The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-03 00:00:00

'axle that this increase in the raw material could
have taken place without giving hien seed employ-
ment to the working alums. The hon gentleman then re•
hued to the exports, and had recourse to an ingenious argu-
ment, which he often had before, but which he confessed he
tould not understand. The hon. gentleman admitted that
there was • considerable increase in the quantity of exports;
that a great quantity of these exports were the produce of
British industry or of British roil ; but he said that their
value had detzeased, and that the consequences
mast be that the manufacturers of this country
would be ruined. (Hear, hear.) There was hardly
• degle branch of English manufactures of any kind,
sort, or description, in which the exports for the four
months of the present year, as compared with the exports
M the 4 correspeading months of last year, bad not increased
in as extraordinary degree, and yet that was the very time
when the hon. gentleman deserthed the manufactures of the
country as being in a state of absolute and progressive vain. I
(Hear, hose.) But the 'declared value of their exports had
not diminished. (Hear, bear.) On the contrary, It had in-
creased from 16,239,0001. to 16,836,0001. And it would be
mill further satisfactory to the hon. gentleman and the house
to know that for the first 5 months of the present year, el-
though he had not the details, it had increased to
18,944,0001. (Hear, bear.) The honourable gentlemen
referred to the effect which had been attributed to
the investments in railways. He (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) did not in the slightestdegree retract the opinion
which he gave on a former occasion in respect to this sub-
ject—nemely, that the amount of money invested in 1847
had withdrawn capital from more productive industry.
(Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman seemed to think it ex-
unordinary that that e6cl should be product(' for the first
time in 1846 and 1847. The hon. gentleman, able as be
was, did net seem to have taken the trouble to make him-
self acquainted with the fact which would have enabled him
to form an opinion en this subject. The effect was produced
in those years for the first time, because the amount of
capital invested in railway speculations was greater in those
years than in former years. Surely the withdrawal of
33,000,0001 roust have a greater effect than the withdrawal
of 15,0ee.Xwi. or 16,000,0001. The menet of invest-'
ments in railways for the year 1844 was 6,800,0001. ;
for 1845, 18,000,0001.; for 1846, 37,814,0001.; for'
1847, 41,250,0001. That was the amount with-
drawn in these two last years by shares or loans from
the other blenches of industry. The hon. gentleman seemed
to be very inconsistent in his notions of the capital of the
country, because at one moment hs said that there was no-
thing more remarkable than the decline in the wealth of the
country, said in the next moment he said that there never was
such an abundance of capital, and never were mercantile bills
so easily iecount ed. (Hear.) He should like to know whether
the hon.gent leans really thought that an abundance of capital
was • proof of declining wealth. (Hear, hear.) tut when
he looked to the amount withdrawn from other pursuits for
railway purposes even in the last year, it was a convincing
proof that the wealth of the country was not declining.
With regard to the result of the measure which had been passed
in respect to corn, he would revert to it when he came to
the agricultural part of the question. He would therefore
take other articles in which there was a considerable diminu-
tion in price. Rice was now reduced to 15s, the same pike
which it stood at in 1841. Tea was 6s. per lb. in 1844, it
was 41. 6d. per lb. list year. And in June 1849 it was
4s. per lb. Coffee had reduced in the same time from ls. Bd.
to Is. 4d. per lb. Cocoa from 10d. to 7d. Rice
from sd. to 2id. There wee a similar reduction
in the price of currants and raisins. The price
of sugar in the year 1842 was 78s. per cwt. ; in 1843,
755. ; In 1844, 745. ; in 1845, 625. ; in 1846, 641. ; iu 1847,
69e. • in 1848, 645. ; and in 1849, 545. ; showing a redo Lion
in those years of from 78s. to 54s The price cf salt
1 was 6s. in 1844, 4s. 6d. in 1845, 4s. in 1846, 3'. 91.
in 1847, 3s. 61. in 1848, and 3s. 6i. In 1849. Rice
was 339. per cwt. in 1842, and 17s. in 1848. The
price of milk during the last year was 91. instead
1 of 10d. and ls., which it had been during the previous years.
The improved condition of the climes to which he alluded
was owing to the reduction of the duty on those articles of
importation which were used for home consumption. The
great increase in the importation of the articles used
for home consumption was • great proof of the ine.
eroved condition of the working classes. He :would
now come to an article, the consumpti to of which woe a
great test of tee condition of the people ; he meant sugar.
In the year 1844, 206,000 tons were consum, 1: in the
year 1845, 242,000 tons; in 1846, 281,000 teas; in
11847, 258,000 tons, and in 1848, 308,131 tons; being
en increase as compared with the year 1844 of over 101,000
I tons. (Hear, hear) With regard to foreign brandy, in
1843 1,052,000 gallons were consumed, in 1844, 1,037,000
gallons, in 184.5 1,073,000 gallons ; then a considerable
reduction was made in the duty, and the consumption con-
tinued to increase until the year 1848, when it was 1,632,000
gallons. This afforded • great gain to the revenue as well situ
the consumer. Now he would take the average consumption
of home and colonial spirits during the three years from
1843 to the end of 1818, and compare it with teat of the
three previous years. The colonial spirits columned during
the three first years amounted te 2,257,000 galleon, but the
amount consumed during the last three years was 2,999,000
gallons; the amount of British spirits consumed in the three
first years was 20,865,000 gallons, and in the last tree years
22,326,000 gallons. In this case, there was uot only a gain to
the consumer and the revenue, but to the home manufacturer
of spirits. Now he would refer to the policy of those mea-
sures which he had the satisfaction of passing through that
house, and which it was feared by some would result in the
entire destruction of the distillers of this kingdom, parti-
cularly thou in the northern part of this country and in
Ireland. Then was no doubt a diminution in the consump-
tion of 32,000 gallons in England sines the passing of those
measures, but in Ireland and Scotland there was a
considerable increase—there being in the former
country en increase of 607,000 gallons in 1811
Over 1848. He had passed • measure giving
distillers a drawback when they exported, and the
result was that 117,000 gallons had been since exported. Now
he would go to the glove manufacture, in the consumption
of which there had been a vast increase within the last few
years. If the hon. gentleman, the member for Buckingham-
shire, considered that nothing but protection could improve
trade, he thought he could prove that the opposite was the
cage. With regard to silks, 416,0001b5. of home manufac-
ture were consumed in 1848, and in 1848 517,00016 e. were
consumed. The reduction of the duty on foreign silks had
• very beneficial result, inasmuch as it called skill
in this country into more active operation. There were
some trades, no doubt, which had lately fallen off. The
iron trade, for instance, was in a state of depremian.
The price of iron was low, compared with that of those years
when railways were being constructed. The makers of iron
had, however, exceeded the demand, which caused the
felling off in price. Since the alteration in the ,
navigation laws the shipping trade in this country
had increased. In the year 1845 the entries amounted I
to 31,817, and in the year 1848 to 33,372. He would now
take the first five months of the last five years and compare
them as regarded British end foreign ship. The tonnage at
British ships entered in the first five months of 1844 was
2,280,000 ;in 1845, 2,240,000 ; in 1846, 2,355,000 ; in 1817,1
2,670,000 ; and in 1848, 2,914,000. Foreign ships amounted '
in teenage to 857,000 in 1845 ; in 1848, to 970,000.
Ships entered and cleared in 1848 amounted to
8,260,000 tons, and in 1848 to 4,230,000 tons. (Cheers.)
So that the employment of out shipping had, in point of
het, iscressed at the most recent period respecting which he
bad information. He now came to • part of the subject of
Nish he regretted he could not give so good an account, the
Maim namely, of the agricultural interest. (Hear, hear.) He
I must of course admit, that in several portions of the agricul-
' tural districts there was severs distress. (Hear, beer.) There
prevailed among the farmers generally much complaint—
more complaint, indeed, than was justified by the
circumstances, but unquestionably there did exist
in many agricultural districts very considerable
distress. In all these districts loud complaints were made of
the low price of corn and of wool. Now, at ell events, the
price of wool was at this moment higher than it had been
for some time put. (" No, no.") He believed such to be the
case; it would be very unlikely, on the face of it, that the
export of wool should have increased, as Ittihad stated, six-
fold, and no increase have taken place in the price of the ar-
ticle. (Hear, hear.) As to wheat, he neat scarce inform
hon. gentlemen that within the last week or fortnight the
price had risen about 3a. a quarter ; but omitting this rise
from his calculation, he would take the price
to the end of May, the period at which the hoc.
gentleman gays notice of his motion, and he
found that for the five months preceding that time the ave-
rage price of wheat had been 4.5 e. 3d., a price, let him ob-
serve, not at all unexampled in this country, even in the
palmiest days of protection. (Rear, hear.) What had been
the price of corn during the last three years t The sunup
price of corn in 1846 was 645. Bd. ; in 1847, 69c. 9d. ; it
1848, 50s. 6d.—the average price of the entire three years
being 58e. aid. (Hear, hear.) Now, if a high price of corn
was that which made farmers prosperous, high prices having
prevailed for three years up to January last, the farmers
ought te have been in • state of decided prosperity in
the very February tut, when the hon. gentleman made out
they were all ruined. (Hear, hear.) As to other
agricultural produce, if hon. gentlemen would look
back to the facts and figures of the last seven years, they
would find that there had been several periods under protme
non when the price of beasts, sheep, de.c. was quite as low
as at present, and even lower. In the London market, from
;smeary to May, in the last seven pars, the price of inferior
heists was, per stone, in 1842, 3s. 91d. ; in 1843, 2e, 81d. ; in
1844, 2s. 7d. ;in 1845, 2s. Bed. ;in 1846, 2a. 71d. ; 1847,
gs. 3d. ; in 1848, 3s. 41d. ; in 1849, 2s. 61d ; of prime
beasts, in 1842, 4s. Oid.; in 1813, 2s. 71d.; in 1844,35. 31d.;
is 1845, 3s. 9d. ; in 1846, 3s. Bd.; in 1847, 3s. lied.; in 1848,
4e. lid. ; and in 1819, 3s. sd. In sheep, the same thquily
showed that three times in the Name period the price had,
under protection, been lower than at present. (Hear, hear.)
And in the article of pigs, much the unto result presented
Itself. It was, therefore, futile to attribute the depression of
the agricultural interest, as a matter of clear demonstration,
le recent legislation. (Hear, hear.) As to the importation
of foreign beasts, it was not more than enough in any one
Ffor a few days' consumption of the metropolis alone—
, hear)—and had greatly fallen off. The pigs annually
ported hither from Ireland, used to constitute a very im-
portant article in the food of our labouring classes ; but this
importation had of late years most considerably demised.
When wheat was about to be imported free of duty,
was generally anticipated that we should be over-
whelmed with cargoes from the Baltic and from the
United States. What was the fact ? That the main supply
'glut year cams from countries, to which no eye had been
tanned ea the source of any considerable importation, from
Isuntries immediately across the Channel. In the last eleven
months there came from Prussia, Holland, and Belgium
490,000 quarters, and from France, generally regarded as an
" importing country 480,000 (platten ; while from the
United States, in wheat and Bone, there came out 685,000
quarters. A friend of his, a large farmer in Dorsetahire,
who also happened to be a large miller, had furnished him
with these remarkable facts, in illustration of the wretched
character of last you's harvest • in the south of