The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-14 00:00:00

cite '413'114

LONDON:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1
"'AL

`We noticed two leading a:.• cicles in the 11.orn-
he
iitg Chronic.le of Tuesdalr,
•derdble satista7-
on the subject of t.
torn-laws, which g"..ve us curls], . _
tion. ' in the first our Contemporary showed
very clearly that the greater dine: Trice botween
The price of bread in London and in Paris than
-between the price of wheat in the same places,
which Our readers must have obsd in e
comParison of prices at borne anderve abroad,th is
mainly Caused by the larger capital required to
carry on business in England than in France, in-
consequence of the higher price of corn caused
by the laws. Our Contemporary said__
The explanalion of the fact we take to he, that the
London baker is obliged to employ e, larger capital than
the Parisian for the sanae extent Of business. Two eir-
cumstances comblne to lay hi:a under this necessity.
He has. tO pay a higlifir price fur corn or dour, and he-,
goes to imore -ffactliating market. For installer, at the
presenitltißie the duty on foreign
;he qliii;M., wbile.7 the - I,* wheat is • 16X.
-..iiisterial journals have -Inn 1
diseouinned their ly` board of iti b,,og
per cptert.4.- Frfirtene' high 'prices and enormaitar

fluctuations require larger capital than a cheap and
regular trade. The dealer in dear loaves must gain
more on each loaf, to repay his outlay, than the vendor
of cheap bread, made of cheap cora, which comes into
the market at a comparatively steady price. .And what
puts the. English baker in this position ? Plainly, the
Corn-laws, and nothing else. In his avocation as a baker,
he is not taxed by the Government for State purposes,
more than the consumer.• It is not there that the shoe
pinches. The Corn-laws make the high prices ; the
turn-laws aggravate all : natural fluctuation of price into
the.extreme transitions of the. English market ; the
GOrn-laws make the difference to the baker, and:through
him, to the consumer. Thus injustice multiplies itself
in the process of perpetration.. The poor labourer has
to suffer, in addition tb all his other wrongs, because the
corn monopoly enforces the baker to employ a larger
capital than would suffice for his business under an un-
restricted system.
But this difference in the cost of food to the consumer ;
the difference, we mean, occasioned by the need for extra
capital in the intermediate process, never reaches the
pockets of the farmer. Still less can it arrive at those
o: the landowner. Nor does it enrich the baker, who
would be as thriving on cheaper bread, requiring less
capital in proportion, as he is on dearer bread requiring
the larger outlay for less business. It neither enriches
baker, farmer, nor landowner ; and yet it impoverishes
the consumer. It. is an utter waste. The theft is com-
mitted, and there is no receiver. The stolen goods are
dropped by the way, and destroyed. The Duke of Rich-
mond does not pocket even the paltry penny, or far-
thing it may be, which he wrings from the poor child
who is crying for more bread. It is thrown into the
dirt. He only gets out of it an infinitesimal per tentage.
He, and his Grace of Buckingham, and the rest of our
monopolist legislators " file their minds" for farthings,
and fractions of farthings, out of the weekly wages_of
handloorn weavers.

• This is all quite true, and the consequence of
the landlords making and upholding the Corn-
law is, that they get all the odium of causing the
greatest difference in price, while only a very
small portion of the pecuniary advantage goes
into their pockets. Like many other mean and
pitiful pilferers they have all the criminality and
only a little of the profit. No infatuation
ever surpassed theirs. The noblemen of Eng-

1 tnd have sacrificed honour, character, ;the
respect, and almost the adoration of the
people, for a complete shadow. The silli-
ness of an infatuated boy, such as one en-
counters and reprobates almost every day, who
destroys his own welfare from some drivelling
dream, is not a bit greater than the silliness of
the erewhile honoured, but now despised and
detested, noblemen of England.
Our Contemporary concluded the article with
some observations which we earnestly recom-
mend to the leaders of the Whig party. He said—
Good radiates from good. The remotest beam par-
takes of the properties that belong to the fountain of
light from which it emanated. And thus it is also with
measures of a contrary character and tendency. Bad
in themselves, they are bad also in their indirect and in-
cidental results. Wrong generates wrong—plunder pro-
duces waste—the tax on food diminishes indnstry—the
monopolist legislator makes an involuntary oppressor
and robber of each of a host of tradesmen and middle-
men between him and those on whom the accumulation
of injustice ultimately falls. Everywhere there is in-
jury, and suffering, and bitterness, radiating from the
great central curse of the Corn-laws. _

All these remarks apply as forcibly to the Bs.
duty proposed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL as to the
sliding-scale, who, with all his party ought to
thank their stars that they did not succeed, and
substitute the curse of a Whig Corn-law for the
curse of a Tory Corn-law. It was reproach
enough to the country of ADAM SMITH that it
permitted a Corn-law to be passed in 181,5 ; it
was a still greater reproach to it that it allowed,
when science had shed so much light on the
question, another Corn-law to be enacted in
1828; but it would never have got over the dis-
grace and the scandal of passing another Corn-
law in 1841. We are rather inclined to thank

the Tories for saving the nation and the Whigs
from this disgrace, and for leaving us only the
task of getting rid of them and of the Tory law
of 18:-., of which even the ignorant and not sen-
sitive Duke of WELLINGTON is ashamed.

In another article our Contemporary seemed
to share our sentiments of the proposed Whig
Corn-law. For he said—
The dancer now is, not that there is to be no altera-

tion, but th-at the projected change will be as small in
amount and as poor in value as it is possible to make it.
Such a change will have an appearance of improvement
without the reality; and should it be foisted on the
p:dlic in the shape of a new Corn-law, not only will
it be a gross delusion, but .that very delusion will be used
as an argument against all further change.
A change in appearance, but not in reality, will,
therefore, be very mischievous; it will creatofalSe hopes
and unsettle existing arrangements, and yetleave matters
substantially as they were. To prevent such a result—a
result far more pernicious than no change at all—there
must be a steady and effective and well-sustained com-
bination on the part of the opponents of monopoly.
Let it be sustained, not with the irregular and
fitful workings of an almost despairing spirit, but
with the calm energy of those who feel that right
and justice stand on their side. Let this be done, and
not all the figments, fallacies, absnrdities, and humbug
with which they are opposed will prevent their obtain-
ing substantial justice ; they will break down stronger
opposition than figment or fallacy, for they will tri-
umph over the desperate and united powers of selfish-
ness and fraud.

Once more, then, we entreat the free traders to con-

nue their exertions untired, and to continue them

not only with zeal but with prudence. They have won
nearly half the battle, in compelling the new Ministry
tardily to announce their intention of making some
change in the Corn-laws ; and they may, therefore,
boast that the Whig and Tory Administrations have,
the one yielded to them—the other fallen before them.
What remains to be done is, to continue their exer-
tions, that when the announced change does come, it
may he made a real and substantial one, and not an
unreal mockery.
Not an " unreal mockery," such as the substi-
tution of a fixed duty for a sliding scale—not a
" new Corn-law"—not a " change in appear-
ance," such as the Whigs, unfortunately for
themselves, proposed, and proposed too late,
and on wrong principles—will now satisfy the
nation it must have " substantial justice," and
if it be true to itself, substantial justice it will
obtain. This kind of language, and the decided
part lately taken by the Morning Chronicle on
this question, following The Sun in denouncing
the Corn-law as plunder and robbery, have given
us great satisfaction. We are now justified, we
think, in having ever since 1838 steadily resisted
every proposition for a fixed duty, and in sup-
porting throughout the demand for a complete
abolition of the food taxes. Our Contemporary
in IS3B stood much aloof from our opinions, and
we rejoice in his conversion only as a testimony
to the correctness of our views.
May we take the opportunity ofadding, lest we
should be considered lukewarm in the great
cause, now that it seems in a fair way of suc-
ceeding, that we have argued the question so
much over and over again, that few or none of
the habitual readers of The Sun can need any
information on the subject. Years ago, and re-
peatedly, we were told their minds were made
up, and that it was unnecessary to occupy our
columns day after day with arguments on the
subject. We therefore did our duty on this ques-
tion long ago, and it must be henceforth our
pleasure to record the achievements of the peo-
ple in promoting the abolition of the Corn-laws.
We may also perhaps be allowed to say,

striking and instructive as are th^
ences in the prices of food
places, which our Contr-
they are not the sort oi*
like to dwell. It
without inve'
on ir-

differ-
. in different
_tnporary publishes,
• arguments on which we
.. is Impossible to adopt them,
valbnige ourselvesetalivls to
"
in avn
them
a controversyounto
t
,ages, the manner of living, the weight of
taxation, the cost of productions in different
countries, and of freight, &c. &c., which details,
from the general and necessary ignorance of the
community, have, through the whole contest,
supplied our wily and insincere opponents,
both
in Parliament and out of Parliament, with the
means of making their most effective appeals to
the prejudices of the people. If we once adopt
the difference of price in two cluntries, amount-
in; to a fractional portion of a penny, as an
element of legislation on one side, how can we
refuse to adopt on the other the amount of dim,.
rence in the cost of serf-cultivation in Russia,
and the cultivation of free labour here, n owhich
our adversaries mainly rest their case

We have copied most of our Contempo-
rary's statement, because we are desirous
of placing every kind of information bef4re
the
_public, and of bringing the
inn-
portant question under their notice, in all its
conceivable phases ; but after doing so, we re
turn to our own plain view, and ses_4ing-that the
is dishonest in conception,-`arid a lie in
'49ocntion, seeing that it withholds the bles-