The Sun.
London, England, 1815-01-14 00:00:00

Tilt CORN LAWS.

The Tonal:kaiak assertion ascribed to a Mr.
.BENErri*, a Laud-owner worth ten thousand
pounds a-yen, in Wiltshire, extortid from us on
Tuesday a brief groan at the miterhs of human
; and we cannot ab far overcome the shack
onr-tillderstandings received upon -that occasion,
as to refrain from a few supplementary sighs. Mr.
BENETT, it seems, 611dS it impossible to live upon
'his small income in this Country,- arid unless the
Legislature will, put a prohibitive duty on the
importation of Foreign Corn, so that his
yenta' may become more adequate to his
wants, he has absolutely threatened to trans-
port himself and family to some other country,
where the necessaries of life are cheaper, and
more within the compass of his moderate means.
Now, though we are extremely unwilling to lose
Mr. BusETT„-and really sorry to think that the
severe pressure of the times upon his scanty for-
time should banish his family from their native
latvd, we must confess that we think the reasons
against indulging him in the wish which would
render his remaining among us practicable, are so.
very strong, that grievous as war affliction may,
be, we must advise the Legislature rather to let
him and his family depart, than lay any duty on
grain to raise its price above the rate at which the,
labours of the..poor can enable them to purchase it.
but this is a great and serious question ; and.
not to be treated tightly, even in compliment to
the exaggerated distress of any Land-owner, whe-
ther of 10,0001. or 5001. a-year. It iQ a nuestion
npon,the, right decision of which, not only the
greatness, but, in our souls we believe, the ex-
istence of this Nation depends ; and its vital and
universal importance, -as well as its excessive in-
trieacy and difficulty, mark it as one which ought
to be approached with the most guarded caution,
and investigated with the most tenacious Modera-
tion.

Aware, as we are, that much study, extensive
information, and deep research are necessary to
fit any man to enter into all the merits ot, and
pronounce judgment on this case, we venture to
hazard our bare opinion upon it with that diffi-
dence which claims indulgence ; and yet With that
6rmess which arises from a perfect conviction that
our views are solely directed to the general wel-
fare.

It occurs to ns to be an unhappy thing that on
this great point the Agricultural Interests should
take up a ground as if separate from the com Mon
interests of the other claises in the,Empire.
surely requires no. argument to spew that this
is a miserably short-sighted policy. Who
that desires a good market for his produce
would set about to ruin those to whom he
must look as , the purchasers ; yet this would
the advocates for exorbitant corn prices do
;
they would destroy the grand mart for their
commodity by charging it, at the very outset, at
a price inconsistent with the prosperity of our ma-
nufacturing community,-and therefore destructive
of the market ;---they would thus annihilate in its
source the home consumption, which alone can
repay their toils—for where out of Britain, or
to whom else but Britisk_consumers, could they
sell their produce Not in Europe ; for there is

1, We recommend to Mr. BENnrr, and all those who agree
With him in principle, to peruse our first extract from ,"
Smnons;" in ".The Sun Review" of the same date, in
which we recotded sentiments. They will there see the
Christian and proper ditties of Land-owners beautifully paint-
ed.—Tt will also serve to illustrate the subject if they atten-
tively consider the following observations made by a Spedher
in reply to Mr. BENErr, at the Meeting where he spcke'of
the distressful necessity for his emigration

"-In fact, this was a:petition especially to benefit the lama-
bolder : even the farmer was of secondary consideration, and
it was decidedly hostile to the interest of every other class of
society; and if acted upon, would prove ruinous to the little
-tradesman, the mechanic,' and the labourer. The landlord
pad met with no reverse since the commencement of the war:
Ms rents had progressively increased, in proportion as the
rest of the community had suffered privations; the nearer
the mechanic and-the labourer had approached_tastarvation
and beggary, the higher were the profits, and the snore effi-
cient the means; of the landholder. This seas no theoretical
proposition, hastily introduced; it was a practical truism,
the result of careful and recent enquiry. He would read to
thOleeting an account of the population of the parish of
Enford, a large parish in-the ventre of the county of Wilts,
with the con, parative statement of the rise in the price of
labour, the price of bread, and the price of land, within the
last SO years. The number of houses was' 143, inhabitants
as;; of which number 250 were farmers, tradesmen, and
their families,- 201 labourers, and 2ski labourers not pau-
i,sre., About 30 years back, the labourers in this parish
received as. per week; at this time they received Bs. per
week-80 years back, the quartern loaf averaged about sd. ;
al this time it is 'op.—sop:ars back, the labourer could pur-
chase with his wee 's pr 4, Os. fourteen quartern loaves; now
he can only purchase with his week's pay, Bs, trine quartern
los ves—afrout 30 years. back the principal farm it this parish,
owl bsiorrr:ing to the lute Mr. Benett, of Pyt-house, in this
county, was let for 4001. it-year; at the present time, this
farts, the property ofslir. ltcnett, of Pyt-house, is let for
16801. a-year. Thus, it clearly appears, in this parish, within
the last so years, labour has risen from Os. to Bs. per week,
38 per cent.; the qmartern-loat from sd. to 10Xd. tea par
rent.; the rent of land from an/. to Icfriol. 2.12 per cent.
'his proves that bread has risen Within this period mare than
and land more than twice as
to ICC times as ranch as labour,
much as Mead, 'and more than six times as much as labour.
At the present price of land, corn, bread, and lab Our, the
,:usilord is benefited three times as much as the farmer, and
siztiurss as much as the labourer." •

than half the price it is already in England—The
reign of agricultural grandeur would therefore be
short, and a very few years would see the Laud-
owner mingled with the Illanufacrurer in the
wreck of what was once the mighty Nation of
Great Britain.

We are fully sensible of the magnitude and im-
portance of the Agricultural Interests, not only
'in this but in every country. Nothing, consistent
with the general welfare, ought to -be omitted to
promote them to the highest prosperity. But
there is a• medium in all things ; and valuable as
Agriculture is, it ought not to be exalted above
its rank in political economy, at the expellee of
all the other membeisof the social compact, and
ultimately to its own detriment. The arguments
for the PARNELL system appear to us to carry the
question to this length, c‘ Are the Land-owners,
a small numerical proporticfn of the population,
to revert to a state approaching that which exist-
ed previous to the late war, or are the mass of the
people to be plunged in everlasting wretchedness,
in order that they may retain the anomalous sta-
tion. to. which extraordinary circumstances have
raised them ? In short, was Agriculture meant to
support the country, or the cotintrY to be sacri-
ficed to support the Agriculturists ?"
A very curious appearance is presented at this
-moment. One day a multitude "of persons meet
to petition against. the 'Property Tax, and the
next day they meet
.to petition against:bread be-
ing cheap ! In both, they seem to us to hie in error;
for till the finance of the- coun:sy tb,-;
itself from the inxr.rnbrances of an_ unexampled
war, the Property, or some equally productive
Tam; must be levied ; but there is no such neces-
sity for Cut staple commodity of life being at a
price which the wages of industry (the only stan-
dard by which it can, or ought to be regdaied),' oan-
not reach. Besides, and this is a grand consi-
deratiowwith thisreal patriot and philanthropist,
nineteen out of twenty of the people are in that
grade of society, that the repeal of the Property
Tax would be of no benefit to them, while the
price of bread comes home as a blessing or a curse
to every citizen iu the Empire. 'lshe entire-mass of
human happiness is affected by the one measure,
and only the pallid comforts of a particular class
by the other. -

This subject is so copious, that we arc aware it
cannot be fully discussed within the limits of a
Newspaper, and we state this as our apology for
rambling to the strongest points without attempt-
ing the connexion of a systematic treatise.

The Advocates for high priCcS endeavont to
scare us into their toils, by predicting that fa-
mine will be the infallible result of withholding
the enco”ragement they demand for the Cultiva-
tors of the Soil. To this we answer, that there •
is no fear of scarcity so long as the Continent is
open, and there is not the slightest danger of such a
combination of events as to lead to our exclusion
from every foreign Corn Market. And even were
tha danger real, we would ask if that, is a suffi-
cient.reason for our anticipating the horrors of
want, and prematurely afflicting the mijority of.the
nation with starvation, for fear they might here-
after be starved ? The ruin of our manufactures,
and the emigration of our population, would be
the result •of such an attempt ; and we will tell
these Logician, that the best encouragement that
can be procured for augmented cultivation is not
to diminish but to increase the demand for-home
consumption, and that the prosperity of trade and
commerce, and the general diffusion of comfort.
among -the lower orders, will produce the most,
permanent and effectual reward for the labours of
cultivation.

Many topics still present themselves to us, but
we arc under the necessity of postponing their
consideration for the present. We have lately
noticed the voluntary reduction of their rents by
many Land-owners, and we will venture to say
that their example must be followed by ALL wllo
have recently let farms at the unnatural rents
to which land rose in the course of the war.—
Bread must be brought within the compass
of honest labour, or as that able Writer Sir
JAMES STEUART has expressed it, " the price
of subsistence must not be raised higher than is
compatible with the gains of the lowest class of
Manufacturers."—Our Work-houses prove, that
this incontrovertible axiom has not been attended
to of late years, but we must return to it, or be
ruined—for the Country can neither go on in the
course into which the war forced it, nor stop at
the disordered political paroxysm at which it has
arrived. The rents must be reduced, and this
will reduce the price bf every thing, so that
the Landlord will be no loser, our inferior classes
will -he able to live, our manufactures and
commerce to contend with advantage against the
commerce and manufactures of all The World, and
oar national greatness be sustained at the glorious

dom
and firmness of our Government, an the
gefseverance and devotion of our people.

NEXT WEDNESDAY THE LOTTERY BEGINS.—TI-11'..
MINT TICKET DRAWN A PRIZE. ABOVE' L. 25 WILL
RECEIV.E L. to.ooo IN ADDmoNt, AND MAY PROVE
A. PAIZE OF

MAILS.
ArtnivEu--,2 France, I Dublin. Dv c—l Lisbon, 2 Haw-
burgh, I liollund, I Guernsey and Jersey, 2 Waterford.

PRICE OF STOCKS
•rltis DAY Al Twci
1 italik 1,. Ann. 16 5 I6ths
ludil Bonds, 19s. pr.
Exclull. Bills, 3s. 4s. ss. pr.
Oionium, 11 dis.
Cons. fur Account, 664 i

Bank Stock,
3 perCeot. Red. Ofi
3 per Cent. Cons. 64i Gii 641
4 per Gent. Cons. 811
per Cer4.tiary 41111. 9s 94

- HIGH wATE It AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-NIORROW.
Morning, 7 minutes affer 5. Evening, 32 Iningtes after 5

THE SUN.

VILEM QUIM DICPRE FAL9Uat AtIDEAT ?

LONDON,
S47'URD-11; .1,1N17..1.11Y 14, 1815,