position, and declared that "he would not hold office on a servile tenure."
Notice had been given, that on the evening of Tuesday, January 27, Sir Robert Peel would state what measures he had to propose. The house was crowded both by members and strangers, and Prince Albert and the Duke of Cambridge were amongst the visitants. Sir Robert spoke for three hours and a half, and proposed the reduction of the duty on Russian tallow from 3s. 2d, to 1s. 6d.; the abolition of duty on the coarser fabrics of linen, cotton, and woollen, and the reduction on the finer from 20 to 10 per cent.; on French brandy and Geneva, a reduction from 22s. 10d. to 15s.; on foreign free-grown Muscovada sugar, a reduction from 9s. 4d, to 5s. 10d., and on clayed, from 11s. 10d. to 86.; the admission of Indian corn and buck-wheat, duty free; on butter, the duty to be reduced from 20s. to 10s, and on cheese, from 10s. to 5s.; the duty on live animals, and fresh and salted meats, pork, and vegetables, to be abolished. As to Corn, in lieu of the then sliding scale, he proposed, that when the average price of wheat was 48s. the duty should be 10s.—the duty falling by 1s. with every shilling of rise in price, till on reaching 58s. the duty should be a fixed one of 4s.; that this mitigated scale should last for three years, and, by a positive enactment, to disappear on the 1st of February, 1849, leaving for the future only a nominal rate of duty; that all British colonial wheat and flour should be forthwith admitted at a nominal rate of duty: that as a compensation, or rather alleviation, for this great change, some local burdens should be revised, with a view to their economical collection and application;—that the highway rates, which were then under the control of 16,000 local functionaries, should be placed, by union of parishes, &c. under the management of 600, and their applicants more effectually supervised; that the law of settlement should be altered, so as to give every resident of five years in towns a status,
