the neighbourhood, drove the whigs in office to their retiring declaration in favour of partially free trade; the Durham election will show them that they must go much further if they would acquire the confidence of the country; it will show them the value of Lord Sydenham's advice, to offer the people something worth struggling for, if they would have their aid; and, much more than the benefit of any whig conversion, it will show honest men, really desirous to benefit their distressed country, that a bold reliance on a principle, regardless of party names, and of local influences whose sole strength is in the belief of their strength, is, even with seemingly indifferent, or suspectedly corrupt constituencies, the best recommendation of a candidate."
The new member took his scat in the Commons in time to make his first speech there before honourable members abandoned legislation for grouse shooting and leaving to have "a trial" Peel's corn bill, which imposed a duty of twenty shillings a quarter on wheat then at forty-five shillings. On the 7th August, on the motion for going into a committee of supply, Mr. Ewart submitted the following amendment: " That it is expedient that the principles and suggestions contained in the evidence taken before the Import Duties Committee of session 1840, be carried into general effect; and that the trade and industry of the country require further and more effectual relief by the removal or reduction of duties which press upon the raw material of manufacture, and on articles of interchange with foreign nations, as well as on the means of subsistence of the people." The discussion was a short one, and in & thin house, most of the members boing away to prepare for the moors, Mr. Bright rose before probably the smallest audience he had addressed for years, and seemed a little nervous at first, but gained confidence as he went on, and convinced many of his hearers of his manly nature, and that he would not be deterred by the conventionalities of the place from giving honest and forcible
