afford him at a high price, though the manufacturer might procure the article cheaper from abroad. The price of grain might be raised by two causes-either by a change in the currency, which would affect grain like other articles; or by legislative restrictions, which might alter its relation to other articles. A rise in the price of corn from the latter cause tended to injure all who were not in terested in the cultivation of the land, by lowering the profits of stock. Mr. Ricardo concluded with declaring, that if we were once in circumstances which would enable us to export and import corn without restriction, this country, possessing the greatest skill, the best machinery, the most strenuous and most enlightened industry, and every other advantage in the greatest degree, would attain to an almost inconceivable degree of prosperity and happiness.

Several other members of the Opposition (among them were lord Milton and Mr. Coke) resisted the appointment of a committee. Mr. Ellice moved the previous question. Mr. Gipps proposed, as an amendment, that a select committee should be appointed to inquire into the best mode of ascertaining the average price of corn. That this amendment might be put, Mr. Ellice professed his willingness to withdraw his motion; but as general Gascoyne would not allow it to be withdrawn, the previous question was put. Upon a division, there appeared to be for the original motion, 150; for the previous question, 101.

This result surprised every body. Mr. Holme Sumner himself declared, that, convinced as

he was of the propriety of the measure, he had not expected that it would have been so favourably received. Lord Castlereagh stated, that, some of his friends having inquired concerning the course which the discussion was likely to take, he had replied, that their attendance would not be necessary, as he did not think that the question would be pressed to a division. This security was the source of Mr. Sumner's success. Many members, who scarcely ever agreed on any other occasion, united in deploring the vote to which the House had come. Here, for instance, sir Robert Wilson and lord Castle reagh were of one mind; they both thought, that the determination of that night would spread alarm over the country; and his lordship declared, that, had he at all anticipated the result, there would have been a very different attendance of members. The debate had been so protracted, that it was now near four o'clock in the morning. It was, therefore, suggested by Mr. Baring, that the selection of the members of a committee upon whom so much would depend, ought to be delayed to a fitter time, and, with that view, he moved, that the debate should be adjourned to the same evening. The motion was agreed to.

On the first of June, the debate was resumed. Considerable discussion took place upon the reading of the list of names, which Mr. Sumner had selected for his committee. He, of course, in compliance with the usage of parliament, had taken care, that there should be in it a majority of those who approved of inquiry. If he had acted other

wise, upon the very first meeting of the committee, the members of it, who disapproved of its ap pointment, if numerous enough to form a majority, might have arrested its proceedings for ever, by directing the chairman to report progress, and not to ask leave to sit again. Nine of the gentlemen, who were selected for it, had declared themselves adverse to inquiry; so that the composition of the committee was as impartial, as was consistent with its existence.

The sense of the House had not been taken on Mr. Gipps's amendment, in consequence of the refusal of general Gascoigne to allow the motion for the previous question to be withdrawn. Mr. F. Robinson now brought forward a proposition, which was in effect the same with that amendment. After stating, that, since the House had determined on inquiry, it was desirable that the inquiry should be confined to those limits within which alone it could lead to any practical advantage, he moved

that instructions be given to the committee to confine their investigations to the mode of ascertaining, returning, and calculating the average prices of corn in the twelve maritime districts under the provisions of the existing corn laws, and to any frauds which may be committed in viola tion of the said laws." They who had originally supported the appointment of a committee, regarded this as a device for frittering away its powers. Mr. Walter Burrell, member for Sussex, moved, as an amendment, "that it be an instruction to the committee to inquire, whether the present mode of taking averages ascertains the actual market prices

of corn throughout the united kingdom, or whether any plan can be devised better calculated to effect that purpose;" and the amendment was, of course, sup ported by those who had voted with Mr. Sumner. Lord Castlereagh, who had not participated in the debate of the preceding evening, spoke in support of Mr. Robinson's motion. He declared himself decidedly adverse to opening the whole question of the corn laws, which would be the necessary result of the appointment of the committee, unless its functions were limited in the manner proposed. He saw nothing that could result from wide and extended inquiry, except much agitation and alarm of the public mind, unaccompanied with any benefit to the agricultural interest. He was equally averse to any alteration in the mode of ascertaining the averages; but the reason, which he assigned for his opinion on this point, was apparently at variance with Mr. Robinson's argument on the preceding evening. Mr. Robinson had then objected to the proposed alteration in the calculation of the averages, because it would, in practice, be altogether futile ; and he endeavoured to prove (and apparently with success), that the difference between the results obtained by the two plans, was too small to be worth attention, and that, such as it was, it might depress, as readily as raise, the apparent rate of the market. Lord Castlereagh, however, reasoned on the supposition, that the average calculated in the ordinary method would generally give a price exceeding, by six shillings per quarter, that which would be obtained, if the calculation, in

stead of being confined to the maritime districts, were taken from the markets of the whole kingdom; and accordingly he opposed any alteration, as an indirect means of raising the import price six shillings above the point fixed by law. To reconcile the statements of the two minis ters, we ought to interpret lord Castlereagh, not as really believing that the results of the two modes of striking the average would vary to the amount specified, but as admitting, for the purposes of argument, the statement of the agriculturists to that effect, and as then maintaining, that, according to the doctrine which they themselves held, a change in the law relating to the ascertainment of the averages would, in truth, be an essential alteration in the principle of the existing corn laws.

Mr. Brougham opposed the motion in a speech, in which he expatiated with considerable sarcastic humour on the surprise with which ministers found themselves in a minority on the preceding evening, and the means they were now taking of repairing their defeat. Mr. Tierney supported Mr. Robinson's motion, which, on a division, was carried by a majority of 251 to 108.

On the same evening, Mr. Maxwell, member for Renfrewshire, in presenting a petition from the mechanics of the town of Paisley, praying that the means of emigration to one of the colonies might be afforded them, drew the attention of the House to the situation of the manufacturing poor. It was, he said, a dreadful thing to see, as was the fact in many parts of the country, four hundred persons in every square

mile, destitute of the means of subsistence; and he conceived, that, from sound policy as well as humanity, something ought to be taken from the abundance of the wealthy, in order to supply those who were starving, and must continue to starve, if they remained at home, with the means of providing for themselves and families elsewhere. On the 29th of June, he moved for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the distress of the cotton-weavers, and the practicability of extending relief to them. It was his wish and intention, that the committee, if granted, should consider how far the superiority of machinery over manual labour arose from the heavy taxes with which all the articles consumed by the labourer were loaded; whether some alterations should not be made in the laws relating to combination amongst workmen ; whether a plan might not be adopted for withdrawing some of the poor from avocations that did not yield wherewithal to sustain life, and for placing them in situations where their industry might be productive to themselves and the country; whether, for example, lands might not be provided at the public expense for weavers who could find no employment at their looms. He thought, also, that the multitude of foreign menials, who were employed in this country, and of persons who, with their property here, spent the revenue of it abroad, should not be passed unnoticed. These ideas were obviously the crude suggestions of a benevolent, rather than of an experienced mind, and did not draw much attention or excite much discussion. Mr. Robinson would not consent to

the appointment of a committee, which would only serve to propagate delusion and to raise hopes of unattainable relief. Besides, the business of the proposed committee was to be, not the collection and arrangement of facts, but the discussion of certain abstract ideas. Mr. Ricardo dissented entirely from all Mr. Maxwell's plans, which he thought were inconsistent with the sacred rights of property, and would tend to aggravate the very distress he meant to alleviate. Mr. Maxwell, finding that be met with no support, withdrew his motion. Propositions, similar in their principles, though different in their details, had been previously made (May 16th), with a similar result in the House of Lords by earl Stanhope. They were introduced by a very elaborate speech, and involved three distinct schemes. The first was, to bring waste lands into cultivation, and to substitute, to a considerable extent, thespade husbandry for that of the plough. The second related to the improvement and extension of fisheries. The third was, to devise some mode of limiting the use of machinery. Lord Liverpool very successfully exposed the futility of every part of the scheme. He admitted, that the extension of our fisheries would always be advantageous; but he contended, that the encouragement of them had been carried as far as possible, and declared, that he should be happy to listen to any practicable plan of procuring a greater supply of fish, and an adequate market for it. As to the cultivation of waste lands, the impolicy of such a mode of investing eapital could scarcely admit of a

doubt. Capitalists should be left to find out the way, in which their funds could be most profitably employed; for here the interest of the individual coincided exactly with that of the public. A great part of the pres sure, under which the country laboured, arose from the quantity of poor soils which had been brought into tillage; so that the proposed remedy would, in fact, be an aggravation of the evil. Was it consistent with the dignity of government to descend to agricultural speculations, or with its wisdom, to undertake the cultivation of lands from which the industry, enterprise, and frugality of individuals could derive no profit? Then, where was the money to be found, which such a scheme required? Were the public burdens to be increased→→ not for purposes of national utility, but that a constant series of losses might be sustained in cultivating land, which would not give a return equal to the expenses incurred? But of all the parts of the plan, that which related to the use of machinery was the most extravagant, and the most completely at variance with every principle of sound political science. Next to the spirit of her people, England was indebted for her commercial power and greatness to her machinery. It had given, as it were, legs to the lame, and sight to the blind; it had inspired the dull with enterprise, and to the enterprizing had given additional energy: it had placed the country, in spite of all its disadvantages, on a level with the most favoured natious, and had enabled its merchants, who paid a heavy price for labour, to compete with those of other nations,

who paid but a trifle for it. Did his noble friend conceive, that the commercial greatness of England had arisen from any superior advantage in its climate, any superior fertility in its soil? No. He might go to the east or to the west, to the north or to the south, and find climates of more genial influence, lands of much richer quality-but he would not find in their boundaries men, whose mind was a richer treasure to the land which contained them, than any which either soil or climate ever produced. He would find, that they did not number among their inhabitants, a Watts, a Bolton, an Arkwright, and many another name to which England was indebted for its present greatness-men who were as useful to their country, in their generation, as any of the legislators of old were in theirs. Let him visit our manufacturing towns, and he would see the greatest inventions matured, and brought to perfection, by those whom he might consider as the meanest and most abject of mankind, but who were, notwithstanding, daily rising, from the humble situation in which fate had originally placed them, to wealth, and honour, and eminence in the state. If, there fore, he was for discouraging the employment of machinery-if he was for putting down the enter prising and inventive spirit of our industrious mechanics, he was for putting down and discouraging that, which had been, in times past, and must again be in days that were to come, the source of much of our welfare and happiness.

Lord Stanhope's motion was, as might have been expected, negatived without a division; and

his lordship, with paternal fondness for his project, and a prudent anxiety that it might not be totally forgotten, entered his dissent from the vote on the Journals of the House,

Among the many sound views, which lord Liverpool's speech contained on the subject of our internal policy, there was one error of considerable magnitude. He seemed inclined to admit, that the extended use of machinery aggravated the evils which accompanied any change in the channels of commercial and manufacturing industry, though he maintained, at the same time, that this inconvenience was a comparatively slight drawback from the many great advantages which machinery conferred on us. The truth, however, is, that the greater the share which machinery has in the production of any commodity, the less individual suffering will be produced by the disturbance or destruction of that particular branch of manufacture; for the number of workmen engaged in it will be proportionally fewer, and, consequently, when the article no longer finds a ready sale, and those engaged in the preparation of it are left unemployed, the misery is confined within narrower limits. Instead of starving workmen, we have machinery standing still; the mischief is transferred, to a considerable extent, from the poor to the rich; and a great portion of the inconveniences of a revolution in commerce or manufactures loses the appalling form of human misery, and assumes the more tolerable aspect of a loss of fixed capital. This is a great moral advantage the extended use of machinery, and one which is too often overlooked.

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