though under the disadvantage of returning from their ports in ballast. Various speakers on both sides followed during several adjourned debates: Dr. Bowring, Mr. Moffatt, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Milner Gibson, on the side of repeal; Mr. H. J. Baillie, Mr. Scott, Mr. Robinson, the Marquess of Granby, and Mr. Henley on that of Protection.
Mr. Gladstone's views. On the 2nd June, Mr. Gladstone, then sitting with Sir Robert Peel on the cross-benches, resumed the debate in a most exhaustive speech. His views were not in exact accordance with either party in the debate, but he took the affirmative side on the broad question of repeal as a matter of reasonable expediency, although, on the specific scheme of Government he gave only a qualified opinion, as he would have preferred a more gradual measure. He wished Government had adhered to the uniform course of precedents, making large concessions conditional upon reciprocal action by other Powers. He objected to the discretionary power of the Queen in Council, with a view of extorting reciprocity, a discretion at once too large and too delicate: if it were really intended that this power should be a living and practical one, to be put in force in case of need, he thought it would be wiser and safer to undo, bit by bit, the system we have got, than to sweep it away in order to reconstruct it piecemeal; and then, perhaps shortly afterwards, to pull it down again. With that keen foresight for which he has ever been distinguished, he particularly censured that part of the plan which reserved the coasting trade. He contended that the American coasting trade was of the highest value, and equivalent to a colonial trade. "Let us give
