depression: but when the honourable and learned member came to draw pictures of the working classes, describing them as having wages just sufficient to afford the means of subsistence, he must say that he did not believe such to be the fact. He believed, on the contrary, that while, on the one hand, the necessaries of life had greatly diminished in price, on the other, the wages in all the manufacturing districts had been raised. That the manufacturers, and the working classes generally, were in a state of comparative ease and comfort, was indeed undeniable. He defied any gentleman, upon any other principle, to account for the known fact, that the produce of the taxes upon consumption was gradually and steadily rising.

The honourable and learned member had mentioned a plan which he said had been on the point of emanating from the Agricultural Committee, and which he had placed in a ludicrous light, calling it a pawnbroking plan, and advising that the three golden balls should be placed in front of the Treasury. For himself, he knew nothing of any such plan; but he would state to the House what had occurred in the last year's Committee. An honourable friend of his, not now present-he spoke of the honourable member for Taunton,*-looking at the situation in which the country was placed, with a monopoly of corn, and a prohibition of trade in that article, had given it as his opinion, that no plan would afford such effectual relief to the market, as that Government should buy up the surplus in years of abundance, keeping it to be dealt out in years of deficiency, and thereby adjusting, in both cases, the supply to the demand. To that proposal he had objected. He had objected to it upon principle; and he always should object to it. But, if a country chose to proceed out of the fair legitimate course of trade, and to take up, and to persevere • Mr. Alexander Baring.

in, an artificial system, some measure, not in itself desirable, might become absolutely necessary, as an antidote to the dangers of that system. If this country would place itself in the situation of having no free intercourse with other nations in the trade in corn, and still continued liable to the fluctuation of seasons, it followed of course, that a wise permanent system would be to try, if possible, to hoard the surplus of a year of plenty, to meet the possible exigency of a future unfavourable harvest.

He did not recommend the Plan which he was about to mention; but some measure was absolutely necessary, both for the grower and the consumer;-for the former, who would be ruined by an overstocked market in full yearsand for the latter, who would want protection against the scarcity of bad ones. He repeated, that he did not recommend the plan as good in itself; but he thought it less injurious, than the plan of the honourable member for Taunton; and the plan he suggested was this:-It had long been the policy of England to give a bounty upon the exportation of corn. The suggestion was to convert that which, according to old principles, had been a bounty upon exportation, into a small advantage upon the hoarding of corn. No money was to be advanced by Government. No three balls, as the honourable and learned gentleman had intimated, were to be hoisted. It was merely giving something like the amount of the old bounty in another shape. He admitted freely, that this system was a bad one; but it was a bad system growing out of a bad course of policy.

The right honourable gentleman next alluded to the proposition of his honourable friend, as to the dead military charge,―the conversion of the annuity for lives into an annuity for a term of years. The honourable and learned gentleman had talked of the expensive machinery attendant upon that proceeding. He could assure the House, that no

arrangement could be more simple. He then came to the Report of the Committee above stairs; and he said he would not, at so late an hour of the night, detain the House by opening or explaining the Resolutions which he intended to move. He purposed to lay the Resolutions on the table, and to remain satisfied with their being printed; but he trusted that, when the House met again on the subject, he should have an opportunity allowed him to state the cause of the difference between the Resolutions proposed by himself that evening and those proposed by his noble friend. Some of his Resolutions went merely to matters of fact, and others were grounded upon principles which he thought it impossible to deny ; but still he was anxious to point out to the House how, in the present distressed state of England and of the world, the Resolutions reached the cause of the evil, and indicated, as he thought, the appropriate remedies. With respect to the Resolutions now before the Committee, it was painful for him to differ from his noble friend, but he found it impossible to concur in them. The course he should suggest therefore was, that the Resolutions being put pro forma, the chairman should report progress upon the first Resolution; the whole of the Resolutions might then be printed, and handed about among the members.

The right honourable gentleman was about to sit down; but several voices called for the reading of his Resolutions. He accordingly read them as follows:

RESOLUTIONS.

1. "That the ports of the United Kingdom were shut against the importation of foreign wheat, for home consumption, in the month of February, 1819, the average price being then 78s. 7d. a quarter, and that they have remained closed ever since; the average price of the year 1820 having been 65s. 7d.—of the year 1821, 54s. 5d.-and of the three first months of 1822, 47s. 9d. a quarter.

2. "That in the year 1819, the quantity of British Wheat imported into the port of London was 300,416 quarters; in 1820 399,009 quarters; and in 1821, 494,828 quarters; and that during the whole of this period of three years, the supply in all the principal markets of the United Kingdom appears uniformly to have exceeded the demand, notwithstanding the wants of an increased population, and other circumstances, which have produced an increased annual consumption.

3. "That this excess of the supply above the demand must have arisen either from an extent of corn-tillage more than commensurate to the average consumption of the country; or from a succession of abundant harvests upon the same extent of tillage; or from the coincident effect of both these causes.

4. "That in the fluctuation of seasons, the effect of the present Corn Law must be, to expose sometimes the grower of corn to the losses incident to an over-redundant produce, and at other times the consumer to the pressure inseparable from dearth; that the free importation of foreign corn (the remedy provided by the law for the latter evil), if wanted to a great amount, must be precarious in proportion as the demand is unusual, and that against the former evil the law affords to the grower no relief whatever.

5. "That the alternate evils of redundancy and scarcity cannot fail to be aggravated by the alternate excitement and depression to which the agriculture of the United Kingdom must be exposed, under the present system of our Corn Laws.

6. "That another evil effect of the present system is, to convert farming into a hazardous and gambling speculation, which, however prudently managed, must occasionally involve great losses to the capitals engaged in agriculture.

7. "That a free trade in foreign Corn, subject to certain duties on the importation thereof for home consumption, was at all times permitted, prior to the Act of the 55th George III. c. 26.

8. "That since the passing of that Act, by which such importation is prohibited until the average price of wheat shall have reached or exceeded, for a certain time, 80s. a quarter, and other grain in proportion, a great accumulation of foreign corn has taken place in the warehouses of this country, and of the continent.

9. "That to obviate the prejudicial effects of that act, and to ensure a regular supply of grain at prices as much as possible steady and moderate, it is expedient to provide for the repeal of so much of the

said act as prohibits, under certain prices, the importation of foreign grain for home consumption.

10. "That in order to render this repeal safe to the grower of British corn, and gradual in its operation, under the present accumulation of foreign grain in the warehouses of this country, and in the ports of the continent, it is expedient to provide that the foreign wheat now under bond in the United Kingdom may be taken out for home consumption, upon the payment of a duty of 15s. per quarter, as soon as the average price of wheat, ascertained in the usual mode, shall exceed 70s. a quarter; and that at the expiration of three months from the date of such admission of warehoused wheat into home consumption, or so much sooner as the average price shall exceed 80s. a quarter, wheat from abroad may be admitted, upon the payment of the like duty.

11. "That the trade in foreign corn shall thenceforth be permanently free; but subject to the following duties upon importation, or when taken out of warehouse for home consumption :wheat, 15s. a quarter, when the price shall not exceed 80s.; and when above that price, 5s.; and above 85s., one shilling;―rye, pease, and beans, 9s. 6d. a quarter, when the price shall not exceed 53s.; and when above 53s., one shilling;-barley, bear, or bigg, 7s. 6d. a quarter, up to 40s.; and when above that price, one shilling;-oats, 5s. a quarter, up to 28s.; and when above that price, one shilling."

The Chairman reported progress, and asked leave to sit again.

May 6.

The House having again resolved itself into the Committee, the Marquis of Londonderry moved his first Resolution; viz. "That his Majesty be enabled to direct Exchequer Bills, to an amount not exceeding one million, to be issued to Commissioners in Great Britain, to be by them advanced, under certain regulations and restrictions, whenever the average price of wheat shall be under 60s. per quarter, upon such corn, the growth of the united kingdom, as shall be deposited in fit and proper warehouses."

Mr. HUSKISSON said, he would, as briefly as possible, state the grounds on which he felt himself compelled to object to this resolution. In doing so, he would follow closely the example which had been set him by his noble