The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-28 00:00:00

THE CORN-LAWS AND FREE
TRADE.

CHRONICLE.—Among the numerous weapons with which Sir
Robert Peel will be able to combat the objections of the refractory
portion of the Cabinet, who object to a suspension of the corn-laws
and the free introduction of grain, will be the recent dispatches
from our Minister at Washington. Those dispatches cannot fail to
inform our Government of the present singularly favourable combi-
nation of circumstances in the United States, all tending to secure
a new tariff highly favourable to the trade of this country, if any
disposition is shown on our part to receive their produce in return.
Mr. Walker, the Secretary to the Treasury, who is at this time in-
defatigably occupied in procuring information on which he will be
ab'e to frame a proposal for a new tariff, cannot have omitted to
explain to Mr. Pakenham the chief difficulty with which he has to
contend ; and that difficulty being one in which England alone is
concerned, our Minister can hardly have failed to represent it to
his Government here. Coming at so opportune a season as such
expostulations trust now do, the fair inference is that Sir.
Robert Peel will use them in order to show hew much we
hazard by persevering in a policy at once inconsistent with our own
internal and domestic interests, and destructive to our foreign
trade. Mr. Polk, and the members of his Cabinet, have on many
occasions openly avowed their opinions in behalf of free-trade, and.
of a tariff framed only upon considerations of revenue. But the
protective system in America has already brought into existence a
powerful party, whose interests are bound up with a high tariff.
It is no matter of surprise to find that the wealthy and influential
corporations of manufacturers, which have been called into exist-
ence and fostered by extravagant import duties, should cling with
tenacity to a tariff which, in many important articles, gives them
the undisputed command of their home market, and enables them
to exact enormous prices from the consumer. But it ought to
stagger an English Cabinet in Downing-street, when their
own Minister informs them that these parties are supported in their
exactions by thuse who most suffer from them. It may excite no
wonder to find the manufacturer in New England using the whole
of his influence to defeat Mr. Polk in his contemplated reduction
of the tariff; but when it appears that the chief difficulty which
he has to encounter is the opposition of the corn grower in Ohio,
whose whole interest would appear to lie in securing the cheapest
supply of those imported articles of which he is always a buyer,
and never a seller, so strange an anomaly should not fail to excite
an earnest inquiry as to its cause, when it will be found capable
of but one solution. The corn grower in Ohio finds that, how-
ever much cheaper our goods may b; he cannot buy when
he cannot sell ; and he is therefore satisfied to pay an
extravagant price to the home manufacturer, in order
to create a market there, from which he is shut
out here. But the protective principle is productive of
mischief, which it is impossible can long be permitted to continue,
on both sides of the Atlantic. In England it is exposing the people,
or at least a considerable portion of them, to habitual scarcity, not
unfrequentiy to severe want; and at the present moment it
threatens little short of a famine. In America it is exposing the
State to a deficient and declining revenue. Duties which were
once only protective are becoming prohibitory, in consequence of
the extension of their home manufactures. In the present year,
up to this time, the exports of the article of woollens alone from
this country, on which they rely chiefly for their revenue, have
declined more than thirty per cent. compared with last year. Each
country finds itself in a dilemma, from which it can only be
extricated by a closer alliance with the other. There is no
I luarter to which we can look with much hope of
relieving the deficiences of our present harvest
but America; there is no source on which the
Cabinet at Washington can rely for replenishing their Treasury
but by so reducing their tariff as to increase the import of British
manufactures. On the one hand, Sir Robert Peel must see the
double advantage which a free trade with the United States would
secure to this country, first by creating an increased demand for
our manufactures, and secondly, by securing a constant and never
failing supply of food. That country at once offers us abundance
in its productiveness, and the means of purchase from its trade.
On the other hand, Mr. Polk cannot fail to see that a closer inter.
course with this country would secure a steady demand for that
produce which it is most to the interest of the United States to
rai e, while the people would be supplied with our manufactures
at a lower peice, and his revenue made secure. At the present
moment, however, the overtures of the United States to this
country, and the terms on which they are made, are singularly
adapted to our necessities, and unusua'ly easy of accomplishment.
Mr. Walker freely exposes his real position to our Minister. The
American Government have little doubt of carrying their new
tariff in Congress, but frankly admit their doubts as to its fate in
the Senate. But they say to us, admit our Indian corn into your
markets, and so give us the support of those who should be the
Ciller and natural promoters of a low tariff on British manufactures,
and our measure is safe, It would be difficult to conceive a pro-
pel:4CM which at this time could be made to our Government in
etery way so convenient, and the adoption of which would be so
filll Of promise. If we open our ports it must be, considering the
diVittitrt Condition of the continent of Europe, chiefly for American
-are If we reqtatf! sr cheap and effective substitute for the
Irelarid, there is none so good as Indian
perished potato duty, could be supplied in
corn, which at this time, if free .. -'er. And, judging
great abundance at twenty shillings the qua-- Iture,
from the past, looking only to the interests of
it would be difficult to confer a greater boon on e.._
British farmer at all times than to furnish him with a plentiful
and cheap supply of this grain So that looking only to our own
interests, whether temporary or permanent, the overtures of the
American Government present exactly those advantages which
should have suggested themselves to the mind of an English
statesman. And at the present time there are peculiar reasons
why Sir Robert Peel should feel solicitous with respect to our
trade with the United States. Of late years webave depended, to
a great extent, for the inpreasing export of our 7111anufactures upon
the continental markets. The failing crops, and consequent high
price of food in those countrieg, cannot but maters3ll AO° tilt/
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