workmen ample means of maintaining their respective interests, would not afford any support to the assumption of power or dictation in either party to the prejudice of the other-least of all to that assumption of control on the part of the workmen in the conduct of any business or manufacture which was utterly incompatible with the necessary authority of the master, at whose risk, and by whose capital, it was to be carried on.

In recommending that liberty of associating and co-operating together, so far as wages or hours of labour were concerned, should be preserved, alike to masters and workmen, the committee deemed it essential to the regard which is due to the free exercise of individual judgment, to propose, that the resolutions of any such association should be allowed to bind only parties actually present, or personally consenting; all combination beyond this ought to be at the risk of the parties, and open, as theretofore, to the animadversion of the common law, and should be dealt with according to the circumstances of each case. The committee further recommended, that every precaution should be taken to ensure a safe and free option to those, who, from whatever motive, might have no inclination to take a part in such associations. "The most effectual security," said they, "in their report, should be taken that legislative enactment can afford, that, in becoming parties to any association, or subject to their authority, individuals should be left to act under the impulse of their own free will alone; and that those who wish to abstain from them, should be enabled to do so, and continue their service, or engage their industry, on whatever terms, VOL. LXVII.

or to whatever master, they may choose, in perfect security against molestation, insult, or personal danger of what kind soever." For the punishment of offences of the nature alluded to, the committee recommended that a summary jurisdiction should be established, with a provision that would afford greater facility to its operation, by permitting conviction to take place on the oath of one credible witness, and by giving a discretion in respect to the punishment to be inflicted in case of conviction, to the extent of six months' imprisonment, with or without hard labour, according to the circumstances of the case.

A bill was brought in, founded on the Report; and, after considerable discussion in the House of Commons, passed into a law. In the committee, many of the clauses were resisted.

On the reading of the clause which made it penal to induce any man to leave his work by threat, or intimidation, or by molesting, or in any way obstructing him, Mr. Hume objected to the wording of the clause as being too vague. The word "obstruct might be construed a thousand ways, and that which might be considered as an obstruction to one man, might not be so understood in reference to another, Mr. Mansfield had heard the workmen object to it in strong terms, and as he had not heard any defence of it on the part of the masters, he should oppose it. If it were to be carried, he hoped that the power of enforcing it would not be left to the discretion of a magistrate, but that all offences under that clause would be left to the decision of a jury.

Mr. Huskisson said, that he had no intention whatever of acting [H]

harshly towards the operative mechanics. If any member would point out any clause of this bill which operated with unnecessary severity upon any class, he would oppose it. The object of the bill was, to protect the weak against the strong to afford to the man, who chose to give his labour for a certain value, that protection against the combination of large bodies, to which every man was entitled.

Upon a division of the committee, there were for the clause 90; against it, 18.

Sir F. Burdett objected to the bill, first, because sufficient time had not been allowed for a trial of the bill which it was intended to amend and repeal; secondly, because its language was vague and indefinite; and thirdly, because it deprived the people of the trial by jury, and left them to the arbitrary discretion of a single magistrate.

Mr. Denman moved, that in place of conviction before two magistrates, it should be by the verdict of a jury.

The committee divided: For the original clause 78; Against it 53: Majority 25.

Upon the third reading of the bill, a clause directing that justices should transmit to the sessions a copy of the commitment, and another, allowing appeal to the quarter sessions, were added, on the motion of the Attorney-general. Another clause, "that every master of workmen, and the father and son of such master, be rendered incapable of acting as a justice of peace in cases of complaint under the act," was offered by Mr. Hume, but negatived.

Many petitions were presented in the course of the session, both

for and against the existing system of the Corn trade: and on the 28th of April Mr. Whitmore moved for a committee of the whole House to consider of the Corn laws. Mr. Huskisson admitted, that it would be necessary at a future time to enter upon a revision of the Corn laws; but he maintained that the present was not the moment for commencing it. We had done a great deal already to promote the freedom of trade; but every thing could not be done at once. We had allowed the importation of wool, of iron, and of various articles which had formerly been prohibited; and the effect of that measure had been to produce a large importation of the prohibited articles. Some difficulty might arise, if we proceeded too far in such a system; and it was there fore prudent to wait awhile where we now were, to see whether such difficulty would arise; and if it did arise, how it was to be obviated. Besides, several foreign countries were in some distress, owing to our exclusion of their corn, and they had, in revenge, shut out our manufactures. It might be worth while to consider, whether we did not hold in our hands at present the key for solving this difficulty -whether, to those who excluded our colonial produce and our manufactures, we had not a right to say, "We will not admit you to the benefit of a free trade in corn, unless you will at the same time admit the free introduction of our manufactures ?"

Mr. Whitmore's motion was rejected by 187 Noes to 47 Ayes.

The alteration, which Mr. Whitmore proposed in the existing system, had not much to recommend it. It was, to admit foreign wheat at a duty of 10s. when the

GENERA

Univarsity

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price in the home market should be 55s. and to add 5s. to the duty, for every 58. of reduction in the average price. Now it is clear, from what Mr. Whitmore stated respecting the average prices of corn, which were at Rotterdam 478., and at New York 38s. (Mr. Huskisson described the average price of wheat at Dantzie, for 40 years, to be 45s. and a fraction), that, duty, freight, and other charges included, the people of this country could scarcely expect to eat bread from these two markets, under any circumstances, for less than 60s. per quarter, so that, in fact, until British wheat should arrive at nearly 60s. per quarter, no merchant would take the benefit of the importation law, unless the price here should fall below the average in the foreign markets, or there should be a temptation to speculate for future improvement in the market of Great Britain. Mr. Whitmore's scheme, therefore, established a minimum price, which the consumer must always pay in order to have the benefit of importation: and by graduating the duty by the market price, it preserved in full vigour the system of averages, with their long train of frauds and perjuries-a system by which the law intends that the price shall be fairly ascertained; but by which the unprincipled gambler in corn becomes uncontrolled lord of the market, and works the law to his own purposes, to the detriment, one day of the consumer, and the next of him whose especial interests it has been the object of the duty to protect. The bias of Mr. Huskisson's judgment leaned towards a fixed duty, without reference to the market price of corn. That plan has the

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advantage of getting rid of the averages, and of establishing for the home-grower a fixed relation towards the foreign-grower, except in so far as that relation may be disturbed by the irregularities of the seasons in the different quarters of the globe. The British farmer would always be sure of an excess of price in the home-market over the foreigner, equal to the joint amount of freight and importation duty; and the consumer would be exposed to no other burthen.

Mr. Huskisson, in pursuance of the scheme of commercial policy which he had adopted, brought forward three important subjects: First, The system of our commercial policy in respect to our colonies: Secondly, The expediency of revising many of the duties payable upon the import of the raw materials used in our manufactures, and of relaxing the prohibitory duties, which, under the name of protection, were enforced against the manufactured productions of other countries; and, Thirdly, The means of affording some further degree of relief and assistance to the interests of our shipping and navigation. The alterations which he proposed in our colonial system were explained, on the 23rd of March, in a very perspicuous speech, to the House of Commons. He stated, that by the acts 3 Geo. 4, c. 44 and 45, we had permitted, First, An intercourse between any countries in America, and our colonies, in the ships of those countries, or in British ships; requiring, however, that the intercourse, at least in the foreign vessel, should be direct from the colony to the country to which the vessel belongs; and limiting very much the articles which could be imported

into the colony, according to schedules in which the articles were enumerated; and, Secondly, We had permitted a direct trade from the colonies, in articles of their growth or production, to the ports of foreign Europe; but this trade was confined to British ships, which might also carry from those ports, direct to the colonies, certain enumerated articles of foreign growth.

In thus allowing the countries of America to trade with our colonies in their own vessels, we had, in fact, conceded to the navigation of the United States a privilege not granted to any state in Europe; and this privilege, though nominally extended to all the countries of America, was really a boon to the United States alone, as the other countries had scarcely any commercial marine. What was the return made by the United States for this indulgence? In the first session of their congress, which followed the opening of this trade by our act of parliament, they passed a law, imposing alien duties in their ports upon all British ships which might trade between those ports and our colonies, to be levied until the productions of the United States should be admitted into our colonies, upon the same terms and duties as the like productions of any other country, meaning, thereby, the like productions not of any other foreign country, but of our own country, or of our own provinces in North America. This was a pretension unheard of in the commercial relations of independent states. It was just as unreasonable as it would be, on our part, to require that sugar or rum, from our West-India islands, should be admitted at New York upon the same terms and duties as the like

articles, the growth and production of Louisiana, or any other of the twenty-four separate states which now constitute the federal Union. To meet this unexpected proceeding on the part of the United States, we were driven to one of these two courses-either again to prohibit the intercourse with them altogether, or, to retaliate the alien duties imposed upon British shipping, by subjecting to the like duties American ships entering the ports of our colonies. Neither of these expedients were in themselves desirable, but we preferred the latter; first, as the mildest, and because the American government manifested a disposition to negociate upon the subject; and secondly, because a more comprehensive measure, for giving a wider opening to the intercourse of other countries with our colonies, was in contemplation; such a measure as, if adopted, must take away all pretext on the part of the United States for continuing these alien duties, and show them, that, if they did not choose to trade with our colonies upon equal terms with other countries, the colonies would do without their trade altogether. Now, after the permission thus given to the United States to trade in their own ships with our colonies, why were we to refuse the like indulgence to the ships of European states? Were we more jealous of the navigation of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Holland, or the Hans Towns, than of that of the United States? Were we anxious to promote the one, at the expense of repressing the other? Was it fair or politic to grant to the one what we withheld from the other? From these premises, Mr. Huskisson contended that it would be expedient to permit the same latitude of trade

to the ships of other countries, as had been allowed to those of the United States.

But he went further; he was prepared to open the commerce of our colonies to all friendly states, upon the same principle (though of course with some difference in the detail of its modifications), upon which they were at liberty to trade with Jersey, or with Ireland. With the exception of some articles which it would be necessary to prohibit, such as fire-arms and ammunition of war generally, and sugar, rum, &c. in the sugar colonies-he proposed to admit a free intercourse between all our colonies and other countries, either in British ships, or in the ships of those countries, allowing the latter to import all articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of the country to which the ship belonged, and to export from such colonies all articles whatever of their growth, produce, or manufacture, either to the country from which such ship came, or to any other part of the world, the United Kingdom and all its dependencies excepted. All intercourse between the mother country and the colonies, whether direct or circuitous, and all intercourse of the colonies with each other, would be considered as a coasting trade to be reserved entirely and absolutely to ourselves. By this arrangement, the foundation of our navigation laws would be preserved, whilst the colonies would enjoy a free trade with foreign countries, without breaking in upon the great principle of those laws, in respect to foreign trade-that the cargo must be the produce of the country to which the ship belongs, leaving the national character of the ship to be determined by the rules which apply in like cases in this

country. The importation of foreign goods into the colonies, should be made subject to such moderate duties as might be found sufficient for the fair protection of our own productions of the like nature. The duties already established by the acts to which he had referred, were to remain, and he proposed to establish a further scale of advalorem duties, varying from 71⁄2 to 30 per cent upon all articles the importation of which from foreign countries had hitherto been prohibited. These duties would, of course, form part of the revenues of the respective colonies in which they should be collected, upon the same principle, and subject to the same system of appropriation by the legislatures of those colonies, as the duties already collected, under the acts of the 3rd of the king.

With the further view of encouraging our own trade, and that of the colonies, with the countries of South America, Mr. Huskisson proposed to extend to certain ports in those colonies the benefits and regulations of our warehousing system, as it was established in this country, by allowing goods from all parts of the world to be bonded, and deposited in warehouses, without payment of duty, till proper opportunities of selling or exporting them to advantage should occur. Looking, said he, to the state of the countries lately belonging to Spain, this system must be attended with extraordinary advantages. The wants of those vast countries are numerous; they embrace almost every object of European assortment; but in the present state of society, from the want of capital, and individual credit, and from other causes, these wants are best supplied, as it were, in retail, and by small deliveries frequently re