The National Register.
London, England, 1815-02-26 00:00:00

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1

CORN LAWS.
—mow.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

Ste—As the Corn Laws are slow under consideration oil
Parliament, it is a question of national importance, to ascer-
tain hew far it is wise, prudent, or politic, in the Legisla-
ture to interfere and frame laws to restrict the importation of
corn, the necessary article of subsistence; laws which can
lead only to establish a greater monopoly in our great far-
tners, and whose principles are destructive to the welfare and
happiness of four-fifths of the population, who, by the press-
ing weight of the landlord's tax and the overbearing profits of
the great farmers, are :now reduced to the verge of bank-
ruptcy and universal pauperism. Upon what principle (not
humanity or moral justice) de the land-owners call on the
Legislature to interfere, except it he to pass a money bill to
authorise them to extort fifty millions annually, as they have
done during the last twenty years, for their own advantage.
Now, Mr. Editor, if I comprehend what a money bill is,
it is meant to add a revattwe to the nublic purse : this, Sir,
is a money hill for the use of private individuals, and on this
principle the land-owners now ail( the Legislature to confirm
by law that this stim of fifty millions is insufficient. By a,
statement of Mr. Gregory King, in 1760, the yearly produce
of landed property was thirteen by ditto of Mr.
William Pitt, in February, . !TOG, twenty-eve millions. It ,
now a well known fact,. tiaktiii load bus-ipso two-thirds
ahove what it was in 171514, and in swillstatasits thripo-foarthk-
Taking the landed income at seeenty-five millions, it will
be. found that an increased tax of tufty millions, above the.
old receipts, has been extorted. This,- Sir, is a direct tax,
and equal to our war expencei. The came of the present
Inquiry is, whether Parliament shall, or shall not, pass this
money bill into a law. This new law will not benefit
the public revenue, but the private purse of the land-
owners. These fifty millions, it is evident, have been
drawn from the industrious pint of the community, the me-
chanic and the labourer more than any other class,' by the
loss of a part of their wages. The following statement, al-
though it has been before the public, will prove who have
bees the losers, and who have pocketed the gains :

Total Labourer's A
.; •
cif Price Total
of Money a
'1243 10
* Total of
Bread. Loaves Wages 'I nor's Rate.
CC
for 11. per week Paupers.

6}
6

8•
37
40

6 24

66.5.364

563,964
695,177
818,851

moved the loaves from the table of the labourer,as well as from
the confined stock-holders, or fixed annuitants. From 16r,
it appears the fixed annuitant lost three parts of his annual
income. and the labourer lost abece half. These Gen-
tlemen have still a Wish to pursue the saine• system of fraud,
with this difference, that it should be made legal, although
13,807,136 pounds is the increase of poors' rates caused by
their oppression, making a total of 03,807,136; this sum,
added to the war expellees and interest of, the national debt,
make the burthen tremendous for any reflecting mind to
think of. These, Sir, are questions that few people have
taken pains to investigate.
These observations I recommend to the consideratio-n of
thole noble, but little-minded great men, who are strenuous
in the cause of oppressing the poor. If we -examine the
statement of 1812, when bread was Is. Bd. the loaf, and
155. formed the labourer's wages, we shall find that he only
received nine loaves fOr his weekly corn wages, whit h were
three less than he received in 1811, causing thereby a week-
ly loss to the labourer equal to ss. This accounts very
plainly . for the .great increase of 831,737 paupers in 13.11.
Where-can this difference take its first source of action but
from the tax laid on the land by the land-owners, becauSe,
it caused the high pi ice of corn, as the labourer's wages
Were not regulated by corn value? The difference between
corn weger and money wages was a real loss to the labourer
and fixed annuitantv, and a gain to that amount to the
laad-owners• and 'farmers. if the propositions now under
Legislative dissuasion auto be law, that los. per bushel for
wheat be the fixed price, the quarters loaf will never be
lea thee Is. Id. and, in all probability, it may rise to Is. 6d.
~cor eyed to Is. Bd. Should this take place, we array expect
increase of half a million of paupers to add to our dis-
tresses. Yet, Mr. Editor, Earl Darnley and others, at the late
Maidstone . meeting, wished to impress on the multitude,
that stopping the free-impartation (whereby the quartern loaf
will be advanced), would be for the benefit of the working
class. The distress the cultivators of land experience now,
rises more from the heavy rents of their landlords, who have
enjoyed luxury to-excess, while four-fifths of the nation have
been scourged with the horrors of war taxes and land-ownei's
taxes. The public have relieved the cultivators for the last
twenty years, and supported the land-owners. The redress
the cultivators now claitn must originate from such nelsons
as Earl Darnley and Sir John Seahright and other supporters
of the present system, making a reduction of‘tirir oppressive
rents. Probably these men of rank supposed that English-
men were fools and void of common sense, to hear milt
patience a complete lib'l on their understanding, without
showing a just reprehension, which they received from their

hands.
As our manufactories are now in a state of suspended
animation. will the present plan relieve the cultivator,
benefit the land-owner, and add fresh vigour to our com-
merce, or will it not totally destroy our commerce as
a manufacturing state, by the advance of labour to
meet the price of provisions, which must he the result of
e intended alteration of the Corn Laws ? Again. by the
e of trade, labour will be less wanted, and by 'belie

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