nies had become as ridiculous as it was mischievous. They had milk companies, and bread companies, and they would next have shoe and tailor companies. All these speculations, however ridiculous in themselves, were very prejudicial to the particular trades against which they were directed, and ought, as much as possible, to be discouraged. At all events, respecting the copper duties, he trusted the right hon. gentleman would give the interests likely to be affected by it an opportunity of having their objections examined in a committee, before he finally concluded upon the measure. Sir M. W. Ridley, though he agreed with the main principles propounded by the right hon. gentleman, yet was unable to carry his approbation to all his details. The first duty which the right hon. gentleman had proposed to alter was that upon the introduction of foreign bottles: but he ought to recollect the peculiar disadvantages which he would thereby inflict upon the British trader in the article, when he considered the injurious competition which that trader had of late years endured, from the new calling that had sprung up by dealers in secondhand bottles. Gentlemen might laugh, but they would not, if they knew the extent to which this second-hand trade had been carried. But if, in addition to the existing inconvenience, the foreign bottles were to be sent into the second-hand market, then the British manufacturer would be entirely outdone. The right hon. gentleman had, however, said, that one of his great objects was to leave the raw material of manufactures as free as possible. He hoped he meant to give a liberal application of this principle to the glass-trade. Kelp, for instance, entered considerably into the material of that manufacture, and was only, under the operation of the existing laws,, to be had from Scotland. Without meaning to offend his northern friends, he was sorry to say, that their kelp was so bad as to injure the glass manufacture materially by producing a deteriorated article. Unless, therefore, the right hon. gent. consented to revise this part of his proposed arrangement, he (Sir M. Ridley) should be under the necessity of making it the subject of a specific motion. Mr. Baring expressed his satisfaction at the adoption by his Majesty's government of the leading principles of that commercial system of policy which they now professed to support. He was aware that such great changes could not be effected without materially affecting existing private interests; but this must always occur when they were returning to sound principles. A peculiar service, as it was called, to one interest, led to the same benefit to another, until the whole system became at length artificial and injurious to the general mass. What he most approved in the right hon. gentleman's proposed alteration was, that it went upon general principles, without regarding private interests. Those would of course oppose whatever they thought interfered with their own particular views; for instance, they had already heard claims put in for specific exemption on the part of several manufacturers. An hon. and gallant officer (Sir H. Vivian) had touched upon the copper trade as being unfairly affected in comparison with others. Upon this allusion, all he (Mr. Baring) should at present say was, that so far from thinking copper had been unfairly pressed upon, and particularly in comparison with iron, he really thought that the Cornish miners had been knocking at the door of the treasury, and had succeeded in securing for themselves an unequal advantage. The hon. and gallant officer was mistaken when he supposed that copper did not enter as generally as other metals into the manufactures of the country; in fact, it did more at present, when they considered how essential an article it was in the construction of that greatest of all instruments now in operation-- the steam engine. With respect to the great question of the corn laws, he was not prepared to say much at present. Indeed, nothing, under existing circumstances, would tempt him to touch that subject at the present moment, without examining closely the effect of any change; for, after all, they must consider, that in a time of peace, other countries had the same opportunities which Great Britain had, of acquiring and improving skill and labour; and the time would no doubt arrive when the developement of such general improvement would call for a full examination of the corn laws. This was not the time for entering into the general principles of political economy, but he could not help expressing his opinion, however it might differ from that of jurists in the study, that the low price of labour was not a conclusive criterion of the capability of a country for manufacture: let them look at Ireland for instance; they saw there the existence of labour low enough, but still with it was a mass of poverty and wretchedness, and a struggling manufacture. They had not at present enough of practical information before them to enable them to judge with accuracy the effect of the competition between articles of French and English manufacture: he did not think that the alleged experiment of the silk trade had yet had sufficient time to develope itself. On the whole, the country would generally, he had no doubt, profit by the proposed change, and therefore it must be deemed advantageous. He hoped also that its liberal spirit would be followed by other states with a reciprocity of feeling. He entirely approved of the new arrangement respecting the Levant company and the consuls, and would be glad to know why the Russian company, the existence of which, from its exclusive regulations, was a great injury to general trade, was overlooked by the right hon. gentleman? When the bills, however, were introduced in detail, it would be time enough to enter into further particulars. Before he sat down he must remark, that unless English books were published at an inordinate profit, they could not, he apprehended, bear the competition of the French on the proposed plan. Mr. Littleton expressed the greatest apprehension for the potteries of Staffordshire, if the right hon. gentleman's plan was carried into effect. He knew that the right hon. gentleman had a difficult task to perform-he had the iron, the copper, the second-hand bottle dealers, and now the pot teries to contend with. He had also to complain, in the strongest manner, in behalf of the manufacturers of earthenware. It was well known that the manufacturers had lately made great improvements in the article of ornamental china, which, he feared, would not be able to endure competition with the French on the suggested plan. He earnestly hoped the right hon. gentleman would allow these important interests to state their case, before he finally decided upon matters which so seriously involved their business. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that the duty on copper had been increased from various motives of policy and protection. In 1809 it stood at 54l. per ton. It was proposed to reduce the duty imposed since that period only. The owners of mines need be under no apprehension: the monopoly which had resulted from the high duties was accidental; but it would really be no loss to them; and the good people of Cornwall might assure themselves, that under the reduced duties they would still be able to dispose of all the copper which their engines and industry could dig out of the earth. Mr. Tremayne said, that the Cornish mines could never compete with the cheaper products of the copper-mines of South America without an adequate protecting duty. The right hon. gentleman might judge of that by this fact that in five years from 1805, there were 119,000l. more expended than produced in the copper-mines of Cornwall. Mr. Gipps dreaded the effect of lowering the duties on woollen goods from 50 to 15 per cent. Foreign cloths were already imported here for shipment to South America. This was the effect of the warehousing system, of which in itself he did not complain. But the British fabrics, burdened with heavier charges in every way, could not compete with the foreign articles; and at 15 per cent., large quantities of woollen goods, especially coarse woollens, must find their way to British consumers. He wished that the right honourable gentleman would begin with lowering them to 20 per cent. in the first instance. He admitted the advantage to the British manufacturer in lowering at the same time the duties on dying materials, but this was not a sufficient equivalent for bringing down the duty on the goods themselves to 151. per cent. Mr. Lindsay said a few words in favour of retaining a higher protecting duty for Scotch manufactures, or, in the alternative, of lowering the duties considerably on raw produce-on silk, hemp, and cotton. Sir R. Fergusson agreed in the propriety of doing away the prohibitory duties: but the proceeding should be of a cautious nature. Every thing should be done to sink the charges of the raw material. How else could British linens, for example, compete with those of Germany, and the new manufactures of New Orleans, both of which must produce them cheaper? He strongly pressed upon the consideration of the chancellor of the exchequer the necessity of reducing the duties on hemp and flax, and allowing hemp to be mingled with the poorer flax, to make bagging for bringing home cotton. Sir R. Vyvyan could not anticipate very favourable consequences from lowering the duty on copper. It ought to be understood that unless copper fetched 100l. per ton, it would not pay for mining; and as it would be impossible for Cornwall to compete with the large and cheap products of the South American mines, threefourths of the people of that county, now dependent on their work in the mines, would be undone. He dreaded the rivalry of the Dutch in the article of tin, who protected it at home by a duty of 100 per cent. Adverting to the duties on books, he thought that something ought to be done to prevent English copyrights from damage by the importation of foreign printed copies at the low duty. He instanced the neat editions of the Scotch novels got up by Galignani, at a very cheap rate, and continually brought into this country. Mr. Huskisson said, that the hon. baronet was in a mistake as to copyrights. No one could bring in copies printed abroad without being subject to an action for damages upon every copy of a copyright publication. It was true that the delightful works of "the great unknown" were printed and sold in every city of Germany and France. He had seen them at Frankfort in every bookseller's shop. But there could be no danger from this circumstance to the property of a copyright.. With respect to other books, it was not for the interest of literature, nor for the advantage of genius, that books should be kept out of the English market, because they could be printed cheaper abroad. All that could be asked would be an equivalent for the superior charges to which he was subjected by the tax on the materials. With respect to the duty on copper, concerning which some apprehension had been expressed, as if he threatened to return to the same subject next year, he had been entirely mistaken. His meaning was, that if the price of copper should be kept up, and the market continue to be closed against foreign copper, that then the duty must he lowered still further, until the foreign copper could enter the English market; and he was convinced that this would actually prove a benefit to the mining interests of Cornwall. At Mr. J. Benett trusted there would be no objection on the part of government to repeal the existing duties on the export of wool; but he hoped, also, that the duties on the export of yarn would be lowered to the same amount. present, the export of yarn was very considerable, but that of wool was but trifling. He thought, also, that with a proper regard for the landed interest, the duty on imported corn might be safely lowered to precisely the ratio of difference between the expense of cultivation in this country and abroad: but it should not exceed that ratio. Mr. Hume said, that he had addressed a question on a former evening to gentlemen on the other side, which he had rather expected to hear answered this evening. Was it the intention of his Majesty's government to adopt any alteration in the present timber duties? The right honourable gentleman had on a former evening stated his intention to effect a change in the duty on imported Canadian corn-a change which he (Mr. Hume) highly approved of; and since these facilities had been given to the trade with that province, he thought the present time would be a very proper one for the reduction of the duties imposed on foreign timber for the protection of the Canadian. The lowering of the corn duty was a great advantage to the trade of the province in question; and now that they were giving such a boon to one trade, they ought to give boons to others. Among other alterations of duties suggested by the right honourable gentleman, he (Mr. Hume) understood that it was intended to make the duty to be laid on foreign gloves, which had been hitherto prohibited, 30 per cent. If so, he would only say that he had not the least doubt in the world but that this article might be imported into England, by insurance, (that was, it might be smuggled) at the rate of 20 per cent. So that if this duty was to be imposed at 30 per cent., it would certainly have the effect of keeping up smuggling. would be found more difficult to prevent smuggling hereafter than now, and it was proper that the regulations of government should keep this point in view. On the subject of the corn laws he must say, that highly beneficial as the discussion of that night must be, and important and valuable as the alterations of duty were that had been already proposed, all that had been done on this occasion would be as nothing to the people of England, compared with a careful and proper revision of the corn laws. He did hope, therefore, that his Majesty's government would forthwith take into their It consideration the important benefit to be derived by the public from an effectually changed system in this particular. As to the amount of the duty that ought to be settled, he, for one, would declare that, provided only the legislature would come to, and establish some sound and proper principle on this most important question, he cared not whether it should be a duty of 101. of 15l. or of 201, per cent. Being once in the right path, it was certain that they would soon come to the proper scale of duty. Mr. Huskisson begged to remind the house that he had not said one word to-night on the subject to which the hon. gent. (Mr. Hume) had just alluded; and he did not intend to-night to do so. As to what had been said by the hon. member for Wiltshire (Mr. Benett), he (Mr. Huskisson) thought there would be no objection to enter into some such arrangement about the duty on wool as the hon. gentleman proposed. About altering the duty on yarn, however, he should certainly feel a very considerable difficulty; for yarns, under the present duty, went out of the country to a large amount. As to the iron trade, which another member had spoken about, the fact was, that the present duty on old iron was 17s. 6d. per ton. This sort of iron was that which in the trade was known by the designation of scrap iron, and the duty in question he should propose to reduce to 12s. a ton. If he were to make too great a difference between the duties on the two sorts of iron, there would be an endeavour to bring all the species under the operation of the duty affecting this inferior |