The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-15 00:00:00

4J/ 1/V et Ot e s
-- --- ta' ae
cY
great object was steadiness of price.-(Hear, hear.) In
his opinion it was neither high nor low price which the
agriculturiste wanted so much as steadiness of price.-
(Hear, hear.) The Noble Duke opposite (the Duke of
Wellington) would probably argue that the Act of 1828
contribtoel to effect a steadiness of price, but he would
show that was not the case. Steadiness- of price, it
should he remembered, was in this instance required for
the agriculturists, and be would examine that question not
by the general average of prices in the general market,
but by the prices of corn in what he might call markets of
production. (A Noble Lord asked, what did the Noble
Earl mean?) He would illustrate his meaning. Markets;
he thought were of two kinds-markets of production,
and markets of consumption. Devizes was a market of
production. Wakefield a. market of consumption. To
chow what he meant, he would take the average price
of corn in some market of production, and not refer
to the general averages. It was in such a market
that prices ought to be steady, if this Act had
worked well for the farmer. Vick Lordships all
knew Stamford, which though not the greatest, was
a very considerable market of production.-(Hear.)
On October 30, 1827-that was before the Bill passed,
1828, the price was ss. NA& per bushel.
(binut
ji,itawuaoruyldlsse,rve to show the working of the law-and
On October 28, 1828, the average price was 9s. 1(4.1. ;
thus there was a difference between 5e.101(1. and 9s. 101 d.
On November 24, 1829, the average price was 49a. 104‘1,
-while in March, 1629 (we believe ilia Lordship said),
it was 6s. 101 d. In January, 1830. it was 61. 8i.1., and
on January 15, 1831, it was 9s. 111 d., and in the Ja-
nuary following Sc. 2d., and in June (we believe) it had
fallen to 60. 101(1. Nothing, then, could be more erro-
neous than to say that this system kept prices steady in
the markets of production. In Maldon (we believe) which
is a great corn market, the average price in September,
1827, was 445. 10d. pI. quarter; in March, 1829,
82% Bd. ; in March, 1830, 51s. ld. ; in September,
1830, 735. lid. From that it hail fallen down to 565.
and Me. That showed that steadiness, of price had not
been obtained by the Act, and he knew that it could
not' be obtained by legislative enactment. He was
aware of the influence of the seasons as well as other
Noble Lords, and he therefore condemned those who wished
to obtain that of legislative enactments which could nos
be obtained. The Noble Earl then adverted to the
influence of these laws on the consumers, observing,
that their Lordships were not supposed to be peculiarly
favourable to the commercial and manufacturing in-
terest, and entered at considerable length into the
question of the influence of the corn laws over the wage*
of labour, and the influence of high wages on our foreign
commerce. He contended that high wages prevented loge
merchants and manufacturers from entering into successful
competition with foreign nations. If this were a country
which had no commercial intercourse with foreign nations,
it would not matter what the price of corn might be. The
great evil of the corn laws was, that they either lowered
the condition of the labourer, or diminished the profits on
stock. He remembered reading a very good answer Inado
by a Noble Lord, a few weeks ago, to some parties at
Worcester, who wanted him to form one of some associ-
ation ; but he said that he saw no reason for any conser-
vative club, for he always received his rents, and on rer,ere
ring to the newspapers he invariably found that the 4 per.
Cents. were very high. It perhaps did not occqr to that
Noble Lord, that the high price of stock wria rule of thg
great evils of the country, for it was founded upon a lower
rate of profits. This had a great deal to do with the high
rate at which houses were taxed, and indeed he believed,
that if the small tradesman, with his one or two thousand
pounds capital, were enabled to get a fair profit, there
would be no more heard about the house and window taxes,
To a min of large capital, the reduction of his profits dq
not make so much difference. He is not ruined by
having his profits reduced from 900/. to 3001. a year, fur
he can live upon that ; but a man whose 300/. a year is
reduced to 30/. is a lost man. The greatness of the
capital made all the difference. Adam Smith was of
opinion that the lowness of profit on stock in Holland
was owing to the enormous capital in that country. yet-,
depression of every thing in this country was owing 0, tint
high rate of taxation, and the corn laws were al much r..,
part of that taxation as the house and window, or ER;
other taxes ; and what were the effaces of this tax ?
Why, that of raising the price of wheat 10a. a quarter,
so that there being sixteen millions of quarters of wheat
consumed in this country every year, there was at once a
tax levied of 8,000,000/. sterling on the people. And 4
this were, as he believed, the case, in his opinion the
landed interest was in reality stickling for a thing which,
so far from being worth their while, was more likely to
injure them. If Ministers, in the outset of the sesolon,
had come down and proposed to take off four mime,
of this vexatious tax, not a gentleman would have re-
fused his consent to it, and the people would have beer,
grateful for the relief, though the relief would have hem
greater if the whole eight millions bad been taken
off.-(A laugh.) The corn laws were not only a vexa-.
tious direct tax, that they were a vexatious indirect to o o
they operated, for instance, in making his Noble Friend
there pay more for his white waistcoat-(A laugh),onet
,mlitiobeunobutars, butatho and
et
hwtahteuatsvheeervr
oy rthicn
made him pay more for his dinner and for everything else;
for the high price of corn, of course, raised the price pi
h i landholdersm became
e ° ......we(reA
laausghg)o.:
yf.Ewnegdelepeader. Ids had no
or any class ; but this was no reason why the rest of the,
community should be taxed; in order to enable ahose,
landholders to live finely, and have seats in thia or that.
House. The Noble Lord at the head of the Alministta,l"
tion bad undoubtedly taken off some amount of taxation
-30 per cent. be was told by that Noble Peer. It
might be so ; but, notwithstanding this, the tax on corn
was at the rate of from 60 to 70 per cent.-(No, no.)
Oh, yes, it was. The medium price of corn at Dantzic
was 30s. a quarter-say 355. if they liked it better ; hut
the present duty on wheat in England was, on an average,
335. a quarter ; and if they would go back to the Bill
which they were discussing, they would find that an
average price of 635. had been taken, which was at the
rate of 235. on the quarter, and this was what they musta,
at this rate, keep the duty on foreign corn at. But if •"ney
the rate of duty up to 335. Bd., or say 35a.,, which. would
wishediltnfafai
re
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, ttotohwkeae,rjedupst theduty
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make the rate per cent. somewhere be`ween 60t. and 700.
of the duty on any other commodity; but waa it just, was
double rate of duty on this particular article ? He was
one of those who even doubted the justice er policy of the
protective duty of tbitty shillings, but he would not now
go into that qqestion. What be would now express his
dissent from was the principle that the people are to pay a
higher tax for the importation of a raw material into this
country than they pay npen any imported manufactured
commodity ; and here it was well worthy of remark, that
since the diminishing of the restrictions on silk, for instance,
not only had the importations of silks increased, but we
ourselves had added largely to the extent of our exporta-
tions. As to the effects of the Corn Bill, let their Lord-
ships look for instances to the counties of Cambridge.
Sussex, Buckinghamshire, and they would find that :hi-,
Hill had not effected the slightest increase cif ernplonnent
in those counties any more than in others, and it
would be moat idle to suppose that its effects ve.ould
be any more beneficial in future, For hie own
part, he believed that the landed interests were more
oppressed by these duties than any other claret. He would
draw their Lordships' attention to what had been invaria-
bly the effects in the rise in the trice of corn on the poor-
rates in all parts of the cOtasotty, anti these were very ex.
traordinary and irnportout points for consideration. He
Irew them from the very able report which bad been lately
published. 'their Lordships would recollect that in the
year 1816, one of the worst harvests had occurred ever
known. In the month of June the price of corn bad risen
to 1178. a quarter. The poor-rates fell in the few fol-
lowing years. The price of corn in 1819 was 94,,e. To
estimate the effects of this sort of thing properly, one must
not look to the same year, but to the subsequent one. lmt
the three consecutive years the average price had been-in
1816, 755. 10d. ; in 1817, 955. 9d. ; in 1818, 841. 10d.
, tia
Now the poor rates in Sussex in each subsequent year,
reckoning them on the plan he had mentioned, wer,
follow :-in the year after the first year, 280,0001. ; in
the second, 3.90,000/. ; and in the third they fell to,
of poor rates was in exact ratio with the previous price o
314,0001. ; so the House would perceive that the amount
eorn. The same proportion prevailed throughout the
country. When the price of corn was high, there
ineeitably ensued a higher amount of poor rate, and he
was confident that the effect of the corn laws would
'lever be more beneficial than they had hitherto been found.
He was sure that there was no opening for the further em-
ployment of the poor except in the extension of manufac-
urea and commerce. He must say, though he might be,
and hoped he was, mistaken, that be thought the House
did not take so much care of these interests as was exhia
kited in another place, where were those who wereeper-
sonally more mixed up with them. But be .
entreated
their Lordships never to consent to any Act which might
he
oe hurtful to those leading interests of thehomt
country,l these
could at the same time impress u
of ad in iroti on
-eh; country ought to have is in.!!
point he would refer
of Bern,
and on this
corn laws were eminently injurbieot.its::llbei:ennits:::: thatand
thundant supply
their Lordships, with the but
Al
~
Lower ,
oi a speech
1815 (Mr. Elliott) who felt us stronly on the
House in
delivered by an Hon. A ember in the