The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-02-28 00:00:00

IZI PORT ON THE CORN LAWS.

Mr. BifoGDEN brought up the Report of the
Committee on the Resolutions relative to the Corn
Nil.
Mr. BA RCL xy said it wits with cem.l.l4le.
iance he stood up to oppose a string of Resolu-
tions which had been sanctioned by so large sr majo-
rity. From the s' ort time he had sat in the House,
it ii;ight peshsps he deemed presumptuous in him to
diller s'► directly in opinion from so many Gentle-
nun of much longer Parliamentary experience than
lie had to boast ; but lie felt himself imperiously
called un by what he deemed his duty, to enter his
►eiinne protest against these Resolutions, and the
prii.c•iple on w high they were founded. If he under-
atm d that principle right, the landholders now came
for% • rd and claimed from the House and the country
a c•impetisntion for the 'capital which they had in.
vested in the improvement of their own estates.--
Sere') by the same rule the manufacturers had an
equnl right to come to the II use, and ask for a
compensation for the capital they had expended in
enlarging their several manufactories, in obtaining
nee machinery, and in the purchase of raw materials
which during many years of the late war had lain by
them a mere drug, and a dead weight. The manu.
facturer, however, had taken no such step ; he was
content take his chalice in both the home and fo.
reioi market, and to depend on the goodness and
superiority of his manufacthres to fetch him such a
price as might remunerate him both for the capital
he hail laid out, and the labour he had bestowed.—
Ile was content that the wares he dealt in should go
taiely to market, and there find their own level
against every sort of competition. The landholders,
on the contrary, not satisfied with the high prices of 1
corn dining so many y ears of war, which had in all
instances doubled their rents, and in many had tre.
bled them, come to the House and require at its
hands a compensation for that capital, which had al.,
ready vrocored them so many advantages, in the!
continual advance of their rents during so long a'
period of time, during all which the middle and la.
bouring classes of the community had been struggling
with difficulties, and patiently and loyally suffering
privations from which they could expect no deliver.
afire if these Resolutions should be carried into
clh ct—privations which they had all along been pro.
misc.(' they would be relieved from when Providence
should send them the blessings of peace. Those
blessings, so long looked for, and so much desired,
hail been granted, by our being now at peace with
84 the world ; and yet if these Resolutions were
carried into effect, the manufacturers and the la-
bouring classes must greatly suffer, because the high
price of corn must increase the price of labour, and
that could not he done without endangering the ma-
nufacturer's competition in all foreign markets. He
was decidedly of opinion, that no body of men,
however respectable, eight to expect a compensation
for the capital they expended for their own benefit,
or for the tales they paid in common with other bu.
dies of men according to their several circumstances
in life.— Ile must, therefore, once more protest
spinst the Resolutions, and object to the Report
being brolight up.

• ••Mr. (.11A'rfAN Said, he considered the present
qupoion as of vital tmportanrp to the country. it
1.85 nn Ir‘s. 011111 whether the people of these Uni'ed
lorlomssiwold be fed or starred by foreigners?—