no.] Honourable gentlemen might say "No, no," but he contended, that Glasgow had a representative in that House.

[A MEMBER.-The fourth part of a representative.] It might be said of any town or county, that it had but the fraction of a member. He would, nevertheless, repeat his assertion, namely, that Glasgow had a representative in that House. If they departed from the principle to which he had before adverted, they would be establishing a precedent, which might carry them lengths far beyond what they first contemplated, and far beyond what they might receive external support in carrying into effect; whereas, if they adhered to it, they might improve the representation of the country, without incurring the hazard of admitting an unwise and dangerous principle of reform.

It had sometimes been said he knew not on what grounds-that he was not a friend to the agricultural interest; but he felt the less uneasy under an imputation of that nature, as he was persuaded, that an enlarged view of the policy which he had always recommended, could not fail to lead to the conclusion, that he had uniformly supported those principles which were best calculated to promote the general interests of each class, and, as a consequence, the good of the whole community. His object, on the present occasion, would certainly be, to confer increased franchises upon the landed interest; but if the two cases were taken into account, as it manifestly was intended they should be, then there would be an equality of advantages—a great commercial community receiving benefit in the one case, and a body of the landed proprietors in the other. Upon these grounds he should feel it his duty to support the amendment.

The House divided: For Mr. Calvert's Amendment, 157. Against it, 121.

CANADA COMPANY-EMIGRATION.

March 28.

Mr. Alderman Waithman, with a view that the House should be in possession of all the knowledge it could acquire, before it came to any decision on the subject of Emigration, moved for " an Account of the quantity of Land in Upper Canada sold to the Canada Company, specifying the terms and conditions of such sale, the sums paid in conformity thereto, and also the number of persons that have been sent to Canada by the said Company." The conduct of the Company was spoken of in high terms by Mr. Wilmot Horton and Mr. Stanley; and Mr. Hume said, he should like to see similar bargains made with a dozen other Companies, in the same terms and with the same objects.

Mr. Secretary HUSKISSON said, that the honourable member for Aberdeen had taken a correct view of the utility of these companies to the country. In other parts of the world, there were immense tracts of wild land which were totally unproductive; and if, by any company, they could be brought under cultivation, so as to make a return to the parties employed upon them, the result would not only be beneficial to the colony, but to the general interests of this country. He was glad that he could state, that companies on the same principle had been formed in New South Wales and at Van Diemen's Land. He trusted they would be all successful; for, to the extent in which they reclaimed lands from the state of nature, they contributed essentially to the increase of the power and resources of this country. By the contract with the Colonial Department the Canada Company had given for what it had purchased the full rate at which land was selling in the market. The company was paying down ready money, while it had to look to a remote period for the return of the capital so embarked. The honourable member for Bristol had talked as if this company had been turned

loose in Canada, to select for itself any spot it might fancy. But what was the fact? The company had first contracted for two millions of acres, consisting of clergy and crown reserves. Some difficulty arose as to the clergy reserves which could not be overcome, and the result was that they did not form part of the contract, and the company received in lieu of them a million of acres, situated on the banks of Lake Huron, lying in one lot together. The company obtained no title to those lands, but as they were progressively settled and the purchase-money paid. As the company in succession received the titles, the public would receive an annual sum, in aid of the burthen which the colonies brought on this country, in the maintenance of their civil establishments. Government had not been so improvident as to leave out of their view public improvements in these colonies. It had stipulated, that one third of the money from the company should be expended in building bridges, making roads, and other purposes of convenience and benefit. A more judicious appropriation of the land could not have been devised. The company had no desire to conceal its proceedings; being convinced, that the best way in which its prosperity could be promoted was by making known all its transactions, and inviting, rather than shunning, investigation. He knew nothing as to the profits of the company; but he believed the directors did not regard its affairs as likely to excite either jealousy or envy. He hoped, that the honourable alderman would not press his motion, but be contented with applying to the directors; any one of whom could give him the information he required. He agreed that this was a question which claimed the attention of Government, involving, as it did, so many interests connected with the permanent welfare and general prosperity of that important part of the king's dominions, and particularly as it concerned the constitu

tional rights of the inhabitants, under the act of 1791. After the recess, it was his intention to call the attention of the House to the whole of this great subject.

The motion was withdrawn.

CORN IMPORTATION BILL.

March 31.

The House having resolved itself into a Committee on the Corn Trade Acts, Mr. Charles Grant, the President of the Board of Trade, moved, "That it is the opinion of this Committee, that every sort of corn, grain, meal or flour, which is now, by law, admissible for home use at certain times, shall be admissible for home use at all times, upon payment of the following duties respectively." Here followed the scale of duties, by which it was proposed, That wheat should be subject to a duty of 32s. 8d. per quarter, whenever the price was 52s., and under 53s., and that that duty should be decreased by one shilling for every increase of one shilling in the price, until it reached 73s.

Mr. Secretary HUSKISSON rose. He began by observing, that although he by no means agreed, that it was desirable to abstain from all immediate discussion on the present occasion, and although he thought it an extraordinary anomaly, when a measure was brought forward by a minister of the Crown, that it should be unaccompanied by a full explanation of its merits and character; yet, as the propriety of such a course had been maintained, he would not enter into any wide field of remark, but would address himself merely to the few observations which had fallen from certain honourable members who had prefaced their speeches by declaring, that they would make no observations at all.

And first, he must state, that the honourable member for Lincoln was under a strange delusion in supposing that in

the last year a million and a half of quarters of foreign oats had been smuggled into Ireland, and thence imported into this country. He could assure that honourable member, after the most rigid examination, that not a single bushel of oats had been so imported in the last, or in the present year. In fact, when the cumbrous nature of the commodity was considered, and the heavy penalties which would follow detection, it was impossible to conceive the existence of such a case of smuggling as the honourable member supposed. The honourable and gallant member for Lincoln was not, however, the only person who was alarmed upon the subject of inferior grain. The honourable member for Somersetshire had expressed the same species of jealousy, and had spoken as though an immense injury had been offered to the agricultural interest, by the opening of the ports, in 1826, for the admission of foreign oats. Now, he was certainly surprised at this complaint, for, in the first place, he thought it had been agreed on all hands, that that measure of opening the ports, recommended to his Majesty in August and approved by Parliament in the following November, had been a measure not only sanctioned, but peremptorily called for, by the circumstances of the time. But an additional fact moreover existed, not merely to prove the necessity of the course adopted, but also that it was a course by which the agricultural interest had not lost a shilling; for although three million of quarters of oats had been imported, yet such was the pressing demand in the country, that the price had still continued constantly above the limitation of the bill of 1815. So that, if the ports had not been opened by that recommendation, under the existing law the oats would still have come in; and come in, as the provisions of that law stood, without paying any duty at all. Therefore it would seem, that to meet the views of the honourable member for