ABSTRACT
Mr. Villiers renewed his motion on Tuesday, the 26th of May, after the presentation of petitions against the Corn Laws with a quarter of a million of signatures, in addition to those to which a million and a quarter of names had been attached presented before his last motion. These strong demonstrations of public opinion had no effect on the house. It became manifest, the moment he began to speak, that there was a fixed determination to give neither him nor the petitioners a fair hearing. He was assailed from his outset with a volley of sounds, such as could have been heard in no other deliberative assembly in the world. The Speaker’s calls to order were utterly disregarded, and it was not till, losing all patience, he commanded the bar to be cleared and members to take their seats, that the enlightened advocate of free trade could be heard in the gallery. Again did the Babel-like confusion arise, and again had the Speaker occasion, most peremptorily, to assert his authority; but even this would have availed nothing, had not the time arrived when the fruges consumere nati usually went to dine, and then, with about a hundred auditors, Mr. Villiers was allowed to proceed without interruption. Lord John Russell asked what the government could do, when a majority of the house was against any alteration of the law? He would vote, he said, for the motion, but not with a view to total repeal, as his own opinion was in favour of a moderate fixed duty. Mr. Strutt followed in favour of repeal, and then the noisy disturbance commenced afresh. The gentlemen born to dine, had, for that night, performed that important function, and they returned, heated with wine and hatred of any invasion of their vested right to put their hands into the pockets of the herd of bread eaters. Mr. Warburton was assailed in the middle of his speech by loud cries of “Divide, divide; “and when Mr. Mark Philips, representing a constituency equal to the aggregate of fifty undisfranchised but still corrupt boroughs, returning seventy-two members, rose to enforce the claims of the most important manufacturing community in her Majesty’s dominions, he was greeted with deafening clamour. It was useless to carry on the discussion under such circumstances. The call for a division was acceded to, and the numbers were found to be:— https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table"> Against the motion, 300 For it, 177
