The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-31 00:00:00

CORN LAWS.

The Duke of WELLINGTON said, in rising to move
your Lordships for certain papers, which will tend to show
the operation of the Act passed in the course of last ses-
sion of Parliament, relative to the protection of the Home.
consumption of corn from the Ist of July in that year. I
• avail myself this opportunity of stating to the House.rthe
nature of the measure Government mean to proposo to Par-
liament for the reform of the Corn Laws. and the prineieetss
upon which that measure is founded. My Lords, OM.
Lordships are well aware that there are a variety of opinions
on this subject throughout the country. Some of those opini-
ons reach both the extremes. I have considered it my duty
and my colleagues have coneidered tt theirs, in the mea-
sure we are ebont to propose, to endeavour to steer In
course between those two extremes, and to bring for-
ward a measure that will conciliate, if possible, all par-
ties, and be favourable to the public at large. Your
Lordships will recollect that, notwithstanding the extremes
of these opinions, all parties agree generally that corn
ought to be in some measure protected.—(Hear, hear.)
—I believe that in Parliament, few, if any, have cx.
pressed an opinion that corn should be imported into this
country entirely free of duty • Some indeed have expressed
an opinion that the duty ought to be very small. But all
have agreed that some protection ought to be afforded
to the agriculturist of this country. This opinion,
however, is founded on the great burden of tax-
ation on this country generelly and the peculiar burdens
falling upon the land. Those who favour this opinion
that the duty ought to be but small, hold out a doctrine
that goes to establish a system under which the poorer
lands of this country, which have been brought into culti-
vation by the industry and capital of the country, are again
to be led out of cultivation, and the richer lands are to he
in some degree neglected in order to meet those views.
My Lords, this country has-been brought into its present
high state of cultivation by the protection Parliament has
afforded to agriculturists, and which has induced gentlemen
to lay out their capital in their cuitivation of estates and in
bringing in lands formerly waste. The effect of the
system of thote who are for this low rate of duty,
would be to thtow those poor lands again out of culti-
vation—to discourage cultivation generally—and to dimi-
nish the productive powers of this country. Finally it would
leave the country dependent on the agriculturists of foreign
parts..—(Hear, hear.)—My Lords, I shall not exaggerate
the consequence of soch a system as this, but I beg your
Lordships to. recollect the consequences that might result,.
if the powers of the dominions from which our supplies
were to be derived, were to think proper to lay
a heavy tax upon their exportss-L.upon their transits
to this country. I entreat your Lordships to con-
sider what would be the consequences of such a measure,
and which I would say, parties might be highly justified
in adopting. But, supposing these to act in moderation,
and not to adopt such a measure as the one proposed,
this country would still find itself as it has previously
found itself, in years of famine, both in the last and the
present century: Thus it would be exposed to the hea-
viest expense: the costs in Holland and elsewhere would
not be increased : the prices here would regulate, not the
prices there, but the profits of all those who would
be coneerned in bringing the produce to this country.
Under these circumstances, I am of opinion that the reduc-
tion of the duty would not produce in England a reduction
of pr ice, but that on the contrary it would produce an
enormously increasing price. Putting the question
aside as • in this sense it regard foreign impor-
tation. I would beg your Lordships to look to Ireland, and
see the consequences of the want of encouragement to
agriculturists there.—(Hear.)—That country now sup-
plies with about two millions of quarters of grain of differ-
ent descriptions, of which, in the course of last year, the
supply of wheat was not less than four hundred thousand
quarterns. My-Lords, I beg your Lordships to look to
that which I might almost say is the only—at least one of
the two only—manufactures of Ireland. If you were to
reduce the duty to this low degree, it would be to deprive
you of that plenty hitherto enjoyed. I have stated that the
gentlemen of this country have by the expense of their ca-
pital and the labour employed, raised the aricultural state,
to that high condition in which it stands—(Heer, hear)—
and nothing would be more unjust than to take from them
the protection which enabled them to bring the country to
estate so desirable, and deprive them of those rents which are
their due from the eapital they have laid out.---(Hear.)—
My Lords, I say the merchants, the mrnufacturers; the
poor, and the whole puitiie, are interested in the
maintenance of this independent condition of the
country. The nobility—the gentry, nay, I say
the Government itself are interested in supporting it from
the advantages derived from its condition. I say, their,
that even i f I could believe that I could make grain cheaper
bywithdrawing from it the protection it now receives,lwould
not do it at such an expense to the interes oft the country at
large, and therefore hope that system will be thrown from
our considerotion altogether. The other system differs
from this in being tire contrary extreme—it is one of entire
prohibition, which 1 must say is greatly to be com-
plained of and scarcely less objectionable than that to which I
have adverted. The truth, my Lords, is, it cannot be
carried strictly into execution without exposing the country
to the greatest inconveniences, first from want, next
from a superabundance of grain in the country, at
a time when we might want to be relieved from
it, and next by a depression of prices, both as affect-
ing the corn of this country, and that brought from abroad
—Such iticonVeniencies the country could only be relie-
ved from by the inteference of government, or by the
Ministers of the Crown eoming ;o Parliament to get
it to exact laws for the purpose. The Noble
Duke, after some further observations, proceeded to give
his scale of duty : the effect of which was, that
ashen grain was at fifty shillings a quarter, the
duty was to be sixteen shillings end sixpence; when at
558. a shillidg less, the rate of duty varying until the
quarter was 6Ss., anti then the duty was to be five shilling-s.
Lord FALMOUTH said, that be had expected that
the statement of the Noble Duke would have been so
clear and satisfactory as not to call for any remarks or ob-
servations from him. Me certainly regretted much that
this expectation, which was raised by the opening obser-
vations of the Noble Duke, had been entirely disappointed
by the character of the measure which it now appeared
that he intsuded, to introduce. Although he entertained
the highest possible respect for every thing emanating
from the Noble Duke, yet he did not refrain from expres-
sing his disappointment at the inadequate protection about to
that most important class, the agricultural interest of this
county. Without entering into a consideration at the pre-
sent stage, of all the details of what fell from his Noble
Friend, at the bead of his Majesty's Government, he
was still anxious to submit a few general observations
on the subject, because if be, humble as he was, could
suggest anything to their Lordships, likely to influence
them in their ultimate determination, he thought that i
the present would undoubtedly the best opportunity.
He, however, begged to remind their Lordships that
circumstances had most materially changed since the Bill ;
similar to the one now proposed was discussed in the last
Session.-...(Hear, cireunistances had cer-
tainly changed, and changed too, as he contended,
most favourably for the view taken by the advo
cates of the landed interest. It now turned out that the
arguments urged last year against the agriculturists were
futile and eertguly uhfotuided. Nu high price bad taken

place, and it did not appear that any of those alarming
circumstances had occurred. After some further observa-
tions, which the great noise below the bar prevented us
from hearing distinctly, the Noble Lord expressed his
conviction that the proposed scale of protecting duties
would throw down the average prices of wheat so
extremely low, that after the lapse of a short psaiod it
would not be generally-cultivated in this country. Indeed,
after all the expectations which ha.l been raised in the
turns of the Agriculturists, it appeared that they had only
a boone of 4e. beyond the protection which would have
Iron afforded to them by the Bill the Bill of last Session.
The subject was then dropped.
Lord DARNLEY then rose to present petitions, and
their,Lordships adjourned at Seven o'Clok.