The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 182 e.

CoRN-LAW FALLACIES, WITH THE
ANSWERS.

goods. Why should one party have a patent for unreason.
ableness?

(Continued from The Sun of Wednesday.)
270.-8. That the home market is by far the most favour-
able for the sale of our manufactured goods, and that no in-
stance is on record, or can be produced, when agricultural
produce was at a fair, liberal, and adequate price, that the
home trade of the country did not consequently flourish.— On
the Corn Laws. By the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart.
Addenda to "The Code of Agriculture," No. xv. .—[ Continued.]
ANswER.--Whether the home market is most favour-
able or not, the manufacturers are quite as well able to tell
as the agriculturists. But what the agriculturists want, is
that the manufacturers shall take two bushels of corn for a
yard of cloth instead of three, and belies e the two are best ;
Lord Peter was nothing to them. What they mean by the
home trade flourishing, is that they get as much as they
like of the manufacturers' goods at two-thirds price.
When Adam Smith and others dilated on the importance
of the home market, they meant to state their belief, that in
a state of freedom the profitable market to be found at
home, was of greater extent than the profitable market to
be found abroad. But they did not mean to say that a
bad market at home was better than a good one abroad.
They did not mean that two bushels cleared for a yard of
cloth in the home market, are better than three in a:foreign ;
which is the construction the agriculturists insist on putting
on it. They did not mean that the man who netts three
bushels abroad, should melt into tears for the chance be
has lost of taking two bushels at home. They did not
mean to recommend the home market though it should
be the worst, or maintain that there was a pleasure in
losing in it,—a sweetness in the name, which made the
smallest payment the most acceptable.

280.-18. That it is a most dangerous maxim, " Import
goods, and you are sure to export ;" for you must pay for the
goods you import, but you may not be paid for the goods
you export, or the price may be so low, that no profit
will be derived from it. Besides, when we get corn from
abroad, we import the labour of mon, and in return, we ex-
port the labour of machinery.—ld.
A.—As well say it is a most dangerous maxim, that
men should be allowed to trade at all ;—who knows whether
they will ever get paid for their goods ? And who cares,
when we import the thing we want, whether we import the
labour of men or of machinery ? The very essence of
slavery, is this having our affairs managed by rivals and ene-
mies, who are not even obliged to produce the show of
reason in their management for us.
281.-19. That the idea of abolishing all restrictions on
the commercial intercourse of nations, is visionaryand absurd:
That notwithstanding every effort to preserve peace, national
jealousies will arise, and wars are inevitable : That under the
proposed liberal system, a million of manufacturers might be
employed in France, to supply England with silk goods, a
manufacture in which France is eminently successful ; and in
England, another million of manufacturers might be employed
in fabricating cotton goods for the French market. The
exchange of commodities might go on advantageously to both
during peace ; but a war unexpectedly takes place, and a mil-
lion of people. in each of these countries, are deprived of their
usual means of subsistence. The consequences would be, such
scenes of misery,as cannot be contemplated without horror. —ld.
A.—" Do not allow foreign commerce ; it has a tendency
to prevent nations from going to war with each other. It
creates masses of people on both sides, bound over by their
interests to keep the peace. Therefore, to avoid mischief,
grin and go without. Let Frenchmen have dear and scanty
cottons, and Englishman dear and scanty silks ; let the
English cotton-spinners he cut off from trade on one side
the water, and the French silk-manufacturers on the other ;
the end, the motive, for this continence on both sides,
being, that they may cut each others' throats."

271.-9. That successful agriculture is highly advantageous
to commerce, because a large proportion of the goods imported
is for the consumption of the agriculturists ; and that it is
much more for the interest of commerce, to have rich customers
at home, than persons so impoverished, that they cannot afford,
either to consume great quantities of goods, or to give an
adequate price for the few they can purchase.—ld.
A.—By successful agriculture, is meant agriculture sup-
ported on the prohibition of foreign commerce. It amounts
therefore to saying to commercial men, " Allow the agri-
culturists to live on the depression of your commerce, and
you will be astonished to see what able customers that will
make them."

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

MR. WALLACE, M.P., AND HIS

CONSTITUENT.

On Wednesday night, pursuant to a requisition by Mr.
Wallace, a meeting of the Parliamentary electors of this
town (Greenock) was held in the Sheriff Court Hall. The
Provost was called to the Chair, and introduced Mr. Wal-
lace to the meeting.
Mr. WALLACE referred to the small amount of business
done during the last Session of Parliament, and reviewed
in detail the several measures brought forward, with the
attendant results. At the conclusion of the Hon. Gentle-
man's statement, he said that he now, with sincerity, re-
signed into their hands his office of Representative, and if
they preferred another to him he would do all in his power
to return that person to Parliament, provided he was a
sturdy Reformer.
Bailie Muir moved the thanks of the meeting to Mr.
Wallace for his past services, togethe'r with a request that
he should continue their Representative ; which was se-
conded by Mr. John Maclellan, jun., and carried amid loud
cheering.
Mr. WALLACE returned thanks, and said, whatever
others might think of his annual resignation, for himself he
looked upon it as his bounden duty, and it was in confor-
mity with a pledge which he had willingly given at his first
election in 1833. Anonymous communications usually de-
sarvcd to be treated with contempt, because their authors
were in general despicable creatures not worthy of notice.,
For once he wouid notice one which appeared in the last
Greenock Advertiser. The writer of that had called the
business in which they had just been engaged a farce, and
wished such a resignation as would allow the bribers and

272.-10. That the importation of foreign corn, in foreign
ships, must be highly unfavourable to British commerce and
navigation : That corn is in general imported from poor and
thinly inhabited countries, which do not require British com-
modities in return : That poor countries require the precious
metals, either to purchase foreign commodities, (as wine from
France), or to provide a capital, with which they may erect
domestic manufactures for their own supply. Those British ma-
nufacturers therefore, who wish to promote the importation of
foreign grain, lay a foundation of future rivalship against them-
selves.—ld.

A.—We must not go on paying for the great monopoly
in corn, for fear of losing the opportunity of paying for the
little monopoly in shipping. We want to trade with
countries which can pay, and not with countries which
cannot. We have no more objection to a trade in gold,
when it will pay, than in anything else ;—for it must equally
he bought with our manufactures somewhere. If foreigners
did set up manufactures of their own, it is only what they
are forced on now. But we want the benefit of all the
cases in which they will not.

When will the manufacturers and commercial men
be tired, of letting the agriculturists into their count-
ing-houses to manage their affairs?

273.-11. That successful agriculture is always favourable
to the increase of the revenue, and that the revenue is never
so productive, as when agriculture is in a prosperous state.—ld.
A.—There is no proof that agriculture founded on the
double loss of other people, is a benefit to the revenue or
anything else.

intimidators to be set at work. Let the electors at any
time signify a wish that he should retire, and he would give
his anonymous accuser the lie.
Three cheers were then given for the Provost, and a
similar number for Mr. Wallace, after which the meeting
broke up.

274-12. That the real strength and stamina of a country
are to be found in the cultivators of the soil. In the words of
the celebrated Chatham, "these genuine sons of the earth are in-
vincible." They are the best calculated for acquiring military
glory abroad, or securing the safety of the nation at home.
That every wise government must be anxious to increase, and
not to diminish the numbers, of so valuable a class of the
community ; and with that view, not only to preserve in a pro-
ductive state, its lands already in cultivation, but to add to their
fertility and extent. —ld.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR OF

IRELAND.

It would appear—but we shall believe the affair when

it takes place-Z.-that old Lord Plunket is about to retire
from the Irish Chancery Bench. When he departs
from the bustle of public life, which we think will only be
when there are are no more places, lay or clerical, to be
grasped, he will not leave behind him a more profligate or
inconsistent politician. Starting in life a " Whig, and
something more," we behold him veering round to every
side of the political compass, and catching at the slightest
opening to fly into the arms of the advocates of arbitrary
power. In 1819, when the Six Acts were passing, the
wily old Chancellor, whose mouth was watering for
some of the loaves and fishes, went over with the
Tory Duke of Buckingham, and spoke six hours in
support of the justice of cutting down a defenceless mul-
titude at Peterloo. In 1830, th masses, by years of exer-
tion, haying brought Reform into fashion, then the once
democratic William Conyngham Plunket became the advo-
cate of democracy again, and was converted into a Reform
equity lawgiver. He now pitchfoyked his sons and depen-
dents into places, in a style that made every Reformer
blush, when your old smirking backbone Tory used to say,
with a sardonic sneer, " Grey has his thousands; and
Plunket his tens of thousands, but how many sinecurists
has the corrupt and place-loving Sir Robert Peel among his
relatives and friends ?"—Dublin Monitor.
We see that in some quarters much wholesome indigna-
tion is employed upon a rumoured destination of the Great
Seal in this country. We believe that no intimation has
been made of any intention upon the part of Lord Plunket
to resign it, and, therefore, all calculations respecting his
successor are, to say the least of them, wholly gratuitous
and premature. In any case, the adherents of the party
which appointed Sir Edward Sugden, are not well entitled
to take credit for any very sensitive patriotism in the mat-
ten—Dublin Evening Post.

A.L•Ask the recruiting serjeants. Besides, the seamen,
who are the offspring of foreign commerce, ought to be
taken into some account. But suppose the fact was, that there
was nothing for fight like a clod-hopper; that would form no
reason why we should be deprived of one bushel of corn in
three, and the nation made a little nation instead of a great
one.

275. —l3. That the most erroneous accounts have been
given, of the number of persons who, directly or indirectly,
depend on agriculture for their subsistence : That if a care-
ful inquiry were made, it would appear, that two-thirds of the
population in the united kingdom, including those manufac-
turers who raise goods for the home market, derive the means
of their subsistence from agriculture.—ld.
A.—There is no justice in claiming " the manufacturers
who raise goods for the home market," as " deriving the
means of their subsistence from agriculture." What they
derive is, two bushels of corn where they ought to have
three. The agriculturists can never get it out of their
heads, that getting two bushels of corn where other people
would give three, is a thing to be thankful for.

And there is no justice in saying the man is naked, after
he has been stripped. 'The question is, what he would
have been if he had been let alone. We want to know
what would have been the proportion of traders to agricul•
turists if trade bad been allowed by law ; not what it is after
the traders have been put down.

276.-14. That the class of persons who are principally
interested in the corn trade, are commission merchants, to
whom foreign corn is consigned for sale in the British mar-
ket ; and it is to promote their interests, that the nation has
been so long kept in a perpetual state of agitation on the sub-
ject of the corn laws.—ld.

A.—There is somebody more interested than commis-
sion merchants. There are the people who are to eat. It
would be small interest the commission merchants had at
all, if there were not the other set behind.

Mr. WALLACE, M.P.—We arc happy to find
that the constituency of Greenock have realised the ex-
pectations entertained of them, in regard to their honoura-
ble representative, Mr. Wallace. We refer to an account
of his meeting with them on Wednesday evening.—Scotch
Reformer.
ERRATUM.—In the leading article on the City of
London Corporation Reform Society, in Saturday's Sun,
the word " deprecated" was, by a mistake of the printer,
substituted for " deep-seated."
RAILWAY ACClDENT.—lmmediately after the
train had left the Coventry Station on Tuesday afternoon,
about half-past three o'clock, for London, one of the stokers
slipped from his position, while in the act of moving some
fuel, and had a most providential escape for his life. The
wheels of the engine grazed his ear, and bruised him very
severely about the shoulder, but we understand he may pos-
sibly recover.—Coventry Herald.
We are requested to insert the followingis ceaxpt.rsa4ct.
hereafter be celebrated
degrees of consan-
guinity the Act of Parliament, which renders all marriages null
and void within the prohibited degrees :—" Anno Quinto
etbetween
ei
t.Sweexetno
That,
p Ge
allr usol 1
marriages,nesl rowiyi
n. tRI Regis,
prohibited
csr,ho3lsl
tsaitltleAdh
eu
or affinity, shall be absolutely null and void to all
intents and purposes whatever."
A few days ago, Mr. Thomas James, assistant to
Mr. A. D. James, chemist, Wirksworth, who had just re-
turned from a journey, had the misfortune to lose six 5/.
notes from his pocket. A little girl, a daughter of Mr.
Bristol, gardener, picked them up and took them home,
aware
t h requisition,
rewardopeningsaying she had found some songs. As soon as Mr. James
was
l for
rs loss,
ofnet and the
theehtoh services of
wereof the r e
tbue
rl inme returned nt
oth
e
owner, er
e
called
i w
intoc
n 11. as re
a o
f his
owner, who generously presented the mother of the child
with
honesty.—Derbyshire .—rpooelr abynsdh /Mr eaChronicle.
Since
Railway (little more than eight years) five millions of pas-
sengers have passed along the line. Out of this immense
number only two passengers have lost their lives by accident
on the railway, arising from the sudden collision of some of
the carriages.—Liverpool Times.
A boat with eight men on board and a cargo of 22
horses, whilst descending the Rhone a few days since, was
driven by the current amainst an enormous rock opposite
the village of Aramon and immediately went to pieces. All
the men on board succeeded in gaining the shore, though
with considerable difficulty, but 17 of the horses perished.
Three of the animals reached a small island, and one of
the two remaining horses, which was blind of an eye, swam
to a meadow, where he was found quietly grazing next
morning.
Intelligence was received in town yesterday morn-
ing of an accident which had occurred on Saturday eve-
ning to the Globe Brighton coach, by which the coachman
who is also part proprietor, as well as keeper of the Globe
Inn, Brighton) lost his life. The Globe had proceeded as
far as Ditchlev nine miles this side of Brighton, where it
stopped, and the deceased was in the act of remounting,
when the horses from some cause started off, threw him to
the ground, and the coach passing completely over his
body killed him instantaneously. The deceased was a
widower, and had no family. The body awaits a coroner's
inquest. The horses were stopped before they had pro-
ceeded far, so that the passengers, of whom they were seve-
ral, sustained no further injury than temporary fright.
AGED PAUPER. An application was made to the
relieving officer of the Truro Union, a short time since, by
an aged woman, who, on being visited, was found to be of
the extraordinary age of 102, and in the full possession of
all her faculties. Her case was duly brought before the
B (111-,r1i.1,15. ,he w;ts suif•ibly provided for,
as we believe all meritorious cases are, and especially those
of age and infirmity.— West Briton.

277.-15. That if the importation of:foreign corn be en-
couraged, not only is the extension of agricultural improve-
ment checked, but a large proportion of the territory of the
country will be driven out of cultivation, and perhaps a milliok
of persons deprived of their usual means of subsistence. The
poor rates will then absorb a still greater proportion of the
rents of the country, and the owners and occupiers of the soil
in England, with such an addition to their burdens, will be
reduced to beggary.—ld.
A.—lt is very natural, that when a country-gentleman
just misses making both ends meet,in an experiment on im-
proving and cropping an acre of peat-moss, he should be-
think himself of the convenience of raising the price of corn
by stopping foreign commerce ; and this is what the agri-
culturists mean by " the extension of agricultural improve-
ment," and the absence of it they call " the territory of the
country being driven out of cultivation." But it will be
just as natural for a manufacturer in corresponding circum-
stances, to apply to a tax on home-grown corn. What a
pleasing accessory it would be to.the success of a doubtful
spinning jenny ! On the whole therefore, the agricultu-
re is may find themselves glad to compound for letting
things take their free course.

For every man put out of employment in one way, there
will be ten called into employment in another. Put the
converse of the case, and suppose that trade was free, and
the agriculturists were coaxing the commercial interest to
consent to the prohibition of commerce, by the prospect
of the absorption of poor rates, which would be the conse-
quence of the increased demand for agricultural labourers.

278.-16. That it is in the highest degree impolitic, in
regard to so essential an article as food, to prefer the interests
of the consumer, to that of the grower ; for that it is not a
temporary interest that ought to be kept in view, but one of a
lasting and permanent nature: That if the whole globe were
ransacked for cheap food, it may be obtained for a
short period ; but that, in the course of years, a nation will be
supplied with grain, both cheaper and better, by promoting
domestic agriculture, than by depending on foreign importa-
tion.—ld.
A.—Does the grower grow for growing's sake, or does
he grow that somebody may consume? Which is the end
and object for which growing takes place at all ? And how
does it appear that consuming is more of a temporary in-
terest than growing? It will last as long as growing does;
and it will always be a man's interest to have the three
bushels in preference to two. And where do the landed
soothsayers get their knowledge, that if the whole globe
were ransacked for cheap food, it could only be obtained
for a short period? Might not the manufacturers as well
assure the agriculturists, that if the whole globe were ran
sacked for cheap manufactures, they could only be obtained
for a short period cheaper than the manufacturers would
supply them under a tax on home-grown corn ?

279.-17. That cheap corn is not favourable to industry,
it being well known, that in manufacturing towns, there is more
regularity of conduct, and more
productive industry, when.
That
corn is at a medium price, than when it is unusually low : Th.
manufacturers in general are more likely to be happy and in-
dustrious, when they pay a fair price for their food, than when
it is too cheap. ( See Representation of the Privy Council,
10th March 1790. Annals of Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 419. )
When manufacturers can gain their livelihood by the labour of
four days in the week, they often spend the three remaining
days, not only in idleness, but also in dissipation, to the injury
of their health and morals. --Id.
A.—Suppose the manufacturers were to tell the agricul-
turists, that cheap manufactures were not favourable to in-
dustry in agricultural districts ;—that agriculturists in gene-
ral were more likely to be happy and industrious, when they
ply a fair (which means an unfair) price for their clothing.
than When it is Lou cheap ;--and therefore pro salute ant-
marum, they must lay an artificial price on manufactured