The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-19 00:00:00

LETTER FROM MR. COBDEN TO MR. ENSOR.

London, July 13, ISM.
beg to thank you for your k ndnese in for-
warding me a copy of your pamphlet.
Having by the process of inquiry and reflection
seen reason to change your views so far u to abandon
the principle of protection, I have no doubt that by
pursuing your investigations still farther, you will be
brought to the conviction that a fixed duty upon corn
is not only incompatible with free trade, but that, as
a tax baring upon the first necessary of life, it is
quite indefensible in a fiscal point of view. As
to a duty upon corn being paid by the foreigner, and
lot by the consumer, permit me to say, with all pos-
sib!e courtesy, that of all the strange conceits con-
cocted in the muddled alembic of protectionism, that
appears to me to be by far the most extravagant. I
put this MC: England and Holland both draw sup-
plies of wheat from Dantzic; if trade be free in these
two importing countries, they will consume their corn
at the same price; but if England put on a duty of
five shillings a quarter, whilst the import into
Holland is free, then we shall eat our
wheat at sv. a quarter more than the Dutch. In either
case both parties will pay the same price at Dantzic.
Nobody can deny this proposition. Mr. Sanders,
whose opinion is so much relied upon at the Somerset-
shire protection meeting, has admitted its soundness
in a conversation with me. This is the whale case of
the free-traders. What we contend for is, that the
peopki of this country shell eat their bread at as
cheap a price as the other nations of the world. The
fallacy of the protectionists consists in their arguing
exclusively upon the temporary effect of a duty here
upon the price of wheat in a certain corn-exporting
port abroad. Pcssibly a duty upon wheat in England
might, for a time, tend to depress the price at Dantz;e,
but that would not affect the English alone ; in all
cases, as in the instance I have chad of the Dutch,
those countries which were wise enough to abstain
from putting any duty upon foreign corn would con-
sume their bread at a lower price than England.
Not only would a fixed duty raise the price of
foreign corn to the English consumer above the level
of the world's market, but it would also enhance the
value of all home-grown wheat to the same extent.
If not, what becomes cf all the protestations of
the protectionists about keeping up the pica of the
farmers' produce ? I confess lamat a loos to under-
stand their loiic. But it is not the first time that the
protectionist landowners have puzzled me. I could
never comprehend the wisdom of their tectics in cry-
ing down the prospects of British agriculture. If
the tenant-farmers believe their statements about
the impending low prices of corn, they ought
not to cultivate an acre of their land. I should like
to b • presmt at the rent audits of some of these pro-
prietors, to hear how they reconcile presciot rents
will the statements made by Mr. Stanley to his con-
stituents at Lynn on his return from the United
States, that wheat would ba imported from the fertile
and boundless valley of the Miteitsippi at 35r.
a quarter, to say nothing of the far wilder
predictions of other great protectionist authorities.
The only way in which I can account for the large
crop of wheat that is now ripening in our fields is
that the farmers had too much sense at seed time to ,
pay any attention to the croakinos of their protec-
tionist leaders. They can cow see by the prices cur-
rent of New York that wheat is worth upwards of
40s. a quieter in that mark-it, and that it cannot be
imported into this country at a profit. They may
learn also, by consulting the merchants, that a great
par: of the corn brought in during the spring, which
was mainly an accumu:ation awaiting the expiry of
the corn law in February last, has been sold at
a Ices to the impor cm Instead of talking about
Protection or fixed duti• a, I advise you, as a
friend to agriculture, to try. to open the eyes
of the farmers to the cheering prospect barn
them. WI h a giod harvest, fair prices, and well-
employed customer' they have only to disregard
the foolish sayings and doings of the protectionists,
and rily wholly upon their own energies, intelli-
gence. and capital to become, as a class, far more in-
depend nt and prosperous with free trade in corn than
they have ever been under miscalled proti ction.
I remaic, sir, your obedient serval t,
RICHARD COBDEN.
' Thos. Eneor, Esq., Milborne Port.

Vbe Court.