The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-18 00:00:00

The

LONDON:
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1841.

Another debate on the Corn-laws, brought on by
"Earl YrrzwILLJAN, occupied the House of Lords for
some time. We have adverted to one principal feature
of it. elsewhere. Here we shall only remark that it was
occasioned by the Noble Earl presenting a petition from
Manchester ; that he, with Eari-RAnNon and the Earl
of CLARENDON, ably and nobly supported the principle
.of free trade ; while the opponents of those principles
were the Earl of RIPON, the Duke of WELLINGTON, and
Lord ASHBURTON.
The Marquis of NORMANDY, in reply to some allega-
tions of Noble Lords, denied that the present measures
were adopted on the spur of the moment, and declared
that they were all arranged before Easter.
After the presentation of a considerable number of
cetitions, their Lordships' adjourned.
The Commons were again exclusively occupied with
ther adjourned debate. In the early part of the
evening Mr. WYNN suggested that it would be advisable
to bring it to a close.

Lord Joux RussF.T.T. did not wish to protract the
debate, but as there were many gentlemen representing
large constitucncies who desired to speak, he should take
no measures to prevent them.

A great number of petitions were presented, chiefly in
favour of the repeal of the Corn-laws, or in favour of the
Ministers' measures.

The adjo urned debate was begun by Sir C. GREY, and
continued to half-past 12 o'clock, by a great number of
Members addressing the House. No leading man spoke.
Some vivid representations were made of the distress in
the manufacturing districts, particularly by Mr. T. Dux-
CONDE, whose speech was much to the purposq,.
.The iin;
portance of the subject is shown by the lengtkofths debik 1
It is found necessary by the bulk of ilieNeln te!..31,40,e1
dress their constituents. Even Mr. .A.paw dR'FR Tiltieq
Toured to make his peace with his BOttA?,n coustitutoti;:il
by warmly espousing the Ministerial AWisure.. The, iEr.
illience of the constituencies begins" to be felt in '41%
liwse, and if. they continue to exert themselves they-
win make several converts.
The House adjourned at Half-past Twelve.

The somewhat incidental, and yet prepared
discussion in the House of Lords last night on

the Corn-laws, was instructive. The opponents
of-free trade expatiated- at some length on the.
increase of our exports, both under the head of
official and declared values, and insisted that
this increase was a decisive proof that our manu-
facturers could not be in that state of distress and
decay which Earl FITZWILLIAM represented.
The Earl of RIPON was the first person who took
this line,and he dwelt with great force—and con-
siderable effect on their Lordships, who received
his statements with repeated cheers—on the in-
crease, asserting that it was remarkable both in
the official and declared value of the articles
exported.
The Duke of WELLINGTON, somewhat blindly
we think, followed the same course, and was only
not equally cheered because he has not the art
of making his statements so emphatic as the Earl
of RIPON. Lord ASHBURTON, with some discri-
mination, adopted the same line of argument, but
as he could not deny the existence of great dis-
tress in the manufacting districts, he attempted to
account in part for the existence of this distress in
conjunction with the prosperous condition of our
trade as shown by the returns, remarking that
they were only made up to January, and the dis-
tress might since have arisen, or that there was
some inaccuracy in them. But there is a more
palpable explanation of the discrepancy on the
face of the returns themselves, and but that the
Earl of RIPON and Lord ASHBURTON are the soul
of honour, and could not possibly mean anything
unfair, the Duke of WELLINGTON was merely
unobservant of the bearings of the matter, we
should say that their statement to the Peers,
which the Peers loudly cheered, was anything
but candid, and anything but fair to the confiding
Peerage.
Some of our readers may, perhaps, not be
aware that the official value of articles is a scale
of prices fixed, we believe, in the reign of King
WILLIAM, which, no longer corresponding to
the real value, indicates nothing but the quan-
tities exported. The real or selling value of the
articles is nearly what the merchants declare it
to be. Thus, 20 pieces of woollen, at the official
value, say of 51. each, as settled in the reign of
King WILLIAM, appear in the table as an ex-
port of 1001., while, in consequence of the mo-
dern facilities of manufacturing a piece of
woollen, it may be sold for 21. 10s.; and conse-
quently the declared value of the same pieces
would appear as 501. This runs through the
whole of our exports, and it will explain to our
readers the mystery of declared and official
values, which used to puzzle Mr. Alderman
WAITHMAN, and puzzled, we observed, only a
few days ago, a Morning Contemporary.'
Now the Earl of RIPON, mainly confining
himself to the official value, showed that the
quantity of commodities exported had increased
between 1829 and 1840 from 61,000,000/. to
102,000,0001. But the Noble Earl was not
equally explicit as to the declared value of these
exports. He said, indeed, that it had increased.
We have not the advantage of the same returns

to consult as the Noble Earl read, but we have

consulted the annual financial accounts for some
years, and we beg attention to the following
statement drawn up from them. • We adhere to
round numbers for convenience :

EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.
OFFCIAL VALUE. DECLARED VALUE.
1834 £73,800,000
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
It appears from this table that between 1834
and 1841, the quanties had increased as 29,
while the value had increased as only 10. If
the articles exported had continued of the same
value in 1841 as in 1834 the manufacturer
should have obtained 57,000,0001. for his commo-
dities, whereas he only obtained 51,000,0001.
The manufacturers suffered a loss or deficiency
in the last year, as compared with 1834, of
6,000,000/. sterling or one-sixth. But in 1836

and 1837 the quantity exported was equal to
85,200,0001., and the manufacturers obtained
53,000,0001., while in 1841, for a quantity equal
to 102,000,0001., they obtained only 51,000,0001.
As 85 is to 53, so is 102 to 63, or, while the manu-
facturer ought to have received 63,000,0001. in
1841 tirr the articles he exported, had he
been paid at the same rate as in 1836-7, he
received only 51,000,0001., losing comparatively
12,000,0001.

Our readers will remember that in 1836 and
1837, and when our manufacturers were getting
24 per cent. more for their goods than in 1840,
the price of corn was down to somewhere about
40s. In the last year the price was nearly 705.,
so that the manufacturers were paying probably
60 per cent. more for their fbod in 1840 than in
1836 and 1837, and obtaining 24 per cent. less for
their goods.

The continued declension of declared value, in
proportion to the official value, showing that our
manufacturers have gone on exchanging a greater
and a greater quantity for a continually dimi-
nishing value, appears to us a feasible explana-
tion of their distress, and an explanation which,
if the Noble Lords we have alluded to had been
as much inclined to state the whole truth as
they were to make out a satisfactory case for the
cheering landowners around them, they would
not have omitted to notice. But they were play-
ing the part of advocates, not of legislators ; and
their case is absolutely worth nothing, till the
other side has been heard. It is a fact, then,
as these Noble Lords stated, that exports have
;one on increasing in amount ; but it is also a
fact that, in proportion to the quantities, they
have decreased in value. Year after year, our
manufacturers have given foreigners and the
colonists more cloth, and more hardware, for
less quantities of timber, sugar, coffee, &c., and
have been great benefactors to other nations.
The Noble bread-taxers wholly omitted or
mis-stated this fact of the declension in the value
of our exports, last it might lead to a question as
to the cause. The answer would not please them.
Our goods fall in value from two causes,—the in-
genuity of our people in continually devising
new and cheap processes, and the Corn-laws,
with other commercial restrictions, which ex-
clude them from a market. In their ingenious
contrivances they embark an immense amount
of fixed capital, they cannot allow their mills to
stand idle, they are obliged to manufacture, and
are also obliged, because they must not receive
food in exchange for their produce, to lower the
price in order to find customers. The Corn-laws
even make the ingenuity of our manufacturers a
curse to them, and the patriotic bread-taxers con-
fer a benefit on foreigners at the expense of their
own skilful countrymen.

Perhaps the bread-taxers were afraid if they
made this declension of value in our manufac-
tures, as to the foreigner, apparent, it
wouid
also be supposed that the same process is going
on as to the home purchaser. The manufac-
turers assert that they have been giving greater
quantities of cloth to the agriculturists for equal
quantities of agricultural produce, and this de-
clension in the value of their exported goods,
while the price of agricultural produce has
been rising, confirms their statement. Whe-
ther it be the effect of Corn-laws or not,
it is palpable from this that the landlords have
been enriched at the expense of the manufac-

turers.
Lord ASHBURTON made angt4er statement
which seems to us deserving of mice. He said;
with a view of showing that the capitalists in the
manufacturing districts had no reason to com-
plain, that they were amazingly wealthy, and
that of the 60,000,0001. sterling embarked in rail-
roads, 50,000,000/. had been subscribed from
Manchester and Liverpool. What is the inference
from that? Why that the landlords owe the great
improvement of such roads, by which their land
and produce is enhanced in value, by which the
prtiductive energies of the country are called
forth,
exclusively 0., -those_ manufacturing and