The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-16 00:00:00

day evening, relative to the three classes, of la-
bourers, manufacturers, and consumers, all benefit-
ing by the abolition of the Corn-law ; and it at-
tempts very feebly to invalidate our statement. No
person acquainted with the many elements which
enter into money price, will presume to say, within
10s. or 15s. per quarter, what would be the precise
effect on the prices of wheat in this country by the
total abolition of all the import duties on wheat.
We will not, therefore, wrangle with the Post about
the more or less, being satisfied with its admission
" that the reduction in price, from the removal of
our protecting laws, would be considerable." That

reduction, whatever its amount, might be, and
would be, as we have stated, divided in •ertain pro-
portions, according to various circumstances, such
as the demand for labour, the momentary extent of
the foreig❑ market, Sze., amongst the three classes,
hich rebuts, by its own admission, the Post's silly
accusation, that those are cheats who contend for
the abolition of the Corn-law, because it would be-
nefit all the three classes.

At the same time, we must observe that it is pro-
bable that the, reduction of price would be greater
than the reduction of duty, because all such artifi-
cial elevations of price make a larger capital neces-
sary for carrying on the businesses connected with
making bread ; and, ultimately, the consumer must
pay the profit on that excess of capital.
Thus the
farmer, being obliged to give a higher price for his
seed-corn, and everything he purchases, is obliged
to ask a higher price from the miller, besides the
increase of price caused by the duty. The
miller and the baker are, respectively, also
, obliged to give a higher price ; they must, con-
sequently have a larger capital to carry on
their business, and the profit on that larger
capital is levied on the consumer. Nor is this of
the least advantage to the capitalist, for the in-
creased capital he is obliged to employ in carrying on
the trade, would be employed, were the price lowered
by the reduction of duty, in some other way.
The same, or indeed a greater, amount of profit
would be obtained, because the capital would be
turned to a more productive occupation, and the
community would be benefited by the creation of
some additional wealth. We are ready, therefore,
to admit that our assumption does imply that the
'nice of wheat is enhanced by the full amount of
the duty (the average duty, as long as we have I
fluctuating scale) on foreign wheat, and we con-
tend that the reduction of price would be even
greater than the reduction of duty.

It is not our business to reconcile the conflicting
statements of the many advocates of the repeal
of the Corn-laws ; we content ourselves with de-
fending our own ; and we have carefully steered
clear of any attempts to estimate the exact benefit
to a few shillings which the repeal would confer
on the country. We have never said that the fall
in the price would be little or nothing ; on the con-
trary, we have maintained that the greater the fall
in the price, the greater is the present mischief of
the law, and the greater would be the national
benefit from its repeal. Despite the venerable
names and high authorities the Pot quotes in favour
of high prices, but evidently quotes without under-
standing the bearings of their doctrines, we con-
tend that the real or natural price being solely and
exclusively the labour which nature demands of
man, cannot, if labour be an evil, be too low.
What happened to the great men mentioned by
the Post was this. In their time Holland was the
richest country in Europe, and the most prosperous,
while its prices were highest. But the prosperity
was not caused by the high prices, they were its
sign ; and these philosophers made the mistake •of
confounding the effect with the cause. ADAM
SMITH kas a passage appropriate to the whole
subject, which, though not exactly directed to the
word price, yet, as prices are raised by taxes, is so
complete an answer to this part of the case that we
shall end by quoting it :
" Taxes upon the necessaries of life have nearly the
same effect, upon the circumstances of the people, as a
poor soil and a bad climate. Provisions are thereby
rendered dearer, in the same manner as if it required
extraordinary labour and expense to raise them. As
in the natural scarcity arising from soil and climate, it
would be absurd to direct the people in what manner
they ought to employ their capitals and industry, so it is
likewise in the artificial scarcity arising from such taxes.
To be left to accommodate as well as they could their
industry to their situation, and to find out employments
in which notwithstanding their unfavourable circum-
stances, they ought to have some advantage either in the
home or the foreign markets, is what in both cases
would evidently be most for their advantage. To lay
a new tax upon them because they are already over-
burdened with taxes, and because they already pay too
dear for the necessaries of life to make them likewise
pay too dear for the greater part of other commodities,
is certainly a most absurd way of making amends.
Such taxes, when they have grown up to a certain
height, are a curse equal to the barrenness of the earth
and the inclemency of the heavens ; and yet it is in the
richest and most industrious countries that they have
been most generally imposed. No other countries could
support so great a disorder. As the strongest bodies
only can live and enjoy health under an unwholesome
regimen, so the nations only that in every sort of in-
dustry have the greatest natural and acquired advan
tages, can subsist and prosper under such taxes. Hol-
land is the country in Europe in which they abound
most, and which, from peculiar circumstances, continues
to prosper, not by means of them, as has been most ab-
surdly supposed, but in spite of them.— Wealth of Na-
tions, book iv., chap. 2.

We learn from the Hamburgh papers, arrived last
night, that Count BULOW is not to leave London
for Frankfort till the Eastern Question is settled,
and that M. HASSENPFLUG is to go to Frankfort
as the representative of Prussia.
The King of PRUSSIA has offered to guarantee

the Archbishop of COLOGNE a Cardinal's hat, and
20,000 dollars a year for his life, if he would resign
his diocese and retire to Rome. The Archbishop
referred the KING to the POPE, and the KING has
sent Count MUHL to Rome to negotiate a settle-
ment of the affair.

It is said Prince ERNEST iS going to negotiate
a loan for a million of dollars, and he has exacted a
fine of 50 from Dr. STUVE for having published
his defence. The following arc the prices of funds
at Hamburgh :
HAMBURG BORSENHALLE, JAN. 9.
Bills. Money
Austrian 5 per Cents.
_lO5 10I}

Bank Shares 1670
Anglo-Russian Loan lO7 100,.i
Russian 5 per Cent. Ist series, Certificate
Inscription, Ist Se.:IGS lO3
Russian 5 per Cent. Hop:, and Co. 3d and 4th

Series 96% 06
Ditto in Certilicktes

Dutch riClUill Debt, 234 per Cent 49 .. - -
49%
Ditto 5 per Cent — _
Polish Bonds
New Picket
Anglo. Danish Loan, 3 per Cent. 74 731/2
Nm wegian Loan, 16,31, 4 per C,,nt'...
Spanish, New 3 per Cents. l9 18%
EXCHANGES ON LONDON.
HAMBURG, JAN. a —l3 3.1,4.—Tw0 months, 13 Ili.
SrocKnotm, DEC. 31.—Seventy-five days, 11. 37.
PETIIRSBURGII,DEC. :.'9.-.-TIIIO months, 395 j pence.
BERLIN. JAN 7.—Three months, 6. RN.
VIENNA. DEC 31.—Three months, 9. 45.
BREMEN. JAN. 5 —Two months, 614:13.

Dutch Papers, of the 12th, state that the Sec-

tions of the Second Chamber are examining the
project of a law for a new system of import duties.
The Dutch trade, like our trade, is put out of
joint by fiscal regulations. Flushing was free from
ice on the Bth.

The Paris Journals of Thursday have all been
received. They arc principally occupied with M.
TinEfts' Report on the fortification of Paris, a
complete summary of which will be found in
another part of The Sun. The Journal des De-
buts praises the Report as able and impartial. The
&bats is the organ of the Court, and not of the
Government, and on this occasion expresses not
the sentiments of the Ministers, who want no forti-
fications, but of the KING, who does. The Siccle,
which ativoe.,4e.',3e
views of M. ODILLON BAR-
ROT, insists that pledges should be exacted from
the Government, to erect the works in a given time.
The Presse, the organ of Ministers, says the Ca-
binet has triumphed in obtaining a complete