Lord Kingsaid, he rose to present a petition against that real dead-weight, or job of jobs, the Corn laws. On this subject he had already had the misfortune to provoke two of his noble friends. One of them had told him, that it was very improper to take the House by surprise with arguments which noble lards were not prepared to answer. On the present, occasion, therefore, he should avoid any of those abstruse principles of political economy which had been so much complained of, but would confine himself to history and plain matter of fact. Turning, then, to history, he must remind their lordships of the period when the Corn laws were passed. That event took place in those dark ages of legislation, in those times of ignorance, when it was gravely declared that a one-pound note was equal in value to a sovereign. Then it was, when our political sun was in obscuration, that a law was passed to make corn and bread dear. Tradition said, that after a very expensive war, the landlords objected to pay their share of the expense. They liked the war very well, but they did not like to be called upon when the bill came to be settled. They then took counsel how to avoid paying their part of the bill. Two ways occurred to them of accomplishing that object. The first was by defrauding the public creditor; the second by taxing the consumers of corn. Now it happened, that to the first course the government objected the public creditor was therefore 1346 saved, bat the consumer of corn was sacrificed. It appeared that at this time a close alliance had been formed between the government, the landowners, and the clergy. The object of the government was high taxes; the object of the landowners high rents; and the object of the clergy high tithes. Now he believed, that with regard to rents and tithes, the landlords and the clergy were as obdurate as ever; but he was persuaded that the government would break the compact, if they could. They would willingly abandon this mode of taxing for one which would work more easily and with better effect. But it was said, how is it possible to obtain high taxes without high prices? To this he would answer, that high taxes could be paid with much greater ease, if the high prices were got rid of; for this Corn laws formed a grievous addition to the other burthens of the country, and if the public had not to pay so dear for corn, the weight of the other taxes would be more easily borne. This dead-weight thrown on the first necessary of life, reminded him of an awkward method which had been resorted to in its production. A practice, it was said, once prevailed in Ireland of fastening the plough to the horse's tail, and in that way making him drag it along. Perhaps the noble earl opposite (lord Limerick) would stand up in defence of that ancient and venerable practice; but he would advise the noble earl to consider the difference between a field ploughed by the miserable Irish horse of antiquity with the plough at his tail, and another ploughed by a well-harnessed and a wellfed horse, who could put his shoulder to the work. If he looked well to this point, he would find, that the horse yoked as horses were elsewhere ploughed, with great ease, six inches deep, while the jaded animal, with the plough at its tail, could barely scratch the ground. Now, it was precisely the same thing with the Corn laws. Like the plough at the horse's tail they were a dead-weight on the public, and damped the energies of the country. If their lordships were really desirous that it should be enabled to support a great amount of taxation, they would lose no time in repealing those laws.
The Earl of Limerickdeclared, that when the noble lord began to address their lordships, he had no intention of replying to any thing which might be said on the subject of this petition. He was, how- 1347 ever, glad to find that the noble lord had somewhat varied his note on the present occasion, and that the "job of jobs" was no longer the sole name of the Corn laws, but that they were now called the "deadweight." He congratulated the noble lord on this invention, and had no doubt that, during the session, some more new names would be discovered by him. The noble lord had declared, that he would not wander into the mazes of metaphysics, but would draw their lordships' attention to facts. Now, what sort of facts had the noble lord mentioned? What he had stated, was one of the greatest misrepresentations ever made in that House. He had gone back some 500 or 600 years, to look into an old musty act of parliament about a horse dragging a plough by the tail. He applauded the noble lord's deep research, but did not think it would have much weight with their lordships.