The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

enemies.

great applause.
The resolution was carried unanimously

After a vote of thanks to the chairman, and the singing
of the Doxology, the meeting separated at a quarter past
ten o'clock.

SPEECH OF SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS IN THE
HOUSE OF COMMONS ON FRIDAY.

Sir H DOUGLAS said it was his intention, in the few
observations he should address to the house, to state the
reason that had induced him to vote against the measure
proposed by the government for withdrawing protection
from British agriculture. He had on several occasions
expressly avowed these opinions, and had uniformly
voted against the motions brought forward for the repeal
of the corn lass, more particularly for that which had
been recently proposed for the abolition of the import
duties. He had given the great question of the corn
laws his calm and deliberate consideration, and whatever
might be the change in circumstances, or whatever
change might be in others, his opinions had undergone
no change whatever. Far from being shaken by any of
the arguments he had heard in the course of the present
debate, his opinions were, if possible, strengthened in
favour of continued protectidn to British industry. He
should, with the permission of the heuse, review the
effects of the corn laws and their result upon the general
interests of the country, and more particularly as regarded
their colonial interests, with which he was in some mea-
sure acquainted, and which he regretted to say were not
represented and but little understood in that house.
(Hear.) He should first offer a few observations upon
the figures of the right hon. baronet at the head of the
government, and he would remark that the period taken
by the right hon. baronet was far too short on which to
found so extensive and sweeping a change in the policy of
the country. It was quite true that the exports of Bri•
tish and Irish produce which i❑ 1844 amounted to only
£47,300,000, had risen in 1845 to 58,581,000 ; but it
should 5e borne in mind that from 1839 there had been
a decrease every year up to 1844, and although there
was an apparent increase of 11 millions in the two years,
vet the difference between the period when the decrease
began to take place and 1845 was only three millions.
He was ready to admit that the repeal of prohibitory
duties bad been productive of beneficial effect ; and when
he had first appeared at Liverpool he bad expressed very
fully his sentiments on the subject of protection, and had
advocated a relax tion of that system according to the
altered circumstances of the country, as being calculated
to promote the general interests of the country. But the
measures they were then called upon to adopt were, that
without waiting for the full development of the results,
and because the experiment of the relaxation of certain
duties had been found satisfactory, therefore they were
t, throw overboard altogether the principle of protection.
(Hear.) Now he maintained that without the recogni-
tion of that principle of protection it would be impossible
to protect the interests of the artisans of this country from
that severe depression which resulted where employment
was not steady and permanent. It appeared they were
now about to rush into that state of things in which the
British artisan was to he brought into competition with
the protected industry of foreign countries ; they not
only exposed him to the competition of capital at home,
but to the protected industry of other countries abroad ;
and no one, he thought, could deny that that would he
highly injurious to the operative classes of this county.
He would not enter into a dissussicn with regard to the
relative prices of food and labour, because much of that,
he thought, depended upon the state of the labour mar-
ket ; but he would maintain that unprotected labour was
incapable of competing with capital. He was firmly of
opinion that much distress and suffering to the working
classes would be the result of carrying into effect the
measures of the government. He did not think that
they would be able to displace the goods of other coun-
tries in the foreign markets, nor did he think that it
would be found in practice that a large itneortation of
foreign corn had any natural connection with the pros-
perity of the country. In 1840, 1841, and 1842, the
importation of corn had reached its maximum, the quan-
tity imported varying from two to three millens of quar-
ters ; but England was by no means in a prosperous state
in those years ; and it would be found that, in the long
run, the best customers of England would be found in
the home market. ( Hear, hear.) The right hon. bart.
proposed to introduce measures founded upon the prin-
ciples of perfect free trade ; no doubt in the abstract free
trade might be found advantageous, but he had not
found that foreign countries were disposed to carry out
the principle•to the same extent. They had not been
met by the United States, by France, or by G-rmany, in
a corresponding spirit ; and he ventured to ass:rt that all
the Presidents of the United States, from Washington
down to Polk, had never abandoned the principle of pro-
tection to the great interests of the country. Polk had
distinctly stated that he would never abandon that prin-
ciple ; they had established the system of a revenue duty,
and that could be called nothing but a protecting duty,
because it was imposed for the purpose of obtaining the
largest possible amount of revenue. He maintained that
they could not combat with rival tariffs without subject-
ing British labour to great depression. The hon. and
gallant member then pit) teled to quoje an extract from
Adam Smith's work, fir the purpose of justifying the
imposition of duties upon foreign produce for, the en-
couragement
of domestic irelustry. The noble lord the
mernbt-r for the west riding of Yorkshire ( Lord Mor-
peth) had well observed thst there was a great necessity
for providing for.an increased and increasing population ;
but it was a new proposition to him to contend that the 1
way to increase production was to diminish prices.
(Heir, hear.) There was a species of free trade which he
should wish to see fully introduced, among themselves—
he alluded to that which might exist between this country
and their colonies, and between the colonies themselves.
Ile had voted for the Canada Corn Bill with very great
pleasure ; he freely admitted that Great Britain might
safely admit Canadian corn duty free. He had heard I

with great dissatisfaction and surprise the hon. member
for Montrose (Mr. H ume) rise in his place the other night
to express great solicitude for the colonies. while at the

same time he was rediculing them. The Canadian
Corn Bill was a compact entered into het, een two le-
gistative bodies. (Hear, hear ) This legislature, as well
as the Canadian legislature, were parties to th .t compact,
which they were both bound to preserve. Ile had no he-
sitation in telling the house that from the moment this
measure passed into a law, which was to caret out the to-'
;al aholition of protection, they would not be only extin-
guishing the Canada Corn Bill, but they would he extin-
finishing their whole colonial system itself
.(hear, hear )
The colonial system was one of protection, which they
were pledged to carry out (he,”-. hear). If this principle
be once given up, he told then that though their ships
might guard their coasts, and their troops garrison the in-
terior of the country, the question then would come home
to them with full force—of what use e et e their colonies ?
In thr.t moment Great Britain would et.;,3P to be the chief
of that imperial league. He had often heard Mr. Hes-
kisson quoted in this house as an out-and-out free-trader.
Nothing could be further from the fact. When he was in
America he had carried on a correspondence with Mr.
Huskisson, in which that eminent statesman had strongly
advocated free trade, as• far as their colonies were con-
cerned, but had never, in the slightest degree, given coun-
tenance to the principle being extended further (hear).
If free trade were extended so as to amount to the aboli-
tion of all protective duties; what was to become of the
sugars ? There would be an end of all hope of extending
the cultivation of sugar in the East Indies. How had we
treated that ccuntry in other respects? We had super-
seded the cotton manufacture by our mechanical power;
we, therefore, ought to show favour to the raw material.
Ti e hon. and gallant member again referred to the opi-
nions of Mr. Huskisson, ar.d trusted that the expecta-
tion, and intentions of his right h, n. rriend—honestly
and faithfully devoted, as he knew they were, to the best
of his jittigment, to promote the welfare of his country—
mtg t he realised to the fullest xtent. tie sincerely

hoiCed that his own opinions with respect to the working
of this great measure might turn out to be erroneous:
At present he was convinced that the British labourer

people of this coun'ry would not he ameliorated, and
that- agriculture would be seriously injured, and that
consequently, our manufactures. commerce, -and nil.

pillars of the state would be in danger. Although in some
respects he gave a reluctant and painful vote, yet upon the
5 We pad at the same time he most willingly, confidently,

conscientiously, and consistently, voted against this peri-
lous, and, as it appeared to him, unnecessary experiment
—an experiment from which there was no retreat—(hear,
hear);—a movement from which there was no receding ;
an experiment which, if successful, could scarcely add to
the prosperity, welfare, honour, and glory of this country,
but any failure in which must prove the ruin of the em-
pire. (Hear, hear.)