low prices of cattle and corn he traced to the measures of the government—an opinion which coincided with that of the farmers, who were able now to draw accurate conclusions as to the causes of their distress. In 1842 the harvest was good, but a heavy importation of foreign and colonial corn, suddenly thrown on the market in the autumn, threw down prices ruinously low. In 1843 there was a deficient harvest, and prices which, measuring the deficiency, should have been 63s., were only 48s. In 1844 the harvest was above an average, and there was no chance of the market recovering. The fall in prices, both in meat and corn, was not attributable to any panic, as he showed, by quoting the rates, evincing a gradual though steady declension. Having stated his case, and expressed a wish that there were a department of the government specially devoted to the statistics of agriculture, he proceeded to develop his propositions for relief. This he did by going into the details of the poor-rates and the county-rates, both as to the amount of their collection and the purposes to which they are applied, which he contended pressed unequally on the agricultural community, as compared with other classes, from which they should be relieved, and urging that the expense of criminal prosecutions should be borne by the state, instead of by each separate county. He confessed that, in bringing forward his motion, it was not in concurrence with the whole of the agricultural body, but in justice to his own feelings and opinions.
"The Earl of March, eldest son of the Duke of Richmond, having seconded the motion,
"Sir James Graham rose and made a speech, many parts of which told well for free trade. He was strongly of opinion that, looking to the interests of the whole community, protection should still be afforded to the agricultural interest. But the question was not as to its principle, but its amount. The efforts made by the late government to check the accumulating deficiency in the revenue showed that we had reached the limits of taxation on consumption, as evinced by the failure of the additional ten per cent, in the Customs and Excise. The present government were, therefore, obliged to resort to great experiments, by which, in three years, they remitted between six and seven millions in indirect taxation, of which the agricultural interest would receive its share. Take the wool duties, which he considered to be a boon to the landed interest three or four times the value of the proposition made by Mr. Miles, the price of wool being now higher than ever. When complaint was made of the large quantity of foreign corn imported in the three years following the act of 1842, as compared with the three years following the act of 1828, it was forgotten how largely the population had been and was increasing. Without larger facilities for the admission of foreign corn, we ran the risk of some frightful convulsion, as during our