interest," with the Queen's Speech before me, were deliberately inserted by me, and adopted by my noble Friend and my Colleagues in the Government of the late Sir Robert Peel, prospectively for the purpose of barring the question of compensation for the future. I attach the greatest im

hampton, rather than take the words of the to bear its burdens, and will thereby most surely Government suggested by the Chancellor promote the welfare and contentment of the of the Exchequer. I heard no more of people this until nearly the close of the debate on I told the House distinctly that these words, Tuesday evening, when the noble Viscount" without inflicting injury on any important the Member for Tiverton, certainly without any previous concert with me, proposed the Amendment which is now upon the table of the House. The terms of this Amendment are conditional-in the event of either the original Resolution or Amendment being withdrawn, the noble Lord will move it. The House will recol-portance to those words; and whatever lect the words of the Resolution as agreed upon between the noble Lord the Member for the City of London and myself; and the House will now see how nearly the words in the Amendment of the noble Viscount are in conformity with them. The Amendment of the noble Viscount proceeds as follows:

"That it is the opinion of this House that the improved condition of the country, and especially of the industrious classes, is mainly the result of recent legislation, which has established the principle of unrestricted competition, has abolished taxes for the purpose of protection

Then comes a small alteration. In my
Resolution the words were

"—and has thereby diminished the cost of the
principal articles of food."

In the Amendment of the noble Viscount there is an insertion which I think of importance. The words inserted are, "and increased the abundance." The sentence runs thus: "—and has thereby diminished the cost and increased the abundance of the principal articles of food." Now, Sir, the reason which has induced me, from a sense of duty, to rise before the right hon. Gentleman answers the question of the hon. Baronet the Member for the Tower Hamlets (Sir W. Clay) is a most important variation in the words tendered by the noble Viscount, as contrasted with the words to which the noble Lord the Member for the City of London and myself had given our previous consent. The noble Viscount says—

may be the feelings of others-before the Government gives the answer as to whether they will adopt or reject the proposal of the noble Viscount-I thought it but fair to tell Her Majesty's Government and the House the course I had taken, and that, so far as I am concerned, I could not be a party to a compromise of the question if these words are omitted. On the other hand, if there could be common consent to the insertion of these wordsif the Government would assent to the reinsertion, I, for one-having no authority to speak for others, but still, for the sake of free trade itself, and for the sake of combining the largest possible support to a Resolution fixing great principles, upon the eve of the introduction of a measure by Her Majesty's Government having reference to those principles, and from an anxious desire that those principles should be sustained by the largest possible majority, if not by the common consent of the House-I would earnestly, sincerely, and, if it be necessary for me to say so, would honestly entreat my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton in that case, with the consent of the House, to withdraw his original Motion, and to adopt the Amendment. I am ashamed of having trespassed upon the time of the House, but I thought it might consider my intrusion an exceptional case, in reference to this subject; but I can assure you that I was actuated by no motive whatever of a personal or a sinister kind. If it would not be considered as inconsistent with the honour of the Government, I believe that, with the concurrence of my friends on this side, we might arrive at a

I had inserted here the words -"without inflicting injury upon any important most reasonable settlement, and one satisinterest-"

These words have entirely disappeared, and the proposition now is, that, these words beiug omitted, the sentence shall

run

best enable the industry of the country VOL. CXXIII. [THIRD SERIES.]

factory to the great majority of the House; so that to-morrow the Government, without any interruption or difficulty, might have the opportunity of introducing its measures. We then should have the opportunity of giving them the fairest and

R

The Motion for the adjournment of the House having been seconded,

fullest consideration. For my part, I am | under the late Sir Robert Peel, stood the ready to consider them, not in a hostile, heads of the house of Percy. And why but in a friendly spirit-since they are to had he (Lord Lovaine) come forward for be founded on the principles for which I the county of Northumberland? Simply am contending-and I shall fairly try any and solely because, though the heads of measure of compensation which might be the house of Percy had voted for the introproposed by the most rigid rules of equity duction of corn free of duty, because they and justice. believed that it would be for the publie good, they were determined not to see the farmers run down, not to allow their comLORD LOVAINE said, that he should plaints to pass unheeded, and their suffernot now have intruded himself upon the ings to remain unredressed. He had been attention of the House, after having so misrepresented the first night of the Seslately addressed it, had it not been for the sion, and that for the sake of a poor antipersonal allusion made to him by the right thesis. What he had stated then, and hon. Baronet the Member for Carlisle (Sir upon the hustings broadly and openly was, J. Graham). It was true that he (Lord that in his opinion duties should be imLovaine) did beat Sir George Grey at the posed for revenue and not for Protection; last election for North Northumberland. but that efforts should be made to secure It was true, also, that he beat that right justice to the farmer by the abolition of all hon. Gentleman by polling a larger number the restrictions to which he was subjected; of votes than the right hon. Gentleman had and he would appeal to the right hon. the polled at the previous election. It was true, Member for Oxford, if there was anything likewise, that he beat the right hon. Gen- in that statement contrary to the doctrines tleman after he had been tried five years of Free Trade. He had to apologise to as the representative of that county. But the House for thus trespassing upon their it was equally true that the contest was patience in a matter personal to himself; conducted in the fairest, most open, and but he trusted that it would be rememmost gentleman-like manner; and he be-bered that it was hardly possible for him lieved Sir George Grey left the hustings, to sit still, when called upon in so peron that occasion, with the same good feel-sonal and unusual a manner. ing that he (Lord Lovaine) had entertained MR. GLADSTONE: I wish, Sir, to when he himself was a beaten candidate at say a few words with respect to the questhe election before. He was aware that tion raised by my right hon. Friend (Sir J. with the gratification of the victory, he Graham), and I rise simply in the hope had likewise to incur the difficulty of main- that anything which may fall from me may taining this high position, but he certainly only be of such a character as to contribute did not expect that, upon entering the to an issue of these discussions such as House for the first time after a lapse of shall be at once satisfactory to the feelings twenty years, he should be subjected thus of the great body of the people and likely carly to a direct and personal attack. It to promote the undisputed permanence of was the more extraordinary when he re- the present commercial policy of the counflected that amongst the many changes try. I venture to hope that some progress and chances of the political career of the has been made towards a settlement of that right hon. Baronet's (Sir J. Graham's), question, and that if we can agree upon he was only a few years ago in direct op- the question which has been raised by the position to Sir George Grey. [ Ques- right hon. Baronet with respect to the intion!" He would speak to the question, sertion of certain words in the Amendment, and he would declare his conviction that suggested by my noble Friend near me the object of the debate was not the triumph (Viscount Palmerston), that then, although of the principle of Free Trade, but it was we should not be entitled, in point of form, merely the effort of a faction to procure to say that either the Amendment of the the defect and discomfiture of the opposite Government or the original Motion of the party. He believed that the right hon. hon. Member for Wolverhampton (Mr. C. Baronet had stated that the house of Villiers) had been withdrawn, yet that both Percy ought to be the last to abandon the these concessions would be made by both cause of Protection. He supposed that it parties respectively interested to the genewas owing to the changes already alluded ral feeling, and that we might come to to that the right hon. Baronet had for- something like a common agreement. gotten that upon his side of the question, Now, the whole question before us relates

con

that Protection would be restored, or that, if Protection was not restored, endeavours would be made to afford specific relief to that interest supposed to be injured by the effects of the free-trade policy. The right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer had given notice that, on the 26th of this month, he would propose his Budget to the House, and it was to be presumed that in that Budget proposals of this nature would be included. I do not think, fess, whether rightly or wrongly, that in respect to these questions of compensation which are supposed to be connected with the repeal of the Corn Laws, that we ought to preclude the Government from submitting any measures whatever which in their opinion they might think right by an anticipatory vote of this House. I held that it was plain we had but one of two courses to take either to allow the Government to go forward with unfettered hands, and to propose their Budget upon the principles owned and acknowledged by them, among which I am happy now to include the principle of free trade; or else, by meeting them at once with a vote of want of confidence, in a true, sound, and constitutional manner to exercise the functions of the House to put a period at once to the existence of the Administration. So far, therefore, as regards this question, it appeared to me that it was not our duty to take a vote at the present moment on the subject of relief to any interest supposed to be injured by recent legislation, but that we ought to wait for the proposal of the measures of the Government, and to try their measures upon their merits, objecting, of course, to measures of compen

to one only of the two changes which have been made in the Resolution. There is a change in the Resolution of the phrase "in a great measure" to the word "mainly." I do not believe that any Gentleman considers that any objection is to be taken to that change, and shall therefore speak only of the words proposed to be inserted in the second Resolution. It is proposed to insert after the word "policy," the words "firmly maintained and prudently extended;" and the question we have to consider is, what will be the bearing of these words upon the sense of the Amendments, and how far it will be agreeable to the feelings and wishes of the great body of the House that those words should be inserted. It is now necessary for me to state what my responsibility is with respect to the present Motion. I am one of those, I confess, who strongly felt that it was necessary, under the circumstances of the election of the present Parliament, that a sanction, the most full and formal which our Constitution contemplates, should, so far as depends upon Parliament, be given in express words to the policy of free trade. And, therefore, I have been entirely favourable to the view of a proposition being submitted to this House on the subject, failing a distinct declaration on the subject in the Speech from the Throne. At the same time I so entirely sympathise with my right hon. Friend (Sir J. Graham) in the feeling that it was most desirable, if it could be obtained, to avoid the introduction into such a Motion of any words-I will not say which were disgraceful, but-which were deemed or thought disparaging to any body of Gentlemen in this House-I go to a further point, and do not hesitate to ac-sation, should we find such measures incept the responsibility for myself individually which the right hon. Baronet has just ascribed to several of his Colleagues in the Government of my illustrious Friend the late Sir Robert Peel-the responsibility of holding the opinion that the question of compensation, or relief, or redress, or whatever you may choose to call it, to the agricultural interest, important as that question may be, and strong as our opinions may be upon the one part of it or another, was a question which ought not to be settled in a Motion directed simply to the purpose of establishing the policy of free trade. It appeared to me that we had but one of two alternatives to adopt. We knew quite well that the Members of the Government had given out to their constituents, and had universally held out to them, either

cluded among them, where our opinion leads us to decline to follow such a course of conduct. My right hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle, on the other hand, attaches, I believe, considerable importance to the readmission of these words, and I understand the right hon. Baronet to have given to the House in the most distinct manner the construction which he fixes upon them. I frankly say that his construction is wholly unexceptionable to me.

He says that he proposes to exclude the claim of compensation with respect to prospective measures, by the phrase in his Motion-that in deference to others, more than in pursuance of his own views, he has been content to leave the question of compensation or relief, so far as it grows out of past measures of policy, to be tried

their terms the original Motion of the hon. Member for Wolverhampton and the Amendment of the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I believe that the interests of the Free-trade policy, which are to be considered as paramount, will be infinitely better served by the concurrence of the great bulk and body of this House in the adoption of the Amendment of the noble Lord the Member for Tiverton, with the addition of those words referred to by the right hon. Baronet the Member for Carlisle (Sir J. Graham), than they could possibly be by the defeat of the Motion of the hon. Member for Wolverhampton by a narrow majority, or even by its acceptance by a majority in all probability not much larger.

when we come to consider the proposals of Her Majesty's Government. If this be so, I think, if the House has a sense of what is due to its own dignity and to its own character in the country-that if there be happily a disposition in the various parties and sections of which this House is composed to seek for grounds of agreement, rather than of occasions of difference-I think I may say that the Resolution of the right hon. Baronet, admirably drawn up by a master hand as I think it was, and filled up with the words he proposes to insert, would be a Resolution which may be adopted both by the hon. Mover of the original Motion, and the right hon. Proposer of the Amendment of the Government, without the slightest dishonour or disparagement, and without the slightest MR. T. DUNCOMBE said: We have sacrifice of consistency on either side. been reminded, over and over again, that The Resolution so adopted will leave open this is a new House of Commons, and that every question which the Government can it is so is evident not only from the nature wish should be left open, and it will of the opposition, but from the whole course finally close up that great Imperial ques- of proceeding on this debate on both sides; tion which, upon this side of the House, for in the nine Parliaments during which I we all feel the time has arrived finally have sat in this House, I never before saw to close. If this view be taken-such, at anything like the manner in which it appears any rate, is my conviction-this Resolution the House, and, what is still more to the purwill afford us the means of meeting on pose, the people out of doors, are about to be common ground for the purpose of con- trifled with. It was only the other evening sidering measures alike beneficial to the (Friday) that it was resolved there should country and honourable to the moderation be a call of the House on Monday. Monand good sense of the parties of which this day came, and 400 or 500 Members asHouse is composed. I venture, therefore, sembled to answer to their names; but infor myself, earnestly and respectfully, to stead of calling them over as they had remake an appeal to my noble Friend (Vis- solved, and for which purpose only those count Palmerston) near me. The spirit Members had been summoned, the House with which he has entered into the discus-immediately proceeded toun vote what it had sion is one with which I do not hesitate entirely to concur. I cannot, however, refrain from saying that, although my mind was fully made up to support the Motion of the hon. Member for Wolverhampton in preference to the Amendment of the Government, had that been the issue raised, yet I cannot help saying that, while there are several grounds which would have made it painful to me, as well as to my right hon. Friend, to take that course in opposition to the Government, I should still have taken it without the slightest doubt or hesitation, though not without regret. My noble Friend near me has by his Amendment saved us from this alternative, which would not have been satisfactory to the great bulk of the House; and I must also say that I think the country would have been perplexed and puzzled by a close division, upon whichever side, between the two Motions so nearly approximating in

voted on the previous Friday, and that in the absence of the hon. Member for Montrose (Mr. Hume), at whose instance the Resolution had been passed. I confess I should like to have seen my hon. Friend's face when he learned that the call of the House had been abandoned. But we were told the whole purpose of the call was answered, some thirty or forty Members having come to the table and taken the oath of abjuration, which having done, of course they immediately went out of town again. Well, we have had one night's debate on the Resolution of my hon. Friend (Mr. C. Villiers), and some of the best speeches I ever heard, particularly that of the hon. Member for Manchester (Mr. Bright), have been spoken. We were told that we had a great duty to perform to the people. We were to declare that the legislation of 1846 was wise, just, and beneficial, and that not a word of the Resolution of

my hon. Friend, in which that declaration | and my hon. Friend (Mr. C. Villiers) should was contained, was to be changed. And be defeated-what I want to know is, will not only that, we were told that there was the noble Viscount then move his Amenda tribute, a debt, due to the memory of ment to the Resolution of the Government, that illustrious man who passed the Act of which will then become the main question, 1846, which could only be paid by a public and which it will of course be competent recognition of the policy on which that for him to do? If he do not, the country Act was founded. Now, after all this, we will not be much perplexed-they will then have these various Amendments. First, say the whole affair is a cross. The counthere is the Amendment of the Govern- try will begin to think that those Gentlement; then we have the Amendment of the men below me-the Whigs-and I only noble Lord the Member for Tiverton (Vis- wish Whiggery was about to be buried for count Palmerston); and now, it appears, we ever with Protection-feel they are not are to have something more recent from quite ripe for office-that they have not the right hon. Baronet the Member for quite made up their minds for officeCarlisle (Sir James Graham). What next though no doubt the right hon. Baronet were they to have ? The right hon. Mem- the Member for Carlisle has been rewhigged ber for Oxford Univerity (Mr. Gladstone), for the occasion. They-the countrytold them that the country would be puzzled will understand that the cause of all this and perplexed at their proceedings; the mess in which we find ourselves involved country might well be puzzled and per- is, that the party below me are not quite plexed at them. Now, what I should re- prepared to turn out the Gentlemen oppocommend is this: the right hon. Baronet site. We were made fools of on Monday the Member for Carlisle has moved that last, as though it had been the 1st of the House should now adjourn. The right April- we have discussed the question hon. Gentleman has moved that as a matter brought forward by my hon. Friend (Mr. of form. Now, I say, we had better take C. Villiers) a whole night, and we are on the right hon. Gentleman at his word, and the point of discussing it again, and bringlet the House adjourn until it can make up ing it to a conclusion, as I hoped, satisfacits mind-or that we should constitute a tory to the people of this country-and Committee, and put the hon. Member for now we suddenly find ourselves removed the Tower Hamlets (Sir W. Clay) at its further than ever from that settlement. head, to draw out this Amendment-this Under these circumstances, I hope the Amendment upon an Amendment--which House will agree to adjourn, and leave hon. we are to have, to which all are to agree, Gentlemen below me some time to settle which is to settle the whole question, and amicably as they may the difference that make us all friendly, and prevent anything appears to exist between them. more being said either about Protection or Free Trade. I see no reason why we should not adopt the Motion, and adjourn at once for that purpose. But as questions appear to be the order of the day, there is one party, I think, of whom a question should be asked, and that is the noble Viscount the Member for Tiverton. How came the noble Viscount by the right hon. Baronet's Amendment? By what method of "appropriation" did he obtain that document? But this new Amendment is conditional, it will be observed-it is only to be brought forward in case the Resolution of my hon. Friend (Mr. C. Villiers), and the Amendment of the Government, should be withdrawn. Are we to understand, then, that there is to be no division? But suppose the debate proceeds-and I thought it a very pretty quarrel as it stood, and am truly sorry it was disturbed but suppose the debate is continued, and the Amendment of the Government should be carried,

MR. CAYLEY trusted that he might be allowed to address the House upon the point at issue, the more especially as he was an old soldier upon this question, and he hoped that he had been a consistent one. Ever since protection had been abolished in 1846, he for one had never endeavoured to restore it. He was perfectly conscious that it never could be restored. When the hon. Member for Wolverhampton made his speech the other night upon the Address, he thought that if that hon. Member did not know that protection was dead, and that there was no possibility of restoring it, he was the only man in the country who was ignorant of the fact. It seemed to him, therefore, to be somewhat unfair that he should be placed in such a position as that predicament in which he now found himself without any locus poenitentia-without any means of escape. He admitted that free trade had conquered protection. After the verdict of the coun