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 said, "can expect the course of things to continue unaltered, or that we shall have in this country every year a recurrence of those bounteous harvests with which we have of late been blessed. If, then, we cannot expect that—the reflection occurs—can men do anything to remedy the evils which deficient harvests bring along with them? I think we can; not, indeed, by attempting to interfere with the course of Providence, but by looking at another dispensation of Providence which enables man to exchange the products of his own country with other and distant regions. Let us, then, as I hope we shall, consider in the course of the present year whether we have not the power to ward off the storm which at some future period of deficient harvests may fall upon us, by giving to those productions of other nations which we can best use and employ, a more favourable inlet into this country than they have at present. By so doing, you would be only acting in consonance with the principles of the present government, and of the great majority of this House. They do not hold with that great society which met yesterday, that protection to British industry is the true way to ensure a permanent flourishing condition for the people of this country. On the contrary, with respect to many articles of great value, they have declared that principles opposed to those of protection, and which, if not entirely free trade, are known by the name of free-trade principles, are those by which the intercourse of nations should be regulated. If they continue in these opinions—if they differ from those great authorities which maintain that protection is for the benefit of the people—let us have the advantage of the practical working out of those opinions. I know that those who propose this are called the enemies of agriculture, but I am convinced that protection is not the support but the bane of agriculture. I will not say, for this would not be the time if even I were prepared to say it, what particular measures should be, or what the right honourable gentleman himself would think