AND THE DUKES OF BICEMOND. 167 



would have obtained a majority, more especially if 

 the country had anticipated that the price of wheat 

 would one day fall to £1 per quarter or £5 per load. 



It is worthy of remark that upon the very day 

 that the Corn Law Bill passed the House of Lords, 

 Sir Kobert Peel was defeated in the Commons upon 

 the Protection of Life in Ireland Bill, the event 

 causing his resignation and the advent to power of 

 Lord John Russell. 



The next measure in which the Duke of Richmond 

 took more than special interest upon its introduction 

 into the House of Lords was the Customs Duties 

 Bill, which had passed the House of Commons. He 

 moved " that it be read this day six months," 

 resfarding it as inimical to the ao;ricultural interest, 

 and presented a petition from silk weavers at Maccles- 

 field and Spitalfields against certain duties which 

 affected their interests, they undertaking to prove 

 that the proposed duty on foreign silks did not 

 exceed nine per cent., instead of fifteen, as alleged. 



The Duke of Wellington strongly opposed the 

 motion, stating that they could not make any alter- 

 ation in the details of the bill without an infraction 

 of the title and rules of procedure, which had existed 

 for more than two hundred years between the two 

 Houses. The effect of making alterations in Com- 

 mittee in the money clauses of bills of supply, and 

 of customs, had invariably been not only to cause 



