The Sun.
London, England, 1825-04-19 00:00:00

the injurious Corn Laws. We have before spoken 1
of the ruin to which our manufactures are
subjected from the operation of these laws. But
the inhabitants of Newcastle and the vicinity are
not. manufacturers : they are miners. We have
here, therefore, th possessors and cultivators of
the surface. of the earth -destroying those whose
more hardy and adventurous lot it is to toil
within its bosom. In short-, every work, of what-
ever kind
the artificial be; from architecture to mining,
artificial dearness of corn.
ifnrdomit

[MORNING HERALD,j
We are glad to see that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer has consented to pause, before the
House of Commons is .called upon to .sanction a
grant to Mr. Macadam for his road system. We
understand there are those. who dispute the palm
of this invention with Mr. Macadam, aswell as its
application. We do not think, however, that those
who possessed the talent and buried it in a napkin,
can enter into competition with . one who has
brought it to light and applied it to the. general
purposes of „society. But then two 'questions
'arise—is it a matter of Such general value and
ithportance as to be entitled to a Parliamentary
reward.? and has-not Mr. Macadam been amply
rewarded already by
_means of its application ?
To the first of these questions we should answer,
that It- is not; and to the second, that we be-
lieve .lte 'has. ' Though we should be sorry to
see thOse who, hold the public purse niggardly
in rewarding merit, yet it by .no Means follows
that every - inventiotv by which the' public is
benefitted, is one which must be paid for by a
public grant ; for, upon that principal, not only
would there be no end to demands Upon the
public purse, but there would be an end to half
the enterprise, improvement, and utility arising
from each Invention: The very instance before us
establisheS the truth of this remark ; for we will
venture to say, .that had Mr. Macadam, when
he first brought forward this very system, look-
ed only to a • Parliamentary reward, the system..
itself would have experienced but a very
circumscribed application, instead of being ren-
dered, as we believe it' has been by him, a.
lucrative . and extensive trade, producing large
and .well-earned profits. The 'rule in these
matters, we-'think, ought to, be, that Parliamen-
tary rewards should only be given to cases of
great and pre-eminent- Merit, and to such as in
their nature are incapable- of producing their
= own reward. Such was the introduction of
vaccination by. the , late Doctor. Jenne! ; and
that of the safely lamp, alluded to by . Mr.
Broughani. But Mr. Macadam, who, by.the ap-
plication of bis.systern, is acquiring an
muneration, is 'not entitled, we think, to call
upon the coOntry to pay him for that which has'
produced,. and is every day producing, .all that
the most ambitious .or Meritorious man can re-
, quire—fame and. profit. _

CORN' LAWS.

MEETING AT NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE:

On Thursday last, pursuant to advertisement,
a public meeting was held to consider of the propriety of peti-
tioning Parliament for a revision of the Corn Laws. About-12.1
o'clock H. CBA,MLINGTON, Esq..took the chair, and the busi-
ness was commenced by Mr. John Clayton reading the requisi-
tion. Mr. Mayor was shortly stating, that in consequence of
that respectably signed requisition he had, been induced to call
the meeting, when Mr. MacLeod rose, and suggested that the
meeting be constituted a meeting of the free burgesses and other
inhabitants of the town, as the names of the free burgesses
would materially addto the weight of the petition which might
emantetefrom the meeting, whilst it would permit many non-
residents to take part in the discussion. He moved according-
ly, and this motion being seconded, a short discussion ensued
which was terminated•by Mr. Alderman Smith moving as an
amendment, that the meeting should continue under the deno-
mination of a. meeting of the inhabitants. On a shew of bands
the amendment was adopted.
_ _ .

Sir -THOMAS Buatanat rose, and spoke to the following
effect :
•Mr.Thairman and Gentlemen,—The ready and obliging
manner in which the Chief Magistrate of this town has attend-
ed to the requisitionists now assembled, and the very handsome
mode in which he (the Mayor) has just opened the meeting,
while it deserves a ptoper acknowledgment, will, I- trust, jus-
-tify my rising, to offer, with all deference, a few remarks Upon
that very important subject, the Corn Laws; and I. do take
*leave to say. Gentlemen, that if ever there -was a qUestion of
More general interest than another to the country at large; it is
the question immediately -before ue.-(Applause.)—lt affects
'all the members of the community, but more particularly the
ehnmbler classes. It is of the first importance to tke well-
being of the State, that we have bread at a moderate rate. As
ai great manufacturing country, our very existence depends
:Upon it.• The present Corn Laws,' which,- among commercial
-men, ate' every where exciting so much clamour, I verily bee
levee were originally enacted with the best possible intentions
tkall parties. Time, to be sure, has shown the abuses engen-
dered by speculators' and others,- who were deeply interest-
ed in the opening or shutting the ports. We have seen, more
than once, overwhelming supplies of inferior grain poured
in on the Very eve that the posts were about to open ; and
we have wituessied the success of an opposite mode of action,
where it suited the interests of the parties engaged in it. Par-
liament, j admit, felt. alarmed at what was going on, and were
anxious; through the official channels of government,- to put an
end to the perjuries and foul proceedings of avaricious indivi-
duals; but all was in vain. In this perplexing state of things,
Ministers themselves, 'it is well known, are anxious for such a
Modification of the restrictive -laws as to-corn. as will relieve
and give satisfaction to the country. The admission of wheat
from Canada at as. per quarter duty, "cannot be regarded ether-,
wile than as a direct approximation to something like a new
and revised system in our import Corn Laws.- This incipient
change, he thought, indicated sentiments, on the, part of Mie
sisters friendly to a relaxed system—to something, in fact,
which proMited a wholesome revision of the existing Corn
Laws. Mr. Curwen, the Hon. Memher fot Cumberland, who
Was formerly RC) staunch an advocate for restrictive measures,
and whose great knowledge in agriculture was well known, had
lately declared in Parliament, thati though he thought favour-,
ably of the Corn Bill up to III:24, circumetancee now induced
in him a very different opinion. This argued well, and Mr.'
Huskisson, in the Houee, did not fail-to compliment the Hall.
Gentleman cite his manly avowal.—lt- was the general belief,
that his Majesty's MifiisterS were disposed to meet the wishes of
the country as to a modification in the present Corn Laws.
Could we do better than strengthen their hands' by petitions-
from all parts of the country ? - The public voice, in this free
country, never failed to make an imptession in Parliament
and it was certainly better that our interests should be arinve-,
mitted there, than that daring speculators should againr a
it in their power to violate the laws -by the vilest abuses.sn
It was true their object was a revision of the Corn Laws in
the
he must be permitted to observe he bed great confidence.
done SO
wisdom and liberality of Ministers, who had alrea Yee
much in so short a time. The general commerce of tr•
coun-
try was placed upon the footing that all classes
the zeal of Minietere was never -more pleasinglit P .
t forgotten that
while they hoaaured the Crown. - they bad nn •
selves,our-auxi-,
they belonged to the people.; they eliewed
theil'felloir-labourers
yeere.,:a;ais)fi.ed_e_d_.;
basics, not our task-masters; they were Our
moting our joys. I have now. Gentlenireanntee me. Leer
in the same• vineyard, not lotdind it over our riguilitaex,phrues.t,pmroy-,
ve
t teoealof-the Coen Laws.,
thapks for the patient hearing -yen gee anjtiouS wish for
to assure you That I heartily_ jell) Y" linreaatfesi gciee"aleag
eye of the Legisla-.
the eeetition you have framed for
Mr- entitethe

ture ; and I am sanguine in hoping that such a modification in
the Corn Laws will take place as will best promote the public
good. Let the price of bread.be lent moderate, and the:manu-
facturing and labouring classes will thrive and prosper. Our
representatives in Parliamedt must see the necessity there is of
adapting legislation to existing circumstances. And, above all
things, the voice, of humanity says—let not the price of the staff
of life be high, lint'enable the poor and needy to Come within
reach of it in the day-of their -distress, that they .may not have
to encounter the ghastly enemy, hunger.—(Applause.) .
31 T • CLAYTON read the Reselutions, (which are advertised
in another part of our Paper.) They were seconded by
Mr.e.A. L. POTTER, and put singly and carried unani-
mously, excepting the third, against which Mr. MacLeod held
up his hand. -
Mr. ARMSTRONG rose to move the adoption of the petition,
and said that in doing so he should have to offer to the meeting
a few observations on the impolicy of our present Coin Laws.—
It was well known that the merchants of this town were in the
habit of exporting large quantities of the manufactures and other
produce of this district to the north of Europe and the United
States of America. ' Last year, after-a very lengthened discus-
sion, the United States passed a new tariffs by. which such
duties were imposed upon the importation of British manufac-
tures, as in effect excludes them almost entirely. From this
port scarcely a single article could now be exported to the United
States with a chance of being sold there to advantage; And
what was the cause of this new tariff? Why, avowedly, the
severe restrictions that were kept up in this country on the im-
portation of corn and other crude produce from America. The
same system of restriction on British commerce had been had
recourse to in almost the whole of the north of Europe; and pre-
cisely for the same reasons. Coals, which used to be sent in such
immense quantities to Holland, are now scarcely sent thither at
all, the Dutch Government, in consequence of our Corn Laws,
and the heavy duties imposed upon the impertation of butter and
cheese, having in return imposed prohibitory duties upon the im-
portetion of English coals. Surely it would not be contended
that the foie of this branch of our commerce, was a trifling
loss, when we reflect that almost the whole value of this article-
when delivered abroad arises from the payment of the wages
"of laboun to our own people: Seeing then that our system of
Corn Laws is fraught with such mischievous .consequences, it
may be asked what are the countervailing advantages of that
systeni ? The agriculturists alledge that it enables us to raise
an independent supply of grain at home. ' Certainly. it it does,
but not at the same price that a portion might be obtained from
other countries, and therefore, in a pecttniary point of view, the
system was bad. DriVen from this ground, the agriculturists
alledge that, under a different system, the country might be
exposed to the danger of a want of cOnn, but the plain answer
to this was, that while other countries hada superabundant
supply of corn, and were anxious to exchange it for commodi-
ties in which we abound, the danger was chimerical, and that
in legislating it never could be wise to sacrifice a real good to
the chance of 'escaping a chitherical evil. If this country might
be said-to be-really dependent on other countries for any one
article, it was the article of hemp; and yet, during the last war,
when all' the States of Europe were in close and bitter' league
against us, there never - was a time when 'hemp was not ob-
tainable. Then; again, it had been urged in favour of the
Corn Laws, that the great-sums which had been paid by this.
country for foreign corn must have been injurious to her re-
sources, and might have been saved by-the innprovement of
agriculture at home. But as Well might it be contended that'
the 40 millions worth of other commodities we are In the habit
of importing are a loss to the country ; a position which goes 1
to overturn the first anti plainest principles of. all commercial
intercourse. • Depend upon it, that nothing is ever Purchased„
either at home or abroad, which, in the estimation of the teur-'
•chaier, is riot' of mere value than that which is given for it, and
that we shall never buy corn, or any other commodity, abroad,,
unleis we can obtain it more advantageously thin we can hope
to raise the name commodity at home. In a mannervery diffe-
rent, we may he assured, are the resources of this'country Mr-
paired.; they-are impaired by requiring the labour of 20 persons
to he given in exchange-for a quantity of British corn, while
the same quantity of foreign cern might be procnred for the,
labour of 10 persons; they are impaired by requiring every man
to labour 6 days for a quantity of corn, which, but for the exist-
ence of-the Corn Laws, might have been obtained by working
only 3 daysinthe week. Thus it. is that the-resources of the
country are wasted, and not in buying and importing cheap
coin, in whatever quarter of the -world it-may be produced.—
(Applause.)-1n our actual- situation, it was 'only by keeping
up the price of corn very considerably-above the rest of Europe
that we could possibly be made to grow sufficient• for our own
-consumption; and for whose interest was'it• that the price
should be kept at this unnatural elevation ? Not for the Inte-
rest -of the farmers (if- we exceat the interest they may have
in cases of an existing lease), for the. farmer is in-the predica-
ment of all other capitalists, and will employ his capital to
most advantage in countries where the prices of corn are low.
High prices, from their tendency to advance the wages of la-
bour, necessarily lessen-the profits of capital, -and as two rates
of profit cannot long exist together, all profits most ohi-
mately be reduced by any advance in • the price of corn.—
(Applause.)—Are the landlords benefitted by high prices ?..e.-
It cannot be-denied that they are; but even_ the landlords
are much less
.benefitted than is- generally imagined. We
may safely-assume, that not more than one-fourth of the
total produce of a farin is resolvable into rent ; the other
three.fourths are partly absorbed in the• expences of cul-
tivation, and partly go .as - profits to • the •fetrner. Now,
mark ~ the impolicy and injustice of• a -1aw,..t0-. false - the
price of corn and benefit the landowners—to put one shilling
into the. pocket of the landowner, it is necessary that the-people
should pay founee.(APPlause.)4At the same time it was to be
considered, that if the high prices of corn increased the receipts
of the landowner, they 'also operated various ways to increase
his expenditure, and that, consequently, the interest of the
landowners, when rightly- understood, were not exclusively de.
pendent oh high Prices: - As regarded the oneiatiie classes of
the peciple,.. it might be observed, that were the wages•of labs Ur
to adapt themselves quickly to the fluctuations in the prices of
corn, no material injury from high prices would, on their part,
be felt: To a• workman •it signified little what Wee the Stmount
of his waget, so long as- he continued to have the same Com-
mand over the necessaries of. life. If 10s. would- purchase as
Much as 205., it was obeibus that 10e. would be quite as ac-
ceptable to him cis M. We 'knew, hoWeVer; from experience
we knew from what was now passing in this towns-that wages
did not. very, readily adapt themselves to an increased price of
the necessaries of life, and are only made to correspond with the
.increased expence of subsistence by what every
itianntust eon-
sider. as one
,of the. greatest evils—a euepealion of work. So,
that an artisan, in order to obtain that which may be really
his due, may 'be' compelled to sacrifice a portion of his 'time
more than eqUivalent to the -object he ularnately:requires.
Could it be saidthat this was not an evil, and, nvhenetraced to
all its consequenceseof idleness and dissipation, an evil of the
greatestnnagnitude?—(Appitinsen--There ware stale sophism
to which he -would advert. It was, that the high:prices:of-torn
enabled the agriculturists to consume a greater quantity of ma.
nufattured articles than they otherwise would do—and so most
-assuredly it did ; but am I (said- Mr.A.,) to' be- thankful to
them that. they take from me, in an.extra _price for their corn,
that money which I myself might wish to lay out in the pur-
-1 have generally desired them to reverse
/,,.br paymg the-slaupkeeper two prices
pur-
chase of an additional coat in the year ?• Common sense revolts
at the-idea. When 1 have heard this tirgi.iiiieut brought fore
ward by agriculturists,
:it. Do you begin, say
for his goods--by paying your professional men double -fees,
and by_ paying your workmen double wages—(Much laugh-
.ter)-it _will -not be doubled that you will. have an in.
creased demand for agricultural produce, but- can you pos.
-
sibly. . think that, under' such circumetances, the agricultu.
rusts would be benefitted by an increased demand, or that
they would willingly continue.to maintain an intercourse with
their customers on these terms ?- I certainly never met with.
any agriculturist who thought that such a scheme of dealing
Would. be profitable to him ; and therefore I
.cannot: see what i
advartage any 'man can have in being made to pay 6d. for a loaf
When he might hayethe seine loaf fbr 3d., or in being made to
speedily be o
drink worse malt liquor at 6d, than he might be furnished with
at nel.--Opplatiee.) 1 leave thepoint;Thowever, res'One upon
which the ingenuity of the , advocates of high prices may con-
e-
rhoctiehintnhealts—a-a-nredlathxaattion the
gorfop,t_heer
tintie to be •exencieed --After some further' observations; 'Mr.
distressing 'fluctuations in the price of thefirstlgneese
Corn Laws wouldinained—that commerce. would
rbevyeertxtPres'oir'.fnoreena
ant the consumer of corn would equally in' future be`proteceed
sary of petition _ • . •
.The having been read,. was seconded . blii.,e, allottedainstall
by Sir Thomas
Hanlon, and the Mayor' rising to put the motion,
A. concludetdo,
—Mr. :NI acnEon Mee to address the'llleetinge i• He:fully con-
curred, he:observed, in all that had- been said of theebenetits of
Va state as was
free trade, and of the injurious' tendency* of the present' Corn.
Laws, which kept the market insiuch st ecilating
injurious both to the consumer and grower; in one ease- operat-
. log to advance the means of• human tatbsistence beyond, the
„reach of the industrious past of the community ; • and in
.the other to reduce the price so kw as to- tonfiscaee the
capital of the industrious fernier. An-high- price. of grain
was certainly destructive of theintexest of .the manufacturer, it
being impossible for him, ;under so. heavy a. pressure, to com-
pete with other nations in foreign countries ; it was therefore
desitable that it should be attainable On-moderate terms,—but'
the only* mare ,
permanent, and beneficial mode of; effecting this
was, by reducing in a material degree the .present excessive re-
venue. A free trade and 800 Millions a debt were utterly in.
compatible. • Parliatnent,' thetefore-.nbefere they attempted the
eStablishment of- -free trade; strhuld abolish alltiseless places,
. pensions, alul eenecures, -eihould.reduce the present enormous
army e4tubli4titileni.- iaiitfi'Niaq hot only Meg oppreseive and
! expeNiVt. burai
nicliledly4unconetitutioneelen-an a. eheield devise
l• means fur placing- the naehensee in ,Icnt,2 degree of '‘ equality