The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-17 00:00:00

sides, the law is so defective, that it is hardly
possible to eject a clergyman, however flagitious
may be his conduct. If such reform were
adopted, the church would then have fair play.
The bill of the LORD CHANCELLOR, we be-
lieve, is only prospective--though we can see
no hardship in making every clergyman per-
form his duty, in one parish at least, for ten
months in the year. Indeed, for the good of
the church, as far as regards this point, it ought
to have immediate effect.

It appears to be the intention of the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER to reduce the
Four per Cents. created in 1826. Such a
reduction is not wrong in itself ; but it may
become so from the circumstances with which it
may be attended. This reduction, like that of
the rravy Five per Cents. in 1822, and of the
Four per Cents. in 1824, proceeds from the
low rate of interest occasioned by the over-
issues of the Bank, the consequences of which
may now be aggraVated, as they were in those
years, in a manner which led to the crisis of
1825-6. To pay off dissentients in Five per
Cent., in 1822, the Bank advanced to Govern-
ment 2,786,800/., and in 1824, to pay off dis-
sentients in Four per Cents., 4,151,2001. If
report speaks true, the Bank is now buying
stock in order to keep up the price of the funds
with a view to make the transaction more ad-
vantageous to "the Government. To use its
,
notes in the purcnase of stock, or t 9 pay off
dissentients, is to use them as capital ; but
this is an abuse of the exclusive privilege
of the Bank, which, like every other Banking
Company issuing notes, should confine the use
of its issues to their proper purpose, as instru-
ments of exchange. The conduct of the Bank
in the present instance (if report speaks true)
is worse than it was in 1822 and 1824 ; for its
over-issue, and the abuse of its privilege, are
preceding, as they will unquestionably follow, the
reduction, which last only attended the reduc-
tion in 1822 and 1824.

The situation of the country at the present
time is similar to the situation of the country in
the years 1822 and 1824, in another respect.
We had most plentiful harvests in 1820 and
1822, whereby the money capital appropriated
to the import of corn was set idle in the years
1822 and 1824, in which very little corn was
imported, as it is now also idle, from the abun-
dance of the last harvest, which has rendered
the importation of corn this year altogether, as
yet, unnecessary ; and if the Bank and the
Government shall play over again the game
that was played in 1822 and 1824, the country
may be prepared to expect consequences similar
to those which occurred in 1825-6.

Our manufacturers are right in ascribing
their distress to the present corn laws ; but
they are wrong as to the way in which they
suppose such distress is occasioned. They
believe that by the operation of the present law,
they are prevented from exchanging the pro-
ducts of their industry against foreign corn.
But this is not so. We have shown that since
the year 1815, the import of foreign corn has
been progressively increasing, insomuch that,
upon the average of the five years ending in
1815, the quantity imported had come down to
less than at the rate of a million of quarters per
annum ; whereas, upon the average of the five
years ending in 1830, it had increased to the
rate of nearly four and a half millions of quar-
ters per annum. Our manufacturers, therefore,
have not been prevented from exporting the
products of their industry against foreign corn.
But farmers have lost their capital, and agricul-
tural labourers have been thrown out of em-
ployment by the operation of the present corn
law, whereby one-third of the population en-
gaged in agriculture, being distressed, are ren-
dered unable to purchase articles of manufac-
ture by reason of that distress, which has been
progressively increasing since 1815, and in pro-
portion as they have been rendered unable so
to purchase, the manufacturing interest has
become distressed, and manufacturers have been
driven to seek a market abroad, because they
could not sell their products at home. But the
foreign market is as nothing compared to the
home market. Our exports in declared, that
is, actual value, did not last year go beyond
36,000,0001., while our taxes exceeded
50,000,0001. The sum of annual industry
which could spare 50,000,0001. out of it, could
not be much less than 500,000,0001., and but
for the distress occasioned by the operation of
the corn laws, might perhaps have been up-
wards of 600,000,0001. Perhaps it is not too
much to say, that for all branches of home in-
dustry the home market is twenty times more
extensive, that is, requires twenty times more
of the products of home industry to satisfy its
demand than the foreign does It is in the di-
minution of the home market, and not in the
loss of the foreign market, that our manufac-
turers suffer from the operation of the corn
laws, and their suffering in this respect is much
greater than it would be if they were merely,
as they suppose, prevented from exporting the
products of their industry against foreign corn.
General distress, and the increase of it, being
the consequence of the present corn law, crime
has, as is always the case, accompanied dis-
tress. This is the true solution of the great
increase of crime in this country of late years.

These things being so, it imports every inte-
rest in the state that the present corn laws
should be repealed, and the operation restored
of those which prevailed previous to 1815.
That operation consisted in there having been,
in point of fact, no importation price, whereby
our great demand raised the price abroad as it did
at home, and in the duty having been so low as
not to raise the price at home so much above
the price abroad as to prevent exportation. The
duty imposed by the law of 1772 was only 6d.
per quarter on wheat. The duty paid under
the laws of 1791 and 1804 was seldom more
than 6d., and never above 2s. 6d. per quarter.
Perhaps a duty to this amount may be imposed,
without preventing exportation, and may be