MR. VILLIERS.
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have the leisure of the recess before them, they might very well consider whether some relief might not be given to the agricultural interest—(hear, hear)—and whether, in giving that relief, they might not frame measures more in accordance with those principles of trade which the present government, as well as the late, uphold."
Mr. Villiers protested strongly against the assumption that there were any peculiar burthens upon land:—
"He had not risen to enter upon a discussion of these topics, or refer generally to those matters which had been touched upon by the leaders of the two great parties, and on which they appeared to differ, but only to refer to that point on which they seemed to agree, but on which he did so entirely differ, that he never would hear what had fallen from them without rising to express his utter and unqualified dissent. He referred to the assertion that had been made to-right, that agriculture bare any peculiar burdens, and afforded thereby an excuse for monopoly, (Hear, hear.) He did not hesitate to say, that this was not borne out by the fact; he gave it an unqualified denial, and in the most confident way in which he could. He defied those who asserted it to prove it. (Hear, hear.) Inquiry into this point had time after time been demanded by this house, and bad been refused; and it literally stood before the country now as a bare assertion, unsupported by evidence, for which proof was refused, and used only as a pretext for the continuance of the Corn Law. (Hear, hear, bear.) He repeated, as he had done so often before, that there was not one single charge that could be termed peculiar or exclusive on the land. (Hear, hear.) Whatever local taxes were imposed were borne by property other than land in its due proportion, in some parishes and in some counties the property other than land bearing a much larger share than the land itself. (Hear, hear.) His noble friend had alluded to those that he thought were the most severe, and they were the county rate and the malt tax (hear, hear), and these had been assented to by the right honourable baronet. Now, he really wondered how they could keep their countenance in urging such an argument. (A laugh.) The county rate an excuse for the Corn Laws! Look at its amount, in the first place, compared with what the Corn Low cost. (Hear.) Look to the property liable to it in the next, the owners of which suffered as much from the Corn Law as any other individual; and look again to the fact that, within a very few years, a very considerable portion of that which used to exist before the Corn Laws were passed has since been placed on the Consolidated Fund. (Hear hear.) Can this be gravely believed to be
