The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-27 00:00:00

Wfiv

WITH WHICH
THE lc TRUE SUN " IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

_
LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING. AUGUST 27, 1638.

We agree with the Glasgow Argus, and with, we
believe, most of the Journals of the manufacturing dis-
tricts, that the present is a proper season for the
people to unite, and demand the unconditional.repeal
of the Corn-laws". If they" bestir themselves now,
something may be done to ward off' impending starva-
tion, and to revive our drooping commerce and our
falling revenue, which fill our merchants with corn.
plaints and our statesmen with alarm. At present
the million quarters of foreign corn which will cer-
tainly come in, will put an end to immediate appre-
hensions ; but unless the people rouse themselves to
procure the repeal of the devil's laws, they cannot
expect that the farmers of the Continent will grow
corn for the next year ; and should the crops then
fail, gaunt famine w ill be the lot of the millions who
crowd our manufacturing towns. Our aristocratic
statesmen, the great land-owners, will not provide
against such a terrible contingency ; they are the
authors of the laws for starving the people, and there-
fore the people must procure the repeal of those laws
or remain for ever cursed with them. A writer in the
Times of last week said—.
The million quarters of foreign wheat, which you knew
await us, and which is an accumulation from several crops,
it'll: not suffice to place us in average circumstances to meet
the new crop; so that, unless the present crop of wheat ex-
ceeded an average (and, from the thinness of plant, I do not
think that with good weather it can), we must be pinched
for another year, and at the end of it have as short stocks of
English wheat as at present—with this disadvantage, that,
instead of 1,000,000 quarters of accumulated foreign wheat
to aid us, we shall scarcely have any, seeing that the ac-
cumulated stocks here in bond, and now shipping off from the
Continent, will have been consumed; and our only resource
will be the superfluity of the single foreign crop now grow_
lug, and which in Poland and Prtusia, from one-half of the
fields having been ploughed up in spring, as well as subse-
quent unfavourable weather, I know, from undoubted au-
thority, is quite wretched. Under the most favourable cir-
cumstances, therefore, our stock next July of free wheat will
not be larger—nay, promises to be smaller, whilst those of
foreign wheat will be much smaller, than at present ; unless
they be spun out by the thrift of high prices.
To this let us add, that bringing this foreign wheat
into our market now will certainly so lower prices as
to deprive the farmer of a suitable remuneration for
whatever may be the deficiency of his crops. Un-
doubtedly a great part of the recent rise in price has
been caused by speculation ; those who wished to in-
fluence the average, having sold the same wheat at
rising prices over and over again, in order to raise the
average and bring down the duty. But those who
are thus capable of influencing the market to bring
in their foreign wheat, will have an equal influence over
it when English wheat is to be sold, and they, it is
most probable, after their wheat has got from under
the Custom-house locks, will bring down the market,
that they may buy cheap from the English farmers,
who, having rent, &c., to pay, will be com-
pelled to sell. We think that such will be the course,
and the result will be, notwithstanding the temporary
high price, that the farmers will have no motive, from
the prices they will receive, to extend their cultivation
next year. Well, then, with no motive for foreigners
to cultivate for our market, and no motive for our
farmers to extend their cultivation, while the popula-
tion is continually increasing, there is great reason to
dread, as bad years generally come together, that our
manufacturing population, unless they resolve now to
get rid of the starvation laws, will next year be
exposed to all the horrors of an Hindostan fa-
mine. If they, therefore, are to deserve the character
(1 reflecting, provident men, they will at once
take measures to secure themselves against such a hor-
rible contingency. They will, as we have before said,
encourage the agriculturists of the Continent to sow
wheat for their use, by now resolving to put down the
devil's laws.

Some persons say, this is the language of exaggera-