The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-02 00:00:00

ING ET:iiITION

-- - we
worth had declared against, a fixed dot" and in favour of
.th..c.t.
fluctuating one ; yet though thet Right Hon, isaronet had
been very ingeninus last Session in upsetting the_
argas
ments of opponents to the Corn-laws, he bad been
somewhat ambiguous in the defence of the existing system.
No w consi&ring the high position which the Right..
Poironet occupied in the country, and the number of tio
should
indi-
viduals who took his opinions on these grounds, _e
have distinctly laid down whether he meant to stand
\ by the present system as it was, or consent to any—
and; if any, to what, modifications.—(Hear, hear, hear.)
He put it to the Right Hon. Gentleman, whether he
would suffer this year to pass without an explicit. declare_
t ion of his opinions on the subject. He thought the con-
dition of the farmer under the present Corn-laws was one
which the Legislature should lose no time in remedying;
1 and when he had read, in the petitions presented to the
) Howse in favour of the Corn-laws, the many arguments
i the petit:toners urged—hwhen he heard them say they had ,
entered into contracts depending on the existing Corn-
lawv—he did say the sooner this uncertainty and fallacious ,
system was abandoced the better. The Noble Lord op-
seosite had complained of lhe agitation on this subject, but
he forgot that four or five years ago the agriculturists
I were themselves agitators. In 1834, 1835, and 1836 they
Iwere the persons complaining. It can be proved that the
Corn-law had by no means operated in producing
the beneficial results that were attributed to it; and when
he reflected or, the price of corn, fluctuating as it had done
from 735. to 365., he did say to make contracts under such
uncertainty appeared to him a most serious evil to the
1 farmer who made it, whatever it might be to the Landlord
who received it. There was much about this very grave
and impnrtant question in which he was in some doubt,
principwliy in reference to its bearing upon manufactures.
He %%as deeply sensible that this was a most important
be ,ring, but he knew there were sa many gentlemen pre- 1
I sent more competent to deal with that question than hhn-
self, he should leave it in their heeds; but ho was quite
fconvinced that, by delaying the peril attending it would
greatly increase from year to year. Without meaning
in any way to exaggerate: the statements of those
who said that all the distress of the country arose from
the Cora-laws, he was still prepared to maintain that
the Corn-laws did overate as a concurrent cause of that
Idistress, and that. eney did operate in a degree which
a more extensive range with foreign countries would
modify. When he contemplated the way in which this
questioe was ditfusing itself over the mines of the whole
comniunites he thought that House would not be too
on .ek in removing so foul a blot as the Core-laws from
a legislation, believing them, as he did, to be founded on
injustice and productive of great and serioue evil and
(affecting very seriously not only the present hut the future
prosperity of the country.
Mr. D'ISRAE LI said the Hon. Members had based
the greater part of their arguments upon our foreign policy.
He must protest against any principle of this importance
being decided by a mere abstract principle of political
leconomy. It must depend upon the circumstances in which
nations were situated. The Hon. Member for Wolver-
hampton had announced that the Prussians were ready to
deal with us on the basis of a repeal or an extensive modi-
-1 fication of the Corn-laws, but the Hun. Gentleman
1 had assumed that which he was much disposed to question.
It would be necessary to bear in mind the state of Ger-
many at the fall of Napoleon. The House would remene-
ber the great distinction between the kingdom and enoalre
i of France; that the restrictive principle of the Freech Em-
peror extended over a terrtiory of great extent—over Bel-
gium, Poland,and the extensive regions of Germany. The
Germans were much e:liscontented at this restric iye policy.
Senultaneous with Oen fall of Napoleon, a memoir was deli-
! livered to the Catainet of Berlin, which, as it was never
Feinted, perhape the House would allow him to read.
The '.lon. Nleenber proceeded to say, that that extraordi-
nars document comprised the whole policy of the German
I eir hire, and that embraced the system of education which
l' ad since been established in Prussia, and which would
probably be soon extended to the entire German empire.
Twenty years had elapsed since the German Union had been
completed, and during that period no year had elae.sed in
which diplomatic communications bad not taker. place hoe
tween Berlin and the minor States, which now fnrined
part of the Commercial Lea cue which :wad net 'been en.
tered into until the month -of Januare, 1834. [The Hon.
Member here rna'de sonte assertions respecting the League,
t re nature or :purpos t of which we were wholly unable to
,catch.' He had last rear obtained a copy of a corn:-
spendence which bad taken place between the Prussian
Court as el the minor States of Germany, which he had,
since t' ,at time, shown to several Members of the House.
Ha r ,ould extract from that correspondence to show the
r,el' tive proportions of our exports and imports to Prussia
V. late years. The amount of our imports from that coun-
try in 1834 was 734,000 L ; in 1838 they amounted to
1,718.0004 Our exports to Prussia in 1834 amounted to
509,0001. ; in 1838, after the league had been Nur years
in operation, they amounted to .584,000/. tin that both is
our exports and imports with Prussia there had been a
considereale increase in the period he had referred to.
With respect to Abe Hanle Towns the average amount of
!)11(r t; eariy imports was 1,500,000/. ; in 1838 it was nearly
2 YJO,OOOI. The amount of our exports to the Hansa
Towns in 1834 was 4,500,0001. ; in 1835 it was
5,504,000/. ; in 1836 it was 4,437,000/ ; in 1837 it
I was 4,487,000/., and in 1838 it was 4 943,000
There had thus been an increase since the
year 1834 in our commerce with those parts of Europe
I also. Our commerce had also improved with Belgium and
Holland. Oar exports to Belgium in 1834 amounted to
1 3,220,0C,04 in 1838 they amounted to 4,367,0001. The
\tact %sees that our commerce with Belgium was never in so
heal'. by a state as at present, though that country had been
, reteresentectsby Hon. Gentlemen opposite as the great ma-
/ r.ufacturing rival of England. They had always heard great
stress laid on the development of industry in the Nether-
lands, and that subject bad been strongly alluded to by
Mr. Cochrane, who was called " the Iron King." The
truth, however, was, that the industry of Belgium was al-
most absolutely extinguished, and there was little demand
for commercial produce in that country since its sever-
ance from Holland. Such was the true condition of
things in a country, which had been put forward
as the great rival of this country.—( Hear, hear, hear.)
The Hon. Member compared the situation of Holland in
i the year 1670, when England ceased to be a corn-export-
-1 ing c/Juntry, with the position which England held at pre-
sent.. In that year Holland had her Ambassadors at every
lrnportant Court in the world, and boasted that if her own
I 'soil was inadequate to sustain her population, Europe was'
her granary. In a century after, he learned from a book
which he found in the library of the House, in 1770 the
Dutch were in the greatest distress for bread, the other
countries of Europe, including Great Britain, being unable
to send them the necessary supply of corn. This (we un-
derstood him to contend) ought to show, that however we
might modify the Corn-laws, we could not secure the ve-
rification of the presumptuous boast that England was the
workshop of the world. Do what we would, other nations
would compete 'with us in commerce and manufactures.
Say what you ltlce of the German League, it was the work
of Russia, tire power which governed Germany, through
the medium. of Prussia. If it were not for Russsia, Prus-
sia would have remained all her life a third-rate power.
He hoped if he had not made out, that he had indicated
the mode by which his proposition might be established,
that. the German Commercial Union was essentially of a
political nature as regarded Prussia, and that practically
$ the Tariff of the Union was not' working injuriously to-
wards England; and that, as regarded the League gene-
rally, the commerce of this country was in a prosperous
state. As it regarded Holland and Belgium, he believed
that the commerce of England never was more sound or
prosperous than it was at present.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said that on every occasion on
which the present Corn-laws were not before the House,
he had constantly voted for their revision ; but he had al-
weiss beard the arguments so much better stated than he
noitid have stated them, that he did not think it necessary
to trespass upon the House; and he should not do so now,
if it were not for the situation which he held, connected so
i so closely as it was with the trade and manufactures of the
Icountry.. Holding that situation, he felt it was due from
him to the House to say a few words, and he could assure the
House they should be short. The Hon. Gentleman who had
just sat down bad thought it necessary to warn the House
against fostering and encouraging the notion among the
people that England was the workshop of the world. He
thought the country was well entitled to that appellation
considering the indomitable perseverance of its manufac-
turers, and the difficulties and obstacles they bad bad to
contend with.—( Cheers.) The manufacturers of the
country bad placed England in the highest station among
the nations of the world. He believed that the prosperity
of this country depended in a very great degree upon its
foreign commerce, and he was sure, notwithstanding what
hadbeen stated byithe Hon. Gentleman who had just down,
that the great majority of thsn House would agree with
. \him that it was their duty to foster and encourage the ma-
nufactures of the country by every possible means in their
power. He would now come to the question immediately
before the House. lie was opposed strongly to thee
Y system of the Corn-laws as they at present exist d
because he thought they had kept none of their
promises
'
Those promises were steadiness of price and uniform,
i trade.—( Hear.) Now he thought he need not tell the
fMuse, that during the twelve years previous to
the present law, the greatest fluctuation of prices took
place. Mr. Canning, although he did not actually pro-
pose the Bill which they were now called upon to consider,
was in a great measure responsible fur it, and under it he
, did not expect that the price of corn would oscillate more
than from 555. to 653. Now, what had been the fact?
Why, he held in his hand a return of the fluctuations that
had taken place under the Act of 1828, and he found that
during the eight yeas succeeding the passing of that Bill,
that wheat sold, upon the average, under 40s. during
seventeen months of that time ; between 40s. and 50s.
during twenty-three months of that period; between 503.
and 60s. for forty-eight months ; between 60s. and 70s.
for eighteen months ; between 70a. and 80s. for sixteen
months; and between 80s. and 90s. for one month. It
was clear, therefore, that the Corn-law had not answered
the expectations ofnhe framers of it.
Sir R. PEEL wished to know what were the results of
what had been stated by the Hon. Member.
Mr. LABOUCHERE said he had not calculated the
results.—( Hear.) He would note pass to the next point.
\
Mr. Canning had said that the great evil of the old law
was, that under it we were sometimes suffering front a
dearth, and at others from a deluge, but that under the new
law the supply was to be always equable—we were never
to have a deluge, and always a sufficient supply. No he
would read a return of the number
in each year during which the new law
tioe. The number of quarters imported in
1829, in round numbers, amounted
1830
1831
18,32
There came a great change ;in ofbqaudar-ter; imported
been in opera-
to 1.360,000
............. ..• 1,701,000
......................... 1,491,000
1833 the quantity amounted to ... ...
1934
82,000
64,000
1835
1836 • • 30,000
I 1837