The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-14 00:00:00

PR ICE sd.

Nald
is not enough to last till the harvest—proportionably
deficient tip that harvest may fairly be anticipated to be. It
should be added that dig stack of foreign corn in bond ap-
pears, according to the last NEM of the official Inspector-
General, Irving, to be no more than auflicient (according
to Mr. ALicculloch's calculation) for six days' consumption,
These are gloomy prospects, and will have, we fear, a still
more lugubrious influence on the next financial and com-
mercial balance-sheet of the Exchequer. Foreign corn has,
in fact, been shut out from British ports for the last seven
years. The effect of excluding foreign corn is—first, to
raise the price of British corn—and, next, to keep down
the price of corn in foreign markets. The price of food,
therefore (the great regulator of labour and of prices gene-
rally), is by this artificial and pernicious process kept per-
manently at a higher price in England than any country in
the world. The average price in England may be stated
At fifty per cent. higher than in the other countries of
Europe. The results are so well expressed in the follow-
ing brief and masterly recapitulation of a Contemporary,
that we could not improve it, and, therefore, in full con-
currence adopt it :
" Ist. It raises the price of British manufactures and of
everything produced in this country, both to the home consu-
mer and in the foreign market. 2d. By lowering the price of
corn abroad, it lowers the price of foreign manufactures.
33. It deprives the corn-growing countries of Europe of a
market for their natural produce, and compels them to ma-
nufacture for themselves. 4th. It provokes their Govern-
ments to exclude our manufactures as we exclude their
corn. sth. It raises up and fosters foreign competition
'with our manufactures, and gives the foreigner a premium for
meeting us in the distant markets of the world. 6th. It
discourages the production of corn in foreign countries for
the English market, as there is no certainty of the corn be-
ing admitted into our ports for years together; and conse-
quently it limits the supply, and suddenly and unnaturally raises
the price, when we most want corn from abroad. 7th. It
diverts capital from the more profitable to the less profitable
branches of employment, and thus retards the progress of the
national prosperity. Bth. It adds to the price of every loaf
the labourer cats."
-The disadvantages to the trade and commerce of Eng-
land arc beyond all calculation. It is true that by the
aid of machinery we pull up against this tremendous ad-
vantage in favour of our rivals ; but how long will that
superiority last, when we are already exporting our ma.
chinery to all parts of the world, and when that great
equalizer—scientific discovery—is daily putting all nations
oti- a level in this respect ? It is replied that the farmers
and land-owners would suffer by the abolition of the Corn-
laws. We say not only that they would ultimately not
suffer, but they would reap considerable advantage from
the abolition. There might be a temporary depression of

the agricultural interest in the first instance, but it would
soon right itself. What, again, is that temporary inconve-
nience when compared to the general advantage of the
whole nation, and the ultimate advantage of the agricul-
turists themselves ? They could purchase all articles of
consumption at a lower rate, and impart to their home
customers additional power for consuming their produce in
return. The effect of introducing foreign corn at all times

into the country would lower
greatest pt6heibplericimespuolfsemtaonuthfaectured
goods, and give the ss
com-
mercial prosperity of the country.--Horning Advertiser.
It appears that some Corn jobbers are at present endea-
vouring to get up a public apprehension about the aleficieney
of this year's crop. No doubt these people have a dcotble
object in view—they have corn to sell, of which they
wish to raise the price, and the very same fiction which—
so far as it may be believed—tends to raise prices, serves
also for a handle of attack upon the Corn-laws and upon
the landed proprietors. As to the general crop of the
United Kingdom, there is as yet no cause for particular
apprehension about it. It is certainly late, and it has suf-
fered much from the beating down of wind and rain, which
have been more than usually violent during the summer.
But no reasonable person expects that this year's crop will
be much under an average one. In the Midland Counties
we know that it is not. Taking the whole produce of the
land, few years have given a more abundant crop than the
present, and wheat is a fair average. In the poorer
and more bleak parts of the country the grain is very
backward ; but that may yet be repaired by fine wea-
ther, and it is to be remembered that the most back-
ward crop is the least likely to have suffered from
the high inds. In short the jobbers seem to have be-
trayed themselves by coming out a little too soon with
their lying statements, and the care wHI which they ap-
pend to every dolorific account a diatribe against the Corn-
laws, shows very clearly that the farmers, who should
know the state of the facts best, have nothing to do with
these stories. And what is, after all, the substance of
their complaints against the Corn-laws ? They cannot
deny that the moment corn grows dear in this country
the duties will tall, and foreign corn, whether in bond, or
yet to be imported, will come to us at a proportionably low
rate. But they hive a hypothesis ready to meet this pal-
pable truth, and the hypothesis is highly worthy of . the
clearness and candour which belongs to free-trade job-
bers. It seems that when the ports do open there will
not be enough of foreign corn offered to us, because in
consequence of our British Corn-laws- foreign growers
have not sufficient encouragement to the growth of
wheat ? According to the jobbers, our Parliament should
leaislate, not with reference to the circumstances of
our nation, but of foreign nations, and should take great
care not to enact laws which may possibly not so much en-
courage, as it might be encouraged, the growth of wheat
upon the European and American continents. How mon-
strous must be the impudence of the jobbers, when they
venture to thrust such stuff as this upon the British
public ? But they, perhaps, justly calculate upon the great
extent of the ignorant prejudice in favour of cheap corn,
and with correct cunning, estimate the advantages which
they may themselves ultimately derive from the promulga-
tion of such glaring absurdity. We do not dispute the fact
that if Great Britain were made dependent upon foreign
countries for the food of the people—which it would be irate
Corn-laws were abolished—a great deal would be grown
purposely for our market, which now is not grown. But in
this case we should suffer every year, from the overthrow of
our agriculture, a thousand times the loss and the hardship
which we do suffer in years of scarcity from the foreign
supply not being so great as it might be. If a deficient
crop were the rule, and a sufficient crop the exception,
in the United Kingdom, then it would become the serious
duty of the Legislature to accommodate the laws to the en-
couragement of a foreign supply of food. But since exactly
the opposite of this state of the case happens to be the true
state, it would be rather an insane playing int) the pockets
of the free-trade jobbers, if the Legislature should lack
more to the encouragement of foreign agriculture than to
the encouragement of our own. When it becomes wisdom
to legislate in favour of cases of exception, and in hostility
to the general well-being of the nation, then, and I.ot t;11
then, will it be wise in the British Legislature to encourage
the wheat-growers of the Continent, in order that the
British supply may be sufficient. We have in this country
two great sources of wealth—our agriculture and our
manufactures—and we require that both sources should
be attended to ; first because no source of wealth should
be neglected, and secondly because it is only by at-
tending to both that we can find productive labour for
our large population. No nation can be thoroughly
independent which does not contain within itself the me ins
—upon an average of years—of maintaining itself ; and
though some nations, from the necessity of the case, and
because soil was wanting to them, have successfu!ly
struggled against this great deficiency, yet that a nation not
thus unfortunately circumstanced should wilfully abandon
its own soil, and trust to intercourse with foreign countries
for its supply of food, would be an act of national madness
and baseness, of which none but the heartless, soul-less,
money-clutching, free-trade jobbers would for an instant
dream. Nor is there anything that could be taken as i n
apparent or temporary inducement to such an insane sacai-
flee of landed wealth. If it appeared that we bad greater
natural advantages for manufactures than other countries
have, and if we were so circumstanced that we could not
afford hands for agriculture without neglecting manufactures,
and, leaving unexecuted the orders we received, then
there sleight be some excuse for running the risk of making
ourselves dependent for bread upon countries beyond sea;
but we are not so circumstanced. Instead of not haviaz
labourers enough for both agriculture and manufactures, we,
find that, after doing our utmost to incr,:ase the demand
fur bath kinds of produce, we have st'll hinds to spare,
and we have still produce to spare. Ths great problem,
indeed, which we have to solve in politico-social science
is, how to give our redundant labourers a fair and reason-
able claim—in the shape of an acceptable quivalent
fnr our redundant produce. In such circumstances why
should we throw away the wealth which we derive from
agricultural labour? We cannot transfer that labour to
the production of manufacturing we filth, for there is no
roam for its exercise. Thera are enough of labourers in
that source of wealth already, end, were the demand for
manufactured goods increased twenty per cent. between
this day and this day month, such is the machinery of la-
hour we already have on font in that source of wealth, that
we could supply the increased demand without interfer.-
ing in the least with the productive labour devoted to agrt-
culture. But what the jobbers want is to make a corn-