The Earl of Roseberysaid, he held in his hand a Petition for the Protection of Agriculture, which emanated at a county meeting at Linlithgow, that he, as Lord Lieutenant of that county, had convened, he having received a requisition signed by some of the most influential gentlemen, freeholders, and farmers, requesting him to call the meeting. There was not much speaking, he believed, when the Petition was proposed, but he was bound to say, that he believed it conveyed the sense of the majority of persons engaged in agriculture in that county, and it was in favour of the present Corn Laws. Although he did not concur in the sentiments of the Petition, still he felt bound to present it, as it had been entrusted to him with that view. The Petition was signed by a most respectable body of persons.
§ The Duke of Richmondsaid, that his noble Friend had remarked that there was no discussion at the meeting, and he (the Duke of Richmond) begged to ask why there should be? The Corn-Law question was not a new one, and it was not therefore necessary that it should be argued. The farmers had been charged by the Anti-Corn-Law League with being indifferent to the question, or with being friendly to a repeal of the Corn Laws, and they felt anxious to get rid of the disgrace of such an imputation. They determined upon showing the Anti-Corn-Law League that this was the case, by having meetings in all parts of the country, and petitioning Parliament. The farmers, however, were not averse to discussion, and in different places they fairly beat their opponents out of the field. He believed that the same result would follow in nearly all the counties of England if they had fair play. The landowners and farmers only desired to show that they were favourable to just protection, and that they were opposed to schemes that must end in the ruin of themselves, and of the labourers who were 842 under their protection. He was glad to hear the noble Earl admit, that though he did not approve of the sentiments of the Petition, it nevertheless spoke the opinion of the great majority of the landowners and farmers of Linlithgowshire.