We would take the liberty...
e would tak e te liberty of pointing the attention ef the House of Commons to a letter we publish respecting a portion of the evidence given beforc the Committee on Ar- tisans and Machinery, on the subject of the CoMbinatiou Law?s. The letter certainly does not treat of the generat policy of the question: it confines itself to a part of the supposed facts collected as the fouudation of the new legis. ;lative measures recommended by the Committee; and if the rest of the facts extracted 'oy the Committee from the evidence tendered to it he of a similar kind, which we have' strong reason for believing, it may be readily conceived. what validity conclusions foundedupon such facts will pos- sess. The truth is, wvith respect to the case alluded to ini the letter, and in AMr. TAYLOR'S evidence also, as we be- lieve, that the aggrieved party did not choose to prose- cute upon the Combination Laws;- and for an obvious reason: because he kneNv that by those laws the offenders could only be sentenced to two or three months' impri- senment, and that they had funds sufficient subscribed to? maintain all of thefi in idleness for a miuch longer pe- riod. He therefore went upon the commnon law of the land for conspiracy; and obtaining sentences of two years', of eighteen months', and of nine months' duration (though he himself sued for a remission to the penitent, as soon as they were penitent), yet he by that method ruined their fund, *vhilst he was anxious that their persoms should suffier as little as possible. Howv, then, can asy men in their senses say, that the laws against cormbination, wvhIich were inadequate to put down such a system as this, are too severe ? But what we would chiefly invite the attention of the House to is the sort of evidence on which they are going to make a new law. Tafking Mlr. TAYLOR'S evidence as a specimen, let thern consider on wvhat slight antd even fallacous grouncds important measures may be established, unless the utbiost circumspection and the most mitnute in- vestigation are employed. We were glad to see last night that the Combination Bill didl excite some discussion. *e rearet to thinlk that it had passed throu-h its four previous stages wvithout one wvord of observation; MVe trust, that when. the matter is again brought before the house, (which, wre believe, -will be the case this evening), it wvill be thoroughly examinied. The facts on vhich the bill has beeit foanded should be well sifted, for an abstract principle in matters of this sort is not worth a farthing.