The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-02 00:00:00

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LONDON:
FRIDAY, JULY 2, 1841

Sir ROBERT PEEL appears, by his Tamworth

speech, to have become quite enamoured of the

Corn-law. The passages we yesterday quoted
proved its negative advantages. It has not, ac-
cording to the Right Hon. Baronet, been the
cause of our manufacturing distress ; but he went
much further than this, and insinuated that it
was the cause of our national prospeyity.
With that dexterity in argument which he has
acquired from continually debating for victory
without considering the truth or falsehood of the
question at issue, he used the statements of his
opponents to make out his case. Quoting Mr.
• McCuLLocu's late pamphlet, he said—
• The object of the pamphlet is to prove the advantage
of the substitution of a fixed duty on corn; but Mr.
M'Oulloch, wri ; and impartially, and not lend-
ing
ing his aid to t e t fairly
dissenwiatio.ns.of those gross delusions
by public indignationn
by which, in manufatturing districts,
has been excited, makes these admissions with respect
to agriculture :—" The price of „heat in England,
at an average of the ten years ending with 1820,
ter.
was no less than 86s. 3d. a
price has since been reduced to
Its average
ta 56tsh.
this
ldtr.em(seany.
575.5 a quarter, and, notwithstandingdous fall, a most extraordinary
improvement has
taken place in agriculture since 1820, O
we now provide for an additional populationsuch so that
of at
least seven millions, not only without any
in-
crease, but With a very considerable dirfainution of im-
portation." Gentlemen, these are important facts. The
price of wheat has been reduced under the operation of
the present Corn-laws from 86s; per quarter to 575., and
yet, notwithstanding this reduction of price, agriculture
has improved, and there has been derived from the land
of this country an additional supply of corn for
7,000,000 of our population. This is a great advantage
to have realised.
He subsequently added—
While I admit the present distressed state of manufac-
tures and commerce in this country, that that distress is
not attributable to the Corn-laws, and that we should be
acting an unwise part if, under the pressure of difficulty,
which I believe to be temporary, we were to make a ra-
dical, fundamental change in the laws which regulate the
application of capital to the cultivation of land.
Afterwards Sir R. PEEL quoted some state-
ments made by Lord PALMERSTON on the 2-2 d of
July, 1840, with a view of showing that Ministers
had not neglected the commerce of the country
as to the increase of trade, and Sir ROBERT added—
This is the testimony of the Foreign Minister of this
country with respect to the increase of the trade and
commerce of this country from the year 1830 to 1839,
during the whole of which period the present Corn-laws
were in operation. This boasting of the progressive in-
crease of our commerce makes me doubt whether the
operation of the Corn-laws can be fairly assigned as the
cause of the present manufacturing and commercial dis-
tress.

Now combining these remarks with the re-
marks as to the great increase in our agricultural
Productions, and Sir R. PEEL'S declared attach-
tnent to a protective duty, it is fair to conclude
that he attributes the national prosperity to the
Corn-laws, which regulate, according to him, the
application of capital to land. The following
passage may be considered, in fact as quite posi-
tive, coming from so cautious a speaker•
We must take care lest in a well-inten
t. d.—
in this dils°tnriect oenr4ieatvrtr
to remedy the distress existing
we run the risk of undermining thefoundations of
nantionaal

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