Lord Campbellpresented a petition from Edinburgh for the total and immediate repeal of the Corn-laws, and observed, that considering the system which had been pursued in this country for so long a time, it would be difficult to resort to a total repeal, but he could not support any plan which did not give us a free trade in corn at all times. Any measure which merely admitted a free trade in times of extreme scarcity, would not be productive of steadiness of price, would not promote the sale of our manufactures in foreign countries, and would in no degree prevent the evil which had been frequently experienced under our present law in our monetary system. He would willingly agree to such a modification of the law as would at all times admit corn on the payment of a fixed duty, and at the same time he would give his strenuous opposition to a sliding scale.
Laid on the table.