I am aware, some persons suppose that the Corn-laws have been the cause of our present distress. I believe that the distress has arisen in a far greater degree from the the immense increase in the amount of capital which has been employed in the cotton trade, and the consequent unnatural increase in the production of manufactured goods."

The wages of the hand-loom weaver had fallen from 27s. in 1815 to 3s. in 1842; but when the price of corn, and the vast importation of cotton are considered, it must be obvious, that there must be some other cause for the existence of distress than the Corn-laws. There must be some other cause also for the rapid decrease of wages in the cotton trade:

"Here is an account of cotton manufactured since 1831. I have no means of comparing the increase with 1815; but since 1831, there has been a most extraordinary increase in the quantity of cotton imported for manufacture and retained for home consumption, and the quantity of cotton goods exported. In 1831, the total quantity of cotton spun was 208,000,000 pounds; and in 1841, it amounted to 337,000,000 pounds. The total quantity of yarn-manufactured goods in 1831, was 70,000,000 pounds; and in 1841, it had risen to 138,000,000 pounds. Now, though it might be that we do not take corn in exchange for our cotton goods, yet the quantity of goods exported, for which we receive some sort of return, has been enormously increased, comparing 1841 with 1831, and with 1815 also, when the wages of the artisan were so high, as described by the honourable Gentleman, and when corn was about 64s. a quarter. The increase of the trade, as mea

sured by the imports and exports, has been most extraordinary.'

Allusion had been made in the House to a placard issued at Manchester, headed "Murder," of which Mr. Cobden had declared that the Members of the AntiCorn-law League knew nothing:

I

"I was glad to hear that declaration from the honourable gentleman at the same time, I think there ought to be a more effectual measure taken for the purpose of manifesting a severance between disseminators of bills of this character, and those who profess to have the true interests of the working-classes at heart. was determined to make no reference to this hand-bill without information, but these facts have been stated to me :- The inflammatory placard headed Murder,' continues to be issued in a shop in Market Street, Manchester. The placard was still exhibiting on the 23d of June, at 22, Market Street. Above the door of this house there are printed the words, 'The Dépôt for the National Anti-Corn-law League.' The printer of the placard, who is the tenant of that shop, is the printer and publisher for the Anti-Corn-law League. About four doors distant from this dépôt is a building, in which the Anti-Corn-law League held their meetings.'-I am glad to hear from the honourable Member that the members of the Anti-Corn-law League express their disapprobation of the exhibition of this placard; and I trust what I have stated may induce them to take steps which may make it impossible for any person to attribute to them any participation in appeals of this nature to a suffering population."

He trusted that nothing would be done to check the progress of

subscriptions in aid of the distressed manufacturers; though that could be no permanent remedy for the distress. His hopes of that lay in a general extension of the commerce of the country; and he re-stated the principles on which he thought it ought to be extended:

"I stated, and I am now ready to repeat the statement, that if we had to deal with a new society, in which those infinite and complicated interests which grow up under institutions like those in the midst of which we live had found no existence, the true abstract principle would be to buy in the cheapest market and to sell in the dearest.' And yet it is quite clear, that it would be utterly impossible to apply that principle in a state of society such as that in which we live, without a due consideration of the interests which have grown up under the protection of former laws. While contending for the justice of the abstract principle, we may at the same time admit the necessity of applying it partially; and I think the proper object is first of all to lay the foundation of good laws, to provide the way for gradual improvements, which may thus be introduced without giving a shock to existing interests. If you do give a shock to those interests, you create prejudices against the principles themselves, and only aggravate the distress. This is the principle on which we attempted to proceed in the preparation of the Tariff."

He frankly admitted that he had not applied those principles to corn and sugar; but on corn the duties were reduced one-half; and he again called on them to look at the measure as a whole :

"At the commencement of this VOL. LXXXIV.

year declarations were constantly made about the comparative prices of meat in this country and abroad. There were constant prophecies that no attempt would be made to deal with the monopoly of provisions in respect to cattle and meat. In respect to rice, potatoes, fish, and various other articles of subsistence, there have been made most extensive reductions of duty; and with respect to raw materials, there was likewise a reduction such as the advocates of free-trade could scarcely complain of. The effect of all this change could not yet be fairly estimated. But then it was asked, Do you intend to do nothing else?' We do intend, after submitting it to the consideration of a Committee, to propose a further measure, permitting the taking of foreign corn out of bond duty free, upon the substitution into the warehouse, or delivery for exportation, of equivalent quantities of flour and biscuit. With respect to other countries, it will be our endeavour to extend on the true principles of reciprocal advantage the commerce of the country."

He had been asked why he had introduced no measure on the banking laws; but every day at the disposal of Government had been consumed in the measures to which he had referred; and they had as yet scarcely been able to pass more than the first clause of the Poor-law. They had passed the Income-tax, which no Government could have done against the general feeling of the country. They had entered into negotiations with other countries:

"I hope, now that we have been able to bring these measures to a conclusion, with some difference of opinion on my side of the House, and with strong divisions against [L]

me on account of the alarm given to the agricultural interest-that they will be allowed to have a fair trial; and if they do not prove calculated to increase the prosperity of the country if they should prove inadequate to meet the distress of the country-in that case I shall be the first to admit, that no adherence to former opinions ought to prevent their full and careful revision. But I hope that no precipitate conclusions will be come to, but that a fair experiment will be made, in order that we may see whether they have a tendency to revive the prosperity of the country, and to terminate that stagnation which no person in this great community views with deeper concern than those who are immediately responsible for the Government of the country."

Lord John Russell remarked, that Sir R. Peel did not speak as if he were very confident of the success of his measures. For at least eight weeks after the new Corn-law had received the Royal Assent, it had not been interfered with; but Sir Robert Peel was not correct in saying, that the change had led to the importation of foreign corn; for in two weeks this year, corn had entered to the amount of 25,000 quarters and 48,000 quarters respectively. In two weeks of last year, ending 16th April and 21st May, it had entered to the amount of 58,825, and 71,040 quarters respectively, at the much higher duty of 22s. 8d. and 23s. 8d.; and therefore, the diminution of duty by the new Act, had only led to a diminution of revenue-there had been no gain to the people. If the duty had been fixed at 8s., there would not have been this delay of two months and a half, during which

corn was not admitted. Would it not be better to resort to a measure which Sir Robert Peel himself acknowledged would afford a temporary alleviation of the distress ? If it was desirable to obtain relief for the people from charity, would it not be much more so to afford it by the law? In 1826, Sir Robert Peel had acted with Mr. Canning and Lord Liverpool, in supporting a measure temporarily to suspend the Corn-law ; and why, therefore, should he not agree to the motion about to be made by Lord Howick, for the admission of foreign corn for a time at a fixed duty? Last year, the Whigs were told when in power, that they were incompe

tent:

"That Government is now replaced by Gentlemen possessed of perfect intelligence and unfailing wisdom; and when asked where is the remedy-where the hope of an alleviation, they say, 'they expect a good harvest. Now, I do think, Sir, that though our abilities be not so shining as those of honour. able Gentlemen opposite, we were at least equal to the task of looking at the barometer and saying we expect a fine harvest."

Towards the close of his speech, Lord John Russell launched into a general attack on the Government measures:

"I remember a right honourable Gentleman, not now a Member of this House, Mr. Herries, parodying a French writer in reviewing a work, said, that our measures contained some things that were good, and some things that were new

that those that were new were not good, and those that were good, were not new. I appply this expression to the measures of this session proposed by the present Go

vernment. I can scarcely count on my fingers those they have adopted from us,-namely, the Poor-law, the Colonial Customs Bill, the Colonial Passengers Bill, the New South Wales Bill, the Australian Bill, the Justices Bill, and the principles of the Tariff itself; for with respect to provisions generally, I had proposed to bring forward a measure for introducing them at lower rates of duty, but, at the suggestion of my right honourable Friend, I postponed it, in order to bring forward the proposition for altering the Corn-law; which, in its result, prevented our bringing any other measures forward as a Government. We have had satisfaction in seeing such a measure as the Tariff proposed —that measure is good, but it is not new; and so is the Poorlaw the Income-tax is new, but it is not good; and I may say the same thing of the Corn-law of the present year."

Mr. Cobden repeated the position which he had maintained on a former evening, that in prosperous times improvements in machinery never threw labourers out of employment, so as to cause distress. He contended that this country could hope for no extension of trade with America, Portugal, or Spain, unless it would take their corn; remarking, that it is not exports alone which make a country rich. And he quoted the Scotch and Irish farmers, who laughed at the agriculture of England, and said, that with a proper system of tillage, the landowners might obtain double their rents, and yet corn be sold at 40s. the quarter.

Lord Howick explained, that he should vote for the motion on several grounds, though he pro

tested in the strongest manner against the delays that had been thrown in the way of public business. He believed that the cause would suffer from the injudicious means employed to promote it :

He did not suppose that he should have an opportunity of proposing the motion of which he had given notice; but he could not help pressing on the right honourable Baronet the expediency of adopting some such measure as this-that, with a view to mitigate the existing distress, an Act of Parliament should be passed giving assurance, that for a certain limited time no higher duty than 6s. should be levied.

Sir John Hanmer said, he was not ashamed to avow, that, representing a large manufacturing constituency, and having paid great attention to the subject, his opinion had undergone considerable alteration as to the Corn-laws; he was in favour of a moderate fixed duty for the purpose of revenue, and no more.

On a division, Mr. Villiers' amendment was rejected by 231 to 117.

While these discussions were taking place in the House of Commons, the same class of topics was brought under debate in the House of Lords at the instance of Lord Brougham, who founded a motion on a petition presented by him. from the Delegates of the Manufacturing Districts in London praying for inquiry. In his speech on this occasion, Lord Brougham entered into an elaborate consideration of some of the most interesting question of commercial economy, which he treated with his accustomed acuteness and ingenuity. He avowed that he brought forward the subject with

reluctance, because it was painful to state such a case as theirs, and to disappoint their hopes in his endeavours. As it was notorious, he would take his hearers as quickly as possible over the ground in describing the unparallelled distress: "He, like those petitioners, or at least the oldest among them, remembered the distress of 1808 and 1812, and afterwards of 1816 and 1817; but he protested, that when he cast back his eyes and compared those periods with the present, and when he refreshed his recollection with the result of the inquiry then made, and compared it with what it had been his most painful duty to learn within the last three or four weeks of the present state of things, he might almost without exaggeration say that those times presented a comparatively prosperous state of things."

He described in general terms, illustrated by a few individual instances, the aspect and progress of the distress among the people:"Who were those persons of whose sufferings he had spoken? They were no more nor less than the working classes at large of the country. It was the working classes and their cause that the petitioners submitted to the consideration of their Lordships; the working classes, to whom the country owed every thing, and who raised the commercial greatness of the country to its present stupendous height. In his opinion, the patience and tranquillity of the working classes ought to work powerfully on their Lordships; and added to this, it must be remembered that the working classes had no hand in making the laws by which they were governed. The millions did not contribute a single

vote in the choice of the men by whom their laws were made. Upwards of five millions were entirely excluded from any share in the representation. Such being the case, if their Lordships were not their actual representatives, which they undoubtedly were as much as any Member of the other House of Parliament, he must entreat of them to be their actual protectors."

He protested against the question being made one of party :"Questions of this sort did not naturally bind themselves to party; and he must own that it was his opinion, whoever should dream of forming a party in this country on what might be called economical ground-whoever could fancy that he should be able to get together a faction-he used the term in no disparaging sense, but a well-principled party, and that on a ground that was only and correctly economical on questions respecting trade and revenue-that person, he maintained, must be one who might indulge such an expectation, but he must be doomed to see that a party in this country could not stand on that ground."

He argued at some length to disprove what he considered "one of the greatest and grossest fallacies that had ever been asserted;" that the increase of machinery was the cause of the distress; and he reviewed the state of Leeds, Bolton, Hinckley, Loughborough, Nottingham, Sheffield, and the Potteries, to show that the distress was as great where new machinery had not been introduced as where it had been. It was equally far from the truth to ascribe it to the change in the currency twenty-three years ago; the effects of which had been set