MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE RESPECTING FREE TRADE.
A commercial question of still greater importance than that of the corn-laws was also, during this session, introduced into parliament. Petitions from the city of London, and from Glasgow, prayed for free trade; and Mr. Baring, who presented that of the London merchants to the commons, insisted that freedom from restriction is calculated to give the utmost extension to foreign trade, as well as the best direction to the capital and industry of the country. No formal motion was made in the commons on this subject; but in the lords, on the 26th of May, Lord Lansdowne moved for a committee of inquiry concerning the foreign trade of the empire. This proposal elicited a speech from the Earl of Liverpool, in which his lordship, as head of the administration, declared his assent to the principles of free trade, expressing his conviction that it would have been better for the world had such principles always been acted upon, and advising the recognition of such exceptions only, as the policy of the world and the laws of the country dictated. The motion was carried unanimously.