The Sun.
London, England, 1821-06-23 00:00:00

nor thould.theyperhapi, be adequately prepares so to do with-
out further inquiry ; nor until the obstacle to that inquiry, created
by the present accumulation and glut, shall be removed. At
the same time,_ they incline to the oyinion, that leaving to every
part of the United Kingdom the inestimable public benefit of
the most full and free competition in the home market, without
regard to the difference of fertility in the soil, or of expence
in its cultivation, either from a difference in the price of
labour, or in the amount of local and public burthens diattly
.affecting the tand ; it may, perhaps, be difficult, if not impos—
Sible, mit of the questions for the occupiers of some
of the poorest and most expensive soils now under tillage, in
Great Britain, to bring their produce to market in competition
• with the more fertile landi of this country, and especially of
Ireland. Your Committee would be anxious to suggest, for the
consideration of Parliament, as the principle and basis of the
trade in foreign corn, such a protecting duty upon the pro-
duce of other countries, as would not aggravate to the occupiers
of such soils the present difficulty of that competition. The ge-
neral question, how far the forced cultivation of sortie of
those inferior lands may have been expedient or advantageous
for the public interest, is one upon which it is unnecessary to
offer a positive opinion. • They can, however, have no difficulty
in stating that, within the limits of the existing competition at
home, the exertions of industry and the investment of capital in
-Apiculture, ought to be protected against any revulsion,
but that the protection ought not to go further ;—and that,
if protected to that extent, the growth of our population, the
accumulation of our internal wealth, affording increased em-
ployment to that population, and consequently. increased
means of purchasing all those articles of consumption and en-
joyment, which must be derived from the soil of this .Country,
will continue to give, as they have given during the last 60 years,
the most effectual stimulus and encouragement to the pro-
. gressive improvement of our agriculture, and to the con-
sequent value of the landed property of the kingdom;—
that, under such a system, there can be no apprehension that
either will permanently retrograde, (except in so far as rents
may be nominally affected by the resumption of cash pay-
ments) or even be for any time stationary,—so long as our
institutions continue to aflbrd, to capital and industry, that su-
perior 'degree of security and protection which they have hi-
therto found in this country,--so long as public credit and
good faith keep pace with that security and protection, and
as. we avoid any course which, in a time of. peace, and pOs-
sibly of improving confidence in the stability of the insti-
tutions of other countnes, might drive capital to seek a more
profitable employment in forei,gn states. It is under the im-
pression that the present Corn Lraw, together With the amount
of our taxation, by diminishing the profits of capital, have such
a tendency, that your Committee suggest the modifications
which have been pointed out, as fit for further inquiry and in-
vestigation ; and that they feel it their duty, also, to accompany
that suggestion with a most earnest recommendation, that
every opportunity should be watched, and every practical mea-
sure adopted, for reducing the amount of the Public Expendi-
ture ; as the only means aapproximating to a state of Finance,
which, without impairing the credit o&the country, may lead to
a diminution of the existing burthens of the People.
Your committee have abstained from u ging, in favour of
an op •n intercourse in foreign corn, those general principles
of fieedom of trade which are now universally acknowledged
to be sound and true, in reference to the commerce of nations.
If it be for the wisdom of the House, on the tine hand, to en-
deavour to revert to those principles, as fit as practicable, in
this, and in all other cases ; out the other, it is also for its
prudence and its justice to take care, in that application, to
spare vested interesli, to deal tenderly with those,obstacles to
improvement which the long existence of a vicious and artifi-
cial system too often creates, and sometimes even to modify
and limit that principle, in reference to considerations of ge-
neral policyconnected with the institutions,' or the safety of
the state. Lookin, to the possible contingencies of war, your
Committee are nut insensible to the importance of securing
the country from a state of dependance uppu other, and pos-
sibly 'hostile countries, for the subsistence of its population.
Looking to the institutions of the country, in their several
beatings and influence in the practice of our Constitution,
they iic still more anxious to preserve to the landed interest,
the %%eight, station, and ascendancy, which it, has enjoyed so
long, and used so beneficially. Their first wish, therefore, is,
that, whatever general suggestions they may offer, should
be sertiptslonsly examined with a due regard to these two
considerations.

As they have adverted t-0 the state of the country between
1773 and 1814, as connected with the important subject of
their inquiry, it may perhaps assist others in their researches
and reflections, to state, that your Committee selected that
period, because the year 1773 was, in fact, the commencement
of L...great change in the practical operation, if not in the
avowed policy, of our Corn Laws. From that date, the ag-
gregate balance of our imports of grain, taken upon'a series
of years, began to exceed the balance of our exports. But
upon toukitig back from that year to the period of the Revo-
lution in teas (a space of mss years), our exports taken for
any number of years, on the contrary, exceeded our imports.
From the year 1697 (the ear iiest date from which accurate
returns have been made) -to the year 1773, the total ex-
cess of exports was 30,968,366 quarters; upon which ex-
ports bounties amommting• to 6,237,1761. were paid out
of the public revenue. A course, somewhat similar in
principle, of exciting an export by a bounty, but more de-
sultory in its application, and more frequently interrupted
by arbitrary interference, prevailed under the Princes of the
House of Stuart ;.and if we look to a still earlier period, we
find that the same policy of forcing the growth of corn was
attempted, by harsher expedients, during the reigns of the
Tudors. Between the re.gn of Henry VII. and the 39th of
Elizabeth, numerous Acts* of Parliament were passed, for'
the express purpose of encouraging tillage. Those laws pro-
ceeded upon the principle of compulsion, limiting, for in-
stance, the number of sheep and lire stock, prohibiting the.
conversion of arable into pasture, and enjoining the break-
ing up of pastures, which had at any previous period been
arable, either under a pecuniary penalty, or a forfeiture of
half the land, " until the offence be reformed."
. These compulsory laws (all of which, it may be observed,
preceded the introduction of that Act whisk laid the founda-
tion of the system of m.ur Poor Laws) appear to have been
principally suggested by a wish to find employment for the
popu:ation, and to relieve their misery, by enforcing an
extension of ctiltivation beyond the wants of the country.
But, neither under those laws, nor under the subsequent at-
tempt to augment the produce of our agriculture, by the
creation of a fictitious foreign demand, excited by a large
bounty on exportation, slid the agriculture of this country
make any advance, at all to be compared to that unparal-
leled prosperity, which began with the decline of that system
ahomit the. beginning of the last reign, and which, with some
few temporary interruptions, has marked its progress up to
- the pt esent time. In comparing the two periods, each of
nearly equal duration, between the peace of Utreeht and the
commencement of the seven years' war—and between the
years 1773 and 1814—amid recollecting that the first period
was one of almost uninterrupted peace, and that nearly
thirty years of the latter have paSsed away in the exertions
of two tinct expensive wars—that during the former period
the market interest of money was generally much below, and
during the latter frequently as much above the rate fixed by
law—thiat during .the former the aim of the-Legislature was,
by artificial means, to divert the application of capital from
other empluyinents to that of agriculture, as well.by positive
bounties, which forced an export of grain to other countries,
-as by duties which generally altogether precluded its import
either from the Continent or from Ireland—that during the
latter agriculture has, in point of fact, beets without 'either of
those:stituulatits—your Committee cannot look at these'con-
trasted-circumstaeces, coincident during the first period, with
•a comparative stagnation of our agriculture, and during the
second', with its most rapid growth and improvement, without
acknowledging that there was nothing in the system pursued
.up. to 1773; which necessarily prompted this ,most essential
branch of public industry and national wealth ; and also, that
there is nothing incompatible with the success of both these
objects, in the system which has practically prevailed since
that date. If the quantity of wheat, the growth of Great Bri-
tain, was truly estimated, as it was estimated in 1773. at four
minimills of quarters, and if it cannot now be stated so low as at
double that amount, it is evident that the change of system
has been attended with no defalcation of produce; if, since
that year, the futinher of cattle and sheep has been vastly aug-
mented, their breeds improved, and, by those improvements,
their size and aptness to fatten, and in sheen their fleeces
greatly increased; if, by' this augmentation of live stock, a
greater quantity of manure has been produced ; if allure most
important but expensive meliorations of modern husbandry
have been introduced; if scieutitic drainages have been under-
taken, end extensive wastes enclosed, to augment the produce
of the land canni't be said that there has been a want of
encouragement to invest large and adequate capitals in this
branch of national industry.
If, from agricelture, 'your Committee look to the perma-
nent improvements which have been made in the country
itself within time same period, the bridges which have been
built, the roads which hare been formed, the rivers which
have been rendered navigable, the canals which have been
completed, the harbours which have been made and improved,
the docks which have been created, not by the public reve.
true, bet by the capitals and enterprise of individuals ,• _if they
look, at the same time, to the unexampled growth of Mallll-
- ores and commerce, in the contemplation of this augmen-
taiiutr internal wealth, which defies all illustration front
.comparison with any former portion of our histou,, or of the
history of any other State—your Committee may entertain a
doubt, (a doubt, however, which they wish to state with that

a'
4 Holt. 7, c. 19. ; 7 Hen. 8, c. 1.; 25 ditto, c. 13.; 27
ditto, F,;]3.; 5 and 6 ,dw. tit c. 5.; 5 gliz. C. 2.; 39 ditto,
C.

diffidence which a subject so extensive naturally imposts tiptiti
their judgment), whether the only solid foundation of the
flourishing state of agriculture is nut laid in abstaining, as
much as possible, from interference, either by protection or
prohibition, with the application of capital, to any branch of
industry ?-whether all fears for the decline of apiculture,
either from temporary vicissitudes to whist all speculations
are lia rle, or front the extension of other p.tirsuits of general
tindus'ir. are not, in a treat degree, imaginary ?—`kliether
,a3inerc can eapand, manufactures thrive, and great public
works be undeAken, Without furnishing to the skill and
labour which the caAals thus employed put in motion, in-
creased means of paying for the productions of the land ?
whether the principal part of those productions, which can-
iribute to the gratification of the wants and desires of the
different classes of the community, must nut necessarily be
drawn from our own soil, the demand increasing with the
population, as the population must incfeitse with the rkite4
of the country?—.whether a great pact of the sable capital
which is employed in supporting the industry connected with
manufactures, commerce, and public works, does not, pass-
ing by a very rapid course into the hands of the occupier of
the soil, serve also as a capital for the encunragcnieut of
agriculture ?—whetker, in our own country in former times,
and in other naturally fertile countries up to the present
tirue, agriculture has not languished from the want of such a
stimulus ?—and whether, in those countries, the proprietors
of the land are not themselves poor, and the people wretched,
in proportion, as from _want of capital, their labour is more
exclusively confined to raising, from their own soil, the means
of their min scanty subsistence ?
If these questions should be answered in the affirmative, it
follows, that the present solidity and future improvement of
our national wealth depend on the continuance of that union
by which our agricultural prosperity is so closely connected
with the preservation of our manufacturing and commercial
greatness.
_

It will be for the House to appreciate this view of the sub-
ject, to. watch the progress of events affecting any ortlie great
branches of our industry, and, in its wiolom, to determine,
according to circumstances, how far, and by what arrange-
merits, it can best reconcile thoseconsiderations of state policy
make it desirable that this country should not become
too habitually or extensively dependant for the subsistence
of its people on foreign supply, with the necessity of guarding
as much as possible against creating, by artificial means, too
great a difference between the cost of that subsistence here
and in other countries; not only in regard to the pe iple them-
selves, but also from the risk which must be in proportion to
that difference, of driving much of the capital, by which their
Wow). and labour are supported, to seek employment in
other countries. Fur there cannot be a doubt that this dif-
ference operates, in the satire mauner as taxation, to diminish
the profits of capital in this country ; and there can be as
little doubt, that though capital may migrate, the unoccupied
population will remain;- and remain to be maintained by the
landed interest, upon whose iesoutces, diminished in propor-
tion to diminished demand, this additional burden Would
principally fall..
In some of the Petitions referred to. your Committee, tha
depression and distress of all those concerned in agriculture,
are mainly ascribed to the extent of our public burdens, coo-
pied with their diminished means of bracing them.
The general influence, of taxation upon the slate of the
country is a subject too extensive to be entered upon by your
Committee, without exceeding the bouoils prescribed to
them by the nature of the reference made to them by the
House. They lamina its weight, because, however imposed,
taxes must necessarily abridge the resources and comforts of
those by whom they are ultimately paid. lint. the questioa
for more immethate consideration is, whether, in the distri-
bution of this unavoidable evil, the profits of farming capital
have been heretofore, or can permanently he more affected,
than the profits of capital engaged in other branches of in-
dustry. They cannot discover any grounds for believing that
during the war, when taxation was carried to its greatest
amount, the profit of farming capital was lowered in its rela-
tive proportion to the profit of other active capitals; arni,
whatever may be the temporary effect of a casual derange-
ment, it is obvious that this proportion must permanently be
maintained, because the application of capital would other--
wise be changed from one mode of employment to another,
until the proper level was restored.

. .
So far, therefore, as taxes fall upon the profits of the'ac-
tire eapaals of the country, whatever may be the objects
upon which they immediately attach, or the parties by whoop
they are, in the first instance, paid, they operate, in their
ultimate effect, as an abatement of those profits, equally
affecting the trading, the manufacturing, and the farrain4
interests, by diminishing their means either of enjoyment,
or of accumulating limber capital by savings from their
annual incomes.

- The manner and extent in which other classes of the com-
munity, and other sources of income may be affected br
taxation, do not come directly within the scope of the present
inquiry; but your Committee think it uecessary to notICC
doctrine- which has prevailed in some quarters—that the
price of corn in this country, in order to reninnerato the
grower, must increase in the same ratio as the amount of our,
public revenue, so that if the latter be doubled, the ,price
corn must be doubled also. If this assumption were well
founded, it.would follow, that, exclusively of any change
the value of money, the remunerating price in 1821 wou:a
be ityarly one-third lower than it was in. 1814, taxes not mi;cll
short of that proportion to the whole of our. revenue having
been taken off in' Great Britain since that year. But with'
cut denying that the price of corn may be, in some degree'
affected by adding to our general taxation, and that ao)ci
charges particularly paid by the farmer, such as tithes 3":
poor rates, must tend more directly to raise that price, it is
• obvious, from what has been already stated, that the cost °
growing corn in any country is regulated by the amount o',
capital necessary to produce it upon lands paying no rent'
and that it is the price of the portion of corn which is
raised that determines the price of all other corn: and tb3
an increase of general taxes, affecting alike, the profits 0,
capital in all the different branches of industry, would no'
necessarily raise the [nice of the particular produce of "01
one. The price of corn, therefore, might fall in a countrit
notwithstanding additional taxation, if the quantity re-
quired for the consumption of that country could be raise./
either by the cultivation of more fertile and productive. seil.7'
or by the application of a diminished capital to the same 501.4
in consequence of increased skill or improvements in 1105.
bandry.
In fact, no rise in the price of corn appears to hive ra-'
place during three of the wars in which this country was
gaged during the last century, compared with the priers °f
l °
the years preceding and succeeding those wars; and dnr.rl
the last of them, the American war, prices were ower tht
dining the peace. This circumstance is the more to he re
marked, as there never was perhaps a period at which rite
burden of taxation 'appeared to press more heavily upon t
resources of the country, and in which an annual increase
taxes, accompanied with an annual diminution of revent'e;
and a general stagnation of improvements, indicated to°r
strongly that apart of those taxes must have been paid out °
the 'capital, and not out of the income of the nation. of
On the other hand, however immense the ex
the last-war, it is impossible to review the vast private 1-11°try.
takings begun and completed during that war, in c
inanclk of industry, without feeling that those funds by rill
alone the productive powers of the country can be 110t4,
motion, must have been greatly increased, and that the 10-.'o.
millet ion of national capital, however impaired by loans,
.0,
retarded by taxes, has, upon the whole, been -large and Yt

gressive
If during that periOd. • -
in the same space of time the national capital of
other country has not increased, or has increased onlY
much smaller proportion, the mere comparison of the elm
minal amount of the public revenue of that country will'
public revenue of this. country, as they stood at the cgilt
mencement of the period, and- as they now stand, "111,,e11
lead to an unfair inference in respect to the degree in °if ,1,!
each country has been affected by increased taxation. Jdi",
weight of the public burdens of a country be conside';') 01
reference to its population only, then (with the exceplr''f,tY,
Holland perhaps) England is the most taxed portion
rope; but if it be measured by the aggregate of toltor''
'capital, or income arising from capital, divided by the oie
number of people among whom that capital or iac`l.ti
distributed, it may then be doubted whether, upon o.'ol 01
average, the proportion of tax to the income or cartsrates
each individual, be nut less In England than in several t t)
of the Continent, or even in Ireland ; and whrther 1100
materially greater now than at former periods, whei; f,r4:
the capital, the population, and the public revenue °l,tere`
land were far below what. they now are. But tvfij the
might be the consolatory result of such a comparison, 1_ awl
means of making it could be accurately ascertaine",e'rroia
however sanguine a hope your Committee maYoegeniclit
that peace will afford increased facility and eoc':,f Govern"
to further accumulation, it is not less the dotlinishing
went directly to aid that accumulation, by
dUl'it'iforts and
expenditure, and thus both to improve the `ones, by whose
stimulate the skill and enterprize of those clioie kingdoin
industry and savings the capital of the appears to
augmented. This duty, important at all
e oresew circote"
your Committee to be still mm e so, under - . . . ea'
stances of the country; for, whilst tlol
rn under wi.te"
ecting the mistaken opinion, that thedC
3 or prinei-
our agriculture now labours, is either excl,rrost
disguise fo-'°'
pally to be attributed ter taxation, they eue,!_liiie hurdens of the
themselves, that' the weight of the..o,,g"
the same, must b.e
country, their nominal amount rem::
_he
money
incomes de„.
most severely felt, in proportion
theturin., capital and
rived from trulin, farming, and ma",„
„,
No exertion, therefore,
are desirous of
,
itolostry, are diminished•
,omitted to endeavour to reduce
those
but dens, as mat /