15
for agriculturists and manufacturers, must be gradually and step by step resorted to, and when the goal is reached, and reached it must and will be, those who now view it with such apprehension and alarm, will look back with astonishment when they see how little their anticipations had been borne out by the results. Perhaps, Sir, there is no man in the House who has a greater right, or who has more reason to say this, than the individual now addressing you. In the year 1825, when Mr. Huskisson proposed admitting the importation of foreign copper ore, at a reduction of the duty that had up to that period been prohibitory, I rose in my place; I entreated the right honourable gentleman to pause; I stated it to be the conviction of those interested in the mines, in whose opinion I concurred, that the consequences would be fatal to the interests of the county of Cornwall; that our deep and expensive mines would be totally unable to bear up against the competition with foreign ores raised at a much lower rate—that all such mines consequently would be stopped; and that the thousands of men at work in them would be thrown out of employment. Here, Sir, is a case precisely in point. The agriculturists tell us the poor lands will be thrown out of cultivation, and many labourers in husbandry out of employ. If our fears have not been realized, I have a fair right to infer their fears also are
