The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-11 00:00:00

CORN-LAWS

EFFECT OF LOW PRICES IN PUTTING
LA ND OUT OF CULTIVATION.
In the debate on Mr. Villiers' last motion, Sir
Henry Parnell made a speech that was imperfectly
heard, and, of course, imperfectly reported. In a
recent Number of " Hansard's Debates" we find
a corrected and extensive report of this speech,
from
.which we quote the following passage as well
worthy the attention of agriculturists, Sir H.
Parnell being both a landowner and an agriculturist,
as well as a clever political economist :
The assertion was still made that low prices of corn
would throw an immense quantity of land out of cultiva-
tion, and that this would be followed by the ruin of
farmers, by depriving agricultural labourers of employment,
by diminishing the demand for manufactures and for
manufacturing labour, and by rendering the revenue insuffi-
cient for the payment of the dividends; but the experience
of the working of the Corn-laws proves that this assertion
is wholly unfounded. For some years after the law of
1815 was passed, it was admitted by the opponents of it,
that land would be throw❑ out of cultivation unless high
prices were sustained, and it was said by persons of high
authority that no inferior land would be cultivated, in con-
sequence of the large amount of capital and labour which
was required to render it productive, without high prices;
and, had there been no Corn-laws for some years after
1815, this would have been the case; for it appears, on
looking at the prices of corn, that, for seven years, from
1815 to 1822, the average price of wheat was 755., and for
ten years, from 1822 to 1832, that the average price was
60s. ; and, therefore, to have opened the ports to foreign
corn would necessarily have thrown land out of cultiva-
tion ; but, since 1831, the case has been different, for, from
that }ear, during six successive years, the average price of
wheat was 50=., and for the years 1834-5, and 1836, no
more than 445. Bd. Now, with these low prices, sufficient
IA 23 grown for our own consumption, no more than 380,000
quarters of foreign corn having been imported in these six
years; and, as the population had increased nearly five
millions between 1815 and 1838, the fact was placed beyond
all doubt, that the cultivation of land had been immensely
increased during this period of so low a price as 445. Bd.
The most abundant harvest ever known was that of
the last of the six years—namely, 1837; and the proper
conclusion to come to from these facts was, that if the ad-
mission of foreign corn were to have the effect of keeping
down the price of wheat to 455., land would not be thrown
out of cultivation, and none of those ruinous consequences
would follow with regard to farmers, labourers, manufac-
turers, and the revenue, which are so confidently predicted
as unavoidable if the price of wheat was below 60s. a
quarter. On referring to the produce of corn in different
years, and to the price of, it, it would be found that the
largest quantities of wheat sold were in the three years of
1834-5-6, when the average price was 445. Bd. ; but dur-
ing that period, the country never exhibited a greater ex-
tent nor higher degree of cultivation ; and it was perfectly
fair to presume that, at a price of about 455., there would
be no reason to apprehend that much, if any, land would
be thrown out of cultivation.

REMARKABLY QUICK PASSAGE
OF THE ARCHIMEDES, PATENT SCREW
PROPELLER SHIP, FROM PLYMOUTH TO
OPORTO.

A paragraph appeared some days ago in the
Shipping Gazette, stating that the Archimedes put
into Shoreham, to effect some "necessary repairs."
Whatever may have been the object of the writer,
his assertion is wholly destitute of foundation, the
Archimedes having circumnavigated Great Bri-
tain, and since made the voyage to Portugal, with-
out having once had occasion to employ
ships right, carpenter, engineer, or boiler-
maker, to perform even the most trivial
repairs. The vessel went to Shoreham,
to receive on board an invalid lady and
servants for conveyance to Oporto, which
place she reached from Plymouth in seventy hours,
being supposed to be the quickest steam commu-
nication that has ever been made between those
places ; and this was effected without her having
once had occasion to stop her engines.
Another article in the Mechanics' Magazine of
Saturday the 25th ult., evidently written by
some person altogether unacquainted with the
subject, states that Messrs. Fawcett and Barnes
had been trying the relative power of " paddle-
wheels versus screws," and that a tug-boat, called
the William Gunston, had pulled the Archimedes,
stern foremost, at the rate of eight or nine knots,
the power of the former vessel being forty horses,
and the latter fifty horses. Every word of this
statement is untrue. Mr. Fawcett was never on
board the Archimedes, as described, nor Mr. Barnes

_ he power of both vessels is stated at less than half
what it is in reality, and that of the Gunston
is imputed to the Archimedes, while the
-smaller power of the Archimedes is given to
the Gunston. The greater-powered vessel did
certainly drag the smaller power ; but the difference
was extremely trifling ; and a report of the whole
of these interesting experiments, which are stated
to have been highly in favour of "screws versus
paddle-wheelS," will probably be communicated to
the public.before long, by the scientific gentlemen
at whose request and under whose able superin-
tendence the whole were instituted.

HAMBURG H MAIL.

HANOVER, AUGUST 3.—The investigations respec
log the revolutionary placards are continued very zea
lously by the police. The persons arrested are not yet
liberated, but we do not hear that any proceedings have
been instituted against them.
STOCKHOLM, JULY 31.—Count Pope, the Minister
of Justice, and Baron Von Stjerr.elt, Minister for Fo-
reign Affairs, have resigned. His Majesty expressed
his surprise at this resolution, and though he accepts
their resignation, observes, that he requires some time
to make a choice of proper persons to succeed them,
and therefore calls on them to continue for a short time
longer in the exercise of their functions.
The .tiftoub/adet says that the Councillors of State
Cederstern, Lagerbjelke, Fahrans, and Ihre, have ex-
pressed their wish to retire as soon as his Majesty shall
have been able to appoint successors.
HANOVER, AUGUST 4.—His Majesty will go for a
considerable time to Rolenkirchen, from which place he
will make short incursions into the provinces.
OSNABURG, AUGUST 2.—A petition to the King has
been in circulation for some days, the object of which is
to express the wish of the citizens that the new Consti-
tution may not be carried into effect. There are already
500 signatures. We know nothing except from the
newspapers of criminal proceedings against the Magis-
trates or Burgomaster at Stuve.—Hamburzgh Papers,
August 7.
BELGIAN FUNDS—BRUSSELS, AUG. 8.
Actual Debt, lyi per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, 5 per Cent ...........
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per Cent SJ,3
" Cent. 7:7

Thirty -SQVen--- cv
Lean of City, 1632, 4 per Cent 93
Society of Commerce, ,fyi per Cent llO
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent SY%
National Society .
Exchange on London (short)
—Brussels Papers, Aug. 8.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROH THE HORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Amongst the last acts of the Parliamentary Session
now closing was the Ecclesiastical Courts' Bill, which
has provided, we presume, for the release of John
Thorogood from Chelmsford gaol,. By this Bill there
only remains the money difficulty of the five-and-sixpenny
rate, and the 801. of costs. Many parties, and for va-
rious motives, some out of charity, and some for
shame, will doubtless be disposed to raise and apply the
funds which the oppressed prisoner himself does not
possess ; and which, if he did possess, be would not
so apply. The visible scandal of a dungeon tenanted
conscience sake through an indeterminable period,

will therefore, in all probability, be soon removed, to
the relief from disgrace of the naves of Church and of
Christianity. The necessity of submission to the Bishop,
which constituted the more formidable difficulty,
is removed. John Thorogood may be liberated without
_ .

any compromise of principle on his own part ; while
those by whom he has been so vindictively pursued arc
preserved from any compromise of their principle of
persecution. The business is settled in a thoroughly
sordid spirit. The Chelmsford champions of the Church
have secured the cash of which they incurred so lavish

an outlay in hunting down their victim. The 80/. which
they sent after ss. 6d. will return into their own bosoms ;
or, rather, into their pockets, the cleanlier receptacle.
They have not subdued resistance to Church-rates ;
they have not quelled the spirit of the dissenting
cobbler ; they have not avoided the indignant outcry
of shame from all persons endowed with an atom of re-
ligious or humane feeling ; but they have " gotten the
victory" of ss. 6d. and costs, as a condition of the libera-
tion of their prisoner. It is said for the Church, that
she has no means of diso.,vning such dirty things. They
arc a moral infection.