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 UC SOUTHERNI REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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 AN ADDRESS, 
 
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 A
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 Tfi THE 
 
 HOUSES OF LORDS ANJ) COMxMONS, 
 
 IN DEFENCE 
 
 THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 By GODFREY IIIGGINS, Esq. 
 
 OF SKELLOW GRANGE, NEAR DONCASTER. 
 
 SUUM CUIQUK. 
 
 J-ONDON: 
 
 PRINTKD nv A. J. VALI'V, PKD MON COURT, Pt.FKT STREET. 
 
 SOLD BY SHERWOOD AND CO. PATF.RXOSTKU ROW ; RIDOWAY, 
 
 PICCADILLY ; AND BY ALL nOOK3ELLERS. 
 
 182G.
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HOUSES OF LORDS AND COMMONS. 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen, 
 
 In perusing the reviews and newspapers, I have lately 
 observed, that scarcely a day has passed in whicli the most bitter 
 invectives have not been lavished upon the landlords and farmers, 
 on the subject of the Corn Laws. It appears that the press is almost 
 entirely in the possession of their avowed enemies, with very little 
 exertion on their parts to correct its mistakes ; or I fear, some- 
 times, its wilful misrepresentations. Amongst the enemies of the 
 farming interest, the Morning Chronicle and the Edinburgh and 
 Westminster Reviews, have taken a leading part. The last, in its sixth 
 number, with much ability, and in a snuill and reasonable compass, 
 seems to have consolidated all that has been alleged with any 
 appearance of reason, by the diflVrent writers on its side of the 
 (|uesti()n ; and as it has had no contradiction given toils statements, 
 I have bten induced to submit to your consideration some obser- 
 vations in reply to it, — to enter tlie lists, and try to break a spear 
 with this nanjeless, masked opponent, who has no hesitation to use 
 hard names to (fillers, very contrary to the usual practice of this 
 respectable reviewer, though he does not think it expedient to di- 
 vulge his own. 
 
 The article] of the Westminster Review is reprinted entire at 
 the end of this letter; and its sections are nmnbered, in order that 
 ref(;retu:e may be more easilv had to the arguments on each side, 
 and that you may be assured, without trouble, that the whole of 
 the question is .submitted to your consideration. If the sections 
 
 A
 
 '> 
 
 in the earlier part of it do not always appear to be fully re- 
 futed, the -author flatters himself the refutation will be found 
 satisfactory in the end. The consideration, or full discussion of 
 them, is only delayed to the latter |)art, in order to condense the 
 matter as nuic'.i as possible, by avoiding repetitions. 
 
 By this means, the writer flatters himself that the subject will 
 be laid before you in a plain and simple form, without being con- 
 fused by the metaphysical profundity of modem political economy; 
 in the depths of which many excellent and very able men seem 
 lately to have been much bewildered, if not absolutely lost. And 
 as the article in the Westminster Review is the concentrated 
 essence of all tjiat has been said against the farmers and landlords, 
 the author considers, that if he succeed in refuting its arguments, 
 he will have a right to call upon you, in the performance of your 
 duty, still to continue to shelter and protect, as you have hitherto 
 done, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of farmers and 
 landlords, and their dependants, from the i uin with which they are 
 threatened. 
 
 From the opening paragraph. Sec. 1, it appears, that the subject 
 is not to be dropped till, by means of continual solicitation or 
 repetition, the object of the reviewer is obtained. He neither 
 hopes for, nor pretends to discover any thing new. He says, — - 
 It is not enough that they (meaning, of course, the legislators) 
 aliould be made to think on the suhject. Now it is here admitted 
 that they have thought on the subject, but it is said that sonie- 
 thing mure must be done by tiie enemies of the farmers; and what 
 is it that they are required to do ? Thei/ are to proclaim their 
 opinions zcith a loudness and perseverance rcJiich may overawe 
 those zohom they cannot hope to convince. "^I'hus, my Lords and 
 Gentlemen, you see that the manufacturers, who, good souls, are 
 totally without prejudice, and are the only persons capable of 
 judging, are to overawe you ; that is, to compel you to comply 
 with their views, by clamour, 8cc. ; and this they are to do because 
 they cannot hope to convince you. It is not necessary to add any 
 thing more respecting this candid peroration, except that it has 
 the great merit of being devoid of hypocrisy, though certainly it 
 contains a very bad compliment, either to your honesty, or to your 
 understandings. You either cannot see the truth, or seeing it, you 
 will not be convinced. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the assertion in Sec. 2, that it is the 
 inteiest of a nation to purchase its articles where they can be 
 had the cheapest, is generally true. But though this be true in 
 the abstract, it does not follow, that where very great, new and 
 artificial interests have been created, on the solicitation of either 
 the manufacturers, or on the mistaken views, or for the furtherance
 
 of the guilty objects of a ministry, or for any other reason, that 
 these interests are to be sacrificed to an abstract theory, in gratifi- 
 cation of the caprice, or in promotion of the pecuniary views of 
 any set of men, and at the expense of all the remainder of the 
 community — a remainder, whose very existence Ijas become iden- 
 tified with the new and artificially-created state of society. Nor 
 does the expression used by Mr. Curteis justify the charge brought 
 against him, of supporting monopoly in the abstract, though he 
 probably may be weak enough to consider a little, — to hesitate, 
 befi)re he sacrifices, at a single blow, the certain comforts and 
 welfare of millions of his unoffending countrymen, at the shrine 
 either of a new or old philosophy. 
 
 It is not invariabh/ true, as stated in Sec. 3, that it is desirable 
 to the purchaser that commodities should be cheap. It is not de- 
 s'yable, if in order to produce this cheapness his means of pur- 
 chasing be thereby destroyed. Some years ago, when corn, &,c. 
 fell to a very low price, the labourers in husbandry were filled with 
 joy; but, alas! their joy was soon turned to sorrow, when they 
 found, what they had not before thought of, that by the ruin of 
 their masters, they were deprived of wages wherewith to buy the 
 corn, cheap as it was. ]Slany of them did not hesitate to ac- 
 knowledge their wishes for a return of high prices. 
 
 The small tradesmen in the country towns were equally delighted 
 with cheap corn ; but they soon repented, when they found that 
 there were no Christmas bills to be paid, and that gloom and 
 sadness had usurped the place of cheerfulness and brown stout, or 
 Chi istmas pies, in the former hospitable butlers' pantries, or house- 
 keepers' rooms of the landlords. 
 
 In most of the treatises on the Corn Laws, see Sec. 4, much labour 
 has been expended to prove, that their abolition would not injure 
 the landlords, as thereby the price of grain would not be decreased.* 
 Jiut this only proves tiiat their authors belonged to that set of per- 
 sons who were of o{)inion, that the landlords deserved the nick- 
 name, which has been humourously given to them, of Jolterheads, 
 However, I trust that upon this subject, such of them as have 
 seals ill the Houses of Lords and Commons, will show, that they 
 at least do not deserve it. The reviewer admits that the etl'ect of 
 
 ♦ In the Morning Clironicic of Dec. 6ib, 18-25, is an account of the price 
 of provisions at Tour;*, in Irancc ; iVdni wliicli it appears lliat good bread 
 varies from one sous to one sous and ;i liaif a pound, and llial a man can 
 mauiiiiiM liirnscir, liis wife, and ilirce children, lor 7\d. a di> linfjlish, in a 
 coinlortaljlc manner; indeed the piper says, lwMiri(iw>> maimer. From this 
 adrni'-sioii of his opponent the Chronicle, the English farmer may easily 
 jn<l::e, what would be the price of grain in England, if tlie Corn Laws were 
 abolished.
 
 the Coin Laws is to raise the price of grain ; and, iherefoif , that 
 their abolition will reduce it. Probably, before he gets to the end 
 of ihis letter, the reader may think that the reviewer, in main- 
 taining, in some degree in opposition to his former admission, that 
 the fall in the price of grain will be but trifling, shows that he is one 
 of the persons who take the landlords iov jolterheads. 
 
 The author is very far from justifying the whole of the conduct 
 of the landlords for the last thirty years; but he has no hesitation in 
 saying, that the disgraceful sweeping assertion which has escaped 
 the pen of this respectable reviewer, in the first sentence of Sec. 4, 
 tending to iiistil into the mind of the reader, that evil to the com- 
 munity was iuditi'ereut to the landlords without exception, so long 
 as they thereby obtained high rents, is an unfounded insinuation. 
 
 It is not true that the landlords are the sole gainers by the rise 
 in the prices of grain. It may be easily shown, that the farmers 
 are gainers in various ways ; but one will be enough. Along with 
 the rise in the permanent price of corn, the value of every article of 
 which the farmer's stock in trade consists increases ; and his lease, 
 not the least, if he have one. 
 
 In Sec. 5, the reviewer takes credit to himself for stating a case 
 most favourable to the landlords ; but surely with very little justice ; 
 for in the very first sentence he has mis-stated it. The question 
 does not lie betwixt the landlords and the people generally, but, as 
 I shall hereafter show, betwixt the persons who live on the interest 
 of money, the persons who live on fixed incomes, annuities, rent 
 charges, &c. the manufacturers solely for foreign consumption, and 
 a few professional men, on the one side : and the landlords, farmers, 
 and all the remainder of mankind, on the other, amongst whom 
 are to be placed an immense multitude of small retail tradesmen, 
 depending for subsistence on the landlords and farmers. 
 
 The whole of Sec. 6 and 7 are nearly as loose and indefinite as 
 the expression o{ ^' protecting agriculture ;" but yet, as it is admitted 
 that the Corn Laws increase the price given for agricultural pro- 
 duce, a person of plain common sense may be induced to believe, 
 that there is nothing very absurd in the supposition, that to give a 
 higher price than has formerly been given for the fruits of the 
 earth, is to encourage agriculture or horticulture, as the case may 
 be. There can be no doubt that the gains of the farmer are, in 
 some respects, of a difTerent nature from those of the landlord, but 
 it will be difficult to prove " that no two interests can be more 
 diametrical! ij opposite." 
 
 The reader may here observe, that the reviewer is beginning to 
 discover what I hinted at in a former section, that the exclusion of 
 foreign corn is not beneficial to landlords, to so great an extent as
 
 has been supposed. Probably before we finish it will be disco- 
 vered, that the jolterheads will act wisely for their own comforts, to 
 reduce their rents a little below zero. 
 
 It is admitted in Sec. 8^ that although corn should rise, the 
 labourer would receive the same reat wages as before ; that as it 
 rises, his wages rise, and thus he receives no injury from the 
 dearness of corn. This is all true ; but not so the next assertion, 
 that the manufacturers are compelled to give a greater value to 
 their labourers, without having a greater value for themselves: 
 because it is notorious, that as wages rise they increase the price of 
 their articles ; and in order to enable them to do this tiiey have 
 surrounded themselves with restrictions upon articles of foreign 
 manufacture, in every manner that they could devise, and in many 
 cases very properly, although in some unwisely. 
 
 The farmer, like all other capitalists, will raise the price of his 
 produce to remunerate him for the rise of wages, if he be not pre- 
 vented by the opening of the ports. In this case, the admission 
 of foreign corn operates precisely the same as the admission of 
 foreign manufactures in the former case. 
 
 Notwithstanding what is said respecting the gain of capitalists in 
 Sec. 9 and 10, a liigli price of corn is beneficial to the farmer iu 
 various ways; as for instance, by increasing the value of his capi 
 tal ; for every article on his farm will rise in value with the rise in 
 corn; and thcnigh the corn which he and his labourers consume 
 cost him more, the additional cost is charged to those who pur- 
 chase the remainder of his crop. The same precisely as is done 
 by the manufactmer. 
 
 The landlords do not wish, as insinuated in Sec. 11, that the 
 whole community should be taxed for their sakes alone; they wish 
 for nothing but what is just ; and though the reviewer affects to 
 consider that he has proved his case, he feels conscious that it is 
 not safe to leave it here, — he seems to think it expedient to say a 
 little more than enough ; it will therefore be necessary to examine 
 this little additional matter. Notwiihstaiiding all that the ])olitical 
 economists may say, it has not yet been proved that national wealth 
 does depend solehj on large profits to individuals. Jt is very 
 possible that the profit upon stock or capital made l)y each 
 individual nuMnber of a community may be very small ; yet if that 
 community be terrj industrious, the capital may rapidly increase : 
 and, on the other hand, it is possible that the profits on the stock 
 of a community may be large, though if that community be very 
 idle, its wcaltli may not increase s<» fast as tiic wealth of the com- 
 munity that is very industrious. The great number of the small 
 jirofits of tiie industrious community may more than counterbalance 
 the small mimber of the large profits of the idle one; but it is
 
 not of much consequence to push this any furllier, as it does not 
 seem much to affect the question. 
 
 The hindlords are accused, Sec. 12 to l6, not only of being 
 robbers, but of being wanton destroyers of the weahh of others. 
 In order to prove tliese assertions, a good deal of verbiage is used 
 not in a very tangib'e shape. It is very true that the purchasers 
 pay a higher price for the corn than if there were no Corn Laws ; 
 but this higher price consists of nuthing more than what the hind- 
 lord gets, and the increased price required by the persons whose 
 labour is used by the farmer to bring the corn to market, and the 
 increased price of his own subsistence. And though this may be 
 injurious to the purchaser, the cause of it is not to be foimd in the 
 lancUord, but elsewhere, which the reviewer d.es not notice ; but 
 into which a little enquiry w'ill presently be made. I'he reviewer 
 here contradicts what he has said before, that the situation of the 
 labourer is not worse in consequence of the increased price of 
 corn, because with its increased price his wages rise. It is cer- 
 tainly true that the Corn Laws have tlie effect of continuing a 
 portuin of capital in, and causing a quantity of labour to be 
 bestowed upon the land, which would not be so continued 
 and bestowed without them. It is also true that if the Corn Laws 
 Mere to be abolished, the labour of the 1'20 or 130 of the ujen of 
 Britain now employed to raise a given quantity of corn, would be 
 immediately dispensed with, and would be exchanged for the 
 labour of 120 men only of P<;land or France ; and the 120 men 
 of Britain would be actually reduced to starvation, whilst the 
 labonrer of France or Poland would be benefited. But it will be 
 difficult to persuade either English labourers, farmers, or landlords, 
 to approve this. 
 
 Every newspaper is filled with complaints, that the North 
 Americans cannot buy our manufactures, because we will not take 
 their grain in payment, it is very evident that a certain quantity 
 only is wanted for the world's consumption; and it mertly comes 
 to the question, Mhelher the given quantity is to be supplied by 
 American people or by British people? If the desired change 
 take place, the Americiin farmers uill consume a certain quan- 
 tity of goods V. hicii the English farmers now consume; and 
 the EnL'lish will cease to consume them. But how will this 
 niaterially benefit the manufacturers? By means of machinery, 
 more goods are made than the world can consume. At the same 
 time, by means of the f"a( iiitits afforded by banks, Jkc. new land is 
 daily brought into cultivation m America, &,c. and more corn 
 raised than the world can consume. Thus both classes are con- 
 stantly on the confines, or ratlier beyond their proper bounds; this 
 keeps down the price of both, and straitens them in their profits.
 
 and causes complaints; but it increases population, and as popula- 
 tion keeps increasing, the difficulty keeps reinovincr. The increase 
 of population, both iii America and England, again increases pro- 
 duction, and its excess again keeps encouraging population. Thus 
 the quantity of calico and corn which overstocked the world seven 
 years ago, is now not enough; and thus, notwithstanding all the 
 complaints of the cotton-makers in England, and corn-makers in 
 America, they keep constantly increasing in numbers and wealth. 
 
 The reviewer seenis to consider what he pleases to call thruiving 
 the loKest soils out of cultivation, with perfect complacency ; see 
 Sec. 19. He never wastes a thought upon the sweeping ruin, 
 which would be produced by the employment of the 120 foreigners 
 instead of the 120 British, and the thruwing the loivest soils out of 
 cultivation. Tiiis mass of ruin is below his consideration. But 
 if he will be kind enough to descend from his lofty political eco- 
 nomical hobby-horse, and inquire a little further, he will find that 
 these two operations will not only involve the ruin of the largest part 
 of the farming labourers, the farmers, and th.e landlords, but that 
 along with them must go an iumiense luimber of little tradesmen, 
 in the villages and small agricultural towns throughout all the island, 
 who are entirely dependant on the occupiers of land. It caimot 
 be believed, that if these respectable editors and reviewers saw 
 the effect of the experiment which they recommend, they would 
 advocate it for a moment. But bad as is the effect which has been 
 described, there is yet another effect which has not been noticed. 
 
 In cotisequence of an outlay, under the patronage and en- 
 couragement of the government, of an immense capital, and of 
 unceasing labour and skill for the last twenty-five years, our country, 
 con»paratively sj)eaking, is converted from nearly a desert into a 
 beautiful garden. From a principle of ccunoini/ this immense 
 mass of wealth is to be destroyed, actually destroyed, as a taper is 
 destroyed when it is biunt; and the garden is to be converted into 
 a desert, throrcn out of cultivation. 'I'his is done to save or gain 
 money. In this case the caj)ital cannot bt transferred from the land 
 to some other employuieut ; it must be actually destroyed. In 
 consequence of the encouragement given by several successive par- 
 liaments, &c. to cidtivate waste lands, the author of this improved 
 an otate in Yorkshire, by enclosing, dr.iining, vk,c. &c. by which 
 it was raised in value, from about one sliillmg to twenty-live shil- 
 Imgs an acre; and thus an estate producing a profitable return to 
 the public, probaljly of not It ss than three pounds an acre for (;vcr, 
 it may be said, was created. The land which barely kepi a sheep 
 on live f)r six acres, is now covered with line cows, the butler of 
 which is regularly sent to E(;eds market once a week. This is 
 now all to be destroyed, the land again restored to its native ling or
 
 8 
 
 giotise, in order lliat a new set of persons may be produced, who 
 are not vet born, to swell the size of our large manufacturing 
 towns, and people a new set of enormous factories, with a po- 
 j)ulation of miserable, short-lived children, rendered rickety 
 by the unwholesomeness of their employment, and the excessive 
 quantity of their work : — in order that the up-grown manufactu- 
 rers may, out of the seven in every week, spend three days 
 instead of two, in drunkenness and idleness:* and in order that 
 the chairman of the meeting at Leeds, who presided lately 
 when a petition was got up against the Corn Laws, may keep 
 three or four four-wheeled carriages instead of two. '^J'his case of 
 the author's estate may be seen repeated in a greater or less degree 
 in every parish in Britain. "^Jhe farms of Mr. Coke around Holk- 
 ham have been improved in a similar maiuier ; and instead of 
 keeping a few rabbits on land worth half-a-crown an acre, they are 
 covered with the finest crops of grain, and occupied with a healthy 
 and happy tenantry, all of whom must go to the parish; for it is 
 out of the question to think of employing a pair of hands, which 
 have been used perhaps for twenty years to fill a dung-cart, in 
 sorting the hairs of a Cashmere goat to make into Norwich shawls, 
 or handling the fine skeins of the silkworm. 
 
 The absurdity of all this in another point of view is very striking, 
 and exhibits an extraordinary example of short-sightedness. It 
 may be asked, who are the great consumers of the manufactures 
 made by these brawlers for no Corn Laws, but the landlords, the 
 farmers, their labourers, and the retail tradesmen and artificers de- 
 pendant upon them ? And though they are certainly not the sole 
 consumers, they are unquestionably the largest consumers, and the 
 best customers which the manufacturers have in the world : and 
 these cheap corn men are so weak as to think, that they will be 
 benefited by reducing the property of these customers ; by ren- 
 dering them less able to purchase their goods! Was ever any 
 thing so foolish .'' Very deservedly they might be left to suffer the 
 punishment which would naturally follow the effect of their folly; 
 but unfortunately this cannot be, without involving millions of un- 
 fortunates in their ruin, 'ihey cannot set their own houses on fire 
 without burning their neighbours'. 
 
 The author of the Review Encyclopedique of France, has lately 
 given a comparative view of the commerce of France and England. 
 
 * It is well known, that in Yorkshire, when provisions are low and trade 
 brisk, the operatives seldom go to work before W etlnesday. The character 
 of the popnlati(jn formed in the factories on the ruin of the highly respect- 
 able domestic manufacturer, so much lauded formerly by Messrs. Wilber- 
 force and Lascelles, in tiieir report on the cloth trade, shows itself in times 
 of prosperity, in vice; in times of adversity, in crime.
 
 9 
 
 As to the questions betwixt the foreign and domestic traders and 
 consumers of England, I do not see any reason why he should not 
 be considered an impartial judge; and he states as follows: 
 
 Francs. Pounds. 
 
 The home trade of Britain 8,604,850,000 358,535,416 
 The foreign trade of do. 1,894,275,000 78,969,791 
 
 The economists may dissect and distort these numbers as they 
 please ; the immense superiority of the certain domestic, over the 
 uncertain foreign trade, must always remain apparent. 
 
 The history of the trade of Great Britain since the peace proves 
 the truth of what has been advanced, respecting the consumption 
 of the manufactures. For some years after it took place, trade 
 was in the most depressed state. This was caused in great part, 
 if not entirely, by the state of embarrassment and misery into 
 which the landlords and tenants, and all the little dependent trades, 
 were brought by several causes united to the return to cash pay- 
 ments. By degrees, as they began to recover, trade began to re- 
 vive. They began to buy again, so trade flourished ; and so it 
 continued till the end of the year ending Jan. 5lh, 1824. There 
 never was a time when the manufactures of the country were so 
 flourishing, as during the year ending Jan. 5th, 1824. This was 
 entirely caused by a return of the landlords and farmers to a state 
 of comparative prosperity, and not by the. foreign trade, for in this 
 year the exports fell off" 432,163/. 
 
 The exports in the year ending January 5tli, 1823, being 
 44,236,533/., and in the year ending January 5tli, 1824, being 
 43,804,372/., a reduction, as said above, of 432,163/. ; since that 
 a great alarm has taken place amongst the landlords and farmers ; 
 all improvements have ceased, and the laborers in husbandry are 
 greatly distressed. '1 he landlords and farmers have been husband- 
 ing their resources, to meet the impending storm ; the trade in con- 
 sequence, this last year, it is said, has declined. This declension 
 the manufacturers attribute to dear corn ; when in reality it ought 
 to be attriljuted to the fears of the farmers. What can be more 
 striking than the fact, that the manufactures flourished in the year 
 1823, though the foreign trade declined? No person need wish 
 for a more decisive proof of the truth of what is iiere advanced. 
 
 It has been observed (just now), that the huullords, &c. are 
 not the sole consumers, 'i'liere is certainly another very large 
 
 class, and this shall be now introduced to your notice. 
 
 A set of ladies and gentlemen, who are of very great conse- 
 quence in this afltair, but who, very disrespectfully, have been en- 
 tirclv nvcilooked hv the icvirwrr — nrvcr named oiue. lie mav
 
 10 
 
 prob.iblv be one of tliis class, and therefore too modest to speak 
 oniiniself; however, ihongh I am one of ihem to u small amount, 
 1 siiall not carry my modesty quite so far. 
 
 During the last and former wars, in order to raise supplies to 
 carry theui on, die govennnent, in return for sums of money ad- 
 vanced, granted annuities. These aniuiities were redeemable at 
 the option of the grantor, on paying a certain sum to the grantee, 
 for each given sum of annuity. 7'his annuity was secured on the 
 produce of the taxes. The holders of these annuities, to the 
 amount of betwixt thirty and forty millions a year, are called 
 stockholders, or fundholders. It is evident that they are consumers 
 to the amount of their annuity, and of course are greatly interested 
 in these discussions. It is worthy of observation, that in all the 
 speeches of the corn abolitionists, the public annuitants are never 
 once named, but studiously kept out of sight; though in fact it is 
 their existence, and not the avarice of landlords or farmers, which 
 causes dear corn — which renders the continuance of the Corn 
 Laws necessary. Abolish the annuity, (the landlords say,) and 
 you may abolish the Corn Laws when you please. The heavy 
 taxes are the cause of the dear corn : and though this has been 
 proved a hundred times, as it is studiously kept in the back ground, 
 it shall be once more explained. 
 
 It is constantly said, that all taxes are paid by the consumer. 
 'i'his depends entirely upon what is meant by the word consumer. 
 If it be meant that the person who eats, or drinks, or wears the 
 taxed articles, pays them, it is very far from being always true : 
 it is in fact very seldom true. An attempt will now be made to 
 discover who does pay them. 
 
 Let the case of a shoemaker be taken, who gains his living solely 
 by his trade : and suppose a tax laid upon leather, or a shop tax to 
 be imposed. It is very evident, that if the shoemaker only made, 
 before the tax was laid on, a fair living profit, — a fair return for 
 Lis capital, skill, and industry, he must make his customers pay the 
 tax, or he must be ruined. In order to do this he raises the price 
 of his slioes, putting a small additional charge upon each pair. 
 Suppose a pair bought by a tailor, a pair by a farmer, a pair by a 
 landlord, a pair by a laborer in husbandry, a pair by a fundholder, 
 and a pair by a cotton manufacturer, for the use of foreigners 
 only. 
 
 As soon as the tailor finds that he pays more than usual for his 
 shoes, he raises the price of his coats, and thus he escapes the tax ; 
 and if the persons who buy the coats be tradesmen, they make 
 their customers pay it, as the tailor made them pay it : but if his 
 customers be fundholders, or persons who live upt-n the interest of
 
 11 
 
 money, these can no longer throw it from their shoulders, and thus 
 it ultimately falls upon them. If the customers who buy the 
 coats of the tailor be manufacturers of calicoes for Frenchmen, 
 the Frenchmen pay it. If the customers who buy the cqats be 
 laborers in husbandry, they raise their wages, and thus the farmers 
 pay it ; and if the farmers be only tenants from year to year, they 
 lower their rents, and thus the landlords pay it. But if the 
 farmers have leases they cannot lower their rents, and therefore they 
 pay it ; and if it be sufficiently heavy they are ruined, because they 
 cannot raise the price of their grain to their customers, being pre- 
 vented by several circumstances which do not apply to other 
 tradesnjen.* 
 
 If the customers who buy the coats be landlords, they pay it, 
 because they cannot raise their rents, the tenants, as has just now 
 been shown, in consequence of these very taxes, being under the 
 necessity of lowering their rents. It is useless to pursue this train 
 of reasoning through a thousand diflferent ramifications, as might be 
 done. Without going further, any person of common sense must 
 see, that this is at last the fact ; that the annuitants, the livers on 
 interest of money, certain professional men, and the landlords, are 
 the payers of the taxes, to which must be added the J'oreign con- 
 sumers, or buyers of our manufactures. 
 
 It was said above, that the farmer could not raise the price of 
 his commodity : this depends upon a variety of circumstances. In 
 a scarce year lie can, but not in a plentiful one : nor can he if corn 
 be brought into the ujarket by foreigners, who from any cause what- 
 ever can afford to sell corn for less money than he can : and as many 
 nations have not half the taxes to pay that he has, and have also a 
 finer soil and a finer climate, they can undersell him ; and thus as 
 he cannot laise his price, in consequence of this importation, he 
 is ruined by the taxes if he have a lease ; and if behave not, he then, 
 to save himself, obliges his landlord to reduce his rent, or else he 
 will throw up his farm, and the landlord is ruined ; or, in the lan- 
 guage of these economists, the land is ihroioi out of cu/iivation. 
 In order to prevent this, and in order that the taxes may be ob- 
 tained, and the amiuity paid to the fundholder, the Corn Laws 
 were made, to exclude foreign corn, by which means the farmer is 
 able to pay his rent, and the taxes to the government, and the go- 
 vermnent is enabled to pay the annuitant ; and thus the annuitant, 
 so carefully kept out of sight, is the cause of all the dilllcully. If 
 
 • In the beginning of the rrciich revolution war, when taxes were im- 
 posed, tradesmen were generally rniicli distressed by thcni, from not under- 
 standing bow to throw thern on to their customers. But before the end of 
 it, they learnt to raise their prices by a snuuitaneous movement, and a new 
 tax, however large, scarcely annoyed them at all.
 
 12 
 
 riie rent and the animitj be paid to its extent, there niu«!t be a 
 Corn Law. 
 
 Now what the annuitants and the cotton manufacturers want is 
 this ; that corn should be admitted free. The effect of this would 
 be, that the manufacturers could sell their goods much cheaper to 
 foreigners, as they would get their food so much cheaper ; and 
 for the sake of the cheap food, the annuitants wish the same thing. 
 They calculate that though the landlords would be ruined, as little 
 or uo rent would be obtained, yet they, the annuitants, would live 
 much better on their tixed incomes, the provisions, and conse- 
 quently every thing else, being so much cheaper. 'I'hus the an- 
 nuitants, though kept out of sight as much as possible, on account 
 of the utter rottenness of their case, are strictly in alliance with the 
 manufacturers against the landlords : and for several powerful, 
 though concealed reasons, a part, if not the whole of the govern- 
 ment, is in strict league also with the manufacturers and annuitants 
 against the landlords ; therefore it is highly necessary for the land- 
 lords to look about them. Their enemies are both numerous and 
 active, and have the press entirely in their power. In order to 
 make the subject clear, 1 have put the cases in an extreme [loint 
 of view. It is obvious, that if the Corn Laws be abolished, the 
 landlords and farmers are ruined; if only partially removed, they 
 are injured in a proportionate degree. 
 
 But in the progress of these proceedings, it is very evident, and 
 has been proved by Mr. Cobbett over and over agam, that very- 
 near all the landed property of the kingdom must change hands. 
 
 It may be as well, in passing, just to observe, that n)y lords the 
 bishops, and all the numerous rectors, deans, prebendaries, &,c. 
 are to the full as much interested in the question, as the landlords 
 and farmers. 
 
 A strong epithet, i-ottenness, is applied above to the case of the 
 annuitants. Though not necessary for your information, it may be 
 useful to some persons into whose hands this may come, to know 
 a little of the nature of the transaction betwixt the fundholders and 
 the ministers. During the war, whenever the minister was greatly 
 distressed for money, he sent into the city to the money-jobbers 
 to ask them to assist him. A meeting then took place, and they 
 agreed to advance him w hat he wanted, at different times on different 
 terms, according to what they considered to be his necessities : 
 but usually in the following or a similar manner. They advanced 
 a sum, say 100/.; in return for which the minister gave them, say 
 30/. three per cent, consols, 10/. four per cents, 40/. long annuity, 
 and perhaps 10/. short annuity ; and perhaps three shillings and 
 sixpence three farthings in money. The real private object of all 
 this jargon was, to disguise the nature of the business from the
 
 13 
 
 public* Tlie transaction being finished, the minister came ni^' 
 stantl}' to the house of commons, and announced that he had made 
 z famous bargain; in fact, overreached the jobbers. The jobbers 
 went instantly to the city, and nineteen times out of twenty sold 
 their annuities for a great premium, and made an enormous profit. 
 The real naked fact was this. In return for about bOl. the minister 
 granted an annuity of 3/. a year, redeemable by him whenever he 
 pleased, paying for such redemption the sum of 100/. for about 
 every 50/. advanced. Thus the sum now necessary to redeem 
 those annuities is, in proportion to the sum advanced, enormous. 
 
 These annuities are always on sale, in a place called the Stock 
 Exchange ; and the opportunity of speculating in their rise or fall 
 has created a system of profligate gambling, never equalled in the 
 history of the world before. Many of the aimuitants are un- 
 doubtedly above the least suspicion of being implicated in the 
 transactions to which 1 here allude. But taking them as a whole, 
 they are always protected by every minister for the time being, as 
 the apple of his eve. 
 
 Although the annuitant made a real Jew bargain, it was a bar- 
 gain, and it ought, if possible, to be supported. But under a 
 pretence of supporting or fuliilling a contract, he wishes the go 
 vernment to adopt such measures as will, in fact, out of the ruins 
 of his neighbour's property, give him double what he contracted 
 for. He says, I contracted to be paid a pound, and 1 ought in 
 justice to be paid a pound : but not if the government, from igno- 
 rance or design, has doubled the value of the pound ; particularly 
 too if the act of the govcrnmtut be at the instigation of the fund- 
 holder. 
 
 The government contrived to raise the annuity given in exchange 
 for such an enormous sum as six or seven hundred millions ster- 
 ling on such ruinous terms, by increasing the import price of grain, 
 from time to tinje ; so that, as the taxes increased, the rents increased, 
 and thus the landlords were enabled to meet them. Although 
 other means were used, yet without this raising of the import price, 
 the taxes never could have been paid. Now it is evident that the 
 import price cannot be raised above a certain height, and therefore 
 it is the object of the government to lower the price as nuich as 
 possible; so that, whenever another six hundred millions shall be 
 wanted, there may be room to raise it from tinu; to time. It is 
 like haviii'T a creat store of wealth in hand to go on with. And 
 such of the ministry as are uovi homines, and have no ancient pre- 
 jiuliccs in favour of old families, and family estates, only look to 
 the reduction of the rents as a source of power. I do not suppose 
 
 • It arose from accident, but it was coiilinucil from rlcsign.
 
 14 
 
 iher, whatever tlje annuitants might do, would wish absohitely to 
 ruin the hindlords outright ; this would be bad pohcy for many 
 reasons ; but they would wish to bring them down as low as they 
 could, just to save lhon» : so that when they choose to begin a new 
 war, they may be sure, by a skilful use of this now tried machine, 
 to have a means of raising money ; and as the situation of the 
 landlords would begin to improve as the war advanced, they calcu- 
 late that they would have them also on their side. 
 
 You must now see, from what has been said in the foregoing 
 digression, that it is not for the landlords that the people of Britain 
 are taxed in the price of their corn, but that it is for the benefit of 
 the annuitants : that the landlords are, in fact, nothing but factors 
 and tax-gatherers for the annuitants.* 
 
 From Sec. 19 and 20, it seems the two political economists, the 
 Edinburgh Review and the Westminster, are at variance, as to what 
 would be the effect of abolishing the Corn Laws ; and you may 
 perceive that the Edinburgh wishes to persuade you, in the very 
 teeth of common sense, that the price of wheat would not fall below 
 6O5. a quarter : and the Westminster wishes to persuade you, that if 
 it should fall, the landlords would be most amply compensated, for 
 they would gain all the advantages of a steady regular price ; so 
 that, though there is evidently great doubt as to the result, they both 
 come to the same thing, abolish the law. As for the steadiness of 
 price, with which it is hoped to delude them, more of it presently : 
 it seems to be the grand sop, with which they aie to be bribed ; but 
 it must either be a very powerful spell, or they must be 'jolter- 
 heads' indeed to consent, in admitted ignorance of the effect, 
 to abolish the present laws, which work well for the whole com- 
 munity, as its great prosperity proves. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow the editor through his examination 
 of Mr, Solly's evidence, the returns from Dantzig, absurd ideas 
 about the monstrous price to which corn would be raised by our 
 going to buy it, &c. &c. as the reviewer admits what any person of 
 reflection must know, who has ever set foot across the channel, 
 that the moment it was known that we were absurd enough to ruin 
 all our farms, in order that we might send for corn from abroad in 
 future, in many countries, vast tracts of fresh laud would be 
 
 • A nameless annuitant, in a lately published pamphlet, in order the 
 better to deceive the jolterheads, and by a show of liberality strike the more 
 deadly blow at them, has admitted so much truth, that the author lias been 
 induced to reprint a part of it, and it will be found in an Appendix. Tlie 
 gentleman named in it, Mr. Mill, is a great favourite with the reviewers 
 and the new economists: I hope, my lords and country gentlemen, you will 
 not fail to bestow upon him some signal mark of your approbation. You 
 must approve his plan of di<^posing of the land. See App.
 
 15 
 
 broken up, and sown with vvheat. Our foreign trade would per- 
 haps increase, but not in the same proportion as our domestic 
 would decrease. It seems very clear, that from Odessa and several 
 other places, if not wheat, flour at least could be sold in the Lon- 
 don market at a price equalling what could be made from wheat, 
 when under 30s. a quarter,* probably less. The landlords will 
 surely be more wise than to pay any attention to these returns from 
 America, Rotterdam, &,c. in Sec. 38, 40, got up by their enemies, 
 evidently to serve their own purpose. But there is one fact creeps 
 out from the Rotterdam return, well worthy of attention, as it is 
 the admission of an opponent. 
 
 The landlords are told, that steady prices are to be the effect of 
 open ports. The ports of Holland are always open ; and mark how 
 uncommonly well these open ports succeed in keeping the price 
 regular. 
 
 The price at Rotterdam, in 1817, was 93s. a quarter; in 1822 
 not quite 30s., one third ; and in 1824 it was actually under 25s. 
 See Appendix, No. 3. Surely if any thing can open the eyes of 
 the landlords to the nonsense of steady prices, this will do it. 
 Prices can never be made perfectly regular, till the east winds are 
 rendered more mild, mildew prevented, and a fine shower produced 
 every Sunday morning. Carry these points, and then you will 
 have regular prices. The practice of kiln-drying wheat, and storing 
 it in granaries, is more likely to produce regularity of price, than 
 any other device that I have heard of. VV^nehouses are building in 
 many parts of England iti great numbers, and of prodigious size; 
 where it is said, that if wheat be properly dried, it may be kept 
 perfectly sweet and good for eight or ten years, without being 
 moved even once ; that in fact turning it is detrimental : thus all 
 waste and expense is obviated. This seems to put it in the power 
 of a nation, always to prevent any very enormous variation ; at 
 least, to niuke the variation less than it was in the open port of 
 Rotterdam, where it was nearly as great as ever it was, betwixt 
 any two succeeding years within the last twenty-five years in 
 Jtngland. 
 
 The reviewer, in Sec. 38, says, that he has received from a great 
 commercial house at Liverpool, the average prices of wheat Irom 
 1820 to 1824 inclusive. It is uiiloitiinate that he did not procure 
 it finm 1 8 1.5, as he has done in the Rotterdam return in Sec. 40. 
 It seems very probable, as tin; pmls of America must have been 
 open to the Dutch, tlial (Ik; j)rices must have borne a relative pro- 
 portion ni the two eoiintnes ; and that w*- .should have found nearly 
 a similar difference, betwixt the year 1817 and 1822 in America, 
 
 • See Appendix, Nu. 3.
 
 16 
 
 as we find in Holland. I attribute this deficiency in the retuni, 
 not to design, but to inadvertency ; because, if the reviewer had 
 wished to suppress inforniation, he would not have given the Rot- 
 terdam return, by wliich the argument of eqitalitj/ of prices^ so 
 niucli depended on, and which is to be produced by open ports, is 
 proved to be unattainable by tliat measure at least: and the failure 
 of tlie efiect in the open ports of HoUand, proves how dangerous 
 it is for the farmers to risk their very existence on the confident as- 
 sertions of the annuitants and reviewers. Assertions which, in effect, 
 produce to those who make them a great increase of property, are 
 easily made. Persons without any ill intention, easily persuade 
 themselves that those things are expedient, which benefit them- 
 selves. 
 
 The way in which individuals seem to think it their interest to 
 store corn in large granaries, promises to obviate the evil of future 
 very unequal prices in a great degree. If it can be made a source 
 of profit, it is evidently much better that it should be done by indivi- 
 duals, than by the government. If it be not possible to do it any 
 other way, it would be very desirable to do it by large joint stock 
 companies ; but it seems very certain that it may be done one 
 way or another, so as to prevent any ruinous fluctuation of prices. 
 There is one granary lately built near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, the 
 different floors of which afford a space equal to more than an acre 
 of ground. 
 
 In the latter part of Sec. 43, the reviewer seems angry, because 
 the landlords will not believe that the opening the ports will only 
 make a difference of eight or nine shillings a quarter. But they 
 may reply, taking him at his word, if it only make so small a dif- 
 ference, the increase which this will make in the cost of any ma- 
 nufacture, will be so small as scarcely to be perceptible. It will 
 not, probably, raise the price of the lowest priced calico a half- 
 penny a yard, or the highest priced cloth a shilling. 
 
 The fluctuations in the price of corn, see Sec. 44, have not been 
 caused by the restriction on the import of foreign grain ; nor would 
 the removal of the restriction prevent them. They are sometimes 
 caused by the variations of the seasons, causing good or bad crops. 
 When a bad crop comes, making corn dear, landlords know better 
 than to raise their rents, because they know, what the annuitants 
 and manufacturers seem never to know, viz. that though corn be 
 dear, the farmers have less of it to sell. And when an unusually 
 good crop comes, reducing the price of corn, farmers do not think 
 of reducing their rents, because the increase of quantity balances 
 against the decrease of price. 
 
 But sometimes fluctuations are caused by the measures of go- 
 vernmeni, bank restriction acts, &,c. &c. Then, indeed, landlords
 
 17 
 
 raise or lower iheir rents, to endeavour to save themselves from 
 ruin : but restriction on imports has nothing to do with these fluc- 
 tuations. 
 
 In Sec. 45, the reviewer seems to argue, as if, when corn was 
 scarce, it was prohibited by the English law. On the contrary, 
 the moment it becomes too dear, it is admitted. Our regulations 
 have prevented famines, though we have had severe dearths. Italy 
 with its open ports and fine soil and climate, has had a real 
 famine within the last seven years. Great numbers of people ac- 
 tually died on the road-sides of hunger. If our ports were open, 
 after a little time no more corn would be grown in the world than 
 is grown now. The only difference would be, that it would be 
 grown in Poland and America instead of Britain. The desert of 
 Poland would grow into a garden, the garden of England into a 
 desert. It is true what Mr. Tooke says, Sec. 46, that a small va- 
 riation in the supply will create a great variation in price. On this 
 account the newly formed large granaries promise to be peculiarly 
 beneticial; and indeed, to obviate all the difficulty, when combined 
 with several other measures always in our power, whether they be 
 used for home-grown or foreign grain. The permission to bond 
 foreign corn is excellent. The reviewer. Sec. 47, is under a great 
 mistake in saying less corn is not consumed when it is dear : the 
 contrary is the fact ; much less is consumed, and the poor suffer in 
 consequence. 
 
 He is also nearly equally mistaken in saying, that wages do not 
 rise in proportion to the rise in the price of corn, because they are 
 affected only by permanent variations in price. Every day's ex- 
 perience proves that they rise almost instantly. The assertion here 
 made, directly contradicts the assertion made in Sec. 8 ; but these 
 kmd of contradictions aln)ost always take place, where systems 
 and arguments are not on any solid foundation. 
 
 The arithmetical calculation, in Sec. 48, cannot be disputed ; but 
 this is no argument against the Corn Laws : and it may be shown 
 that the days are much more of the halcyon kind, when the farmer 
 is selling his corn cheap in consequence of iraving a double crop. 
 In the f(jrmer, when the crop is bad, he gains a certain smn, with the 
 ill-will of every one about liim ; in tli<; latter he probably gains a 
 larger sum, witli every cue's jjood-will. It is rather hard upon the 
 farmer, that he should be blamed for exertmg himself to cultivate 
 his farm well, and thuii to endeavour, by honest industry, to support 
 his fa!nily,at th(; same time that he is meeting the public necessity. 
 It is not true, see Sec. 4L), that a trilling excess of crop pro- 
 duces a depression in price, greater in proportion than a trilling 
 deficiency of crop produces excess of |)rice : the contrary is ge- 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 nerallv true, because the former case is not attended with un- 
 founded alarm, as the latter almost always is, The surplus pro- 
 duce of our plentiful years piomises to be eft'ectuully provided for 
 by the new granaries building ; and all the ruinous consequences 
 here described to arise from agricultural prosperity, are totally un- 
 known in Britain yet, and always will be, as long as we continue 
 an importing nation. There has not been any distress and throw- 
 ing land out of cultivation, like that described in Sec. 49, 50, ex- 
 cept that caused on the alteration in the value of the currency, by 
 the return to cash payments, &.c. As long as Britain cherishes her 
 agriculture so as to grow nearly enough for her own consumption, 
 the little she wants will probably ahoays be obtained ; but when 
 she ruins all her farms, except a few of the very best, she will find 
 she is liable, as she was formerly, to constant famines, though her 
 population bore no comparison to what it is at this time. The 
 farmers are much obliged to the reviewer for his anxiety displayed 
 for them, in Sec. 49 ; but they are willing to risk the ruin he 
 foresees : they quote to him the old line of Latin, which they learnt 
 at school, ' timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes.' 
 
 The landlords and farmers are also much obliged to Mr. Whit- 
 more for his anxiety for them, lest they should fall into the situ- 
 ation of West India planters, as shown in Sec. 53. If he wish 
 to oblige them still more, he will be kind enough to let them 
 alone. 
 
 There is no doubt, that an improvement might be made in the 
 mode of taking the averages, by increasing the number of places 
 where the prices or sales are registered ; but the landlords ought to 
 be very careful how they allow any alteration, where it is evident 
 that all the improvers are united against them. A few, and a very 
 few instances of fraud or abuse in the mode of taking the averages, 
 have furnished, to the manufacturers and annuitants, a ground for 
 much idle declamation and misrepresentation. And 1 believe that 
 the acts of fraud have been done, if done at all, for the sake of 
 opening, not of shutting the ports, to benefit the fundholders and 
 manufacturers, by reducing the price of grain. 
 
 The extraordinary depreciation in the value of grain, &c. which 
 took place a few years ago, was the effect of a combination of 
 causes, which is never likely to take place again. The change in 
 the value of the currency, by distressing the farmers, obliged them 
 to bring their grain to market, in a manner very different from what 
 was their usual practice. About this time the very proper measure 
 of opening the ports of [reland to England, began to operate with 
 an effect which had not been foreseen ; for in consequence of the 
 previous years of high prices in England, as soon as the ports
 
 19 
 
 were open to Ireland, its farmers, to a very great extent, ploughed 
 up their rich pastures, and thus were enabled to pour an enormous 
 quantity of grain into the English markets. When, to their great 
 disappointment they found, that they had ruined their rich feeding 
 pastures to produce grain which was worth nothing. 
 
 About the same time several years of unusual productiveness 
 came together, in close succession. These causes operating, 
 opened the foreign ports, and thus aggravated the evil ; and the 
 union of then) all, produced the ruinous eflFects with which we are 
 acquainted. But it is evident that these causes can never unite in 
 the same manner again ; and therefore 1 hope that the charitable 
 and humane anxiety of the annuitants, for fear lest the farmers 
 should suffer from the unsteadiness of prices on the side of cheap- 
 ness, has no foundation in truth : at least to the extent to which it 
 was carried in the times of which we have been speaking. The 
 great granaries will, 1 trust, be ready and effectual to receive the 
 overplus of superabundant years, and reserve it for a time of 
 
 scarcity.* 
 
 The project displayed in Sec. 54, shows that the agricultural 
 reviewer is only qualified to farm in Grosvenor or St. James's 
 squares. He is a \ery good man at his pen, but he is not a prime 
 farmer. The greatest part of the corn land could not be con- 
 verted into pasture, but at a very great expense, and with an 
 immense loss. Not so much as a twentieth part of the pre- 
 sent corn lands could be returned to a good sward of grass 
 in less than ten or a dozen years ; and when they were so 
 restored, in cojiseqiience of the free admission of foreign wool, 
 they would be worth by the acre very little more than the land in 
 the neighbourhood of Odessa. As the wool from Odessa, Saxony, 
 8cc. could be brought in almost any quantity ; its supply would 
 be only limiled by the demand. It already competes with our 
 wool, 'I'he clip of the Uuke of Kichlieu and M. Pictct de 
 llochemont, of Oeneva, from their large llocks near Odessa, was 
 worked up by Mr. Gott, at Leeds, within iho last two years, as the 
 author was iiifornicd by M . l*iclct. Before the increase of the 
 population in the factories here contemplated could take place, 
 the agricultural |)opulatiou must be dreadfully reduced. Our 
 villages and rural farm-steads will Jiiake a gratifying appearance 
 under this new system, as not above one house m twenty will be 
 wanted for the shepherds, and not above a twentieth part of the 
 labouring population. The labourers will starve upon cheap corn, 
 and tlie farmers will become the shepherds. 
 
 • Sec a pamphlet on tins subjtct by Kdw. Chorlcy, Esq.; published by 
 Sheaidowii, Duncastcr.
 
 20 
 
 Notwithstanding the unction about tlie happiness of future 
 thousands and millions, in Sec. 55, llic friends of tlie present laws 
 think it as well to attend to the present generation : and it may 
 be an object worthy of deliberation, whether it would not be de- 
 sirable rather to discourage the increase of the factory popu- 
 lation, in such towns as Birmingham and Manchester, than to en- 
 courage it. 
 
 The abuse into which the reviewer has permitted himself to be 
 betrayed, in Sec. 06, only shows the weakness of his argument. 
 The sophisms are all on the side of the reviewer. 
 
 As long as we require only a fourth or a fifth of our food from 
 abroad, on the event of a deficient crop,* there can be little doubt 
 that we shall be always able to meet the difficulty, by means of 
 importation, our'granaries, stopping the distilleries, &,c. ; but this is 
 very difl'erent from what it would be, if we grew only one-fourth, 
 and depended upon strangers for the remaining three-fourths. The 
 arguments against protecting laws, which are urged in the Sections 
 from 56, are all exceedingly good as long as one grand fact is kept 
 out of sight, viz. our excessive taxation. But this fact renders all 
 the reasoning false. Our manufacturers have hitherto beaten fo- 
 reigners by the union of great capital, skill, machinery, &,c. in op- 
 position to the excessive and grinding taxes, necessary to support 
 our expensive government, and pay the annuitant his thirty millions 
 a year. If this thirty millions could be removed, the Corn Laws 
 and all other restrictive laws might safely be removed ; but if the 
 restrictive laws were all taken ofil", and the taxes left as they are, 
 the rent of the land, where any rent was paid, would be instantly 
 transferred to the annuitants, and many of the manufacturers would 
 be ruined. 
 
 In consequence of the late wars, &c. an artificial state of society 
 has been created in this country, on the continuance of which the 
 existence of millions of persons depends. In Sec. 63, you are 
 in fact required, by withdrawing protection from manufactures, at 
 once to destroy this artificial state, in compliance with a theory, 
 without attending to the fact, that this must cause the destruction 
 of millions of human beings. 
 
 In a natural state of society, Mr. Iluskisson's theories are per- 
 fectly true ; but he is most earnestly implored to consider well, 
 whether the obliging this country to return to such a state, will not 
 cost more in human misery, as well as in wealth, than the advan- 
 tage is worth. For many reasons he has been very politic in be- 
 ginning his changes by an attack on the laws relating to the silk 
 
 * See Appendix, No, 2.
 
 21 
 
 trade; but for an equal number of reasons, if he succeed,* it will 
 form an example proper for imitation in very few other instances. 
 Jiut 1 much fear that he will not succeed; but that, after havincr 
 reduced to the lowest stale of misery and distress an inconceivable 
 number of unfortunate operatives, he v,'ill be obliged to retrace 
 his steps. 
 
 The reviewer, Sec. 67, wonders that the continental powers do 
 not refuse to supply us, when our corn rises to 70,s. or upwards: 
 the fact is, unless they be satisfied that they have enough for iheni- 
 selves, they always do refuse, and prohibit its export. If they have 
 any to spare they have no objection to selling it to us, to take our 
 high pnre for it; nor did they ever think of being offended with 
 us for not buying it, as long as our own country could supply it to 
 us, until they were put upon this by our new economists, if indeed 
 they be oft'ended. 
 
 In the latter part of Sec. 67, an attempt is made to frighten you 
 with a prophecy, that encouraging agriculture and endeavouring 
 to grow enough corn for our consumption will cause a famine. It 
 is realiy unnecessary to attempt any reply to it. 
 
 In all former times, the man who made two blades of grass to 
 grow where only one grew before, was held up to view as a public 
 benefactor. Now all at once it is discovered, bi/ the gentlemen of 
 Change Alley, the annuitants, that so far from being a public 
 benefactor, he has been a public enemy. The writer of this is 
 obliged to confess, that he looks back vvith no pleasant sensations 
 now, to the time when he received the large gold medal from the 
 society of arts, by the hand of a royal duke, for the iniprovement 
 of the waste moors upon his property. He then foolishly ima- 
 gined, that when he was converting his personal into real property, 
 to the benefit of his family, he was to all real useful purposes in- 
 creasing the territory of his country, and benefiting mankind. 
 Alas ! he now fiuds, that when he received the gold medal, he only 
 ought to have received a halter. 
 
 The arguments, in Sec. (i8 and 69, may be true in the abstract, 
 and applicable to a country nearly in similar circumstances with its 
 neighbours. I3ut that is not our case. Our fund rent or annuity 
 is ten tunes as gnat as the fund rent of any other country. We 
 pay (iearer for our corn than we ought, in order that we may pay 
 the public annuity. 
 
 It has been proved that the manufacturers pay no taxes, but 
 charge thtm to the j)urclia8ers of their goods ; therefore the argu- 
 
 • Sec Ihralil, Df'c. lith, in2.'>, (or a pdition of llie silk mrimifacturers mid 
 and tlirowslets of Macclesfield to the privv tounril, against tin.* admissiun of 
 foreign wrouglit hjlks.
 
 22 
 
 nuMUs, in Sec. 70. about the burthens on other classes of producers, 
 are evidently all unfounded, except with lespect, perhaps, to those 
 who make goods for foreigners. And here certainly is a difficulty 
 to enable them to undersell foreigners in their own markets. This 
 at first sight appears a difficulty ; but it is so in appearance, not in 
 reality. Nothing is more easy than to show how this is to be 
 removed, provided there be an anxious desire to remove it. 
 
 In the four concluding Sections, from 70, it may be collected 
 that these annuitant review^ers would not wish to ruin the landlords 
 instantly, with all their farmers and dependant little tradesmen, and 
 all their wives and children ; therefore they will consent to a pro- 
 tecting duty of 10 per cent., which, if wheat be about six or seven 
 shillings a bushel, will be about five or six shillings a quarter. 
 They seem to think there is no tax but the tythe tax. Sec. 71. 
 How absurd ! Unwise as the tythe system is, it has, comparatively 
 speaking, little to do with the question. They congratulate them- 
 selves that they have the minister on their side. For the reasons 
 before given, there is much reason to fear that this is true : there- 
 fore, such of you as are landlords have good reason to be on the 
 alert. 
 
 Besides all the other reasons which have been given against the 
 great alteration of the Corn Laws, contemplated by the manufac- 
 turers and annuitants, there is yet one more, of a different kind, 
 which the farming interest has a right to plead, and which cannot 
 be refuted. 
 
 By the cash payment act, all fair rents were reduced at least 
 one-fourth. At the same time, and by the same measure, the 
 property of the annuitant was increased in about a similar pro- 
 portion. By this proceeding a prodigious mass of misery and 
 distress was produced ; many persons being reduced by it to abso- 
 lute ruin. In justification or excuse for this act, it was stated that 
 the national faith was pledged to the annuitant, *' that at peace 
 a return to cash payments should take place." I do not here im- 
 pugn that act, or the arguments by which it was justified : 1 offer 
 no opinion upon them ; but 1 maintain, that the plea of na- 
 tional faith which was used to justify the deduction of one-third 
 or fourth from the property of the landlord, and farmer, to add 
 to the income and saleable capital of the annuitant, ought equally 
 to be open to the use of the landlord, to prevent another third or 
 fourth from being taken from him, and added to the property of 
 the same annuitant. This eff"ect, you cannot deny, would be the 
 immediate consequence of a repeal of the Corn Laws ; for ex- 
 actly as the price of corn is reduced, the value of the fixed annuity 
 is increased. Innumerable are the families of the farmers and 
 landlords, whose parents, on the faith of the existing laws, have
 
 23 
 
 made arrangements by mortgage, jointure, settlements on younger 
 children, &,c. &,c. of such a nature, that by the abolition of 
 these laws, the totalruin of their descendants must be effected. 
 Thousands of cases will be found, where the eldest sons of fa- 
 milies must be ruined by paying the fortunes of their brothers and 
 sisters. Every person under engagement to pay money, must, in 
 realitij, pay much more than what his contract specifies; and for 
 endeavouriiig to prevent this effect, the landlords and farmers are 
 branded for their avarice, and called robbers. Surely, gentlemen, 
 if the plea of national faith be to justify the ruin of thousands of 
 landlords, farmers, and their dependants, to add to the luxury of 
 hundreds of annuitants, the same plea of national faith, when ap- 
 plicable, ought to be permitted to be as available, to prevent the 
 ruin of landlords or tenants — to prevent misery, as to create it. A 
 tirade from the annuitants about starving manufacturers will not 
 refute this argument. Allowing that the manufacturers for foreign 
 consumption are in distress, which is an assertion requiring proof, 
 a way for relieving them may be easily pointed out ; but it is not 
 right that one class of society should be relieved by a measure — a 
 breach of national faith, which ruins a second, and at the same time 
 enormously increases the wealth of a third. 
 
 The Corn Laws were not passed as temporary expedients, but 
 as perpetual laws ; nor was their repeal contemplated when they 
 were passed. All the landed and farming interests in the kingdom 
 have been settled upon the faith of these laws. The national faith 
 is pledged for their continuance to the landlords and tenants, as 
 much as ever it was to the annuitants, for a return to cash pay- 
 ments. Independent of the pleas of justice, humanity, and politi- 
 cal expediency, which are all in favour of the landlords, they take 
 their stand on the broad basis of iialioiia/J'ailh, and they challenge 
 the annuitants and manufacturers to remove them fron) it ; and 
 until by fair argument they be removed, they call upon you for 
 justice and protection. 
 
 There never was a clause in the acts of parliament creating the 
 annuities, stating that at the peace a return to cash payments should 
 take place. It was no part of the contract. Hut it will be said 
 that it was stated in other acts ; and though they did not make it a 
 part of the bargain, yet it was fairly inipiitd and uiukratood. The 
 same argtmient applies in a much stronger digree to the Corn 
 I>aws. It was not doubted that they were to l)e perpetual. The 
 [Jank restriction act was stated to be tempf)rary, because it was 
 intended to be so : the Corn Law was not slated to he temporary, 
 because it was not intended to be so; and the statement in tlie one 
 case, and the omission of such statement in the other, clearly shows
 
 '24 
 
 that it was not intended to be temporary, and justified the farmer 
 in acting; upon its presumed countenance. 
 
 '1 "he Edmburgh llevicw, treating ot" the West India planters, 
 makes a comparison betwixt them and the landlords. He says : 
 
 " The parhament of England never entered into any contract of 
 any description whatever with the planters. They passed certain 
 acts regulating the colonial trade, m the san)e way as they passed 
 acts in relation to any other branch of internal or external policy. 
 Bui it was not stipulated that these acts were to continue in force 
 for any specified time. Every one of them might have been re- 
 pealed the year afier it was enacted : and, in point of fact, many of 
 them have been repealed and others very much modified, without 
 any one ever presuming to say that a contract had been violated in 
 doing so. What should we think, were the landlords to insist that the 
 Corn Law of 1815 was to be viewed in the light of a contract with 
 them, and that parliament was not entitled to repeal or modify that 
 law, without previously comperisating them for any loss they might 
 sustain from its abandonment.'' Would not such a monstrous doc- 
 trine be scouted by every man of sense in the country ? And yet it 
 is not one whit more absurd than the doctrine of those who contend, 
 that we are bound either to continue the colonial monopoly, or to 
 pay the colonists for leave to abandon it. Opinions such as these are 
 not only wholly destitute of any foundation in fact, but they are sub- 
 ersive of every principle of improvement. They would go to 
 eternise the worst errors and absurdities, and are utterly inconsistent 
 with all the ends and objects of government." — Edin. Rev. No. 84, 
 p. 29.J. See also p. 300, line '23. 
 
 The whole argument here is a mass of the grossest sophistry. No 
 one can deny that any of the acts alluded to, might have been repeal- 
 ed : what is there that the parliament might not do if it pleased ? But 
 if on the faith of the laws (though not stipulated for any limited time), 
 a capital has been invested, the parliament has no n)oral right to abro- 
 gate those laws, by which such capital will be destroyed: and although 
 the laws alluded to have been modified, it has never been the object 
 of j)arliament to so modify them, as intentionally to destroy the ca- 
 pital, or even to injure it or its possessors. The same argument is 
 strictly applicable to tlie landlords. It is said that the doctrine held 
 by me is subversive of all iniprovement. The contrary is decisively 
 the fact, anci is well exemj)lified in the case of the author : for he 
 £ertainly would never have improved his estate, for which he got the 
 gold medal, if he had known that the Corn Laws were to be 
 abolished, by which the ntoney he laid out would be thrown away. 
 Who will ever expend any money in improvements on land, or the 
 establishment of manufactures, on the faith of an existing law, if it be
 
 25 
 
 understood that the law is to be altered by Parliament at its mere, 
 pleasure, M'ithout any regard to the interests created on the faith 
 of that same law. ^loreover, the case of the planters differs essen- 
 tially in several important particulars from that of the landlords and 
 farmers, which renders the comparison useless. 
 
 In consequence of a motion of Sir John Sinclair, m the session 
 of 1794-5, tlie House of Commons " tnnoiii/ioiis/i/ resolved, to 
 promote the improvement of the zc'aste and unproductive lands of 
 the coimtri/, as a most essential public advantage." On the faitli 
 of that resolution, unanimousli/ passed, the landlords have ex- 
 pended large sums in improving waste lands ; and without the 
 greatest breach of national faith it cannot be rescinded. 
 
 If the annuitant choose to say, that the Parliament has a right to 
 abrogate the resolulion, if it think it be expedient: ' V^ery well, 
 reply the landlords; then let expediency be the rule:' and 
 away go all Corn Laws and public annuities together. Sauce for 
 a coose, is sauce for a gander. But whatever the fundholdcrs 
 
 Ox O 
 
 may do, the landlords wish for no such sweeping measures ; they 
 only wish the fundholders to enjoy their bed of roses in quietness, 
 and let them, the landlords, alone. 
 
 The landlords wish for no change. But if the annuitants, con- 
 sisting of about 280,000 persons, will insist upon the expedien c Y 
 of a change, i hope you will consider long before you consent to 
 sacrifice the existence of the landlords, farmers and their de- 
 pendant tradesmen and families, to the amount of niillions cf per- 
 sons, in order to support the luxuries of about two hundred 
 and eijihtv thousand annuitants. 
 
 Jt is well known that cheap bread is one of the cries by which 
 the passions of a certain class, who seldom reason, have been ex- 
 cited, not only to raise a great clamour, but to proceed to acts 
 of violence against others. This cry of cheap bread, the periodi- 
 cal press now endeavours to raise in every way in its power. And 
 if its wishes may be judged of by its violence and abusive epithets, 
 it does not seem to care how far it l)e carried. 
 
 An article in the Morning Chronicle, of Nov. Cist, speaking of 
 the landlords, and holding them up to odicmi, ends with the follow- 
 ing sentence: ' And the daring aim of an oligarchy, which, if not con- 
 trolled by public opinion, may provoke the more reckless aru) of 
 popular vengeance.' If Mr. Perry had been alive, he woidd not 
 have committed such an oversight, as to permit a sentence likt; this 
 to find a place in his journal. 
 
 The imceasing attacks made in your House, by the annuitants and 
 manufacturers, on the lan(ilf)rdH, is attended wah very great mjurv to 
 that mtercst ; and through that mterest to the society at large. 'V\nt 
 landlords and farmers are kept in a contmual fever. They know 
 
 D
 
 26 
 
 not how to proceed in any of their concerns. They know not if they 
 sow, who is to reap. All improvements are at an end. All the open 
 unenclosed lands were fast improving into a high state of cultiva- 
 tion : farm houses and cottages were building, and a healthy and 
 a hardy race fast rising, to supply the armies, or man the navies of 
 their country. How different frou) the unfortunate inmates of the 
 much boasted factories ! I But all this is stopped : the common 
 aniuial triliuig repairs of the farms are scarcely executed ; and the 
 labouring poor in consequence are reduced, for want of work, to dis- 
 tress, though corn is now selling for a good and remunerating price. 
 Human nature is human nature, in all classes, and farmers and their 
 labourers are not exempt from its laws and its failings. A farmer 
 says to his labourer, '1 will not expend a shilling till 1 see whether, 
 by act of parliament, I am to be ruined or not. If you want work, 
 you must go to the parish.' Kvery newspaper is full of the re- 
 proaches levelled at the landlords and farmers, for the miserable 
 state of the labourers in agriculture, when these annuitant editors 
 are themselves the primary cause of the distress, by the constant 
 hopes and expectation which they indulge and declare, that you 
 will be prevailed on to comply with their wishes, and carry into 
 effect their zoell-intentioned, perhaps, though most mischievous, 
 theories. Unfortunately, many members of your Houses have 
 given them too much reason to indulge these hopes. 
 
 Crime is generally the produce of misery, vice of prosperity and 
 abundance. This has lately been excniplified in the agricultural dis- 
 tricts, which, it is said, have been more fertile in crime than the ma- 
 nufacturing towns ; the towns, forsooth, where the inhabitants can- 
 not aiiy longer carry on their trade for want of cheap bread. Though 
 the decrease of crime is not so striking a proof of their prosperity, as 
 the increase of the towns, it is as really and as decisive a proof, and 
 affords great reason to believe, that their complaints, *' that they 
 cannot carry on their trade iniless bread be reduced, are un- 
 founded." if the trade should continue in the same distressed state, 
 as they call it, for the next fifteen or twenty years, as that in which 
 it has been for llie last six or seven, Yorkshire will possess the 
 largest city in the world ; for Leeds, ikadford, Halifax, and Hud- 
 derbiield, will be all grown into one city. 
 
 The effects of this state of uncertainty are equally as pernicious 
 to the landlords as to the tenants and labourers. Of course they 
 caiuiot improve their estates ; and if they for any reason wish to sell, 
 they u\uht sell at a very inferior price ; nor can they grant leases 
 upon them. 
 
 If a landlord wish to make a will, and settle his family affairs, he 
 knows not how to proceed. If he provide for his younger chil- 
 dren, by a charge on his land ; if you adopt one line of conduct
 
 27 
 
 (according as his will is made), his eldest son and family will be 
 ruined; if you adopt another, hi' younger thildren have not tiiat 
 given them which is just and equitable. Under ail these circunj- 
 stances, it is surely not unreasonable to hope, ihat by a strong and 
 decisive resolution, you will at once ciush the hopes of these 
 theorists, and set the matter at rest. Surtly if the fundholders 
 succeed in the House of Commons, the nobles of the realm will 
 be found at their posts ; and will extend their faving arm to protect 
 the tenants of the soil, as well as tiieir own families, from the cun- 
 ning of the annuitants, or the equally pernicious ignorance and 
 blindness of the manufacturers, who, by ruining their best cus- 
 tomers, would end in ruining themselves. 
 
 It has been said before that a remedy might easily be pointed 
 out for the difficulties of the manufacturers for foreign consump- 
 tion. In consequence of the enormous annuity, every article used 
 by the manufacturer is so heavily taxed, that it is said that he can- 
 not sell his commodity so cheap as it is sold in France, and other 
 countries. To remove this difficulty, the obvious course is to 
 reduce the annuity ; and this might be done by a direct tax upon 
 all annuities; for the sake of argument, say, of 23 per cent. At the 
 same time the import price of wheat should be reduced to fifty or 
 fifty-five shillings a quarter; or one of the other measuies adopted, 
 which it is known would, in ordinary years, reduce its price in our 
 markets to such sum as may be deemed proper : and the legal 
 rate of interest should be reduced from five to four per cent., if liuy 
 limitation bethought necessary. The tax of twenty-five per cent., 
 upon thirty-two n)illions a year, will raise eight millions ; and of 
 course, eight millions of taxes sliotild be immediately abated. 
 
 In order that a new market ot thirty millions of persons may 
 be opened to our manufacturers, the wine tax ought to be entirely 
 abolished, as well as several others of a similar kind. To give 
 fair play to our barley growers, the lax should be lemoved from 
 malt and malt liquor. "^I'he taxes on the difi'erent kinds of poisons, 
 called spirits, niiglit remain as they aie ; liiey can never be too large. 
 
 It is evident that the annuitant would not lose, as at first he 
 would imagine, a fourth part of his means of support : the fall in 
 the price of wheat, and of every other article, joined to the abate- 
 ment of the taxes, would amply compensate for the nonjinal reduc- 
 tion of his income. 
 
 This measure would imnuiliately bring home almost all our 
 absentees, who now reside for economy in foreign rountries, and 
 who spend there a sum of money inconceivably large.* 
 
 • If after tliis they continued to reside abroad, the tax on tlic funds 
 would operate upon all such as arc fundlioldcr.'-, as an abi'cnti-e Ux.
 
 28 
 
 If this bhoulil be done, the complaints of the fundholders will no 
 doubt be horrible ; but they will be ' vox et praeterea nihil :' and they 
 will cease ;is soon as it is discovered, that in consequence of the 
 abolition of the taxes, and the reduced price of every article of 
 their consun)plioii, they will be able to enjoy all the comforts of 
 life to the full, as well as they did before. Indeed, probably after 
 the first few months, better. 
 
 It is evident that the value of all the stock of tradesmen in hand 
 will be reduced instantly : this will form their fair subscription 
 towards the tax ; and as under these circumstances, Mr. Huskis- 
 son will be able to remove many of the restrictions on foreign 
 trade, in compliance with his new theories, if our tradesmen do not 
 reduce the price of the stock they have in hand, they will be under- 
 sold by foreigners. This will compel them to do what is right.* 
 
 By this means, nearly all smuggling will be prevented, an effect 
 very much to be desired. 
 
 If this be done iumiediately, great numbers of infant manufac- 
 tures on the continent, and in North America, will be nipped iti 
 the bud. When they have got firmly estabUshed, their owners 
 will be very unwilling to discontinue them, and will be desirous of 
 protecting them by restrictive laws. 
 
 Some time ago, the ministers reduced the live and four per 
 cent, annuities; this was a pitiful measure. The reason on which 
 it was grounded was true special pleading. In estimating the tax 
 of twenty-iive per cent, on the annuity, this should be considered as 
 pait of it. The whole measure was cruel, unworthy of a large and 
 enlightened policy ; though certainly, by an argumentuin ad ho- 
 miiiein it n)ay be defended. I would make some amends for this 
 cruel act, by estimating it in the fund tax. It is a very unjust and 
 indefensible thing, to reduce by legislative enactment, the incomes 
 of one class and not of another, if it can possibly be avoided ; no- 
 thing in fact could be more unjust, than to reduce the fives and 
 fours, and leave the threes and other property untouched. 
 
 The ammitant pleads the uatioiial faith ; — that it was expressly 
 stipulated with him, that his annuity should always be paid clear of 
 any deductions or out-payments whatever. ' Very well, say the land- 
 lords; in reply to you we make the same plea. But we wish for no 
 change. VVe only wish the law to remain as it is. We call for 
 
 • It is a constant comjilaint, that the prices of all articles of domestic 
 con.'iijinplion are now nrarly as liigfj as they were during the war, bcfoie 
 the import prices of the dilierent kinds of grain or tlie taxes were reduced. 
 Tlubis true, and is cau=ed by llie comhinations of tlie manufacturers, which 
 they are enahled to carry on by the proiiibitory laws on foreign manu- 
 facture?. If tlie prohihitory laws were repealed, every combination would 
 iubianily die a natural death.
 
 29 
 
 no tax upon you. It is you that call for a tax upon us ; and a tax, 
 the eflfect of which is to ruin us, at the same time that it doubles 
 your annuity. The act for granting your antmity was simultane- 
 ous with the enacting of the Corn Laws. They stand precisely 
 upon the same ground ; only your annuity act was passed on the 
 clearly understood terms, that the Corn Law was to continue, 
 which being the regulator of the value of property, if it be altered, 
 the value of your annuity is altered.' 
 
 Necessity is set up as a plea for this breach of faith with the 
 landlord. Necessity is as imperious in its call upon the annuitant, 
 and may be applied as justly to him as to the landlord. 
 
 The landlord would never have thought of asking for a Corn 
 Law, had it not been for the contracts exacted from the necessities 
 of government by the annuitant. Not content with being paid the 
 usual interest, he exacted on repayment double.* As long as the 
 annuitant kept annually making loans to the government, he was 
 content that the Corn Law should continue ; he had even no objec- 
 tion to the import price being raised. Having now few or no 
 more loans to make, he wishes these laws to be abolished. The way 
 in which he wishes the annuity to be almost doubled, by changing 
 the value of money, (the necessary effect of the abolition of the Corn 
 Law,) is perfectly in keeping with the saving knowledge exhibited by 
 him in contracting, that nearly double should be paid to him on a 
 redemption of the annuity. The prudent care of his own interest 
 is as evident in one case, as in the other. In reply to his plea, 
 that it was stipulated that no tax shouki be laid upon !)im, it is 
 asked. How came he, after the property tax had been imposed, to con- 
 tinue his loans to government i If after the first income tax he had 
 protested against it, and had refused to advance any more money, 
 as he now dues to Spain, he then might have pleaded this with 
 some appearance of consistency : but tlie act of continuing to 
 advance new loans, without making any new objections, proves, 
 wliat he knew well enough, that there was no foundation for his 
 clamour on that subject ; and that the arguments used by Mr. 
 Pitt on that occasion were founded in truth. And it may here be 
 observed, that the contracts made hy the ofiicers of a government, 
 however solennily made, can never hind their successors, so that 
 they shall not yield to tlu; law oi imjicrious iicrcss/ly. if the very 
 existence of a state should at any tune depend upon the breach 
 of a contract betwixt two members of it; are the annuitants pre- 
 pared to say, that the contract nui^t be coniplited, ami the state 
 destroyed ? If the annuitants allige that it must be clearly shown 
 that the consei|utnce will follow before the contract be violated : 
 
 • See Appendix, No. 1.
 
 30 
 
 f Very well, say tlic landlords : we say so too. Show us the conse- 
 quence, and we say, the remedy, the violation of a contract, is with 
 justice as applicable to you as to us. We relied on our Corn 
 Law contract, as you relied on your fund contract, and state ne- 
 cessity cannot justify the violation of one more than the other.' 
 
 The tax (as it has perhaps improperly been called) upon the 
 funds, stated in the proposed plan, is very different from a poor 
 tax, or any other common tax, cither parochial or otherwise. It 
 is, in tact, as accompanied with the change in the Corn Law, &c. 
 not a tax, but an alteration, effected in the nominal value of all the 
 properly in the kingdom ; and if the price of corn be only reduced in 
 its just proportion to the reduction of the annuity, the annuity is in 
 reality not touched : and then the question resolves itself into one, 
 not of principle, but of quantity. Will the annuitant deny that 
 his annuity is doubled if the price of corn and every other article 
 be reduced one half? By the reduction of taxes, and the change 
 ill the value of money, the public annuity has been increased one 
 third at least since the peace. This may account for much of the 
 luxury to be seen in London. 
 
 If you who are ministers succeed, by exerting the influence 
 which every one knows is in your power, when you desire to carry 
 a favourite measure, in passing an act so flagitiously unjust, as the 
 abolition of the Corn Laws ; what line of conduct do you expect 
 the few remaining impoverished old landholders to adopt, in the 
 event of another war ? Do you expect they will be such egregious 
 fools, as to forget the present confiscation, and be gulled by new 
 TEMPORARY Com Laws ? Do you suppose they will be so blind 
 as not to see that the temporary war rise will again be followed 
 by a peace confiscation ? Do you suppose that the new fund land- 
 lords, who will have bought the land of those who will be ruined, 
 will not profit by what they will see has happened to the old 
 ones ? 
 
 Your difficulties betwixt the annuitants and landlords are great 
 no doubt: but you are killing the golden egg-laying goose. Per- 
 haps you will fear that, if you offend the annuitants by this act of 
 justice, they will lend you no more money. They told Pitt so, 
 when he charged them to the property tax ; but they forgave him. 
 And when they find that they have received no injury, they will for- 
 give you. 
 
 Of course if the proposed alterations be made, either in the Corn 
 Laws or the annuity, all the placemen and pensioners are ready 
 greatly to reduce their salaries ; the king and all the royal family, 
 &c. There can be no doubt ; so I say no more about it ! ! ! 
 
 But 1 once more beg you to observe, that the landlords and 
 farmers wish for no change. They are content with their property
 
 3t 
 
 as it is. It is only those who wish to take it from them who wish 
 for a change. 
 
 With respect to the manufacturers, nothing can be alleged 
 against them; and if it be tuue, as they say, that they cannot 
 sell their manufactures in the foreign market, on account of the 
 nominal difference in the value of money here and in foreign parts, 
 they are deserving of every consideration. Their existence ought 
 not to be sacrificed, because the annuitants exact the last penalty 
 of the bond (like old Shylock), wrung from the necessity of the 
 government, — extorted irom the government in its distress. How 
 far will the annuitant go ? will he choose to see all the manufac- 
 turers and their wives and children starve, rather than adopt the 
 proposed plan — a plan which it is proved cannot injure him, but in 
 the execution of which he can only say that he fears some slight in- 
 convenience ? His plan, it has been shown (to say the least), 7naj/ 
 totally ruin all the landlords, farmers, and little tradesmen depend- 
 ing upon them. He must admit that the other plan here proposed, 
 taken to its utmost extent, cannot, by any human possibility, injure 
 him to the amount of one-fourth of his income ; as he surely will 
 not be hardy enough to say, that he will not be benefited by lower- 
 ing the price of bread, and by taking off eight n)ilIions of taxes. But 
 it has been proved that the plan of the annuitants certainly will, 
 not may, ruin all the landlords, &,c. Then, under all these circum- 
 stances, will you, my Lords and Gentlemen, permit the annuitants to 
 plead the letter of the bond, tc> the ruin either of the landlords, &,c. 
 or the manufacturers f Will you see the farmers, the little trades- 
 men, the manufacturers, their wives and children starving, and the 
 country converted into a desert, in order that the annuitant may 
 have the whole penalty of his bond ? But this is not a fair state- 
 ment, it ought t J be said ; in order that he may be |)ermitted to 
 prevent a measure, absolutely essential to the good of the whole 
 country, and no ways injurious to himself, to gratify a punctilious 
 adherence to the letter against the spirit of his contract. It is re- 
 peated, against the spirit, because it has been shown that he will 
 not be injured by the measure. 
 
 The manufacturers act very unwisely in joining the annuitants 
 against the landlords. Good policy wonlil assuredly point out to 
 them to join the latter, to compel the annuitants to do what is right 
 and expedient for the good f)f the whole community. An igno- 
 rance of the true bearing of the (piestion cini be the only excuse for 
 their conduct ; and it is probably the real reason of it, aided by x\\v. 
 circun)slance, that many of then leaders, on whose opinion they 
 depend, are stock-huldeis, and know that their proj)Obed pi in 
 would raise th 3 Blocks enormously, ai;d enable them to buy the 
 land for an old song.
 
 32 
 
 In the proceeding here pointed out, it seems very possible to 
 rec:iilatc the tax on the annuitant in proportion to the price at 
 which grain is admitted, so as to reduce the nominal capital of each 
 in the same proportion. And these two form the great leading in- 
 terests of the country. It cannot be denied that if a reduction be 
 made in the nominal value of all the property of a nation ; in fact 
 none are injured. Every class keeps its relative situation in socie- 
 ty, lint if the measure stop here, there is one class yet remaining, 
 M'ho will gain a very great and unfair advantage, and that is the 
 class of persons living on the interest of money. This has already 
 been reduced from 5 to 4 per cent. ; so that they would experience 
 no present inconvenience : but on the repayment of the principal 
 the debtor ou2,ht to be allowed to make such deduction fron> the 
 principal as the legislature should think right; a due and just re- 
 gard being had to the reduction of the nominal value of tlie property 
 of all the other classes. The same line of conduct ought to be 
 adopted in all other cases, betwixt debtor and creditor ; the same 
 general rule would be applicable to all. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the manifold advantages 
 which the execution of this plan would produce to the country. 
 If all its parts were properly and siu)ultaneously put in force, no 
 human being would be injured by it.* The National Debt would 
 be reduced one-fourth. The power of the sinking fund, if it were 
 thought proper to continue it, would be greatly increased, at the 
 same time that the hands of government would be strengthened in 
 the event of another war, and the manufacturers would be able to 
 afford their goods to foreigners at a reduced price. 
 
 If any arrangement should be thought necessary with regard to 
 money owing to foreigners, it is of too small importance to be per- 
 mitted to prevent a great national object; and would not be attended 
 with any great difficulty. With respect to the plan here proposed, it 
 may be observed, that it is totally independent of the arguments 
 against the alteration of the Corn Law ; and is only proposed, to 
 meet the objection of the manufacturers, and to show tliatit may, if 
 well founded, be met without the sweeping ruin proposed by them 
 and the annuitants. 
 
 * Some years ago a pamphlet was published by a gentleman of the name 
 of Mushet, which proved that by the depreciation ot money, the annuitant 
 was a great loser, and that he did not make up the loss until the year 1821. 
 Very well : grant all this gentleman says, and take him on his own ground; 
 the loss was then made up, the accovmt was balanced ; and of course every 
 year since that lime the change in the value of the money must have been 
 putting large sums into the pocket of the annuitant. It is only named here 
 that he may not set up any plea of previous loss and hardship by the depre- 
 ciation.
 
 33 
 
 I shall trouble you with but one more observation. It is very 
 certain that if the Corn Law be abolished, or the price of com 
 very greatly reduced, by any legislative measure whatever, if 1 be 
 correct in the eft'ects which 1 contend will be the consequence, 
 the mischief will be completed past all redemption ; it can never be 
 repaired. It will be impossible for you to retrace your steps. On 
 the contrary, the plan which I recommend is perfectly simple in its 
 machinery, and easy in its execution ; and if it should be found to 
 fail, or not answer expectation, it will be easy for you almost en- 
 tirely to retrace your steps, and return nearly to your former situa- 
 tion. The deduction of one-fourth from the income of an an- 
 nuitant, even in the worst case, could not be attended with ruin, 
 like that which the contrary course vrould entail upon the farmers 
 and landlords. 1 now conclude with the expression of a confident 
 hope, that you will see clearly that it is your duty to protect the 
 landlords, farmers, and the innumerable little tradesmen depending 
 jpon then), and that from the performance of this duty you will not 
 be deterred or overawed by the clamors or threats of any per- 
 sons whatever. 
 
 GODFREY HIGGINS. 
 
 20, Keppel Street, Russell Square, 
 25th January, 1826.
 
 34 
 
 APPENDIX, No. I. 
 
 If the question at issue were sim|)ly between wliat is called the agri- 
 cuilnral and the commercial interests, that is, if tlieqnestion were, whether 
 Me shouUI have rich landlords, and poor merchants and manufacturers, 
 or rich mercliants and manufacturers, and poor landlords, I should say, 
 decidedly, that it was our interest to keep our landlords rich at the ex- 
 pense of the others. We know from experience, as well as from indis- 
 putable authority, that " wherever a man's treasure is, there will his heart 
 be also.'' A landlord's treasure must be in England, and all his interests 
 and affections must be bound up in her prosperity, however mistaken he 
 may be in his views of what is conducive to that prosperity. A mer- 
 chant's treasure is all over the world ; he therefore does not give to 
 England his undivided affections. " The little I know," said Lord 
 Chatham, in his speech during the debate on the Falkland Islands, " has 
 not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the monied 
 interest; I mean that bloodsucker, that muckworm, which calls itself the 
 friend of government, that pretends to serve this or that administration, 
 and may be purchased on the same terms by any administration ; that ad- 
 vances money to government, and takes especial care of its own emolu- 
 ments." In our own days, Mr. Canning, a statesman, second only to Lord 
 Chatham, says, " we well know that at this moment there is scarcely a 
 power in Europe that is not collecting, from the capitalists of Great Bri- 
 tain, the sinews of war; there is scarcely a single power that does not 
 look for resources to the exchequer of our exchange. We are all aware 
 that our monied men lend indiscriminately to all parties, and those who 
 are now ' the captains' captains, the true lords of Europe,' are furnishing 
 arms to those who are contending against each other. Therefore let me 
 not he told that I may look for security in the morality of our money 
 lenders. No, no. let Ferdinand himself, to-morrow, show signs of strength, 
 and a det<'rminati(in to fit out an armament, and the troops and fleets of 
 Spain, raised by British ca|»ital, will sail from your ports to strangle infant 
 liberty in South America. I defy you to prevent it, and I defy you to 
 show any thing, in the morality of late pecuniary transactions, to insure 
 you ajjainst such an event." Mr, Russell gives the same testimony in his 
 Tour tiirough Germany, vol. i. p. 52. " Frankfort," he says, " in conse- 
 quence of her commercial relations, is so thoroughly under foreign in- 
 fluence, and so polluted by a mixture of all foreign manners, that her po- 
 pulation can lia.dly ',e said to ha-c a character of their own. Even the 
 multifarious connexions with all ends of the earth, which have made her 
 citizens, in a manner, citizens of the world, have unfitted them to be Ger- 
 man citizens, for they judge of the happiness of mankind by the rate of 
 exchange. Let no one hastily condemn the worthy citizens of Frankfort,
 
 3.5 
 
 for thus forgetting, in the pursuits of the merchant and money spccula(«u, 
 the interest of their country; or at least before proiiouncinj;: his dooiu on 
 their imagined selfishness, let him study the ports of London, or Liver- 
 pool, or Bristol, and discover, if he can, a purer foundation for English 
 mercantile patriotism."' 
 
 During the last war in Canada, the American and English armies were 
 in sight of each other for a consideraltle time, and neither could move for 
 •want of money. The English general applied to the English merchants 
 for some dollars, offering an enormous interest for the loan on the part of 
 government. I'he merchants demanded a still higher interest : the aid- 
 de-camp, afraid to agree without fresh orders, rode back to the general. 
 While he was gone, the American general offered to the English mer- 
 chants the interest they required, and he obtained the money. Tlie 
 American army was the first in motion to attack the English by means of 
 the money obtained from English merchants. During the former part of 
 the American war, it was very well known that English money was lent 
 to the government of the United States to carry on the war with this 
 country. 
 
 The ignorance of land-owners, and their want of liberal principles upon 
 the subject of the Corn Laws, is a favourite theme of declamation in 
 every assembly of" lean, unwashed artificers," from the common council 
 of the city of London, down to the lowest town parish vestry. One man, 
 ■who assumes to himself the character of being a great doctor in political 
 economy, has had the infatnation to write, " let all the industrious classes 
 combine against their great enemy the landholder. The landliolders con- 
 duce nothing to the prosperity of the country. Nay, one of the most distin- 
 guished of our political economists, (Mr. Mill) alarmed at the increase of 
 the share of the produce of the soil which falls to the owner, a share which 
 grows with the numbers of the pcjople, actually proposes that the present 
 rents should be fixed, and made a perpetual rent-charge on the lands, fur 
 the benefit of the owners of the soil ; but that the state should be entilUd 
 to all future increase of rent, which should be applied to the benefit of the 
 community." When such absurdities are gravely set forth, it cannot be a 
 matter of surprise that the science of political economy, still in its infancy, 
 should excite the alarms of the timid, and the ridicule of the wise All 
 boiences must have their satellites of empirics; and althon^h llie ignorant 
 will draw from the latter arguments for suppressing the difiusiou <<f know- 
 ledge altogether, the true remedy is only t(j 1)C found in the wider incul- 
 cation of bettor principles. TJKtt the landlords have atKixatrd a uiomo- 
 poly of corn is but too true; but beluru the " gentlemen in the <oiiiu)crciiiI 
 and manufacturing interest" presume to lecture them, it would be well if 
 they would point out one instanre, wlierclhej have giv< u u|i a monopoly, 
 in which they were themselves interested, until it was wrung Iroin I hem. 
 Have the common council of the city of London ever UKinifcstcd the 
 slightest disposition to ubandmi one point of their absurd and noxious 
 privileges? Are the merchants, who have Ihc management of tin- bank of 
 Ilngland, willing to rrnouucc tlicir monopoly of unstanip<d pioniissory 
 notes, for the engagements of wlinh, millRT their persons nor ihcir pro- 
 perties are answerable? Did not all clus8«;s, conne«-led wilh the Mast 
 India Comp.iny, «ling witli inveterate obslinary to their monopoly «)f the 
 wholf! tratle with Asia, in (lrli;ine«; r)r reason, justice, Inets, and snliseipicnt 
 experience? J)oes not tiie whole West Indian body riiaintiiin the ri;;lii of 
 the planters to the m<Mioi)oiy of .•'tigar, ami to be le>;alise(l Irudeis in hu- 
 man blorxl ? Did not every i\nnn of manutacttirem nssnil the miiiij^ters this 
 last year willi |p« lilions, llial fn ( dom ol Iradc might not l.f e\ tended 
 to the commodities uilh wliitntlM-^ wejc cunctrned/ Kilu.-i. U« Is Lo
 
 35 
 
 an, (au(i iliey are umlter ut' luulciiiabic iiotuiiely,) it is uot to be wuiidcred 
 at tliiit tlio lundlords I't-t'l indigtiuiit iit tlio false pretences to lilierality ad- 
 vanced by the merchanls and manufacturers on tlie subject «tf th(! corn 
 trade ; since it is perfectly obvious ibat, wliethcr liberal or illiberal, just 
 or unjust, wise or unwise, beneficial or pernicious, to (he country at largo, 
 it is their own personal advantage alone which instigates their complaints. 
 A loan-contractor, a stock-jobber, a merchant, or a manufacturer, can 
 transport himself any where, and be as much at home in one country as in 
 another. Not so the landlord, and those employed in the cultivation of the 
 land. It is in these only, therefore, that the permanent strength of the 
 country resides; and it is to these oidy that the honour of the country can 
 with safety be confided; and consequently of all the classes of the Jiri- 
 tish community this is the last whose interests ought to be lightly sacri- 
 ficed for the advantage of the rest. 
 
 APPENDIX, No. II. 
 
 The annuitant in his letter to G. H. Sumner, Esq. printed for Ridgway, 
 1S25, from which the preceding extract No. 1. is taken, informs us that the 
 grain grown and consumed in the United Kingdom is estimated at forty mil- 
 lions of quarters. Well, this is very good ! We now shall come at some- 
 thing tangible, on the unquestionable united authority of this great annui- 
 tant, and the Edinburgh Encyclopedia Brit. The Edinburgh Review, No. 
 LXXXI. p. 62, note, tells us, that wheat on an average of eight places, 
 weighs above 561bs. a bushel, Winchester ; therefore if the crop be deficient 
 one-fourth, or ten millions, we shall want at least two million tons of 
 shipping to supply us from foreign countries. But as all grain will not 
 weigh so much as wheat, we will strike off a fourth ; then we shall want 
 one million and a quarter of tons. 
 
 This great annuitant also tells us, we are in the United Kingdom twenty 
 millions of people. Now we will suppose each eats two pounds a day : 
 that will give a year 6,517,857 tons. The soldiers are allowed one pound 
 of bread and three quarters of a pound of meat; therefore for this and 
 other reasons, we will take from this a third, and then we shall have 
 4,000,000 tons; and if we are deficient one-fourth we shall require a mil- 
 lion tons of shipping. But if we follow the advice of the.se good econo- 
 mists, and by ruining our farms contrive to grow only one-fourth, and want 
 tiircc-fourtbs, then three million tons of shipping ONLY will be wanted. 
 I hope his majesty will be prepared to resign his fleet on Virginia water; 
 surely every cockboat will be wanted. The pleasure boats in your parks 
 wiM oil b» wanttd.
 
 37 
 
 APPENDIX, No. III. 
 
 " The following is the report of the prices of wheal in several foreign 
 ports, published by order of the House of Commons, und signed by the 
 British residents, for the year 1824. 
 
 s. 
 . 20 
 
 Dantzig 
 
 Embden 
 
 Hamburg 
 
 Amsterdam 
 
 Antwerp 
 
 Palermo 
 
 Rotterdam 
 
 17 
 20 
 21 
 
 d. 
 
 Oi 
 
 
 
 Oi 
 
 2 
 
 27 11 
 16 5i 
 24 
 
 fit is to be observed that the quality of the Dantzig wheat is very su- 
 perior to any in the London market, in a degree (according to some) 
 equal to the cost of f relight. \ 
 
 " Perhaps iMr. Wiiitniore will show how a duty of twelve shillings, or 
 of twcnfy-lour, will ])rotect us against such prices." 
 
 Letter to Mr. Huskisson, published by Ridgway, 1825.
 
 38 
 
 [Reprinted from tlie Westminster Review, No. VI.] 
 
 A Letter on the F resent State and Future Prospects of 
 Agriculture. Addressed to the Agriculturists of the 
 County of Salop, By W. W. Whitmore, Esq. M. P. 
 Second Edition, with some Additions. Hatchard 
 and Son. 1823. pp. 111. 
 
 Observations on the Existing Corn Laws, By John Hays. 
 London: Richardson. 1824. 
 
 1. If the task of the philosopher and of the philanthropist were at 
 an end, when the threat truths which he teaches have been once demon- 
 strated, and their bearings upon the great interests of mankind once 
 pointed out, it might appear superfluous to return, at the present day, to 
 so hackneyed a subject as the impolicy of our Corn Laws ; for, after 
 the thorough sifting which this question has repeatedly undergone, and 
 particularly after the very able manner in which it has so frequently 
 been handled in the Edinburgh Review, it would be vain for us to 
 hope that we could add any thing to what is known on the subject; 
 and we can scarcely aspire even to the humbler praise of presenting in 
 a new light that which is already known. We shall not, however, 
 be deterred from calling the attention of the public once more to so 
 important a subject, because it may be that we shall say nothing which 
 they have heard before. It is not enough that they should be made 
 to think on the subject; they must be made to think of it continu- 
 ally; there must be "line upon line, and precept upon precept;" 
 and it will then be time to think that enough has been said, when that 
 which has been said shall have begun to be acted upon. We are far, 
 indeed, from supposing, that among the enlightened and thinking part 
 of the public, there are, or will ever be hereafter, two opinions on the 
 question : and if we now revert to the subject, it is not with any hope 
 of rendering their conviction stronger than it is, but because, in order 
 to triumph over the prejudices of the interested and the ignorant, it is 
 necessary that those who are without prejudice should proclaim their 
 opinions with a loudness and perseverance which msiy overawe those 
 whom they cannot hope to convince. 
 
 2. There is one part of the argument, however, which, at this time 
 of day, we hope and believe that we may safely omit. It will scarcely, 
 we imagine, be any longer deemed necessary to demonstrate the be- 
 neficial tendency of free trade in general, or to prove that it is for the 
 interest of a nation to purchase its commodities where they are cheap, 
 and not where they are dear. Self-evident as this proposition may 
 appear, it is one of the most modern of all modern discoveries, and has 
 had to make its way against all the resistance which strong interests 
 and still stronger prejudices could oppose to it. It lias made its way, 
 however ; and has penetrated even to the cabinets of ministers, usually
 
 39 
 
 the last retreat of thread-bare and discarded errors. Aud, unless the 
 honorable member for Sussex be an exception,* we are not aware that 
 there is now any one who stands up for the principle of monopoly in 
 the abstract, or maintains that a nation can grow rich by paying a 
 high price for its goods. It is something gained for enlightened prin- 
 ciples, that every one should acknowledge freedom to be the general 
 rule, though almost every one should make an exception in his own 
 favour. 
 
 3. Two things, therefore, may be assumed ; that it is desirable that 
 commodities should be cheap ; and that the sure way to have them 
 cheapest, is to let the public buy them wherever they please. It may 
 likewise be assumed, that the effect of the Corn Laws is, to make 
 corn dear ; since this is the sole purpose for which they exist, and is 
 necessarily implied in every defence which can be set up for them. It 
 remains to be considered, what reason there is why that which would 
 be an evil in the case of any other commodities, should, in the case 
 of corn, be regarded as a good ; or, if it be an evil, by what prepon- 
 derant benefit the evil is compensated. 
 
 4. It is compensated by that which, in the eyes of the landlords, is 
 a benefit far outweighing the evil to the community — high rents. 
 That whatever raises the average price of corn, raises rent, is a pro- 
 position so conformable to ordinary ideas, that we are under no 
 inducement to spend much time in proving it. A rise in the price of 
 corn must evidently redound to the benefit either of the farmer or of 
 the landlord. But the farmer is effectually prevented, by the com- 
 petition of other capitalists, from obtaining more than the ordinary 
 profits of stock. The benefit, therefore, of the increase of price can 
 belong to nobody but the landlord. Or, more shortly, rent is all that 
 portion of the produce of the soil which remains after replacing the 
 capital expended, together with the ordinary profit : and this surplus 
 must obviously be greater when corn is dear (the quantity of corn 
 being the same) than when it is cheap. 
 
 .'j. So far, then, the question, Ijetwecii the people on the one side 
 and the laiidlonls on tlic other, would ap|)(ar to hv this — whether it 
 is better that the landlords should submit to a reduction of rent, or 
 that tin- whoh' people of (irtat Hiitaiii should pay a high price for 
 their corn ; whether, in short, the landlords can make out a case for 
 taxing the coniinunily to |)ut money in their pockets? And this, ils 
 being the aspect of i\u- (piesli<in most favorable U) tlu; landlords, is 
 that which we shall first consider. 
 
 (). The lant.Mia^e whic h we usually hciir from the landlords on this 
 question is not remarkaldy definite or precise, and presents littU: that 
 
 * Sec iMorninp; Chronicle for M;iy 'i'^d, lU2t.— "In this measure" 
 (the bill fur (icrmiuiuf; llic e.xiiort.ilinu of woul), " and in ihc consccpiences 
 it was calculated to produce, he fMr. Curleis) saw the first fruits of tlie 
 new philohOjihy of true trade, at the slirinc of which they were all called 
 upon to flow down and worship, but to winch he was determined to uflFcr no 
 incense."
 
 40 
 
 is tangible in tlio form of a reason why their inttrest vhouhl be pre- 
 ferred to that of the public at large. Instead of proving (what their 
 language implies) that rich landlords are more conducive to the hap- 
 piness of the community than cheap corn, they talk vaguely about the 
 necessity of protecting agriculture : thus endeavoring to make the 
 public forget that this idol called agriculture, when narrowly in- 
 spected, proves to be no other than themselves. This artifice of 
 identifying themselves with an abstract term is not without example. 
 When the Roman Catholic priesthood attempted to establish their 
 supremacy over the civil power, they said it was for the good of 
 religion : it was for the good of nobody but themselves. If Fer- 
 dinand the 7th is to be believed, it is for the sake of social order 
 that he is now laboring to clear his country of all the educated part 
 of its inhabitants : and indeed so it is in his sense of the word, which 
 makes social order synonymous with his own despotism. It might, 
 perhaps, be admitted, that the Corn Laws are beneficial to the 
 landlords ; but in what sense they can be said to be beneficial to 
 agriculture, unless the landlords be agriculture, it is not easy to see. 
 The artifice, however, is not without its use : " Protect agriculture," 
 has a better sound than " Give me your purse :" and many a man 
 will readily do for the " protection of agriculture," that which he 
 would have hesitated to do for the mere purpose of enriching the land- 
 lords. 
 
 7. There is a fallacy involved in the phrase " protection to agri- 
 culture," which it is of the utmost importance that the public should 
 fully understand. Under the words, " agTiculture," and " agricul- 
 tural interest," are included not only the landlords, but the farmers, 
 a class whose gains are of an entirely different nature from those of 
 the landlords, and are governed by different laws. The exclusion of 
 foreign corn may be, and probably is, beneficial to the landlords, 
 though, we think, not to so great an extent as has been supposed. 
 But so far is it from being beneficial to the farmers, that there is no 
 class to whom it is more, and few to whom it is equally, injurious. 
 Not only is the interest of the farmers not the same with that of the 
 landlords, but no two interests are more diametrically opposite. 
 
 8. There is no fact in political economy better established than the 
 tendency of every tax on the necessaries of life, to produce a rise of 
 wages. We do not mean that it adds any thing to the comforts and 
 enjoyments of the laborer ; on the contrary, its ultimate effect is al- 
 most infallibly to diminish them, since by reducing the rate of profit, 
 it retards the accumulation of capital, on which the demand for labor 
 wholly depends. The laborer, however, is not benefited, and the 
 capitalist is injured ; the laborer continues to receive the same quan- 
 tity of commodities, or, as it has been sometimes called, the same 
 real wages as before; for the tax, though it affects the future accu- 
 mulation of capital, does not alter its present amount, and it is upon 
 the present amount of capital (as compared with population), and not 
 upon its future accumulation, that wages depend. While, however, 
 the laborer continues to receive the same quantity of necessaries at
 
 41 
 
 before, corn (the most important of tliose commodities) has risen in 
 value. He must, therefore, receive a greater value, in order to com- 
 mand the same quantity : his money "washes must rise. The manufac- 
 turers and other capitalists are thus compelled to give a greater value 
 to their laborers, without having a greater value for tiieraselves. They 
 are, therefore, obliged to forego a portion of their profits. And thus 
 we see that a high price of corn, which is a cause of high rent, is a 
 cause of low profits. It is as prejudicial to the capitalist as it is be- 
 neficial to the landlord. 
 
 i). The farmer, however, is a capitalist, and his gains cannot be 
 permanently greater than those of other capitalists. Unless during 
 the currency of a lease, he has no interest whatever in high prices, 
 because competition will effectually prevent him from deriving more 
 than a very temporary advantage from them. Ho has, iiowever, in 
 common with all other capitalists, a very strong interest in high pro- 
 fits ; and it is not possible that profits should be high when a great 
 value is given to the laborers. 
 
 10. A high price of corn, therefore, not only is not beneficial to 
 the farmer as such, but it is positively injurious to him. He is in- 
 jured in two ways : first, as a consumer of corn, in common with the 
 rest of the community, by having to consume a dear instead of a cheap 
 commodity; and, secondly, he is injured, in a still greater degiee, as 
 an owner of capital, by being compelled to give higher wages to all 
 the laborers whom he employs. 
 
 11. Having provtd the Corn Laws to be injurious to all the rest of 
 the community, and beneficial to the landlord alone, we might here 
 close our remarks, since this alone, had we nothing else to urge, is of 
 itself sufficient to decide the question. For if, in any case, the |)rin- 
 ciple could be admitted of taxing the whole community for the benefit, 
 of a particular class, the landlords assuredly are not that class. To 
 the public, collectively speaking, it is of very little c<)nse(|ncnce 
 whether rent be high or low. IJut it is of the greatest importance! to 
 the public in general, that profits should be high. l*rofits are the re- 
 wanl of the industrious — rent, of the idle. It is the rate of profits 
 which constitutes the indiicenicnt to accumulation, and, whatever be 
 the advantage of a rapid accumulation, the advantage ot" hiirh profits 
 is the same. Hut it is on flu accuniulalion of capitiil thai tlic ad- 
 vancement of tin; national we.ilth is wli<»lly depen(l;in1. A jioiicy, 
 therefore, which consists in lowering profits for the purpose of raising 
 rents, must be, at best, of very «loul»tt'uI expediency. 
 
 12. ir, however, there were nolliini; in the wliole process liul a 
 transfer; if whatever is lost l)y the consumer and l»y (he (ii|iilalist 
 were gained by the landlord ; there miirht berobb'-ry, but there would 
 not ))e wasti' ; there niiuht be a worse di>^tril)ulii>ii n\' the national 
 wealth, b\it there would be no posilivt- diniiniilioii of its ag'^re^ah" 
 amount. The evil of the ('orn I^aws admits not even of this allevia- 
 tion : they occasion in all cases an absolute loss, greiitly exceeding 
 the gain which «an be derived from theiu l)y the reieivers of rent ; 
 and for every |K)1uh1 which finds its way into the p<jcket,s of the lund- 
 
 F
 
 42 
 
 lords, in consequence of the Corn Laws, the comnunuty is robbed of 
 several. 
 
 13. Rent, it must be remembered, is only a part of the total pro- 
 duce of the soil, on many lands only a small part. There are some 
 lands which yield no rent ; there are many winch yield very little ; 
 and even on the best of all, the rent, probably, does not greatly exceed 
 one half of the produce. 
 
 14. Now, without disputing that it is the effect of the Corn Laws 
 to give to the landlord a greater quantity of corn, as well as to en- 
 hance its value, it must be remembered that all which he receives is 
 still no more than a part; another part is a})propriated to the payment 
 of laborers, a third to the maintenance of agricultural cattle and the 
 purchase and repair of instruments of husbandry, a fourth is reserved 
 for seed, and a fifth belongs to the capitalist as his profit. The in- 
 crease in the cost of the production of corn, which is the consequence 
 of the Corn Laws, operates to the benefit of the landlord only in so 
 far as it goes to enhance the value of that portion of the produce 
 which he receives as rent. Could all the rest of the produce retain 
 its former value, and that portion alone rise which is paid to the land- 
 lord, the gain to him would exactly equal the loss to the rest of the 
 community. While, however, it is only from the rise in the value of 
 a portion of the produce, that the landlord derives any benefit, it is 
 necessary, in order to the rise of that portion, that the whole should 
 rise. It is necessary that an increased price should be paid, not only 
 for that portion of the produce which goes to the payment of rent, 
 but also for that far greater portion which goes to replace the capital, 
 and pay the profits, of the farmer. 
 
 15. The able author of the article " Corn Laws and Trade," in 
 the Supplement to the Encycloptedia Britannica, estimates the total 
 rent of all the land in the country, compared with the total produce, 
 at one-fifth. Let us make a liberal concession to our antagonists, and 
 take it at one-third. In order then that the landlord may obtain an 
 extra price for a single third of the produce ; the purchasers, not only 
 of that third, but of the other two-thirds, are compelled to pay that 
 extra price for every quarter of corn which they consume ! 
 
 1(5. What, then, it may be asked, becomes of the extra price, 
 which is paid by the consumers of the two-thirds ? It does not go to 
 the laborer ; for though he receives a greater value, his condition not 
 only is not improved, but, in most cases, it is ultimately deteriorated. 
 It does not go to the farmer ; for he, as we have seen, instead of gain- 
 ing any thing, sutlers, in two ways ; as a consumer of corn, and as a 
 payer of wages. What, then, becomes of it? We answer, it is entirely 
 swallowed up in the increased expenses of cultivation. By the effect of 
 the Corn Laws, a portion of the labor and capital of the country is 
 diverted out of a more into a less advantageous employment : a quan- 
 tity of labor is employed in growing corn, which would otherwise 
 have produced, not only cloth, or hardware, sufficient to purchase the 
 same quantity of corn in the foreign market, but much more. That 
 corn which could be obtained abroad, in exchange for the produce of
 
 43 
 
 the labor of 100 men, is corajKjUed to be produced at home, by tliat 
 of 120, 130, or 140; the labor of 20, 30, or 40 men in every ioo is 
 expended in pure waste, and all which they miaht have produced is 
 entirely lost to the community. The consumer is taxed, not only to 
 give a higher rent to the landlord, but to indemnify the farmer for pro- 
 ducing, at a great expense, that corn which might be obtained from 
 abroad at a comparatively small one. 
 
 17. If the landlords were to require, that the whole people of 
 Great Britain should contribute a certain sum annually in direct taxes 
 for their benefit, who is there that would not raise his voice against so 
 impudent a demand '! Yet this would surely be a much more modest 
 request, than that, in order to put a certain annual number of pounds 
 sterling in their pockets, the people of Great Britain should consent 
 to pay three, four, or five times as many. 
 
 18. We seriously propose, therefore, as a great improvement on the 
 present system, that this indirect tax should be commuted for a direct 
 one; wiiich, if it still gave an undue advantage to the landlords, 
 would, at least, give them this advantage at a smaller cost to the 
 public : or that the landlords should make an estimate of their proba- 
 ble losses from the repeal of the Corn Laws, and found upon it a 
 claim to compensation. Some, indeed, may question how far they 
 who, for their own emolument, imposed one of the worst of taxes upon 
 their countrymen, are entitled to compensation for renouncing advan- 
 tages which they never ought to have enjoyed. It would be better, 
 however, to have a repeal of the Corn Laws, even clogged by a 
 compensation, than not to have it at all ; and if this were oiir only 
 alternative, no one could complain of a change, by which, though an 
 enormous amount of evil would be prevented, no one wouM lose. 
 
 19. We have hitherto taken it for granted, that the effect of the 
 Corn Laws is, to force the cultivation of inferior soils; and that, 
 therefore, if those laws were repealed, we should become a regularly 
 importing country, our lowest soilswould be thrown out of cultivation, 
 and the cost of production, and consccpiently, the average price, would 
 be lowered. \\ ^' have assumed this, b('c:ause we believe it to bi- true; 
 although the contrary opinion is maintained in a very able article in 
 the eighty-first number of the IMinhurnh Keview. 
 
 20. Thouuh it were conceded to the I'.dinburuh Reviewer, that if 
 the j)orts were constantly open, tlie av«ran(" price oi wheal would not 
 fall short of ()0«. p<'r (piarter ; arguments <'nout;li wouhl remain, to 
 prove the mischievousness of the Corn Laws, an<l the necessity of their 
 repeal; a nieasine which, in that case, no one would have more rea- 
 son fV)r promoting tiian the lamllords, since they wonM gain all the 
 advantage of a steatly price, without incurring the clisadvantage of a 
 low one. Great, however, as the benefit to the eoinninnity would be, 
 even tlioii;;h the averaiie price of corn shoiihl reniaiii uuchanued ; we 
 are con vincerl that ihis i^ not the whole ol the lienelit of which the 
 repeal of the Corn Laws would In piodiictive, and thai the price 
 wouhl not be stea<liti' only, but l«iwei , innh r a free Iiad4. 
 
 21. It 13 admitted by tjie Eilirdniri-li Heviewer, ili.it whon there i«
 
 44 
 
 no direct t'oroip,n doniaiMt, a quarter of wheat can, in ordinary years, 
 be put on sliip-board at Dantzic for ;i5A'. ; and that allowins; 8s. per 
 qnarter for the expeiisi's of freighting", warehousinj^, <\:c. the price to 
 the importer \voidd be about 43*. They suppose, however, that a 
 regular demand from this country wouUl raise tlie ordinary price in the 
 Dantzic market, from lios. to oOs., which, together witii the freight and 
 other expenses, wouKl give in this country, a price of about 58s. per 
 quarter. 
 
 22. The assumption, that a regular demand from this country 
 would permanently raise the price at Dantzic from 35s. to 50s., is 
 wholly founded upon the evidence of Mr. Solly, before the Agricul- 
 tural Committee of 1821. This gentleman's evidence is a strange 
 mixture of hypothesis and fact. Tor matters of fact, coming within 
 the compass of his experience, Mr. Solly's evidence may be as good 
 as any other ; and we have the less reason to doubt the credibility of 
 his testimony, as it is entirely in accordance with tlie most authentic 
 information which we have been able to procure from other sources. 
 But the rise in price which is expected to be the consequence of a re- 
 gular exportation, is plainly not a fact, but an inference. The same 
 person may deserve great credit for his facts, and very little for his 
 inferences ; and, at any rate, no man's inferences are entitled to be 
 received, like matters of fact, upon his authority. How far Mr. Solly 
 is qualified to draw correct inferences on subjects similar to the pre- 
 sent, the following extract from his evidence may help us to judge : 
 
 23. " If the English ports were open for the free importation of 
 corn, at this moment, what rise do you think would take place in the 
 price of wheat in the Prussian ports ? 1 should think about 15s. 
 
 24. " Which would make the price in the Prussian ports how 
 much ? On board, 50s. for the best wheat ; they would make their 
 calculation on obtaining (JOs. here for it." 
 
 25. We can ea.sily conceive, that a sudden demand, before there is 
 time to raise a corresponding supply, may raise the price at Dantzic 
 15.S". per quarter, or much more ; but what follows ? 
 
 20. " Supposing the ports to be constant lij open for the free impor- 
 tation of corn, do you think the price abroad, on the average, would 
 be above or below 50s. in the Prussian ports ? It would he regulated 
 by the price, in England. 
 
 27. " What is your opinion of the eftect which the demand under 
 such circumstances would have upon the price in those ports ? 1 think 
 that the price would rise about 15s. as already mentioned. 
 
 28. " Although the demand should be permanent? Even then, the 
 price would be regulated by the price here." 
 
 29. This is true of the market price, but certainly not true of the 
 average. The market price at any given moment in Poland, would 
 doubtless be regulated by the market price in this country, because it 
 is the price here which, by determining the exportation, would regulate 
 the supply in t!ie market of Poland itself; but to suppose that the 
 average price in l*oland — which is of most consetjuence to the pro- 
 ducer — would be regulated by the price here, or by any thing what-
 
 45 
 
 ever except the cost of production, implies an ignorance of the most 
 obvious principles of political economy. On the average, and making 
 abstraction from the temporary fluctuations of the market, it is the 
 price in Poland which would regulate the price here ; not the price 
 here which would regulate the price in Poland. The average price 
 in Poland, with the expenses of importation, and the profits of the 
 importer, would determine the average price at which wheat could be 
 sold in the English market. The mere unsupported conjecture of one 
 who is ignorant of this very obvious truth, is a very slight foundation 
 for such a conclusion as the Edinburgh Reviewer has founded upon it. 
 
 30. Before it can be admitted, that the repeal of our Corn Laws 
 would raise the average price of wheat at Dantzic from 35«. to 50*., 
 it is necessary for Mr. Solly to prove, that the cost of production 
 would be increased in that proportion. The only cause (taxation 
 apart) which can raise the cost of production, is the necessity of cul- 
 tivating inferior lands, or of applying capital with diminished return 
 to those which are already in cultivation. And on this, as a neces- 
 sary effect of an increase of demand, Mr. Solly lays great stress. 
 " They want their land," he says, "for the cultivation of corn, for 
 cattle, and fuel for their own inhabitants. They have in Prussia 
 about eleven millions of inhabitants ; and it contains sixty-seven 
 millions of English acres, or five thousand square miles ; and they re- 
 quire almost all the arable land to grow corn for their own inhabi- 
 tants ; the principal corn that is orown and consumed, is rye ; and I 
 question, if they had to supply Kngland with wheat corn, it would be 
 in their power ; they have not the soil, and 1 do not think they would 
 be able to increase the quantity of wheat to any great amount in 
 Prussia." 
 
 31. This he afterwards accounts for, from the nature of the soil, 
 which he states t(j be for the most party sandy, and unfit for wheat. 
 That this may be the cast- in those districts of Prussia with which 
 Mr. Solly is actpiaiuted, we have no reason to d()ul)t : that it is not 
 the case in the great corn districts of I'oland, we have the best possi- 
 ble antlioritv for ;isMrliriir. All coniixtciit uitiicsscs atirco in declar- 
 ing, that so tar lioui ik (MJiiig all, lluii :ti!ii)lf laud 1<» raise corn tor 
 their own consumption, tlu; INdish cultivators have been reduced to 
 the extremity of distress in the last 1"( w years, by the cessation of 
 foreicrn demau<l. ^^ e are irifornu-d by Mr. JJehreuil, of the house of 
 Almondeand IJelirend, great corn merchants at Daiit/ic, that fully 
 one-third of the firfile corn lands are entir«ly waste ; that great tracts 
 of land, admirably fitted for wheat, have been thrown into pasture, 
 merely tor wiiiit of a market, and that (ireat «|uaiitilies of corn are 
 consumed l)V cattle, iuid in \iti ions (itli(r ways among the < nil i\ ators 
 themselves, wliieli.on the <i|)( ninn of our ports, ^^((Mld be Inouiiht to 
 market immediately. So ijreat an elVeet does .Mr. lie lire nd ascribe 
 to this la.st circumstance, that l'olan<l, in his opinion, could export 
 three times as niiK-li wheat as at present, without raisins; one 
 bushel mor<! than is already produced (it is true, that her ex- 
 ports have of late years been comparatively small) ; and if to this wc
 
 46 
 
 add the c;icat quantity of wheat which could be raised on the excel- 
 lent lands which arc now in |)astura!2,c, or entirely waste, Mr. Beh- 
 rend is of opinion, that Poland could supply this country with from 
 200,000 to 300,000 quarters of wheat, without any material advance 
 of price, beyond that which is a remuneratinfj; price to the Polish cul- 
 tivator at present, viz. 35«. in the greater part of Poland, and 3»s. 
 in Volkynia, from which province the best Polish wheat is chiefly 
 drawn.* Now, if it be considered from how large a surface we should 
 draw our foreign supplies, if we became a regularly importing country, 
 it can hardly be supposed that we should, in ordinary years, import 
 from Poland a greater quantity than 200,000 or 300,000 quarters ; 
 say 400,000, and suppose the last 100,000 to raise the price from 35s. 
 or 38«. to 40*., or even 4'2s., which is an ample allowance ; adding 
 8*. for freight and other expenses, this will give 50s. for the probable 
 average price of wheat in this country, if importation were permitted 
 at all times, duty free. 
 
 32. With regard to Odessa, the facts adduced by the reviewer are 
 singularly scanty. The following passage contains all that he says on 
 the subject : — 
 
 33. " The prices of wheat at the market of Odessa, on the Black 
 Sea, the only port f in Southern Europe from which any considerable 
 supplies of wheat can be obtained, are extremely fluctuating and 
 various. In 1821, the price of wheat at Odessa amounted, according to 
 Mr. Tooke, to about 'SOs. a quarter ; and we are informed, by the same 
 excellent authority, that the charges necessarily attending the impor- 
 tation of wheat from Odessa to London, would not fall short of 22*. 6d. 
 a quarter. [Report, p. 226.] It must be further kept in view, that 
 if the average price of English wheat was 60*., Odessa wheat would 
 not, on account of its inferior quality, be worth above 48*., or, at 
 most, 50*. : so that it would be impossible to bring Odessa wheat into 
 competition with English wheat worth 60*., unless its prime cost was 
 rather below 21s., which is very rarely, if ever, the case, with such 
 qualities as are fit for exportation." — p. 61. 
 
 * In corroboration of Mr. Behrend's opinion, and in contradiction to Mr. 
 Solly's assertion, that there is comparatively little land fitted for wheat in 
 Poland, we extract the following passage from the conclusion of Mr. Jacob's 
 evidence : " Are you of opinion, that if the price of corn did rise materially 
 in Poland, there is a very great extent of country there, which might be 
 made to produce very good corn, if they had a more encouraging price for 
 it? — Yes; and if they liad a capital. — Would they not be tempted to bring 
 that which is now under cultivation for rye, under cultivation for wheat? — 
 Probaidy they might." — Report, p. 376. 
 
 t Odessa is the only port in Southern Europe from which a considerable 
 supply of wheat can be at present obtained. It is impossible to say, how- 
 ever, to what extent corn might he supplied frfim the countries adjoining the 
 Mediterranean, were any tolerable government introduced into those coun- 
 tries. Sicily, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the African coast, were once the 
 granaries of the world; and might he so ;igain, under any government 
 which wo\dd but aflord tolerable security to person and property.
 
 47 
 
 S4. It appears, however, from Mr. Tooke's evidence, that the 
 price, at the time of which he spoke, was unusually high, there being 
 a great demand for exportation, and the supply being deficient. The 
 fact is, that whatever may have been the price at the period to which 
 Mr. Tooke's evidence referred (April 1821), the average price of the 
 whole year did not exceed '2os. 
 
 35. We have received from the best mercantile authority at Odessa, 
 a table of the average prices of hard and soft wheat in that market, 
 for almost every week, from the beginning of 1H17 to the end of 1824. 
 From this statement, estimating the rouble at 9|rf., and reckoning 100 
 chetwerts as equivalent (which is nearly the fact) to 70^ quarters, we 
 have extracted the following table of the average prices of average 
 Odessa wheat in sterling money for the last eight years : — 
 
 Years. s. d. 
 
 1817 37 3| 
 
 1818 26 lOf 
 
 1819 17 1 
 
 1820 18 6 
 
 1821 21 10^ 
 
 1822 22 6| 
 
 1823 16 74 
 
 1824 15 04 
 
 The average of these eight years is 22*. Aid. Allowing 225. Gd. 
 for freight and other expenses attendant on importation, the price at 
 which Odessa wheat, of average quality, could be sold in Mark-lane, 
 will appear to be rather below 4o*. Odessa wheat being interior to 
 English wheat by about one-sixth, it may be concbubd troin the au- 
 thentic statements which we have given, that Odessa wheat would 
 come into coujjjetition with Knglish wheat whenever the latter sold at 
 a higher price than from 53.v. to 54s. per ((uarter. 
 
 3(5. It may be well to adfl, that whatever foundation there might be 
 for the supposition, that an increase of exportation wouUI permanently 
 raise the priei- of wlicat in Poland ; on tln'side of Odessa, at least, 
 such an apprt lien^ion is chinieiieal. There are vsust tracts of fertile 
 land in the Ukraine, I'odolia, and the countries adjoining the Crimea, 
 at present uiiculf ivated, or in pasfiirate ; and from wliicli corn mi;;ht 
 be supplied, pirliaps lor centuries, at tin; same low price at wliuli it is 
 now supplied from Odessa. We are even informed by the u«'ntleman 
 to whom we have before alluded, that, in the neiiililiourliootl of 
 Odessa itself, so great is the ahundauce <»!' fertile soil that the same 
 piece of land is rarely cultivated for m«)re than two or three years 
 together. When one piece of land is exhausted, the cultivators with- 
 draw U) another, as w:is the rase aniont: the (iernmns of old, aiul as 
 we knf)W to be the case at this day, in the back settlements of North 
 America. 
 
 37. With regard tf» New '^'ork, the ie\iewer has j:iven us the 
 prices by which the value of the wheat expoil4 d has been cal< iilated 
 at the treasury department for five years, the greater numljer ot which,
 
 48 
 
 if those prices be coiroct, were years of unusually hi2;h price, and 
 which give an averaiic that even \u> would admit to be far too hi^h. 
 We know not m hat di'U,ree of reliance is to l)e placed upon the cal- 
 culations on which these statements arc founded; if they are as in- 
 accurate as the olficial valuations at our Custom-house, there cannot 
 be a worse authority. 
 
 38. We have received from a great commercial house at Liver- 
 pool the following statement, extracted from the New York prices 
 current, of the average price of wheat at New York, from 1820 to 
 1824 inclusive : — 
 
 Year. Price in Cents 
 
 per Winchester Bushel. 
 
 1820 87 
 
 1821 100 
 
 1822 131 
 
 1823 130 
 
 1824 110 
 
 The average of these five years gives 38s. per quarter.* Omitting 
 1820, a year of extraordinary depression, the average of the last 
 four years gives 40s. per quarter, for the price of wheat at New York, 
 the dearest port in the Union. In Virginia and Maryland wheat is 
 usually from 16 to 20 cents per bushel, or about Gs. per quarter 
 lower than at New York. To the price at the latter port, add 12s. 
 or 14s., the expense (as estimated by the/eviewer) of importation, and 
 from 52s. to 54s. will appear to be the average price at which wheat 
 imported from New York could be sold in Mark-lane. In this case 
 no deduction is to be made for difference in quality, average Ameri- 
 can being fully equal to average English wheat. f 
 
 39. Besides, America exports flour as well as corn, and the car- 
 riage of the less bulky commodity being so much less expensive, it is 
 probable that American flour would come into competition with 
 English flour, at a much lower comparative price than American 
 corn.;;: 
 
 40. But the facts which we shall now adduce, with regard to the 
 price of wheat at Rotterdam, from 1815 to 1824 inclusive, are per- 
 fectly decisive. Holland, as is well known, has long been in the 
 habit of importing a very great proportion of the corn which she 
 consumes. She draws her supplies from a very wide surface ; she is 
 at nearly the same distance as Great Britain from the principal 
 
 * During these five years the dollar has gradually sunk in value from 
 4«. 6d. to 4s. Id. or 4s. 2rf. sterling. We have made our calculations at the 
 rate of 4s. 3d., being that assumed by the reviewer. 
 
 t See the Edinburgh Reviewer liitnself, note to p. 62. 
 
 t When tlie immense line of country on the hanks of the Mississippi 
 River comes to be in full cultivation, it may be expected, from the amazing 
 fertility of its soil, and the facilities of water carriage which it enjoys, that 
 it may be able to supply the western countries of Europe with corn at a 
 much lower price than it is possible to calculate upon at present.
 
 49 
 
 exporting countries; and there is, therefore, no reason why we should 
 not obtain corn from those countries at the same price as she does. 
 The following table of the averasre prices of wheat at Rotterdam 
 for the last ten years is derived from the veiy highest mercantile au- 
 thority : — 
 
 Years. Price in Guilders 
 
 per Last of 86 Winchester Bushels. 
 
 1815 257 
 
 181G 390 
 
 1817 574 
 
 1818 396 
 
 1819 284 
 
 1820 235 
 
 1821 221 
 
 1822 193 
 
 1823 197 
 
 1824 147 
 
 These prices, being reduced to sterling money at the average rates 
 of exchange for the several years, give the following as the average 
 prices, per Winchester quarter, for those years: — 
 
 Years. Price per Quarter. 
 
 S. d. 
 1815 47 8J 
 
 181G GO 111 
 
 1817 93 0^" 
 
 1818 GG 8 
 
 1819 4(; G.l 
 
 1820 3(; io| 
 
 1821 33 5 
 
 1822 29 9.1^ 
 
 1823 30 3 
 
 1824 32 WX 
 
 The average of the ten years is 47s. 9.2d. 
 
 41. It is true that, in these ten years, there were several seasons 
 of very general almiuhincc. It will be <»bsor>-ed, however, that llure 
 were two years (I81G and ir.l7) of very general dcticicncy. In 1815, 
 before the .scarcity began, and in 1819, between the; end of the 
 scarcity and the beginning of the glut, the price seems to have very 
 nearly approximated to the average that we have assigned ; and this 
 
 * These fluctuations arc greater titan could have been anticipated in a 
 country whirl), at the period referred to, enjoyed almost a frcr trade in corn : 
 but it must be rcniemljcred that in tlie ^tars of greatest titvalion (1R17 
 anfl in in), the price iiad hirn ar.ifirially r.-iised by our great iinportiitions, 
 wliicli carried off a portion of that grain which had been produced for other 
 market.s. 
 
 G
 
 50 
 
 circumstanrc ;\(l<is to tho prosumptioii, thai: the average of these ten 
 years is a i'air eiiteiion o\' ihv oiflinaiy price. 
 
 4-. The advocates of the opinion >vhich we are combatinf!; lay 
 great stress upon the circinnstance, that the returns of average prices 
 inchide all (pialitics of wheat, and not the best qualities oidy ; for- 
 getting that since it is average English wheat, and not the best 
 English wheat alone, which is our standard of comparison, it would 
 be unfair to ground our calculations on the price, in the Dutch mar- 
 ket, of any description of wheat which is of higher quality than 
 average English wheat. It is not with Holland as it is with Odessa. 
 Average Odessa M'heat is inferior to average English wheat, by about 
 one-sixth. The average of the wheat which is sold in the Dutch 
 markets is inferior to average English wheat, by three or four shil- 
 lings per quarter at the utmost. The statements which we have ex- 
 hibited give something less than 48*. as tlie average price of the 
 average wheat which is sold in the market of Rotterdam. 'J'o this 
 add 4*. for the difference in quality between that average and the 
 English : and this calculation gives 525. for the price at which, in 
 ordinary years, wheat equal to average E>nglish wheat could be im- 
 ported. And this is the same conclusion at which we had previously 
 arrived, from a calculation founded on an estimate of the remunerating 
 prices in the principal exporting countries. 
 
 43. The average price of wheat would therefore be reduced eight 
 or nine shillings per quarter, by the opening of the trade. This fall 
 of price, though quite sulHcient to give a great relief to the consumer, 
 is nothing compared to that which we were taught by the agricul- 
 turists to expect as the inevitable consequence of a free importation 
 of corn. These gentlemen, indeed, in their pathetic appeals to the 
 compassion of the public for protection against the utter ruin which 
 they would have it believed that the repeal of the Corn Laws would 
 involve them, seem to have forgotten that this kind of argument cuts 
 two ways ; that if it tells in their favour, it tells still more strongly 
 against them ; that if the price of corn really is kept, in consequence 
 of the Corn Laws, so much higher than it would otherwise be, these 
 laws are only by so much the more insufferable a nuisance, and their 
 repeal only by so much the more imperatively required. 
 
 44. Without disguising our opinion that the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws would lower the average price of corn, we can supply the land- 
 lords with topics of consolation which, if duly appreciated, are fully 
 suflicient to make them readily acquiesce in this most important of all 
 commercial reforms. For if it be of consequence to them to have a 
 high price, it is also of very great consequence to have a steady one ; 
 and it may fairly be doubted, whether they gain so much, by a higher 
 average rent, as they lose by the constant fluctuations which are the 
 necessary effect of the exclusion of foreign corn. 
 
 45. A country which freely admits the corn of all nations into its 
 market, is scarcely ever exposed to either of the opposite evils of 
 excessive dearth or ruinous depression. If there be a bad harvest in
 
 51 
 
 one country, there is a siood one in another; and the surplus produce 
 ef the latter supplies the deticiency of the former, thus savinij the 
 ene country from the evils of famine, and relieving: the au,riculturists 
 ef the other from the ruin attendant on an extraordinary depression of 
 price. But a nation which denies itself the power of supplying- its 
 wants from the resources of foreign countries, becomes dependent for 
 its supply of corn, not upon the annual produce of the whole world, 
 which may be regarded as tolerably uniform in its quantity, but upon 
 the goodness or badness of the harvest in a particular country, which, 
 from the vicissitudes of the seasons, may vary so much as to occasion 
 the most distressing tluctuations of price. 
 
 46. There is nothing in political economy more certain, than that a 
 sj-mall variation in the supply of such a commodity as corn produces a 
 much more than proportional variation in price : a proposition which 
 Mr. Tooke, who has explained so many of the complicated phenome- 
 na of prices, has shown to be as conformable to observed facts, as it 
 is to sound reasoning. 
 
 47. In most other commodities an increase of price induces the 
 purchasers in general to restrict their consumptioir, and the rise of 
 price, therefore, is little more than proportional to the falling-oft' in 
 the supply. But corn is a commodity of which, whatever may be its 
 price, all are desirous of consuming the same quantity as before ; 
 being willing to renounce almost every other comfort, rather than 
 diminish their consumption of so important a necessary of life. They 
 bid, therefore, against one another, until the poorer competitors are 
 driven out of the market from mere necessity. If the deficiency be 
 considerable, the amount of the misery produced balfles all calculatidn. 
 AVages do not rise in proportion ; i'or wages are aftected oidy by per- 
 manent variations in price ; the whole weight of the evil is, therefore, 
 thrown upon those who are least alilc fo bear it. The poorest class 
 of labourers are deprived of the food which is absolutely essential to 
 well-being, and the class immediately above them are comp»llcd to 
 sacrifice almost all their other comforts, in order to obtain their usual 
 quantity of bread. 
 
 4H. Though the farmers, in bad seasons, have less corn to sell, yet 
 if foreign supplies be excluded, tin* value of their produce is increa.sed, 
 more than ils (piaiitity is dirniiiisiied, and it is uiore profihiblc to them 
 to sell a million of (piarlers, at l(M».v. prr «piarl(;r, (hiin 1 ,-i(»(),(t()() at 
 00*. These aceordin-ily are the halcyon days of agricidtural pros- 
 IM-rity. !f the lii^h prices, from a .succession of l)ad seasons, continue 
 (as (luriiiu: tlie late war) tor a number of years, the farmers grow rich, 
 rents are puiutually pai<l, new Ieiis<-s ar*: graut<'d at increased rent.s; 
 both larmers aiul landlords arc; templed to ijiereas<- their domestic ex- 
 penses; (he f;irm« IS, ;illnied liv the pmspec-f of liitili prices, eoulinue to 
 apply addiliouiil e:i|iitiil to the soil ; eouiuions :ire enclosed, new :iiid 
 expensive niode^ot ( nhi\:ition are iulro<ln( • d, :iiiil :i luiindiit inn i>; liiid 
 for that ruin \\lii< li mcessarily follows on the successive n tiiiii i>\ \\\-t 
 or (hree abundant harvests.
 
 52 
 
 41). For it is not more cortaiu that ti small tloficioncy produces a 
 great cnhanccinont of price, tiian that a trilliiiu, excess often occasions 
 an inordinate depression. No doubt, when any class of the commu- 
 nity was before insulKciently provided with food, an increased con- 
 sumption is the probable consecpience of a fall in jjrice ; the increase of 
 consumption, however, is rarely, if ever, proportional to the excess of 
 supply, since they, who already had food enough, are under no in- 
 ducement to consume more. In a state of freedom the surplus pro- 
 duce would find a market abroad, as soon as the price had fallen suf- 
 ficiently to indemnify the exporter for the expenses of transit. But 
 when, by a system of restriction, the averap,e price of corn has been 
 raised in any country much above that which is the average price in 
 other countries, an abundant harvest becomes not only a curse to the 
 farmer, but a curse from which there is no relief. His corn is raised 
 at an expense far exceeding the cost of production abroad, and that 
 which is a remunerating price to the foreigner, would to him be abso- 
 lute ruin. If he exports, he must submit not only to the payment of 
 the expenses of exportation, but to the loss of all the difference be- 
 tween the cost of production at home, and the price abroad. If the 
 average home price is, by the effect of the Corn Laws, kept 10 per 
 cent, above the price abroad, he can obtain no vent for his surplus 
 produce in the foreign market, but by a sacrifice of 10 per cent, and 
 the cost of carriage in addition. 
 
 50. To a period, therefore, of dearth and agricultural prosperity, 
 succeeds a period of plenty and agricultural ruin. The inferior lands 
 are thrown out of cultivation, and the capital which has been ex- 
 pended on them is utterly lost ; the poorer class of farmers become 
 insolvent ; the landlords receive no rent, or if they receive any, re- 
 ceive it out of the capital of the tenants ; the provisions for children 
 and other fixed charges, which were a moderate burden upon their 
 former incomes, now swallow up the whole ; and the ruin both of 
 landlords and of tenants is accelerated by their inability to renounce 
 in adversity those expensive habits which the former high prices had 
 encouraged them to contract. 
 
 51. As if it had been resolved that all possible varieties of absur- 
 dity should meet together in a single enactment, even the subordinate 
 arrangements are nearly the worst which could be derived, for that 
 very class whose interests they are intended to promote. If importation 
 were permitted at all times, subject to a high duty, the evils of great 
 fluctuation would indeed be unavoidable ; the agriculturists would be 
 ruined in periods of abundance ; but they would at least be assured, 
 of prosperity in periods of scarcity. But now, when importation is 
 prohibited until corn shall have attained a certain price, and even 
 then permitted only for a few months, the importers being compelled 
 to hurry their corn into the country, without having time to form a 
 judgment as to the causes of the scarcity, its extent, or probable du- 
 ration, have no means of ascertaining how much corn is wanted, and
 
 53 
 
 much more than is wanted is frequently brought ; the price is propor- 
 tionally, or more than proportionally depressed ; and at a time when 
 the fanner, having an unusually small quantity, has the greatest oc- 
 casion for a high price, he is forced to content himself with Avhat 
 would not perhaps be an adequate remuneration even in an average 
 year.* 
 
 52. If the landlords would attend a little to these, and some other 
 effects of the restrictive system, we should no longer hear them cla- 
 moring, as so many of them have done, for a protecting duty of 
 20, 30, or 40 shillings. Can it be doubted that a steady price, though 
 at a somewhat lower averao-e, is better for the landlord than an alter- 
 nation of famine and glut, of exorbitant gains and absolute ruin ? 
 
 53. " Granting that hLs rents will be higher; granting that, for a 
 few years, he may receive a larger sum than he would have done if no 
 such monopoly had existed ; still it will be difficult of proof, that a 
 system by which his tenant is injured can be a beneficial one to him. 
 Let us look at his situation ; he has a large income, perhaps, and 
 lives in a corresponding style of splendor and comfort ; his establish- 
 ment is upon a proportionate scale ; his agencies, his allowances to 
 his children, his subscriptions, in short, all the various charges of this 
 description are settled accordingly. During the period of deficiency 
 his rents are paid; but the period of abundance is as alarming to him as 
 to the farmer, for then his account is made up of small actual receipts 
 and a long column of aixears ; but his expenses remain for some time 
 undiminished ; and as he also considers tliis state of tilings teni[)orary, 
 he is not willing to make such an alteration, as, if permanent, he 
 would be compelled to do. Some of his out-goings cannot be di- 
 minished ; if he before lived up to his income, it is quite clear, this 
 year, he must live much beyond it. The frequent recurrence of such 
 periods would place the landed interest of this country in the same si- 
 tuation as the West India planter ; and whoever really wishes to pro- 
 mote their welfare, would choose any other state than that, to wiiich to 
 assimilate tluiirs.f — Hut supposii'g a proprietor to have; his land 
 thrown upon his hands ; supposing it Ijeugand, iujpovcrishe<l, ;in<l ex- 
 hausted ; supposing his buildings without repair, his hedges and gates 
 neglected, to all which the distress of the farmer must tend ; how can 
 
 * On the other hand, the Cdmplicaicd and intricate provisions of the pre- 
 sent law atTord such ^coye to franclidcnt artifircs, that iniporlation is often 
 prevented, even when corn is hcllinj; to lioNii fide purchasers at a price ex- 
 ceeding ttiat at wliicli it was tlie inteiiliori u\ tiie leuislalnrf; ih a tli(; ports 
 should open. Of the I'raud and trickery which it is the inevilahh- tcnihiicy 
 of the system of averagj 9 to produce, tlie painplilel of Mr. Hays (hnusclf 
 an eminent corn-dealer) alfords a nvihi instrticiivc display ; and we rciitet 
 that want of space prevents us Iroin (l(iin;i niorc than dirt ctni^ the alteniion 
 of the reader to the jiam|>hlei ilsi If, wliicli, liioiij^h short, is vahialilc, and 
 will reward him well for the trouhlc of its perusal. 
 
 t ' The property in the Wist Indies is said, upon the average, to change 
 hands every twenty years.'
 
 54 
 
 tJic system be a permanently beneficial one to him ?" — fVhitmore, pp. 
 on, <»(). 
 
 ol. It should also be remembered, that the corn which we mii^ht 
 import, would not be gratuitously bestowed upon us by the foreign 
 producers : it would be well it" it were ; but unha})pily they are not so 
 generous. They demand our manufactures in exchange ; and if the 
 raw material of those manufactures be of home growth, the produc- 
 tion of that material would open a new channel for the profitable em- 
 ployment of agricultural capital. Suppose that we were regularly to 
 import corn from Dant/ic or Odessa, and pay for it in Yorksliire 
 cloths, the produce of English wool ; much of the land, which they 
 tell us would lie waste, might be profitably laid out in sheep-walks for 
 the production of this wool. Not to say that it would allhe ultimate- 
 ly employed in this or some other Avay equally advantageous to the 
 landlord, since the repeal of the Corn Laws could not fail, by raising- 
 profits, to stimulate accumulation, and promote the increase of ])opu- 
 lation to such a degree, that all but our very bad lands would speedily 
 be wanted for pasturage, and for the growth of such products as must 
 necessarily be grown at home, though every quarter of corn which 
 we might require should be imported. The free importation of corn 
 in this respect resembles an improvement in agriculture, which, though 
 it may lower rent for a time, is ultimately beneficial even to the land- 
 lord himself. 
 
 55. The landlord should consider, that if he has an interest op- 
 posed to that of the community, he has also an interest in common 
 with them : that if, on the one hand, he may prosper at their expense, 
 he cannot fail, on the other hand, to be a sharer in their prosperity 
 also. It is his interest, as well as theirs, to eat cheap corn ; it is his 
 interest, as well as theirs, not to be burthened with a heavy parochial 
 assessment, to provide for the starving laborers in seasons of dearth. 
 And if all these considerations should fail of convincing him that he 
 would not be to any great extent a loser by cheapness of corn ; let 
 him throw the hapj)iness of thousands and millions of his countrymen 
 into the scale. 
 
 56. To those londlords, however, in whose minds inveterate habit 
 has created so intimate an association between the robbery of the 
 public and gain to themselves, that if they can but make others pay, 
 they find it not possible to conceive that they should not be gainers by 
 it, we have only to say, if they will have it, that if what is a blessing 
 to all the rest of the community, is an injury to them, they miist even 
 pocket the loss, and make the best of it that they can. For the stale 
 sophisms, which answered very well formerly, will go down with few 
 people now ; so few, that it is scarcely necessary for us to notice 
 them : since, however, this inquiry would not be complete were we 
 not to make some mention of the more prominent among these so- 
 phisms, we will trespass somewhat longer upon the patience of the 
 rea<ler for that purpose. 
 
 •57. They say, then, that there is danger in de|>ending for any part 
 of our supply of so im[)ortant an article as corn upon the will of fo-
 
 55 
 
 rcigners, with whom we may be at war, and who would have it In their 
 power, by prohibiting exportation, to involve us in all the miseries of 
 famine. " This argument," says Mr. Mill [Eltnieuts of Political 
 Economy, 2d Ed. p. 1J)7], " implies an ignorance, both of history and 
 of principle ; of history, because, in point of fact, those countries 
 which have depended the most upon foreign countries for their supply 
 of corn, have enjoyed, beyond all other countries, the advantage of a 
 steady and invariable market for grain : of principle, l)ccause it fol- 
 lows unavoidably, if what, in one country, is a favorable, is in other 
 countries an unfavorable season, that nothing but obtaining a great 
 part of its supply from various countries can save a nation from 
 all the extensive and distressing fluctuations which the variety of 
 seasons is calculated to produce. Nor is the policy involved in this 
 argument better than the political economy. It sacrifices a real good, 
 to escape the chance of a chimerical evil ; an evil so much the less to 
 be apprehended, that the country from which another derives its sup- 
 ply of corn is scarcely less dejiendant upon that other country for a vent 
 to its produce, than the purchasing country is for its supi)ly. It will 
 not be pretended that a glut of corn in any country, from the loss of a 
 great market, with tliat declension of price, that ruin of the farmers, 
 and that depression of rents, which are its unavoidal)le consequences, 
 is an immaterial evil." 
 
 5». INlr. ^^'ilitmore makes on this subject [p. 87] the following very 
 pertinent observations : 
 
 " Upon this subject, however, we may proceed upon proof and ex- 
 perience, and need not, therefore, trust to general reasoning. It is 
 well known that this country constantly imports nenrly all the hemp 
 it uses ; it is e(|ually clear that, if de[)rived of it, the conse(pienet;s to 
 us, a maritime and commercial people, would be to the last degree 
 injurious. If there be one article more tlian another, of whieli an 
 hostile country would wish to deprive us, it would be this very arlieh' 
 of hemp, which may fairly be considered the sinews of naval warfare. 
 But were we ever de|trive(l of it.' Was there ever any s»rious ob- 
 struction, either to our naval armaments or to our commercial specu- 
 lations, arising from a <leficicncy of this important article? If not, 
 it is chimerical to imauine that we shoidd ever be deprived of the corn 
 we are in the habit of importing." 
 
 V.i. It is furtlH-r allcgtid, that the various classes of manufactures 
 are protected from forei;;n conipelilion, and for this re:i.son it is con- 
 t( injcd that the buidlords ouLihl to obliiiri a simdiir prottction. To 
 this oltje* tion ai^o we sliall reply in (hf woids of Mi. .Mill — i'Jtnuiidi, 
 
 |)p. mt-j). 
 
 ()(>. " \\\ the (ii><l place, it may l)c oIim rvrd, that if tlijs art;um( ut 
 is tiood for the urowcrs ol corn, it is g«iod Ibr eNcry otluT spceiis ol 
 producers whatsoever ; if, because a tax is in»posed upon the importa- 
 ti«)n of woollens, a lax ouiiht to be imposed upon the iniportation of 
 corn, a tax ouuht also lo be im|ioM'd upon the ini|ioiliilion ol every 
 thing which tlie eoiuiliy e:iii prodmc ; llie eonutiy oii.;lil. in short, lo 
 have no foreiun conimerce, ( xeept m thoM' arti<des :iloii( uIikIi il
 
 56 
 
 has not the means of prothicing. This is a rechiction to absurdity 
 wliich appoai-s conclusive. The argument moreover supposes Unit an 
 extraordinary gain is obtained by the manufacturer, in consequence of 
 his supposed protection ; and that a correspondent evil is sustained by 
 the corn-grower, unless he is favored by a similar tax. The ignorance 
 of principle is peculiarly visil)le in those suppositions, in neither of 
 which is there a sliadow of truth. 
 
 Gl. " The man who embarks his capital in the woollen or any other 
 manufacture, with the produce of which that of the foreign manufac- 
 turers is not allowed to come into competition, does not, on that ac- 
 count, derive a greater profit from his capital. His profit is no greater 
 than that of the man whose capital is embarked in trades open to the 
 competition of all the world. All that happens is, that a great num- 
 ber of capitalists find employment in that branch of manufacture ; that 
 a portion, in short, of the capitalists of the country employ themselves 
 in producing that particular species of manufacture, who would other- 
 wise be employed in producing some other species, probably in pro- 
 ducing something for the foreign market, with which that commodity, 
 if imported from the foreign manufacturer, might be bought. 
 
 02. " As the man who has embarked his capital in the trade which 
 is called protected, derives no additional profit from the protection ; so 
 the grower of corn sustains not any peculiar loss or inconvenience. 
 Nothing, therefore, can be conceived more groundless than his demand 
 of a compensation on ^that account. The market for corn is not di- 
 minished because a tax is laid upon the importation of woollens ; nor 
 would that market be enlarged, if the tax were taken off. His busi- 
 ness, therefore, is not in the least degree affected by it." 
 
 63. Not only is the existence of other monopolies no reason why the 
 corn monopoly should be kept up, but the mutual support which every 
 monopoly lends to every other, is one of the strongest reasons why 
 they should all be destroyed. Every monopoly annihilated, takes 
 one member from the confederacy ; leaves one restriction less to be 
 appealed to as a justification for others ; adds something to the num- 
 ber and strength of those interested in freedom of trade, and takes 
 something from the mass of interest enlisted on the side of restraint. 
 The Corn Laws are not merely to be viewed as the cause of those evils 
 which directly and immediately flow from them. They are to be 
 judged, not only by the evil which they do, but by the good which 
 they prevent from being done. If the landlords had no longer a mo- 
 nopoly of their own, they would no longer, perhaps, uphold the mo- 
 nopolies of others. It is no more their interest than it" is that of the 
 public, to pay dear for their goods ; and the protection of manufac- 
 tures might find fewer supporters in a certain honorable house, were 
 it not for the necessity of conceding something to those who might be 
 dangerous enemies to the protection of agriculture. 
 
 64. Nor are the mischievous consequences of our Corn Laws con- 
 fined to this country. Who can know to what extent they may have 
 served as a motive or as an apology for equally pernicious monopolies 
 in other countries ? But for the parliamentary slang of protecting
 
 agriculture, America niight never have conceived the ridiculous idea 
 of protecting manufactures; since this is the cant word which custom 
 has appropriated to those measures by which a nation renounces the 
 benefit of all the peculiar advantages which nature has bestowed upon 
 her in the production of particular commodities. The late Russian 
 Tariff is believed to have been partly intended as a measure of re- 
 taliation upon us; and the last Corn Circular of jMessrs. Almonde 
 and Behreud observes, " It has been rumoured that our government 
 intends to retaliate, or at least to meet the present prohibitive system 
 of the western countries by a similar measure as regards several ex- 
 j)ensive articles of importation which are not in the number of the 
 immediate necessaries of life; but little good," they add, " is ex- 
 pected from such a measure, as it would, perhaps, tend to annihilate 
 trade altogether." 
 
 Go. Were the exclusion of foreign goods a real advantage instead 
 of a positive evil, it would yet be expedient for a commercial country 
 to sacrifice this advantage, in order to obtain in its turn a similar con- 
 cession from other countries; on the same principle on which every 
 man would find it his interest, even if there were no laws, to refrain 
 from picking his neighbour's pocket, lest by so doing he should pro- 
 voke his neighbour to perform a similar manoeuvre, upon liis. 
 
 G(j. We are continually calling ourselves a trading nation ; and 
 we boast of our commerce, no doubt very justly, as one of the grand 
 sources of our wealth. Yet, M'ho ever heard of a commerce which 
 was not mutual .' Ilow can we expect to export without importijig?* 
 or of what advantage would it be to us if we could ? since, demon- 
 strati vely, it is the imports alone from which llie benefit of foreign 
 commerce is derived. Nobody is enriched by giving any thing aw ay. 
 Should we grow rich by exporting all that we liave, and importing 
 nothing? How truly, then, do we misunderstand our own interest, if 
 we attempt to sell our own commodities to foreigners, and yet refuse to 
 take tlurirs in exchange? ! 
 
 ()7. NVe wonder that it has never occurred to tiiose governments, 
 from whose territories we draw our foreign supplies of corn, to punish 
 us for n iu^inii fo lake tiieir coin re;;ularly, l)y not periiiittiiiu, us to 
 take it at all. Tiie foreign iigriiMilturist, ;i.s he can never re« kou upon 
 our demand, of course never produces a corresponding sujiply ; :ind 
 we, if our price rises to 7(^., rush in and carry ofi' pari of a crop which 
 WJis not more than sMllicieiit, perhiijis was not siiDicieiit, lor the 
 supply of tlie coiiiilrv iVom whence it was drawn. 'I'he extent to 
 which this evil may be carri<(l is little conceived in this country. 
 
 • Messrs. Almonde and nrhrrnc!, in llicir circular already quoted, ol»- 
 stTv, " Ir is generally thoui^lit lliat llie roi suini'iimi el" Hrili'th cnldiiials 
 and inanufartures does not, at iirt.sejit.eNc ecd cuie iiall el wliat il was heTore 
 tliis unfortunate crisis of the corn trade took |ila(C." The crisis alluded to 
 is the glut of agricultural |)ri)diice, wliicii lias heen |)riiu inally occahimied 
 hy ihc ccbsatioii of deniaiHl Iruni llii^ cuiiniry since lIlKi. 
 
 II
 
 68 
 
 Afr. Bohrond infonns us, that the cessation of our deniaiul for Polish 
 corn, since IBiU, has caused such a falliiit;-ofl' in the suj)|)ly, that 
 wcrv it suddenly to Ihoouu' known that ()()(),()()() <|uartersof wlieat 
 ^vould be speedily wanted for ini|)ortation into iMigland, he should 
 expect the price in the Dantzic market to mount up at once to i20s. 
 or 140*. And at no price, he says, in the present state of cultivation, 
 could l*oland furnish us with as much corn as she did in 181(5. I'hus, 
 if our Corn Laws should not be repealed, two or three bad harvests 
 juay be expected to bring on us all the evils, not of dearth alone, but 
 perhaps of actual famine. 
 
 08. It has been said, that although the home-growers have no claim 
 to be more favored than the importers, they have a claim to be 
 equally so : that the home-grower is subject to many taxes, from which 
 foreign corn is exempt; and that a countervailing duty ought, there- 
 fore, to be laid upon the importer, equal to all the taxes which fall on 
 corn of British growth. 
 
 (51). If, in this country, raw produce v/cre the only article subject to 
 a tax, this argument would be perfectly just. It is now acknowledged 
 that taxation should be so regulated as to disturb as little as possible 
 that distribution of capital, to which the interests of individuals would 
 lead in a state of perfect freedom. A premium should be given nei- 
 ther on importation nor on home production. A law which forces us 
 to import our corn is as bad as a law which forces us to grow it at 
 home. In both cases the effect is, that we pay dearer for it than we 
 ought. 
 
 70. But when other commodities are taxed as well as corn, we 
 think, with the writer of the article already referred to in the Edin- 
 burgh Review, that the agriculturists are not entitled to a counter- 
 vailing duty, unless they can show that they are more heavily taxed 
 than other classes of producers ; nor ought the duty even then to ex- 
 ceed the difference between the burdens of the agriculturists and those 
 of others. The reason is, that if all commodities of home production 
 are taxed exactly alike, even without countervailing duties, it is the 
 same thing with respect to trade, as if they were not taxed at all ; 
 since prices are not higher than if there were no tax, and there is no 
 motive therefore to import any thing, which there would not be a 
 sufficient motive to import in a state of perfect freedom. A protecting 
 duty, in that case, would be a premium on home production, and, 
 therefore, injurious. But if commodities are taxed unequally, those 
 which are most higlily taxed rise in price, and there is an immediate 
 motive to import them from abroad, paying for them in those which 
 are less heavily burdened. To prevent this, therefore, there is need of 
 a countervailing duty, equal to the difference between the two rates of 
 taxation. 
 
 71. Should it appear, then, that agricultural produce is subject to 
 higher taxation than manufyietured goods, a countervailing duty would 
 be required, llie Edinburgh reviewer is of opinion, that an ad va- 
 lorem duty of 10 per cent, would be amply sufficient. This would be 
 equivalent to five or six shillings per quarter. But a fixed is ob-
 
 59 
 
 viously preferable to an ad valorem duty, as the latter, increasing 
 with the price, falls heaviest in dear years, when it is of the greatest 
 consequence that importation should be free. Should the time come, 
 as come it must, when the tithe-tax shall cease to exist, the import 
 duty may be totally discontinued. 
 
 72. jNIr. Uicardo, who concurred in Mr. Whitmore's recommenda- 
 tion of a fixed duty of 10*. per quarter, advised, however, as a mea- 
 sure of indulgence to the agriculturists (to give them time for gradu- 
 ally withdrawing their capital from the land), that the duty should 
 be originally fixed at 20*., and lowered 1*. every year until reduced to 
 10. We shall be believed when we say, it is with the greatest hesi- 
 tation we presume to differ from so great an authority ; but we fear 
 that, in general, these gradual changes, which are intended as a Ijoon 
 to the producers, are felt rather as an evil than as a good, even l)y 
 those for whose benefit they are designed. On a recent occasion, 
 when, to save the silk manufacturers from loss, the period of the re- 
 duction of the silk duties was postponed for a year, the silk manu- 
 facturers themselves very generally complained, that they would have 
 suffered less from the immediate operation of the measure, than they 
 did from the stagnation of business which was the consequence of the 
 <lelay ; and we suspect, that if the gradual reduction proposed by 
 Mr. Uicardo, were adopted, the anticipated fall of price would oc- 
 casion so general an indisposition to lay in any quantity, beyond what 
 was wanti-d for iuinicdiiiti- consumption, as uiiglit involve the producers 
 in all the evils of a glut. We believe, therefore, that the introduction 
 at once of tliat system wliich is intcnd'd to be jxrinaiu'iitly established, 
 is the most desirable course for the agriculturists, as it certainly is for 
 the rest of the conimunity. 
 
 73. ^^ e cannot conclude these observations witiiout again reniind- 
 \n\i our nadcrs, tliat if ever there was a time when it was of import 
 ancc that the |)ui)li(' opinion siiouhl stnmuly and loudly (helarc itself 
 upon this (juestion, it is now. .Mr. N\ liitniorc; has plediied himself to 
 brini^ the subject before piirliainent in the present session. 'I'he good 
 disposition of a portion of the miiiislry on this question is well known ; 
 of that erdiirhtened portion fo whom we are already indebted for the 
 abolition ol that worst of tax«s, the duties on law proceedings ; for 
 the openini; of the silk trade; for the fr«'e, or virtually free exporta- 
 tion of wool ; for the partial abandonment of that ludicrous policy, 
 which tbrnis the basis of our navigation laws; and (in a great dogree) 
 for the repeal ot those barbarous statutes, which were exprtssly «h'- 
 sigiied to keep down the \vaues of labor. M misters who have done 
 thn.s much, will do more ; and. on tlw sidiject of tin; Corn Laws, they 
 have alreadv expressed the sound'-sl o|iini<iiis. liifortuiKitely . how- 
 (■ver, th< v are not all-powerlnl in the cabinet ; they \\ dl not always 
 be in oflice, and .should they continue as lonu in power as it is our wish 
 that th(y may, they will riee<l all thesiqi|)ort which |iul)lic opiiiitui can 
 t:iv<', to carrv th» repeal of the Corn Laws against half the cabinet, 
 and the whole of the landed aiistocracy. 
 
 7 J. We linvr givt-n our praise, as we shall always give our censure,
 
 (JO 
 
 where we feel it to be deserved ; nor is there any inconsistency in 
 praising niinisteil;, and censuring those institutions, under wliich such 
 men are prevented iVoni wisliing all the good wliich they might do, or 
 from doing all that which they wish. Measures, not men, is our 
 motto ; and had we a government, constituted as we desire, we shouhl 
 not wish its administration to be placed in better hands. Freed from 
 the trammels of sinister interest, they would then follow where their 
 better inclinations would lead. And when we consider what is the 
 ordinary etfect of power upon the human mind, and what sort of 
 being's ministers usually are ; that persons situated as they are should 
 have the smallest sympathy with the public^ is a degree of merit which 
 we scarcely know how sufficiently to praise. Should they succeed 
 in relieving the connnunity from the intolerable scourge of our Corn 
 Laws, they will be justly considered as the wisest and best ministers 
 whom this country has ever produced. 
 
 THE END.