Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/112

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MAJOR CURTEIS.

farmers were to give up their farms, how many of their labourers would be thrown out of work? A Voice: If these tenant-farmers and labourers are in such a distressed condition, does it not arise from the enormous rents they pay?) Major Curteis replied that be believed some of them paid no rent at all, because they could not. He disagreed with Mr. Cobden that there were no exclusive burdens on the land, for he believed there were. He would go for repeal tomorrow, but when he knew that two-thirds of his neighbours would be thrown into great distress, he could not advocate an immediate repeal. Mr. H. B. Curteis, M.P., said he stood there boldly to contest the ground with Mr. Cobden. The point was not whether there should be a sliding-scale or a fixed duty, but whether or no there should be any protection to the English farmer. Mr. Cobden said, something like a challenge had been thrown out by a gentleman to the right, regarding a motion to be moved on this occasion. He was not generally anxious about having a motion: he was content to state a few facts and leave them. It did not become him to move a resolution; but he would claim his right, as a Sussex man, to move for a total and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. He then went in detail through Major Curteis's exclusive burdens. The tithes, he contended, belonged to the church, not to the landlords; they could not be a burden: other classes were subject to the poor and county rates; and with regard to the land tax, the wisest course the landowners could take was to say nothing about it. After answering several questions from Major Curteis, he concluded by moving: "That in the opinion of this meeting the Corn Law is injurious to the interest and independence of the tenant farmer, and farm labourer, and that it ought to be totally and immediately repealed." Major Curteis moved an amendment, "That in order to prevent the depreciation of the property of the tenant farmer, which must ensue from an immediate repeal of the Corn Laws, a fixed