The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-16 00:00:00

of society, entirely at the mercy of those who stand with
money in their hands ready to buy when he is compelled
to sell, and who will only sell when they can realise a hand-
some profit.

Some persons suppose that the farmer could provide
against this by borrowing from the banker, to enable him to
hold his corn ; but this is that dangerous practice of specu-
lating with borrowed capital, which almost invariably ends
in ruin. The obligation contracted to the banker is cer-
tain, the advantage contingent, and as the certain must in
the long run prevail over the uncertain, the farmer would
be sure to lose.

In addition, however, the farmers must remember that
Corn-laws increase their burdens, and increase the oblige-.
tion to sell. Increased rent, increased composition for
tithes, a larger sum to provide labourers' wages and pay
tradesmen's bills arc made necessary by the Corn-laws.
If under a free trade a farmer's rent would be 2001., and
his tithe composition 1401., under the Corn-laws the former
is 2501. and the latter, 1751., and the Corn•lavvs do not and
cannot give him an increase of price for his corn equal to
the increase of these obligations. For when prices rise
people limit their consumption, or confine themselves to
the cheapest commodity. In proportion as the price of
home-grown corn is raised by the Corn-laws, just in that
proportion do motives arise for consuming the cheaper
grown foreign -produce, such as rice, which can be substi-
tuted for the home produce. Moreover, the rise of price
caused by the Corn-laws limits the production of manufac-
tured and other commodities, and there are, consequently,
fewer to exchange for the corn when it is cheap than there
otherwise would be. It is only when that becomes cheap
that a stimulus is given to production and to population ;
but before their effects can show themselves in an increased
demand for corn, it has all passed out of the farmer's hand,
and the whole profit of the rise goes to the monied corn-
factor. Thus the poor farmer, when the crop is short, has
to contend against the strong motives for economising which
then arise, which, driving people to use the cheapest food,
limit the consumption of his high-priced food, and always
prevent him from realising a price for his corn
adequate to the increase of his burdens which the
Corn-laws occasion. They raise the price of the home-
grown produce above that of foreign produce, and while
they shut him out from every market for the excess of his
crops in abundant years, they cause in a barren year the
consumption of all kinds of low-priced foreign produce which
can be substituted for the home-grown, and so prevent
him from obtaining a remuneration for the burdens they
impose on him. The Corn-laws, by placing the farmer
commercially in hostility_to all other persons—to the monied
elassei, who lay wait to profit by his necessities—to the
manufacturers and merchants, whose energies are crippled
by high prices—and, in short, to the great body of the
consumers, who never will buy his high-priced produce when
they can get a lower-priced substitute—expose him to an
immense disadvantage, and are the cause of that great depres-
sion and that ruin which have overtaken the farmers since
1815. Mr. Ellman, and the rest of the short sighted crew,
flatter themselves that the people " must eat their corn ;"
in fact they are partially mistaken ; and as they seek by a
barbarous law to make men pay high prices, they drive
them to eat cheaper food, and perish by their own devices.
We shall at present bring our observations on this subject
to a close, because we undrstand it is to be taken up by
abler and more influential men, but by nobody can it be
taken up more anxious than we are to promote the public
welfare, in contradistinction to the welfare of any class or
party. That the effect, of the Coro-laws are most injurious
to our trade and manufactures, that they curtail the sup-
ply of food, and promote just discontent, that they impede
the progress of population, and inflict on society all the
evils of a retrograde or stationary condition, is already well
known, and we have- humbly endeavoured to show that
they are as injurious to the farmer as to the rest of the
industrious classes. Trade and land, it has long ago
been observed, wax and wane together, and it is never
well with one when the other is ill. If our observa-
tions are fcunded on truth, they will do more than merely
prove the fact that these laws are generally injurious—they
will show that the same kind of harmony prevails in the
moral as in the physical world. Streams do not run both
up and down, the oak is not at the same time hard
and soft, wheat is not at once nourishing and poisonous ;
neither can the Devil's laws, which are so obviously in-
jurious to all other classes, be beneficial to the farmers.

IRISH AGITATION v. ENGLTSU
RADICALISM.

Mr. O'Connell was at Youghal last Monday, ':,;here, we see
by the Southern Reporter, he " was received. ey the thousands
who had assembled to meet him with the I:,tmost spirit of en-
thusiasm." He addressed the assembly from a platform placed
in front of the Assembly-rooms, an.',l concluded a speech em-
bracing the ordinary topics of Irish agitation, by declaring,
amid tremendous cheering, ‘k I will raise Ireland, legally,
firmly, constitutionally, :.lid determinedly, into a grand asser-
tion of her national. rights; and, mark me, if the English re-
fuse to give us an equality of rights and aws, I will be soon
here again—but for what purpose ? Not to petition the Par-
liament, but to proclaim the Repeal of the Union."
In the evening there was a grand dinner, at which about
150 of the most influential gentlemen of the Liberal interests
of Youghal and the surrounding districts, sat down. S. W.
Perrot presided. Several toasts were given, and some speeches
were made respectively by the Chairman, the Right Reverend
Dr. Crotty, Mr. Barry, M.P., and Mr. Roche, M.P. Mr.
O'Connell also, of course, spoke, and more the.-n once. In
acknowledging his health, accompanied by the 'usual panegyric,
the Learned and Hon. Gentleman took occasion to allude
to a scolding after dinner speech of Mr, St. Paul, one of the
Tory Members for the eastern diviskm of Worcestershire, who
at a recent County Conservative festival is reported to have
said, in making some reference to the Melbourne Ministry,
" that he saw them truckling to an unprincipled demagogue
(meaning O'Connell) who hardly deserved the name of man,
and that be was rather a compound of devilism." "I have
represented one million and a half of my countrymen (sal
Mr. O'Connell), still a paltry miscreant of this kind pr.;
sumes thus to talk of the representative of the interests of a
great nation.—(Loud cheering.) Those English fellows
never forget how they have injured us ; they would revive all
the old persecutions of Ireland."
Speaking of the Radical Reformers of England, Mr.
O'Connell, it is reported, used the following words :—" I say
the Radicals of England are opposed to the interest of Ireland.
Do they propose a single measure calculated to effect good for
:he country ? To be sure they are not so virulent to the leaders
of the people of Ireland as the St. Paul's--nor so vulgar ;
they are principally mechanics, and that fact' assigns to
them the pos3ession of more intelligence than must be traced
to miscreants such as the man to whom the words I have quoted
from the English paper are attributed. The leaders of those
Radicals look for commotion and revolution—the destruction
of property, and the sacrifice of human life."
England herself, too, according to Mr. O'Connell, "is
now pouring upon Ireland a torrent of hostility to her inte-
rests, which, if not checked by the moral power of the people,
one of whose leaders I am, will go on until our best hopes
and wishes are crushed • and I believe that the virulent hos-
tility exhibited by the Tory faction in England to the present
Government, takes its source more in the spirit of hatred to
Ireland, than of real antipathy to the Administration.—
( Cheers.) You might as well take to the door of the House
of Lords a petition to revive the plague or the cholera, as to
petition them for good to Ireland."