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 comfort, and to become satisfied with his condition. Nevertheless, there was still a party of great weight in the legislature, which insisted that without protection certain branches of industry could not be maintained. To such persons he said, "Let us either protect all branches of industry, whether manufacturing or agricultural, or else let us abandon the system of protection as vicious and unsound." The tendency of this system was, in his opinion, to impair the efficiency of labour, and they had. now arrived at that period when they must maintain the protection laws in their full power, or abandon them as vicious and unsound.. Parliament had no right to interfere with the choice of a man as to the cheapest or dearest market for his labour or produce; but, in removing restrictive laws, it was manifestly unjust to apply free-trade principles to one class and not to another:—

The noble lord then referred to the origin of the Corn Laws, and the fluctuations that had taken place in the scale, and contended that the result of the system haul been to create speculation and enhance the price to the consumers, without benefiting the revenue. Even at pre. sent, the owners and occupiers of land, with a protection