The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

the comments of the public journals on the
care he has taken to make himself painfully
ridiculous. _

THE PRICE OF CORN.
TAO sq44ien rise in the price of corn folio'
immectistely upon a remarkably favour
season sppeare to have ' puzzled more thaq
one`pt Aur daily eenteraporaries. They kay4
ttixed their ingenuity in vain to account to the
satisfaction of anybody for this untoward
result, and for this. simple reason, that they
have aseribed it to every imaginable cause
except the true one.
That wheat should rise up to 80s. a quarter
so quickly after an excellent harvest is a cir-
cumstance unprecedented in our commercial
history. Even in " the dark days of Protec-
tion " its enemies must admit that, when our
crops were abundant at home the people im-
mediately reaped the benefit of that abun-
dance in the diminished price of food. In
such seasons our parliamentary returns in-
form us that we drew but scanty supplies from
foreign countries, for the abundance of our
home-grown food rendered us all but inde-
pendent of extraneous aid. Why is it that,
under our present commercial regime, we now
see results so very different? Why are we
threatened with famine prices immediately
after a harvest of unusual excellence ? Simply
because, under the pressure of universal com-
petition, the production of British corn has
diminished.' But for this diminution we might
regard both the war in the East and the
scarcity in the West without uneasiness. As
it is, we know that we shall require large sup
plies of foreign food in the course of the pre-
sent winter, without yet being aware how or
where we are to obtain them.
The fact of the diminution of British pro-
duction of recent years has, we know, been
strenuously denied by our political opponents.
It has even been asserted that cultivation has
been materially extended under the wholesome
stimulus, as the phrase goes, of foreign com-
petition. But there are no data in existence
which can lead us to any such conclusion. All
the facts we possess point uniformly in the
opposite direction.
In England we have no means at present of
forming any accurate estimate of the whole
extent of land under cultivation, or of the
gross amount of the crops. But we possess
an index which through a long series of years
has enabled us to judge with unerring accu-
racy of the comparative scarcity or abundance
of each succeeding harvest. We allude to the
weekly returns of the corn sold throughout
the market towns of England and Wales.
These returns represent a certain proportion
of the quantity of corn grown in the United
Kingdom, and up to a certain period we find
that they exhibit a steadily progressive in-
crease. We find that they reached their
highest point immediately before the intro-
duction of our present commercial system,
and that subsequent to that event they have
shown a material and a permanent falling off
The returns for the three years preceeding
1847, as compared with the three past years,
are as fellows:—

Corn sold in the market towns of England and Wales.

WHEAT,

1844. 1845. 1846.
5,456,307 qrs. .. 6,666,240 qrs. .. 5,968,963 qrs.
1851. 1852. 833.
4,487,041 qrs. .. 4,854,513 qrs. .. 4,560,912 qrs.
BARLEY.
1844. 1845. 1846.
2,834,407 qrs. .. 2,468,489 qrs. .. 2,938,394 qrs.
1451. 1852. 1853.
2,333,710 qrs. .. 2,389,489 qrs. .. 2,474,206 qrs.

OATS.
1844. 1845. 1846.
1,989,730 qrs. .. 2,000,952 qrs. .. 1,970,448 qrs.
1851. 1852. 1853.
940,006 qrs. .. 947,550 qrs. .. 880,408 qrs.
It will be seen at a glance that much less
home grown grain is sold in our market towns
under our system of indiscriminate importa-
tion than was previously the case. The large
falling off in the returns both of wheat and of
oats is especially worthy of attention; and

SATURDAY,

when we consider that the great bulk of our
imports of late years have consisted of wheat,
and oats,. and Indian corn, the inference is
fair and reasonable that 'lrereign competition
has hp.d the effect of diminishing our home
supplies. An Edinburgh reviewer, indeed,
lately nagle the notable discovery that these
market-tqwn rfturna prove the very reverse,
or, in other words, thap the more corn our
farmers grow the less they sell. But we fear
that the returns for the month just ended are
sadly at variance with the theory of the inge-
nious reviewer. He will find that they very
far exceed in amount those for October 1853;
and why? Because they truly represent the
comparative abundance of the one season and
the scarcity of the .other.• If he extends his
researches to the corresponding month in
1852, he will find that the sales, although
larger than in 1853, still fall short of those in
1854; and why? Because the last has been
by far the best harvest of the three, and, as a
necessary result, a greater amount of home-
grown corn has been brought into the market.
With respect to the production of Ireland
. we are possessed of evidence which admits of
no manner of doubt. The latest Government
returns, collected and compiled by the aid of
the constabulary and police, indicate the exact
number of acres under cultivation in each
county, and the returns for the whole island
are as follows :

TINDER WHEAT.
1847. 1849. 1850.
743,871 acres. .. 687,646 acres. .. 604,887 acres.
1851. 18.52. 1853.
504,248 acres. .. 353,566 acres. .. 327,254 acres.
The production of wheat in Ireland, there-
fore, has fallen off more than one-half within
the space of seven years. The cultivation
both of oats and barley has also slightly de-
clined ; but it is fair to state that, while the
cereal products of the sister island have thus
steadily diminished, her flocks and herds have
materially increased. In 1847 Ireland pos-
sessed 2,591,415 cattle ; in 1852 the number
had risen to 3,095,067. In the same interval
the number of sheep had risen from 2,186,177
to 2,613,943. In this increase of stock, coupled
with a decrease of cultivation, we perceive an
obvious consequence of free trade. The
Irish farmer has only done what the most
distinguished advocates of that creed advised
him to do, viz , to grow less wheat and to rear
more sheep. So long as we could count upon
abundant foreign supplies the consumers aw
no reason to be dissatisfied with the chage ;
r NieHel-as
but the ambition of the Empero
has scattered to the winds the calculations of
our economists, and our new commercial sys-
tem must speedily be subjected to an ordeal
which was never dreamed of in the philosophy
of its founders. For the reasons we have
stated we cannot look without apprehension to
the result.
Since the above was written we have re-
ceived the agricultural returns from Ireland
for 1854. Contrary to our expectation they
exhibit a decreased corn production as com-
pared with the previous year. The late high
prices have caused more wheat to bete
than in 1853 ; but there is an aggregs de-
crease of cereal production in thd Present
year of 91,233 acres. As we before remarked,
therefore, all the facts in our possession point
uniformly in one direction ; and he must be,
indeed, blinded by his prejudices Son ilse
trico
perceive their bearing upon the pr
ep
of corn.
PROFESSIONS AND PRACTICE OF
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.
THE opposition between the professions and
the practice of the Indian Government has
been frequently commented on. Mr. MA
CAULAY relates, in his sketch of " Warren
Hastings," that the Company, scandalised on
one occasion by his proceeding, sent out to
him a sermon on humanity and justice, accom-
panied by a demand for money ; and that
HASTINGS, perfectly understanding what that
meant, totally disregarded the sermon, but re-
mitted the required account. True to its
original character, the Company still preaches
philanthropy, and clutches at gain.