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

SIR ROBERT PEEL ON A FIXED DUTY.

The Right Hon. Gentleman said, he preferred a
fixed duty to the sliding scale ; and being asked to
state its amount, he said he thought seven or eight
shillings per quarter would be tt.e amount of the duty
he should recommend. Then the Right Honourable
Gentleman being aware of the objection to a fixed duty,
that when the price of corn became inconveniently
high, it might be difficult for a weak, or even a strong
Government, to maintain a fixed duty in the face of
rising prices, he proposed, in order to obviate the diffi-
culty, when corn arrived at the price of seventy shillings
per quarter, the duty should vanish, and corn be ad-
tnittcd free. That was the only proposition which had
been submitted to their consideration by her Majesty's
Government. Let him then observe to the Right Hon.
Gentleman, that his proposition would hardly remove
any one of the objections which were made to the pre-
sent system. Would it tend to promote a final settle-
ment of the question ? Not in -the opinion of the Hon.
Member for Wolverhampton, because the whole of his
speech went to show that the landed interest was
entitled to no protection whatever ; that so fir from
bearing any exclusive taxes, they were exempted from
some particular burdens, and that with no shadow of
justice should any duty, fixed or variable, be imposed on
the importation of foreign corn. All the arguments
which applied to protecting corn for the purpose of in-
creasing the refits of landlords would equally apply to a
fixed duty as to a variable duty. All the bad appeals
to the passions of the multitude, all the arguments
about the impolicy and injustice, the unchristian and
irreligious principles of taxing the staff of life, would
apply to a fixed duty equally with a variable duty.
They perhaps would apply with increased force when
they came to look at whit had been the average
amount of duty levied on foreign corn imported under
the existing scale for a considerable number of years
past. There had been since the Corn-laws were in
operation of foreign wheat imported into this country,
for home consumption, not less than 9,297,000 quarters,
and the average amount of duty levied on that immense
quantity did not exceed ss. ,!;d. per quarter. He wss
not prepared to say that there were not great objec:ions
to a shifting scale ; but as to the amount of
duty payable under the present system there
could not be a shadow of doubt that it was
very much less than that which any one who
advocated a fixed duty at all ever thought of
proposing. Under the existing system, the duty
charged only amounted to ss. sd. per quarter ; the
amount of duty upon the " staff of life," as it was termed,
did not exceed the sum of ss. sd. The ignorant man
was not prepared to understand the cause or the effect
of a sudden importation, and it would be no satisfaction
to him to be told that a duty of ss. sd. was to be ex-
changed for one of Bs. Those who upon a question of
this nature resorted to an appeal to men's passions
could do so with equal effect, whether the duty was the
one sum or the other, or whether it was imposed accord•
ing to the provisions of the existing law with its sliding
scale, or under that which would impose a fixed duty
commencing or ending at a certain point. The advo-
cates of change, who denounced the present Corn-laws
as irreligious and tyrannical, would be as well entitled
to do so under one amount of duty as under another.
Was there anything, he would ask, in the proposal,
that when the price of corn rose to 70s. per quarter,
the duty should cease, or be materially dimia;shed, that
of necessity would have the effect of disarming every
topic which lay within the reach of the popular agi-
tator, and at once silencing every appeal to the passions
of mankind ? He begged also to remind the Hon. Gen-
tleman opposite, that independently of failing to give
satisfactbn to those who were opposed to the imposition
of any duty whatever, he had not answered any one of
the objections of detail ; he had proposed to retain the
whole system of averages. Surely that was anything
but giving satisfaction to his Hon. Friends who de-
mantled free trade. Was that free trade, or anything
like it ? Nothing could be more evident than that his
whole system was one of averages, for how otherwise
could he ascertain his price of 705., at which his duty
was to commence ? Then he begged the House to
look at. the manner in which the proposed plan of the
Right Hon. Gentleman would meet the argument of
the American merchant, who urged the probable effect
of a deficient harvest, when bad corn must of necessity
be brought into the market, and when its intro-
duction would most assuredly affect the rate of prices.
Next, let the House observe the probable effects of the
gradual rise of the price of corn to 675. or 68a. ; what
precautions did the Right Hon. Gentleman propose to
adopt against the tricks and devices confessedly prac-
tised for the purpose of operating upon the averages ?
Supposing that the price remained at 695. 6d., the
duty, according to the plan of the Right Hon. Gentle.
man, would be payable ; but increase the price by a
single shilling, and foreign corn would be imported duty
free. It would be difficult to conceive a greater temp-
Lotion to practise upon the averages than this state of '
things would present. It offered immense inducements
to adopt expedients of all sorts for the purpose of caus-
ing the price of corn to turn 705., for the moment its
average price exceeded that sum of 70s. per quarter,
the market might at once be inundated with foreign
corn, and might continue to be kept up in that state
till new averages were made. In such a case how rid
the Right Hot). Gentleman propose to provide for the
difficulties with which the American merchant would
have to contend in meeting his rivals in the ports of
Holland ? The American who thought of exporting
corn to this country, hearing that the price was 70,.,
might suppose himself safe in sending a cargo, relying
with confidence upon
being able to introduce American
corn into England duty tree. Before his corn could
have time to arrive in the ports of Great Britain. he
would find that the price had sunk to 695. during the
transit of his corn across the Atlantic ; parties in the
habit of practising upon the averages would have ma-
naged to effect a reduction, and so the object which the
American speculator proposed to himself would be ut-
terly defeated, and he would find himself under the ne-
cessity of paying a duty of Bs. per cleaner up ar that
which he had hoped to have exported to England duty
free, Upon these grounds, then, he professed himself