strument on the contracting party: the five powers
were entitled to keep Belgium to the terms of the treaty, and Belgium
in turn was entitled to claim their observance of it. The Belgian
government had, indeed, on various occasions appealed to the treaty
as the charter of its rights; and it was preposterous that, after so
regarding it for eight years, they should finally declare to all Europe,
because it suited their convenience, that the fundamental articles of
the treaty were of no obligation to them. His lordship concluded by
saying that, so far from its being an injustice in the five powers to
refuse to add Luxembourg to Belgium, it would have been an act of the
grossest oppression if they had consented to make a violent seizure of
that territory for the purpose of transferring it: all that was done was
to leave the matter as it was settled at the congress of Vienna.

THE CORN-LAW QUESTION.

At this time a great many petitions had been presented to both houses of
parliament on the subject of the corn-laws. On the 18th of February Lord
Brougham moved that these petitions should "be referred to a committee
of the whole house, and that evidence be heard at the bar." The Dukes of
Buckingham and Richmond and Earl Stanhope opposed the motion; and Lord
Melbourne thought that the plan proposed would have no other result
than the obstruction of the business of the house, and to perplex and
embarrass the question itself. The Duke of Wellington said that the
proposed mode of inquiry was without a precedent, and contended that
without protection agriculture could not prosper. The reduction of the
duty even a trifle too much might involve the country in the utmost
difficulty, by rendering the cultivation of the soil impossible, and
thereby ruining a large class of industrious and at present happy
people. The motion was negatived without a division.

The subject of the corn-laws was debated in the house of commons on the
following day. Mr. Villiers moved, "that certain persons be heard at the
bar of the house by their agents, witnesses, or counsel, in support
of the allegations of the petition presented to the house on the 15th
instant, complaining of the operation of the corn-laws." In support of
this motion, Mr. Villiers considered at great length the effect of the
corn-laws upon the manufactures and commerce of the country. Sir Francis
Burdett objected to the course proposed; but, at the same time, he
stated that it wa