§ THE EARL of MALMESBURYwished to obtain the ear of the noble President of the Council for a short time, whilst he called his attention to some unfortunate circumstances which had recently occurred in the village of West Lavington, in the county of Wilts. He did not know whether the noble Marquess was cognisant of the facts or not; but he inferred from the speech of the noble Marquess on the first day of the Session, that he was not well acquainted with the suffering state of the agricultural population of England, and particularly of the county of Wilts. The noble Lord then read an extract from a Wiltshire paper, stating that much excitement had recently prevailed among the agricultural labourers of West Lavington, in Wiltshire, in consequence of the intention of the farmers to reduce their wages from 7s. to 6s. a week; that a large num- 2 ber of them had gone to the steward of Mr.—, to remonstrate against the execution of that intention; that the police had been called in; that on the subsequent day a man had been brought up before the magistrates for creating a disturbance, and had been by them committed to prison; and that scarcely had he been taken there when a large body of labourers rose for the purpose of rescuing him, but found themselves disappointed in their object owing to his removal from that place to prison. His object in drawing attention to these facts was to show that Her Majesty's Ministers, though they might not be capable of deceiving their Lordships, were deceiving themselves, if they thought that the agricultural labourers were not worse off at present than they were at the passing of the recent legislative measures authorising unrestricted importation of corn and other articles. He entreated the noble Marquess and his Colleagues to keep their minds open on this subject.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEscarcely knew what question he had to answer, as the noble Earl had given him no notice of his intention to introduce this 3 subject. He would, however, inquire into the facts of the case mentioned by the noble Earl.