the price of British wheat is under 55s., the duty upon every quarter of
British colonial wheat shall be 5s.; that when at 55s. and under 56s.,
it shall be 4s.; and when at 56s. and under 57s., it shall be 3s.; and
when at 58s. and upwards it shall be Is., thus taking away that sudden
fall in the amount of duty, levied upon colonial wheat, which takes
place under the existing law; but giving the colonial wheat that
advantage in the reduction of the price which is given to other
descriptions of wheat." Sir Robert Peel finally thus recapitulated the
reduction which his new scale would effect:--"When corn is 59s. and
under 60s., the duty I propose is 13s. When the price of com is at 50s.,
the existing duty is 36s. 8d., increasing as the price falls; instead of
which I propose, when corn is at 50s., that the duty shall be only 20s.,
and that the duty shall in no case be exceeded. At 56s., the existing
duty is 30s. 8d.; the duty I propose at that price is 16s. At 60a., the
existing duty is 26s. 8d., the duty I propose at that price is 12s. At
63s., the existing duty is 23s. 8d.; the duty I propose is 9s. At 64s.,
the existing duty is 22s. 8d.; the duty I propose is 8s. At 70s., the
existing duty is 10s. 8d.; the duty I propose is 5s. Therefore it is
impossible to deny, in comparing the duty which I propose with that
which exists at present, that it will cause a very considerable decrease
of the protection which the present duty affords to the home grower, a
decrease, however, which, in my opinion, can be made consistently with
justice to all the interests concerned." In conclusion, Sir Robert Peel
disclaimed the idea of legislating in favour of particular interests,
and expressed his conviction that the present was a favourable time
for the settlement of the question. After a few words from Lord John
Russell, and a brief reply from Sir Robert Peel, the house adjourned. On
the following day Lord John Russell gave notice that he should, on the
ensuing Monday, move a resolution condemnatory of a sliding-scale. The
resolution was couched in these terms:--"That this house, considering
the evils which have been caused by the present corn-laws, and
especially by the fluctuations of the graduated or sliding-scale, is
not prepared to adopt the measure of her majesty's government, which is
founded on the same principle, and is likely to be attended by the same
results." Mr. Villiers next announced that, on going into committee, he
shou