The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-12 00:00:00

half-employed operatives, and down will go wages !
The revenue, which yields to the impulses of trade, as the
barometer does to the atmosphere, will sink with the de-
cline of our manufactures, and then borrowing and funding
must follow; in other words, the drones, after driving out
the bees, or starving them in their cells, will devour the
honeycomb—et voila la fin
" All this. however, we won't allow to come to pass
without a struggle. As our difficulties increase a still
more determined spirit evinces itself. Take your estimate
of the truth of this by what will occur next Monday at the
Annual Meeting of the Members of the Chamber of Com-
merce for the election of Directors. That sober, discreet,
and most sagacious body of men will show by their votes
how far they agree with their President—l had almost said
their late President—in his opinion, that trade here is in
a satisfactory state.
" You will be deluged with petitions to be heard at the
Bar from this part of the country during the week. Be-
sides a large petition from the town, the different trades,
such as the engravers,lfustian cutters, &c., are going to
petition separately, and all the small towns and villages in
the neighbourhood will follow their example."
Mr. BARKER stated that he had received a letter from
Preston, stating that the anti-Corn-law Association of that
place would hold a meeting this night, at which it would
be determined whether or no they should hold a public
meeting on the subject. At all events, a petition would be
forwarded for presentation prior to Mr. Villier's motion
being brought forward. The price of yarn had declined
Id. per lb. since he had left home, white wool maintained
its price, thus proving that it was on the price of the manu-
factured article that depreciation took place. The petition
from Preston was for a total and immediate repeal of the
Corn-laws, and praying for evidence to be heard at the
bar of the House.
Mr. TAYLOR (of London) thought that it was of im-
portance that evidence should be brought forward, showing
the evils resulting from the operation of the Corn-laws in
places unconnected with manufactures. In illustration of
this he would mention the case of the Shetland Islands.
These islands contained, about 35,000 inhabitants ; they
were barren and produced no wheat, their only agricultural
produce consisting of oats, beer, or bigg, and potatoes.
The number of acres under cultivation was 15,000, being
about one-third of an acre to each inhabitant. They had
no manufactures ; the produce of the land was not suf-
ficient for their support, and their principal employment
was fishing. They exported this fish to procure themselves
the necessaries of life; and a Spanish gentleman had of-
fered to supply them with corn in exchange for their
fish at the rate of thirty-five shillings per quar-
ter ; but he was prevented by the operation of the Corn-
laws, and these poor islanders were obliged to send their
fish to the English market, and receive their corn from England at
a high price, and thus the inhabitants of those Islands were suffer-
ing from destitution, when, but for the operation of the Corn.laws
they might live comfortably and happily.—(Hear, hear.) Dr. Bow-
ring said that this case told doubly, inasmuch as the Spanish Go.
vernment prohibited the importation of English fish, and the Bri-
tish Government prohibited the importation of foreign corn.
Mr. GEORGE BoaaErr stated that a meeting had been held at
Greenwich about a week since, and a petition had been agreed to,
which had already received between five and six thousand
signatures from persons of every political denomination.—(Hear.
hear.) Before this day week that petition would be sent to Ali'.
Villiers for presentation, it prayed for a total and immediate abo.
lition of the Corn-laws, and for the hearing of evidence at the bar
of the House.

Mr. EWART wished to draw attention to the report of the Corn.
mittee on Agricultural Distress which sat in 1821, it would be
well if country gentlemen would read that report. The Corn.
mittee consisted of country gentlemen. Sir Thomas Gooch was
the Chairman, and Sir Thomas Lethbridge was also a member of
it. Mr. Ewart then read the following extract from the report of
the Committee :

" Your Committee are the more anxious to impress upon the at..
tention of the House the real state of our trade in foreign corn, be-
tween the years 1773 and 1814, as it appears to them, taken in
connection with the progress of general prosperity in the country,
and more especially with the great improvements in agriculture,
and its highly flourishing condition during that period, to suggest to
Parliament, as a matter highly deserving of their future considers..
tion, whether a trade in corn, constantly open to all nations of the
world, and subject only to such a fixed duty as might compensate to
the grower the loss of that encouragement which he received during
the late war, from the obstacles thrown in the way of free importa.
tion, and thereby protect the capitals now vested in agriculture from
an unequal competition in the home market—is not, as a permanent
system, preferable to that state of law by which the corn trade is
now regulated ?"
In another part of the Report they said—
" Your Committee may entertain a doubt whether the only solid
foundation of the flourishing state of agriculture is not laid in ab-
staining, as much as possible, from interference, either by protection
or prohibition with the application of capital in any branch of in-
dustry 'Whether all fears for the decline of agriculture, either
from temporary vicissitudes, to which all speculations are liable, or
from the extension of other pursuits of general industry, are not
in a great degree imaginary? Whether commerce can expand,
manufactures thrive, and great public works be undertaken without
furnishing to the skill and labour which the calitals thus
employed put in motion, increased means of paying for
the production of the land ? Whether the principal part
of those productions which contribute to the gratification of the
wants and desires of the different classes of the community must not
necessarily be drawn from our own soil, the demand increasing with
the population, as the population must increase with the
riches of the country ? Whether a great part of the same ca.
pital which is employed in supporting the industry connected with
manufactures, commerce, and public works, does not, passing
by a very rapid course into the hands of the occupier of the soil,
serve also as a capital for the encouragement of agriculture ? Whe-
ther in our own country, in former times, and in other naturally fertile
countries up to the present time, agriculture has not languished from
the want of such a stimulus ? And whether in those countries the
proprietors of the land are not themselves poor, and the people
wretched, in proportion as from want of capital, their labour is more
exclusively confined to raising from their own soil the means of
their own scanty subsistence." He begged the attention of gen.
tlemen to the concluding paragraph :—" If these questions shall be
answered in the affirmative, it follows that the present solidity and
future improvement of our national wealth depend on the conti.
nuance of that union by which our agricultural prosperity is so
closely connected with the preservation of our manufacturing and
commercial greatness." So that we have here the opinion of the
agriculturists themselves, that the best system for them is a system
of free trade."—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. BOLTON, of Birmingham, expressed himself gratified at
the manner in which Mr. Ewart had brought forward these state.
ments so long as the landholders persevere in entertaining the
opinion, that the effect of a repeal of the Corn.laws will be to con-
fiscate their property, so long will the labours of this Committee be
in vain. But if gentlemen will bring forward evidence such as
that brought forward by Mr. Ewart, then there will be no difficulty
in making it appear that no class in the community will be more
benefited by a repeal of the Corn.laws than the agriculturists
themselves. They are necessarily dependant on commerce for
their prosperity, and all commerce between this and other
countries, it can be nothing else than a bartering of our manu-
factured goods for their agricultural produce; consequently, if we
are prohibited from importing the agricultural produce of other
countries, is tantamount to being prohibited from exporting our
manufactures; had the Act been worded in this way there would
have been no difficulty about the matter. He urged gentlemen to
look out for evidence similar to that brought forward by Mr.
Ewart, and they would not find it so difficult to convince the landed
interest as it was apprehended. In fact, not one in an hundred
of the country gentleman had thought on the subject, but had taken
it for granted that the Corn-laws had effected the objects for which
they were intended, instead of producing the disastrous effects
which they really have.
Mr. RAWSON said he had intended naming a few facts on Satur-
day, connected with the rate of wages, received by the cotton-stock-
ing makers at Nottingham, but as every fact, however well sustained
by testimony, is at once denounced by our opponents as false
and as he had on that occasion to give place to the Member
for Kendal, he would only for the future name such
facts as can be tested by official documents. He had
been at the Board of Trade this morning, and would give a few
of the results of his labours, and which brought to his mind the
lines of the poet—

" Small by degrees,
And beautifully less."
EXPORTS.
Hayti-1832, 13,767/. ; 1834, 5,936/. ; 1836, 3,694/.
Columbia-1828, 10,496/. ; 1834, 3,262/.
Mexico-1827, 28,2351.; 1834, 7,878/.
Peru-1827, 29,810/. ; 1831, 19,605/. ; 1832, 16,918/. ; 1833
2,400/. ; 1834, 8,7601.
Chili-1828, 29,483/. ; 1834, 20,814/. ; 1835, 15,3001.
The above is £ sterling.
A Statement :

United Kingdom. Hans Other
Dollars. Towns. Countrios.
1827 327.745 96.821 15.207
1835 466.517 414.718 25.134
It will be seen by the above statements that while we have increased
in eight; years about 27 per cent., the Saxons have in the same
increased betwixt 400 and 500 per cent. Now, as
hese are from official documents, accessible to all at
,he Board of Trade, he trusted his Nottingham friend
would not blame him for this state of things; for he
well knew that he long ago stated his opinions as to what
would be the final result ; and how he can be angry with him
Mr. it.) he could not say, except he envied him his superior asga.
city in anticipating what the measures advocated by gentlemen,
and those who thought with him would bring us to. He assured
the Sommittee that his cause should not be injured by any state-
ment of his, as far as he knew, being incorrect. Yet, as he had good
authority to bear him out, and corroborate what he was going to state
as some of the fruits of this foreign competition, raised up, as it
were in a day, by cheap food. From documents printed in 1833,
which correspond with what he learned from an average of wages
made up from the last six months, while wages (which were never
large) in this branch are reduced more than one-half, the price of
provisions has been raised to three times their value, giving the
labourer (don't start) only one-sixth of the same comforts and
necessaries of life for his labour, and all this without any
material alteration in machinery or steam-power to facilitate pro.
duction ; and therefore it may be fairly attributed to foreign compe-
tition alone.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. GREG agreed with the remark of Mr. Goldberg that the
grand object to be held in view to facilitate success is to dis-
pel the groundless fears entertained by the agricultural body.
The facts brought forward at former meetings by Messrs.
Walmesly and Sturge would, it was to be hoped, tend to pro-
duce this effect.—(Hear, hear.) Here Mr. Greg recapitulated the
facts brought forward by Messrs. Walmesly and Sturge
as to the charges upon foreign corn Imported into this
country, and which have already appeared- From these
facts it would appear the charges upon the transit of
foreign corn were equal to a protection of from 19 to 20 shillings
per quarter upon corn imported from Dantzic, and of from 28 to 30
shillings per quarter upon corn imported from Odessa, which latter
was, moreover, of very inferior quality : it was impossible that any
great increase in the growth of corn could take place. Let them
look to these facts, and the agriculturists would be convinced that
their fears were without foundation, and that they were doing a
great injury to manufacturers without deriving any corresponding
advantage to themselves.—(Hear, hear.)
Dr. BOWRING would relate some facts, for which he was indebted
to Mr. Martineau, and which would show that the high price of
agricultural produce was really due to the extension of manufac-
tures. He would take them back a century, at which period Eng.
her
exports. was not a manufacturing county, and corn was among
exports. In 1731 the average price of wheat was 325. per quarter,
from 1741 to 1771, it was 37a. 9d. At this period there was a
bounty of ss. per quarter on its exportation7,d. so thuaatr,teirr:
fact instead, the real average was only
from this period manufactures began t 026 u extend,arte perr
; in aqn dl7Bwde,
find that in 1779 the average rice was 45ss. p
455. 9d. ; in 1799, 555. 11d. ;pin 1809, 82
r
in 1825, 575. sd. ; so that in half a century, in consequence
. .;qin 1819, 88s. sd ;
of wheat has reached
of manufacturing prosperity, the averaged
pricea.s it was before the pros-
to 635. 6d. per quarter, instead of 265.
Id perceive, that if they
, they them.
things, and they would perity of manufacturers. Let the agricul.tu"ral intdeirdestnroetfllecentdonstshsiesste
selves mustagtreicstusltuuffrearlerisn.terests
ance for' the
beadverencetmuacinlyt othfethgerea
•
The CHAIRMAN reported, that after mature consideration the Corn.
mittee were of opinion that the fittest course to be pursued would be
•
for Mr. Villiers to move that evidence be heard at thebar of the How;
as it would be impossible for the House to decide until they had heard
their case; that they were fully prepared to enter into evidence, and
they
could not imagine the House would refuse to hear it.
M.
Gee. YOUNG asked whether the motion was for the hearing
of eviden only, or Counsel.
The CHAIRMAN—Both.—(Hear, hear.)