The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-14 00:00:00

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with aatlsfaAion Lord LINCOLN'S declaration of his
medians" to tree commerce from any reEriction that
vet remains, consistent with the claims of the re-
venue.'

The right honourable gentleman's opinion upon the
tea duties are happily stated ad captandum," and as
an increase of the income tax does not frighten him,"
direct taxation in its largest and broadest sense seems
to be the beinner of Lord LINCOLN, and of course, of Sir
ROBERT PEEL. It is as well to know this. In the
noble lord's development of his opinions bath with
respect to education and the settlement of the Irish
Catholic clergy, we cannot but admit him to be some-
what ahead even of Mr. BRIGHT in liberal-
ism, and very boldly and honourably so, for
such opinions are by no means popular. And
perhaps it is one of the most singular occur-
rences in politics, that in the year 1847
we should Slid a Tory leader obliged to excuse him-
self before a great mercantile and liberal audience for
• too liberal view of such questions as education,
religious tolerance, and sanitory regulations. Yet so
it is.

Part of Lord LINCOLN'S speech was an exculpa-
tion of himself for changing, which exculpation
amounts to the old proverb of " The world
doth change." In one respect the practical Tories
do seem honourably determined to be consistent;
and that is in outbidding the Whigs, if possible, in
liberal intentions towards Ireland and free trade—
intentions so loudly trumpeted in Sir Itonnur PEEL'S
retiring speech, and honourably echoed by Lord
LINCOLN at Manchester on Monday.

THE state of the corn trade indicates the approach,
if not the arrival, of famine prices. The price of
wheat from week to week advances, at the rate of
2s. and 3a. vcr quarter; barley from 3s. to 55.; and
other graip in proportions not very different. It is
somewhat startling to read such passages as the fol-
lowing, which we extract from the Mark Lane Er-
press review of the cora trade up to last Satarday
sivemiort •
The excitement in the grain trade has rather increased
than diminished since our last, and there are at present no
symptoms of a pause in the upward movement. Every day
furnishes fresh evidence of ...he ex retne scarcity prevailing in
Ireland; and by the accounts received thence it is clear that
the supplies hitherto sent hence—large as they have been—
are as a drop in the ocean. That the Irish will have to buy
largely in England up to the period of next harvest cannot
be questioned ; and how we are to meet this unusual de-
mand is a startling proposition. It is not merely Mat which
is Mice's from us, but it must be borne in mind Mat in or-
dinary seasons the densely populated manufacturing dis-
tricts, which draw a large proportion of their supplies from
Liverpool, depend, in a great measure, on the arrivals of
brrad.stuffs from the miter isle. This source iv not nnl
withdrawn, but large shipments are daily taking place from
this to the other side of the Channel.

Notwithstanding that nearly two mill ions of quarters
of wheat and more than three million handredsweight
of flour were imported during the year 1846, wheat
now at the commencement of 1847 sells in Mark-lane

at from 695. to 868. per quarter. The London
average price of wheat on the sth of January instant
was 70s. 2d. the quarter. And at Mark-lane on
Monday la't a further nth mice of 2s. and 3s. a quarter
on wheat of various kinds was established. Farmers'
stocks arc stated to be lower than usual at the com-

mencement of the year, and factors, merchants, and
millers, have only small quantities on hand.
Of late, too, the wheat of home growth has been
brought to market in a somewhat damp condition
and will require a considerable admixture of dri
foreign grain for the purpose of being made into flour.
The consequence is, foreign wheat bears a " higher
relative value than English." " High mixed Dantzic
and Konigsberg" are quoted 745. to &is. per quarter.
The price of the 4 lb. loaf of the best wheaten bread
has already reached ltd., and there is at present no
reason for anticipating "a pause in the upward move-
ment." Now, passing for a moment the fearful dis-
tress of Ireland, to what do these facts lead in Eng-
land? Severe and sharp privation finds its way into
the homes of vast multitudes of our working popula-
tion. Clothing and fuel, never more wanted than
during the extremely cold weather we are experien-
cing, must give place to food, now advanced in price
one half. And though Ireland exhibits the spectacle
of the dire miseries to which a potato-fed population
may be reduced by the failure of that esculent, and a
considerable portion of the increased price of grain in
England has been caused by the necessity of sending
grain to Ireland instead of receiving supplies from
thence, it must not be supposed that the failure of the
potato crop has been without its direct effect in
England. In all, or nearly all, the agricul-
tural districts, the labouring population rely
much on the potato crop for a sufficiency
of food : a reliance which has been increased by the
well-meaning, if not well-directed, efforts to extend
the system of allotments to rural labourers. The
actual consumption of wheat in England has been
largely increased from the failure of the potato crop. ,
And potatoes have failed on the labourers' allotments
almost as completely as in Ireland. We have still
seven months before any grain from a new crop can
be brought to market, and in the mean time an
anxious question arises—how arc the people to be fed?
Nor is the scarcity confined to wheat. The autho-
rity from which we before quoted, thus refers to the
trade in barley:
The great rise established in barley on Monday has fated
to draw supplies to this market, and the arrivals into London,
including 9,311 quarters from abroad, have amounted to only
12,05.5 quarters. The meltsters and distillers have, therefore,
found it difficult to secure tho quantity requisite for their
immediate wants, and the sales made have been concluded on
terms decidedly in favour of the seller.
This related to the past week. On Monday last
barley was sold for seed in Mark-lane at 738. per
quarter, and for malting at 71s. Malt has of course
reached a price proportionally exorbitant, and a
"further advance is anticipated." Here, then, we
find that in addition to the extra cost of bread, beer,
a necessary of life to the great body of the working
classes, has become much dearer.
So again oats, which in some districts, and for cer-
tain purposes, serve as a substitute for wheat or barley,
are following the rise in prices of the superior grain.
Thus we find that last week there was an upward
movement.

Simi I as the supplies of oats have for some time been , a forth er
falling off is exhibited this week in the receipts. We are dia.
posed to think that the time has now arrived when this grain
will feel the infinence of the very great enhancement which
has taken place in other sorts of corn without hitherto pro-
ducing much effect on the vela° of oats. On Wednesday
there was certainly an inerc.oed disposition to buy, and to-
wards the close of market the dealers took off a fair quantity
at rates hardly obtainable in the beginning of the week.
And on Monday last the price again advanced, and
similar details of the same kind might be accumulated
from various sources.
Now, after such statements, the mind naturally ad-
verts to the existing duties on imported grain, and we
find that the duty on wheat is 45., on barley 25., on
oats ls. fid., and on rye and beans 2s. per quarter.
And such duties form additions of importance to the
cost of grain at present prices. But even more im-
portant than mere addition to prices is the circum-
stance that some of the most populous countries in
Europe are competing with us in the world's market
for grain, and have thrown open their ports and of-
fer every encouragement to the importation of corn.
Our duties therefore give foreign purchasers a consi-
derable advantage over us. We have now to test a
4s. duty on wheat, a duty which it was admitted on
all bands could never be maintained in the face of any
considerable scarcity. Protectionists, free-traders, ad-
vocates of a fixed duty, are concurred in the position
that such a duty could not be retained after prices
had reached a certain elevation. That was used in
argument for adverse and different purposes by those
various parties, but as to the position, in the use of it
as an argument, all agreed. Can any one now venture
to assert that the point at which all duty on the im-
portation of grain should cease has not been attained?
Do the most desperate adherents of protection imagine
there is no limit to national endurance on this ques-
tion of food ? We know that the Protectionist leaders
sanction the a.sertion, if they do not cherish the hope,
that they will be able at the next general election to
secure such a majority in the House of Commons as
will enable them to perpetuate the present scale
of duties on foreign corn. At all events, they
mean to use such an illusory expectation. That
it will altogether fail to produce the result
they talk about we have no doubt. Bat it is a topic of
debate which ought not to be left for that period.
The necessities of the nation demand an immediate
abrogation of the remnant of the corn laws. Provi-
dence has shortened the period of transition which
was conceded by the nation to the selfish fears of a
once dominant landoeracy. Party oompromiaes with
class interests cannot be heeded under the new and
unexpected state of circumstances which have arisen.
The wealthy and the titled of the land are subscribing
their hundreds and their thousands ; the middle
classes are contributing handsomely from their in-
comes, straitened by the vast increase in price of all
the necessaries of life, said to what ? Why to buy
tared corn to save our Irish felinw-subjects from