CORN-LINV AGITATION.
THE gentlemen delegated from Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and other populous seats of manufactures to watch the progress of the Corn-law question in Parliament, have commenced their opera- tions. We have only one advice to give these gentlemen,—not to underrate the talents and activity of the Pro-Corn-law party ; and to be on their guard yet more against mere professing, friends than open thes. They will find in London a set of individuals habitually employed to whisper down any representations that may be incoa- venient to men in power. These emissaries have already been in- dustriously seeking to disseminate an impression that the state- ments regarding the destructive effects of the Corn-laws,nade in the manufacturing districts, are overcharged. Another class to be guarded against, is that of Members of Parliament who profess to be friendly to the repeal of the Corn-laws, because the bulk of their constituents are so, but who are anxiously looking about for
some means of bushing up and compromising the question. One very important duty of the Anti-Corn-law Delegates in London will be incessantly to watch, for the purpose of exposing and coun- teracting, every hostile fuovement from these quarters. Every insidious attempt to under-estimate the importance of the question must be instantly confuted. Every symptom of flinching, on the
part of a Member where constituents arc adverse to the Corn-laws,
must be pointed out to them. The Delegates must be, to Mem- bers weak in the Anti-Corn-law faith, what Tom Pipes was to Pal-
lette in the duel in Peregrine Pickle—they must clap their shoul-
ders to them and prevent their quitting the field.
But these employments are only subsidiary and auxiliary to the great task which the opponents of the Corn-laws throughout the kingdom have undertaken. They have come forward and oared to prove at the bar of the House of Commons, every statement that they have made. They do not appeal to the passions of the people. They do not ask of Members of the House a premature decisien on the case. They only asla—in the first instance—that Parliament will thoroughly examine the case, and then deckle upon it. They place their reliance not upon rhetorical artifice, or underhand influence, but upon the force of naked filets, to be stated without embellishment by plain men of business appear- ing as witnesses at the bar of Parliament. We do not see under what pretext their offer can be evaded. To plead the obstacle of forms and precedents, in a supreme legislative body, were absurdly silly. Courts of law are of necessity tied down by these, lest the legislative and legal functions should be hurtfully blended. Rut the business of the Supreme Legislature is to devise fbr the law courts new forms and modes of arriving at truth when the old shall have been proved inadequate ; and what it can do for these its creatures, it is by parity of reason bound to do for itself: If there is no precedent for examining witnesses to the working of the Corn-laws at the bar of the House, the doing so ought to be made the first precedent. But there are precedents, as we shall he able to show on a future occasion, should we find it expedient. By re- fusing to examine evidence regarding the working of the Corn-laws, the majority of the House of Commons will confess that they dare not—that, knowing these laws to have been enacted in order to tax
all other classes fin- the benefit of the landowner, they dare not ex- pose them to open scrutiny. Lord Jousr Russtmr„ with charac- teristic feebleness, said on Thursday evening, that " the impres- sion on his mind was to oppose the motion of the honourable
Member for Wolverhampton, as to hearing evidence at the bar :" yet, in the same breath, his Lordship said that " he thought
1839 fitvourable in point of time for entertaining the question," and that in entertaining it "there would be a great deal of dis- cussion relating to facts." How, in the name of nonsense, does his sapient Lordship propose to arrive at these facs, but by bearing evidence ? Any mode in which the House can take up
the question without a previous examination of evidence, mu only lead to a wordy war, in which assertion will be opposed to assertion and quibble to quibble. Evidence alone can prepare the minds of Members to enter upon the discussion with the shadow of a hope of arriving at the truth. And this evidence must be delivered to the whole House ; for two reasons. In the first place, many..liembers will not attend a Committee ; and till less will they take the trouble of perusing reported evidence. In the second place, the public, knowing that the landowners preponderate over. whelmingly in both Houses, will receive with distrust any decision on 'the question of the Corn-laws, unless placed in a condition to know and appreciate every step in the process by which that con. elusion has been arrived at. To these considerations his Lordship has nothing to oppose but that he wants " a mode which he shall think more contbrmable to precedent, and not inconvenient to the House, by which these filets can be ascertained." The bugbear of precedent we have disposed of above. The dilettante phrase or " inconvenient" is enough to make a man's blood boil within him. Honourable Members are not sent to Parliament to "take their case at their inn," but to work. They are sent there to be put to inconvenience for the public good.
We congratulate the opponents of the Corn-laws upon 'mins adopted a plan which will test so infidlibly the honesty of our Its gislators. No man who refuses inquiry—adequate, open inquiry—. can mean to deal fairly with the question. Let the Delegates therefore, insist upon the examination of witnesses at the bar of the House, and take nothing less. Let them not be disheartened by defeat upon Mr. VILLiERS'S motion, but reserve their most nu- merously-signed petitions for the purpose of reopening the question upon special eases from all the great towns. And if the worst come to the worst, let them bring up their witnesses to town, invite every Member of Parliament to attend their examina- tions at their hall in Palace Yard, and take care that these exand• nations are fully reported in the daily petits.
Honourable Members, before they•refuse to examine witnesses at their own bar, will do well to reflect that the succedantami we have hinted at may be adopted.
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