The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-04-03 00:00:00

Ttutlieuott of the Agricultural Committee fins
been pinned by order of.the House of Commons,

and will he found in another part of this Paper.

This Report, to which the country has been look-
ing with die roost earnest anxiety, embroil.** view
of the present condition of the agriculturrd body
with reference to the market prices of their produce,
auggestreortain means that may be sdopted by Par-
liament for ameliorating that condition, and con-
cludes *Ma detailed exposition of the principles
upon which the system of our commercial inter-
course with foreign States in the purchase of corn
ought to be perinsoently established.
The notion, which seems to have had its origin
with Lord LIVERPOOL, and to have since per-
vaded many parts of Europe, that the existing
distresses of the agricultural body are to be as-
cribed to the bounties of Proeidetice, is noticed in
this Report, but not with that implicit deference
to which the Ministers might possibly conceive it to
be entitled. Tine Comentitee state as an important
feet, " That the quantity of British wheat and oats
sold io Mark-lane between the tat of November
and Ist March lint, has very considerably exceeded
the quautity sold in the corresponding months of
the twenty preceding years."—This circumstance,
which would offer to the mind of Lord LIVERPOOL
and his disciples no evidence of an excess of pro.
diction. is in our opinion much better explained
by the soggeolims contained in the Report, us the
result of an eagerness on the part of the occupiers
of land ,‘ to dispose of their produce at any price"
for the purpose of satisfying their present necessities.
There is's moral presumption that since the return
of peace there has Imes no lends newly turned from
piastre to the production of corn; no circum-
stances hare occurred to encourage such a specula•
lion, for even tiro protection afforded by the Act of
the 55th of the late • KING, has not given such a
stimulus to agriculture as it bad received from

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the exlmordintny demands of the war. Why then
should a larger quantity of grain be sold daring
the period specified in the last year, than in the
correspondiug period of any of the last twenty years,
were it not that the farmers are driven from dis-
tress to flock with their produce to a market al-
ready overstocked, and thereby to aggravate their
distress still farther ?
The Report then notices the several suggeitions
that have been made to the Committee with a
view to affording a remedy to this state of general
calamity. We have reviewed, in noisy array,
the schemes for relief which constituted the moat
prominent features in the speech of Lord Lots.'
DON DERRY. on opening his famous exposition of
the views entertained by the Government upon the
state of public affair*, and they seem to be treated
as coolly and cavalierly as was Lord LIVERPOO L'S
notion about the escese of production. The
most remarkable of these was the proposition
for advancing loans to parishes on the credit
of the rates ; but this has " appeared to the Com.
mittee to be attended with so many difficulties, and
to be in little applicable to the purpose of alleviat-
ing tl. distresses which are complained of, that they
do not deem it necessary to enter into any exam,.
nation of it, nor to /ay it before the House." The
other scheme, for purchasitig corn with public
money to the amount of a million steeling, '
is found to militate so strongly against the
most acknowledged principles of political science.
that the Committee abstain from recommending it.
In this light do the Committee view the notable
schemes advanced, after due deliberation, by the
Government for the relief of the public distress,
jand we are persuaded that in the opinions of
the Committee every man in the empire will
concur, who is in the slightest degree acquaisited
with the doctrines of political economy. Wisely
then did the House of Commons act in re-
ferring IL: subject to a Committee of its own.
But how can the House uow listen witli.oo9 degree
of confidence or respect to the further opinions of
the Ministers upon this most vital subject, having
thus seen them " weighed in the balance, and
found wanting ?" .
It is nuneceosary foe us here to particularize the
other suggestions that have been deemed by the
Committee worthy of notice in their Report, bit
sufficient to draw the attention of our readers to ilsi
plan which, after mature deliberation, they have
thought it advisable to recommend to the *clop.
Con of the House. This plan is, that when-
ever the average price of wheat is under 60s.
• quarter, the Government should be empowered
to advance a lotus of money upon a deposit of corn,
to an amount not exceeding two-thirds of the 'al
of the corn deposited. This plan seems to be I
from ally serious objection ; it does not pro . 1,1
absolute purchase of the corn, which would 'eow4
vest the Government into dealers in that celleilio.:
dity, it contemplate) merely a loan upon a secu.
rite—a pledging of the corn for a certain Innited
period, and ensures a present supply to the neces.
sities of the farmer, without compelling him to
have recourse to a ambit already overstocked mud
1 glutted. This plan rellbs exclusively of course t 4
1 domestic produce. but the holders of foreign graie
now warehoused, imported under the authority 4
the Ssth of the late King, are not overlooked ie
this Report, nor are their interests neglected. It
is proposed nut only as an advantage to these mer-
chants, but likewise as a means of removing the
apprehension which' the existence of so much
foreign corn in the country is said to create among
the domestic growers, that this foreign corn should
he allowed to be reduced to flour for the purposes
of re,exportation.
The expediency of regulating the foreign trade
of corn by the application of a fixed or a variable
duty, seems to have been seriously agitated in the
Committee, and we confess that we feel uo inconsi-
derable de;tee of satisfaction in finding that the
result of the discussion is iii strict unieou with the
opinions which we have from time to time expressed
upon this subject. et If," say the Committee,
" the circumstances of this country should here-
after alloa the trade in corn to be permanently
settled upon a footing constantly open to all the
world, but subject to such a fixed and uniforms
duty as might compensate to the British grower the
difference of expense at which his corn can be rais-
ed and brnnght to market, Ste. such a system
would in many respects be preferable to any modi-
ficotion of regulations depending upon average
prices, with an ascending and descending scale of
duties; it would prevent the effects of combina-
tion and speculation in. endeavouring to raise or
depress those averages," &c.; and so the Re-
port proceeds to notice the inconveniences that
must attend the present system, and also that
which finds a place it; another part of the Report,
and which is formed upon un " ascending and de-
scending scale of duties." The intimation of the
Committee refers, however, to sonic ultimate ar-
rangement which should be permanent; but in
the mean time the miserable spirit of tem-
porary expedients, which unfortunately seems to
rule every part of our system, has bound the
Committee withiu its withering influence. In every
thing we find the day of final arrangement
studiously postponed. We live amidst temporary
schemes and experiments, its if the frame of our
society were only a preparatory school for some
other, Where the Mat of our everlasting expert.

li•••

Isent. ivas to Le at letittitsublimatett into a systetn,

The AM of the 66th of the late Kiag is slot to be
touched petit the servilee shall amount to too.;
that ii, is fact, until the Act of the frith of the
late Kin Aral cruse to operate as a protection,
hive thrown open our hackie mattes in the Wray
speculation of foreigners,- and have east British
Agriculture at the feet of the Coe'ditaOrttrany •
m %fortes* the price of Kalish shoot ewe to amen tit
to 1100.' a quarter, ti' 'stliestit' of -;Tattlign corn
would be poured into Great Reitisie okich would
quickly desolate our fields, and castliser farmers,
and perhaps their landlords, into a state of irksome
which several- years would be insufficient tl3 for-
ted!. The Agricultural Committee Propose. as •
protection spinet this evil, that • graduated settle
of duties should be superinduced upon the 55th of
the late Kmg, so that should wheat reach ttscaver-
sge of 50.., the ardour of foreign speculation
should experience some restraint. Intricacy of pro-
needing seems to have charms for certain Minds, as
'if it were thought to evince intellectual superiority.
~The absence of complexity it to public affairs what
bounty is in private lifr,tiodingenuous minds will
.41witys porsee id oe4wArsit' sad soundest policy.
Whet trickery is tide, disf ;then the ports shall have
opened at 80.., the import price shall instantly be
lowered to 701. and a duty be imposed from lb. to
15s. a quarter ? Should the price rise afterwards to
.80s. u duty of ss. is to he imposed, and should it
reach 86s. the duty to be then reduced to itit. "slam
, better and simpler would it Into discard the stddbo
of fixing soy import price, but as is done in all oilier
foreign commodities, to impose upon the imports-
lion of foreign corn a fixed and unvarying duty
t, •
~equivalent to the protection which oar domestic
produce may be thought to require. This is
,Aliita.iitte. principle that pervades our commercial
.symeet in general, and nothing but the most
dangerous quackery would have ever thought
of distinguishing between the article of foreign corn
and any other article of foreign trade which may, be

occosiosolly necessory, under the•i*poeition of cer-
tollinglipPi for the coosootA4Of the cooutry.
41,4• •2•'•