The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-20 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

CORN-LA WS - AVERAGES -

FIXED DUTY.

We mentioned on this day week, in reference to
he quotation we then made from the Edinburgh
Review, that we would reconsider the question of
a fixed duty on food, and state the result. We
shall now first beg leave to reproduce Sir Robert
Peel's objections to such a duty, all of which we
consider well-founded. Before the Reviewer, in
the teeth of all his own arguments on the subject
of import duties, adopted the incongruous recom-
mendation of a fixed duty, he should have consi-
dered and answered Sir Robert Peel's objections.
Before we place the quotation under the eyes of
our readers, we will make another remark. Sir
Rebell dwells with earnestness and censure on
the " expedients " which would be resorted to, in
order to influence the price when it reached nearly
7o s. Those expedients, therefore, arc immoral, in
Sir Robert Peel's opinion ; and he puts them forth
as objections to a law establishing. a fixed duty.
The law which would cause them is at least an
Objectionable, if not an immoral law. But similar
expedients are now continually had recourse to, and
all Sir Robert Peel's objections to the " expedients"
tinder a fixed duty, the justice of which we admit,
apply with a tenfold force to the present fluctuating
!'ehente• Within the last six months we have seen
its heituties, we may almost say, on an exaggerated
l'eale• Till the averages reached a price at which
"'heat was imported duty free, it is an undoubted
e• that they never corresponded to the actual
?rice at which the baker bought flour from the
rider, and at which the working miller actually
Iboort.:(g,ht it of the farmer, and consequently never
sPnded to the price at which bread was sold.
v•as accordingly to many persons a subject of
*4rprise, and of almost universal complaint, after
!IX averages had attained the height for which the
i.edients" were had recourse to, and after they
had :fallen from 735. to 655., that there was no cor-
r.-11)01116g fall in the price of bread. In fact, the
Price of bead and the averages seem to have very
little connection. T hey do not rise and fall toge-
ther. The intention of the Legislature, then,
..Ititich is to let in wheat when bread is dear, and
4'eel) i out when bread is cheap, is not fulfilled.
It iskamhugged and deceived. Its power is prac-
tically mocked at and set at nought by the " ex-
pedients" which suit the purses of speculators.
The present law is ineffectual as well as immoral, and
the Legislature itself is imbecile as well as wicked
It earn o' reach its own ends. Whatever mischief
tft 'eaY dc—and God alone knows how vast is that,
human abilities cannot measure it—it is
24/Potent even to give practical effect to its own
IllacculentT. Sir Robert Peel, by the remarks
are s~~all Low quote, acknowledges the immorality
of the body of which he is a member. Will he, by
:Ibtlaining from some coercive legislation, to en-
"e a correspondence between the price of wheat
at° the price of bread, also acknowledge that the
Inltieettey of which we have convicted the Legis-
lature is incuratAe

SIR ROBERT PEEL ON A FIXED DUTY.

The kght Hon. Gentleman said, he preferred a
fired litxty to the sliding scale ; and being asked to
,tutsiis amount, he said he thought seven or eight
per quarter %you'd be the amount of the duty
siitted recommend. Then the Right Honourable
Geritleenan heieg aware of the objection to a fixed dory,
that when the price of corn became inconveniently
"411, it tnigie- be difficult foe a weak, or even a strong
(if:venm:llz., to maintain a fixed duty in the face of
pmts, he proposed, in order to obviate the di&
tulty, when torn arrived at the price of seventy shillings
pee quarter, the duty should vanish, and corn be ad-
mitted free. That was the only proposition which had
been subrnitt: d to their consideration by her Majesty's
o etrinaset . Let him then observe to the Right Hon.
tntienian, ';tat his proposition would hardly remove
ot,e of objections which were made to the pre-
tsta.
tq'tem. Would it tend to promote a final settle-
"t of the euestion ? Not in the opinion of the Hon.
'lll Aber for Ci!okerhampton, because the whole of his
peer t went to show that the landed interest was
b.:111,1".(1 to no protvetion whatever ; that so far from
kirta:"lg any exclusive taxes, they were exempted from
e
' articular burlens, and that with no shadow of
111tice should any dur,y, fixed or variable, be imposed on
It hut arta; of foreign corn. All the arguments
.00
tr.. e ai p.ietl to protecting corn for the purpose of in-
a'mg •11-te taerts of landlords 'A ould equally apply to a
ced duty as to a variable duty. All the bad appeals
„the Passions of the multitude, all the arguments
ut ties imp ,iicy and injustice, the unchristian and
• principles of taxing the staff of life, would
;:tte. 'l3: to fiecdt duty equally with a variable duty.
ti 3 11,=! twos. would apply with increased for cev erag when
'l3- tame to look at whet had been the average
ttnor.,
of t v levied on foreign corn imported under
exe.ting set ie for a considerable number of years
043.
t. • There . tad been since the Corn-laws were in
r4on of Liasign wheat imparted into this country,
,in 'mem mast naption, not less than 9,297,000 quarters,
I: the
~ averte,. amount of duty levied on that immense
14: "lity did unt exceed ss. .;d. per quarter. He was
• • Prepared to say that there were not great objections
4 "1 shifting scale; but as to the amount of
t„qtr., Payable under the present system there
47' not be a shadow of doubt that it was
site/ much less than that which any one who
pia -tiled a fixed duty at all ever thought of
t )sin
Under the existing system, the duty
ke
ando..ily ,onounted to ss. sd, per quarter ; the
Ali, A' at of dAty 'Ton the " staff of life," as it was termed,
1,4:11),.. exceed the sum of ss. sd. The ignorant man
" Prepared to understand the cause or the of
10i an :Wen inieurtation, and it would be no satisfaction
to be te.fi that a duty of ss. sd. was to be ex-
td "''e (I for one of 83. Those who upon a question of
to.:1 x iture res. eted to an appeal to men's passions
ta; (-10 so with equal effect, whether the duty was the
10, ''trt • or the other, or whether it was imposed accord.
• e Provisions of the existing law with its sliding
or under that which would impose a fixed duty
es :4'tlheial or ending at a certain point. The ativo-
as a ni change, who denounced the present Corn-laws
10 'religious and tyrannical, would be as well entitled
ZQ '" to utCer one amount of duty as under another.
th tlere anything, he would ask, in the proposal,
orice of corn rose to 70s. per quarter,
1:14t) Should cease, or be materially dimieished, that
4
't "essity would' have the effect of disarming every
.I.tP,,' %Aid' lay within the reach of the popular a!zi-
%ftit';lA et once silencing every appeal to the passions
Ilt,,:4ukind? He begged also to remind the Hon. Gcn-
'4‘l,,iin 9posite, that independently of failing to give
%f
n4ellon to those who were opposed to the imposition
et
'9
duty whatever, be had not answered any one of
'N i.lretions of detail ; he had proposed to retain the
444 e :°4:sYstern of averages. Surely that was anything
4.,ing satisfaction to his Hon. Friends who de-
t trade. Was that free trade, or anything
1111.'1; Nothing could be more evident than that his
lie
was one of avcrager, for how otherwise
as,," lie sYsascertain his price of 705., at which his duty
11,7 t 0 calmmence ? Then he begged the House to
Iti:b,ite at the manner in which the proposed plan of the
Hoc. Gentleman would meet the argument of
of eAs',M.'au merchant, who urged the probable effect
he -concient harvest, when bad corn must of necessity
duccr"lght into the market, and when its intro-
441.:,;..to,nietwtohuold moat assuredly affect the rate of prices.
House observe the probable effects of the
preegataua.l.r_ise of. the price' of corn to Gls. or 68s. ; what
ado , "'no did the Right Hon. Gentleman propose to
tisel4/` against the tricks and devices confessedly prac-
s, , for the purpose of operating upon the averages ?
quirP°aing that the price remained at 695. 6d., the
st
nY.seeording to the plan of the Right Hon. Gentles
teAll would be payable ; but increase the price by a
Thy shilling, and foreign corn would be imported duty
It would be difficult to conceive a greater temp-
t 6• `) to practise upon the averages than this state of
ugB Would present. It offered immense inducements
10,,,Pee?pedients of all sorts for the purpose of caus-
-o,', the p,` tee of corn to turn 705., for the moment its
th'erage peice exceeded that sum of 70s. per quarter,
o,ar market might at once be inundated with foreign
tie' and migaht continue to be kept up in that state
ll
averages were made. In such a case how did
dittight Hon. Gentleman propose to provide for the
bore with which the American merchant would
hal to contend in meeting his rivals in the ports of
en and? The American who thought of exporting
mi , to this country, hearing that the price was 705.,
.o.at suppose himself safe in sending a cargo, relying
confidence upon being able to introduce American
in
England duty free. Before his corn could
•.„,‘,Ue,Aitne to arrive in the ports of Great Britain, he
"'",id•find that the price had sunk to 695. during the
L 1
,
'at‘sit of his corn across the Atlantic ; parties in the
it of practising upon the averages would have ma-
ed.to effect a reduction, and so the object which the
74,1i1i `eon speculator proposed to himself would be ut-
dt.`feated,ted, and he would find himself under the ne-
f,tialty.ot" paying a duty of Bs. per quarter upon that
Eutoll he head hoped to belie exported to England duty
"Si. Upon these grounds, then, he professed himself

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