consumption, to the augmentation of the revenue. and.

at the same time, proportionally to increase the comforts
of this country. lam by no means hostile to the careful
and thorough revision of the whole of our commercial tariff ;
but it is a work of infinite labour, and infinite delicacy. It
is not to be taken up in the manner in which it has been taken
up in the.ex parte evidence given before the Imports Duties
Committee, by Mr. M`Gregor and others, with hastily con-
cocted schemes which the government had produced, wild
and impracticable, although they have prepared them from
their own officers to put them forward. But, although in
the long run a reduction of duties may lead to the increase
of the revenue, the first effect is sure to be that of diminu.,
tion, because the increase of consumption is gradual, while
the reduction of duty is immediate. Therefore, so far from
these reductions of duty, if they should be called so, or
any reduction of duty on any article imported, immedi-
ately increasing the consumption, the certain immediate
effect is to diminish the revenue in the first instance, al-
though ultimately and gradually it may increase it. (Hear.)
Therefore, while the nation is labouring under difficulties
from its finance to the extent of £2.400,000 in the year, I
hold it impossible to have selected a more unfortunate time
or a more happy occasion to bring forward, on the plea that
it would increase the revenue, a measure which, 1 believe,
in the first instance, must have the effect of reducing the re-
venue. Gentlemen, I feel how very long I have trespassed
upon your time. I hope I have not, in the terms which I
have used, given offence in any quarter; or that, in bringing
forward these arguments, which I thought supported my
view of the case, I trust 1 have not given personal offence, or
been guilty of personal discourtesy in any quarter. I desired
to shew that these questions are not to be taken up as a strug-
gle between interests so great and important, as mere clap-
trap appeals to the paassions, rather than to the reason of the
people. 1 desired, impartially and fairly, to consider; and,
by the reason of the people, if they will give to the discussion
consideration of this question that reason fairly, calmly, and
deliberately, I have no fear of trusting the interests of the
country to the deliberations and the reasoned judgment of
my fellow-countrymen. Gentlemen, I thank you for the
patient attention with which you have heard me going through
details which have been exceedingly dry and uninteresting.
I thank you yet more for the kind renewal of the confidence
with which you have honoured me now, for the fifth time, in

returning me as your representative to parliament, and I ca
only assure you, that I will, in the first place, never, while
am ready frankly to state my opinions upon every subject

will not condescend nor insult iour under'stanaing by giving
a pledge as to the specific vote which, under any circum-
stances, 1 will give on any individual measure, but I will refer
you to your knowledge of my past conduct and character,
y and will endeavour to vindicate the choice which you have

went, by a faithful, and honest, and
venture to add for myself, a conscientious discharge of those
important duties, and that weighty responsibility which your
confidence has this day placed upon my shoulders. (Cheers.)
The noble lord resumed his seat at half-past twelve, having
spoken an hour and ten minutes.