The EARL of WINCHILSEA,pursuant to notice, rose to bring under the consideration of the House the expediency of establishing public granaries. He had every reason to suppose, from the information he had received, that if the coming harvest were late, the quantity of corn now in the country would be inadequate to the wants of the people in the meantime. In the year 1835, he remembered that the price of wheat was as low as 35s. a quarter; and if public granaries had been established at that time, 2,000,000 of quarters might have been bought for 3,500,000l., and a sufficient stock might always have been kept on hand. What he wished, then, to advocate was this—that there should be national granaries in the hands and under the control of the Government, and that as long as the agricultural interests or the corn trade should supply the best quality of wheat at a reasonable price, those granaries should be kept closed; but that if the time should arrive when, from any danger of the crops at home, or unfair speculation, the corn traders should withhold a supply at a price at which the great body of the labouring classes could afford to buy, then the doors should be opened, and the price of corn kept as level and low as possible. We could not rely upon the harvest: it depended upon the will and bounty of a superior Power, and no foresight could assure us of an adequate supply. If, then, with our existing scarcity of corn, we allowed the stock we now possessed to be poured out to the assistance of our foreign neighbours (and he understood that within the last few days the French Government had bought in this country flour and wheat to a great extent), considering the dense mass of our population in the manufacturing districts and in the metropolis, a frightful state of things must be the consequence. He did not intend, however, to conclude with any Motion on the subject, but would 891 be satisfied with having called the attention of the Government to it.
§ EARL GREYhoped that his noble Friend would not think he was in any degree wanting in respect to him if he said that the subject to which his noble Friend had referred, was too large and important to be disposed of by any incidental discussion, opening as it did the whole question of free trade and various other matters; and that, as important business stood for that evening, he was afraid it could not then be discussed with advantage. He would, therefore, abstain from making any remark upon what had fallen from his noble Friend; not because he agreed with him, or because he differed from him, but because he looked with great anxiety to the state of the country, and thought that the subject ought to be discussed when more attention could be given to it.