The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-03 00:00:00

plan as they expected. We have, indeed, often
expressed our conviction that the landowners
Were as great sufferers by the ultimate operation
of the corn laws as the rest of the community.
Lord MILTON appears to think that the landed
interest do derive some benefit from the corn
laws. In continuation, he says—
" The excess of artificial rent, thus produced above the
natural rent, is not all clear gain to you. The artificial
excess in the price of bread is a clear loss to others, but
the artificial excess in the rent and price of land is not a
Clear gain to you."
There is no gain at all, and for this plain
reason, that the ultimate incomings into the
landowners' pockets have been diminished be.,
low what they would have been had the corn
trade remained open, all over the country, and that
In some of the southern counties rent has al-

most totally disappeared. ‘Ve could name no-
blemen and gentlemen with thousands of acres
on their hands, for which they would be glad
to get 3s. per acre, and which, before the
passing of the corn laws, and till their
old tenants were ruined, used to produce from
twenty to thirty shillings. If Lord MILTON
thinks that the landowners do derive any be-
nefit whatever from the corn laws, the emanci-
pation of his mind from the prejudice we all
have in favour of what we fancy to be our in-
terest, only does him the more credit. Enter-
taining this opinion, however, he exhibits to the
landowners the manner in which the corn laws
affect, first, agricultural labourers, second, their
tenants, and lastly, themselves. The last topic
he does not enter into at very great length,
owing, probably, to his opinion of the laws being
to a certain extent advantageous to them. With
respect to agricultural labourers, he says :
" During the ten years that elapsed from the year 1805
to the year 1814, both inclusive, the lowest yearly average
of wheat was 9s. 2,1. a bushel (in 1807) ; the highest was
155. Bd. (in 1812) ; the mean price is 12s. sd. ; while
the average of the whole period is 1 Is. 6(1. Now it ap-
pears from accounts kept in different and remote districts,
which I have had an opportunity of examining, that in one
of them, which is partly a manufacturing country, the
highest wages given to agricultural labourers, during the
ebove-mentioned period, was 155. a week (in 1813); and
the lowest lls. a week. From 1814 to 1824 they were
generally 135. or 145., and occasionally 159., never falling
below 13s. Since 1824 they have been at 14s. and 15s.
In another district (purely agricultural) the wages of
farming labourers, from 1809 to 1815, were 12s. a
week, and those of women, ss. ; in 1830 they were 125.,
and those of women, 4s. 6d. In a third, purely
agricultural district, the highest wages given in the
month of May, since the commencement of the war in
1803, were 14s. a week (in 1812, 1813, and 1814),
and the lowest 99. (in 1823.) The highest average
price of wheat in the same period was in 1812 ; the
lowest in 1822.
" Let us now make some comparison between these
wages and prices. The weekly consumption of wheat in
a labourer's family, consisting of himself, his wife, and
three children, may be stated at about two-thirds of a
bushel; the amount of their enjoyments will therefore de-
pend, cceteris paribus, upon the excess of the weekly
wages above the price of two.thirds of a bushel of wheat.
Now, that excess was the greatest in 1814, viz. 7s. 11d. ;
and the least in 1810, Is. 2,1. It will, however, be safer
to draw our conclusions from periods of a moderate length,
than from single years, Five years are, probably, as fair
period as can be chosen, and the year 1810 (as the point
of the highest alleged agricultural prosperity) will not
improperly be taken as the centre year of one of these pe-
riods. Comparing then the wages, as stated in the an
flexed tables, (in which the wages are those given in
North imptonshire, and the prices those for all England,)
with the price of two-thirds of a bushel of wheat, it ap-
pears, that in the first period of five years, ending with
1807, the average excess of the weekly wages above the
price of two-thirds of a bushel of wheat, amounted to
sld. ; in the second period, ending with 1812, it was
• 10d. ; in the third, ending with 1817, it was ss. Bd.;
'u the fourth, ending with 1822, it was ss. 10d. ; and in
fb,e, last, ending with 1827, it was ss. 4d. It necessarily
I."°,va from this statement, that the period which is uni.
Wallyor
cited as that of the greatest agricultural prosperity
,Precisely that in which the surplus income of the
labourer was the smallest, and, consequently, that in which
the comforts of the agricultural population were the most
abridged."
The manner in which the ruin of the farmers
has been brought about in consequence of the
corn laws is well stated. What occurred to them
111 the interval between 1815 and 1832 may
serve to show them that till the Act of 1828 be
repealed, without any corn law at all being sub-
stituted in its place, except for the purposes of
revenue, they
for as
ought to pay none but corn rents,
mr as long as that act is in operation, so long
must their situation progress from bad to worse.
On the other hand, the rise in the price of corn,
which would naturally, in the course of time,
take place, in the event of such a repeal of the
Act of 1828, ought to make landlords equally
desirous of corn rents. But to return to the
Pamphlet : speaking of tenants Lord MILTON
says
" Relying upon the wisdom and upon the power of the
legislature, they were induced by it to expect those
prices for their produce, which the law, and the proceed-
'4s which led to its enactment, held out as the prices of
grain to be maintained in this country. They entered
Ipon, and continued upon farms, the rents of which were
'ut,ded upon the prices held out to them by an act of Par-
iament. If prices rose to an extravagant height, as
they did •
in 1817, in consequence of the deficient harvest
°f 1816, the expectations of the farmers and land valuers
yere raised still higher; while, on the other band, if they
fell below the Parliamentary standard, the fall was attri-
buted to some accidental and transient cause, and was
;sregarded in fixing rents, both by the landlord, the va-
'kler, and the tenant.
" During the interval from 1815 to 1822 the farmer
experienced the most extraordinary fluctuations in the
Price of his merchandise—fluctuations arising from
the variations of the seasons, but aggravated by the
state of the law, which either rigorously prohibited, or
indiscriminately admitted, foreign corn.* What, how-
ever, I am particularly anxious to direct your attention to
1,, the utter inefficiency of the law to accomplish either of
rte two purposes—of protecting the farmer from too low,
and the consumer from too high, a price. In the spring
if 1817 wheat sold at 120 s. a quarter ; in the winter of
T 1721.2 it sold at less than 40s. a quarter, the average of
~,„e Year 1817 being 945., and that of 1822 being 435.
ITe highest price in Oxford at Lady-day, 1817, was
; at Michaelmas, 1820, 665. ; at Michaelmas, 1822,
in a quarter. The consequence of this state of things
:Ot have escaped your recollection. Great difficulties
01 been felt by the agricultural interests in 1814, 1815,
Pace
sue
e; but the difficulties of all former years were
dby the distress of the winter of 1821-2. The
the hi,tney of tenants at this period was urparallelled in
°II, of
of the Act the agricultural classes, and the inefficacy
that an alter°f' 181
of 1822 but the was so univers illy acknowledged,
i 0 the law was made in the session
cunastances whichtl,e alteration being contingent upon cir-
change never occurred, no permanent tookprac-
tical
place till the year 1828, when the pre-
sent system was adopted. During that period, therefore,
from 1815 to 1828, the Whit ry system of 1815 was
in virtual operation. llPor° tfa
frsoecmu reid. from
soylovunc a
anti diminution of rental, yourwtenarnts"
Your estates from injury, every landowner in Englandy
cann
testify. lam here, however, principally entreating your
consideration to the effects produced upon the agricultural
c,api,ai of the country. Year after year the value of the
tarmer's produce had been diminishing, till it fell to little
More than half the price at which Parliament considered
that he could be remunerated for his industry. Year
after year he was deluded by fallacious hopes, excited by
the law itself; his rent was paid out of his capital, instead
of out of his profits, till that capital became insufficient for
the proper cultivation of the land ; and then you yourselves
began to feel the calamity by which many of your tenantry
had been already overwhelmed."
The note which Lord MILTON attaches to this

• I purposely omit all reference to the currency question ;
not because I disregard its effects, but because it does not apply
ticclusively, or even peculiarly, to corn.