The Sun.
London, England, 1821-01-03 00:00:00

THE UNITED KINGDOM.

if nd he zavt; it for his opinion, that wbuerer could make
4. IT) tars of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot
,„rifrnund where only one grew before, would deserve bet-
(4,4 f and do more essential service to his
than the whc.le race of politicians put together."
•ig of Brogdignag.

Sneed Park; near Bristol, Nor. 95, 189.0.
111--.:l'be notice which you. have givers. in the House of
itt -:btuntorns, of your intention to amend the present Corn Law
the ensuing
N Session of Parliament, as to the mode of ascer-
,. • -
4'll the average prices of Grain, must be my apolocy for
- Present. intrusion ; and as I have been long convinced
.t'at no Legislative enactment can completely and thoroughly
-.."'tsvilish this end, and moreover, if it could, that the whole
Y3trltt of protection professed to be given by that law to the
t:ltitivators of the Soil is radically bad and ineffectual, I trust
1441 hilore you attempt to mend, what I shall hereafter prove
You to-he incurable, you will condescend to listen to and
.'itnine the facts and arguments, which I have now the ho,-
"'
t° submit to your consideration, with that candour and
'ibP:"'tiltlitY which all trite and enlightened Statesmen are
-"I' disposed to leud to the observations of practical and ex-
lierienced persons in the several pursuits of life; in which ex-
perience Itas g,iven
" them information; and having claimed,
'trust Secured, your attention to the representations I
are' at,
their ow
h
°Lit to make' desire no further regard for them, than
%,ic " weight on your sonnd and impartial judgment, for
14ail I um Persuaded you will give them, will entitle them to-
,r's you for no favour, no partiality, no monopoly on
144 414 of the cultivators of the soil of Great Britain and Ire-
„f ,41,' but I do claim at your hands, as President of the Board
Ntaii';ale' and ;15 such the persons officially entrusted by his
co.,11:1:s Government with the regulation of the internal
tnee
three and industry of the country, that even-handed jus-
tom at
rigid equality of rights, that sound and effec-
tirat Prutectiou for the skill, capital, and industry of the cul-
Ncu,l ,:s of the soil of Great Britain and Ireland, which the
rest
~fte circumstances of these islands with reference to the
iNst EuroPe so imperiously demands, and without which I
ttnd doubt not to be able to prove tbe_ agriculture of

thlivi:"ltrYcannotbe carried on.
ee,ns4"t objection to the present system of protection is,thatt
'items.
wcre sound and effectual in other respects no ellaC
104 t); "4
,tPenalties, no Vigilance that can he exerted by inspec-
a~rr,turq
of tir n
arcn, ever insure to the grower such an
p ehases of grain, as shall ascertain the arr'""ll' l"
r'
anti 4raln in the several districts in which returns
•
is vi;itt, to utt which the opening and shutting of the ports
11-, 113,,,4,7trikt.
u,:t tlidtUat inb ence efore the Selec Committee of the
Ui the city of iicistol,thcinspec for of

Having, Sir, submitted to you some of the difficulties at-
tending the execution of the preliminaries of the present
laws, I came now to grapple with the• principle of the act
passed in the Ath Geo. 111. c. 26, entitled, " An Act to
amend the Laws now in force for regulating the importation
of Corn;" and here let me entreat your most serious, atten-
tive, and unprejudiced consideration to the observations I
shall have the honour to submit to you, on one of the most
important questions ever agitated in the British Parliament,
and which, although so important, I regret to say so very
few of its Members appear to have given it that consideration
which its importance to the prosperity, nay, I will add to the
existence of the British empire in all its glory, so imperiously
demands.

It is unnecessary to iofornr yon, Sir, although it may be
material to call the attention of others who may read this
letter to the circumstance, that the industry, the-prospe-
rity, and the glory of these islands are principally encou-
raged, maintained, and supported, by the security which
the laws afford to all its inhabitants; and that in exact pro-
portion as this security for the industry and property of its
inhabitants ho withdrawn, or omitted, will the stimulus to
action and industry be regulated ; it is to the security afford-
ed to the skill, capital, and industry of our merchants and
manufacturers by the Sd Edward IV. c. 4., to the Navigation
Act, and upwards of tyo other statutes passed from time to
time for the protection and security of nor merchants and
manufacturers, that they first acquired capitals, and then by
means of those capitals, so created and protected, that they
have subsequently acquired and maintained that superiority
which they have so eminently displayed over the whole world
besides: but withdraw these securities, 'repeal those statutes,
throw open the British market to a participation with the
whole world, and what would become of the splendour and
ropes iority of the British merchants and manufacturers?
You cannot he unacqoainted, Sir, that the whole system of
British commerce and manufactures is
.founded on monopoly
and legislation ; these islands may be said to be almost her-
'nnotically sealed avainst the reception of every thing which
our merchants can transport, or our mannfactures can create,
without coming through their hands, and
.paying them such
a tribute from the consumers as such limited supply, and
the demand to; ere several articles in which they deal, ena-
bles them to collect. Now, Sir, I mean to submit to your
most attentive consideration, and to your most deliberate
judgment. that if the cultivators of the soil of these islands
are in the respective reqiiisites•of skill, capital, and industry,
and in the employment of labourers, to ail intents and pur-
poses as much merchants and manufacturers of the produc-
tions of our soil, and are as vulnerable to competition from,
other countries, as our merchants and manufacturer can pos-
sibly he in the sereral'articles in which they deal, from forei:zo
competition, on account of hover wages in other conotri,s,
then. 1 think, you must admit, that I have e.itablished such a
claim to your jnstice for equal protection to lire cultivators of
the soil, as the merchants mid manufacturers already enjoy,
as you can can never resist nor answer.

But, in addition to this. if I shew (as 1 have done at page
40 of the Origin and Proceedings of the -AgricOltaral Ass°.

I appeal, therefore, to your ..tusirci in the first instance,
and contend, that as long as the merchants and manufac-
turers shall continue to enjoy all the protection which the
r,tottibitory duties in their favour afford them, the cultivators
of the soil have an equal claim on your justice for, at least,
such countervailing duties on the import of all the produe-
tions they grow, as shall balance the difference of the value
of labour, and the contributions to which the growers are
liable, between this country and others not enjoying the be-
nefits of the British Constitution. -On every .priaciple of
justice, therefore, I claim at your hands the same, or at. least
adequate protection fur the skill, capital, and industry of the
cultivators of the soil of these islands as the merchants and
manufacturers already enjoy, whether 1 succeed in proving
it to he the best Policy or not ; but if I succeed in demon-
strating, that the wisest and soundest policy for all parties
imperiously demands this, -and that the whole of the present
stagnation and degradation, which all confess, in the Bri-
tish market for the productions of agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures, arises solely for want of this adequate
protection for the skill, capital, and industry of the cultiva-
tors of the soil, then, upon every principle of POLICY as well
as justice, you are bound to grant us the protection we solicit,
for the general good of the whole. Now, Sir, although
I do not mean to abate a tittle of our claims to the
protection we seek, on every principle of sound and sub-
stantial justice, yet I mean to rest my pretensions to your
ear and influence principally on the policy of the mea-
sure, and contend that, putting justice totally out of the ques.
tion,-you are bound to investigate this policy, and grant the
relief we pray, as much for the sake of the merchants and
manufacturers as our own. The great misfortune in all con-
flicting interests is, that mankind are in general so blinded
and prejudiced by what they conceive to be their own imme-
diate interests, as altogether to lose sight of principles, and of
facts, on which their ultimate and permanent good principal.
ly depends ; thus, for instance, the fascinating cry of cheap
bread, no reasoning, no argument, can withstand, and the
populace arc immediately hurried away with the ideas cheap
bread, forgetting that with that cheap bread they lose their
market for their labour, and the chances are, that many of
them will-have no bread to eat, except what they may obtain
by parochial aid. But Sir, I respectfully, although confident-
ly, ask you to consider, what hrive the cultivators of the soil
to offer in exchange to the merchants and manufacturers for
their goods, wares, and merchandizes, when imported or
made ? Why, truly, nothing but the 'productions of their
own soil which they have created. Now, if by import of si-
milar foreign productions, duty free from Russia, Poland, and
ether places, where land and -labour are of 'less value than in'
this country, the merchants and manufacturers succeed in
reducing the value of the productions of our own soil to a
level, or neatly to a level, with those of Russia or Poland,
do they not see in a moment, that they must at the same time
reduce the wants, and the ability to supply those wants, of
all our own cultivators, and their: labourers, to a par with
those of Russia and Poland ? The value of labour regulates
the value of almost every property we can name.

Could not the enlightened and enterprizing Merchants and
manufacturers of Great Britain contemplate or believe,
until the experience of the last few years should teach
them the melancholy fact, that inexact proportion as they
succeeded In reducing the value of the productions of our
own soil by imports from poorer countries, duty free, they
could not fail to reduce their own market at house for every
production which they vend, by -diminishing the funds
destined for the purchase of their goods ? Let us hear
what the truly enlightened Doctor Adam Smith says, on a
vim filar case.—. If," says he, " new mines wet e discovered
as 'lnlet superior to those of Potosi as they were superior to
those of Europe, the value of silvei might beso much degraded
as to render even the mines of Potosi mat worth the working:"
—will, if this be true, then, by a parity of reasoning, we may
infer, that if the productisons of the soil of other countries,—'
countries, where land and hbourare so much chea pet than in
these islands,—be imported duty free, t hen will the produc-
tions of the soil of Great Britain'and Ireland be so much de-
graded as to render the soil not worth the cultivating. To
this point has this country been verging ever since the open-
ing of the ports for such productions at the retort; of peace,
and this is the real cause of all the stagnation of which the
ineiehants acid manufacturers so loudly and so justly com-
plain, without being able to ascertain, or at least to confess,
the' cause ;--t hey are now sat:mina- under the unexpected
effects of their own impolicy and; injustice towards the culti-
vators of the soil, and which, unhappily for the country, and
for themselves, they had too .much influence in the Legisla-
lature to carry with the very high hand which they did in
the instance of the 55th Geo. 111. c. 26. What has this me-•
morable act dune for the cultivators of the soil, and what
does it profess to do? We hare it in evidence from the re-
turns laid before Parliament, that in the year ending :Alt Ja-
nuary, 1819, it did. admit 26,799.367 bushels of corn and
grain into this coudtry, duty free ; and, if 'to this we add the
quantity imported between that day and the 15th February
fotlcswing, the slay the ports' did close, we shall find the
jamolint little short of 30,000,000 of hostiels of cot it and grain
imported duty free, under the provisions of this memorable
act, to hee:strie amalgamated with and sold without restriction
in our own mai kets, in cur-in:anion with corn and grain,
which, it is admitted on all hands, cannot his grown in this
country, on an average of years, for his than 835.. per quarter,
as to wheat, and so in proportion for other grain,;--while this
foreign grain could be io:posted as to -wheat at less than 40s.
per quarter, and Co in p.o;oortims for other grain. This is
the protection, or rather the destruction, which th s memo-
rable act has effected for the cultivators of the soil of these
islands. Now let us examine what it professes to do. It is
admitted on all hands, that, on an average of years, wheat
cannot be grown in this country under SOs. per quarter ; 'yet
in the teeth of this admis:ioo, and of the evidence given lie-
fc;re the House of Commons in t-814, 18is. statute eoacts-,
" Tita` sock toreign corn, &c. niat lie permitted to be imported
into the said incited kingdom, for home consumption, !M-
-ar and subject o, the provisions and, regulations now hi
force, without payment of any duty whatsoever, whinier cr.
the average prices of the several sorts of British corn, made
up and published in the manner now by law rquited, shall
he at or above. the prices hereafter mentioned; (that is to
say.) whenever wheat shall be at or above the price of 80s
per go: lter,—rye, beer, or big:, 40s—and oats,
27s per (porter." I have already sheiva yon the difficulty, it
not itoptmitOlity of a,ccrtaining the real. aver.tge current

The fact, theft, turns out to be, if my reasoning be correct,
that this statute is not. that fair, sototd, and equitable, pro-
tection' to the skill, capital, and industry of the Briiish cul-
tivators which skill. capital,and labour; in every other branch
of industry in the kingdom, is surrounded with and protected,
and by which alone many of them exist in this country; for
without the special protection they receive from laws,", made
in their favour, the Spitalfiehls weavers can-no more compel
with the Asiatic in price, than I can with the ',Russian ei
Polish cultivators. .„
But, Sir, the real touchstone, of merit, the truest 'mode of
ascertaining the purity and validity of any Specific
ple and practice, is to apply the remedy in question toortos
other subject ; and if the measure which I consider the mer-
cantile and manufacturing- interests to have calctilated,for
us, and to have forced upon you, in 'lBl5, by the ,'.:)&th.
Geo. 111. c. 26, shall be found to answer there, and you
will apply it to them, front that moment will I On en-
der every objection which I .have urged to this •law. :end
never speak • nor write another word against it wbile I
live. I will select two branches of skill, capital. aiid.in-
dustry, for the experiment—the growth and intro-WWII of
sugar, and the manufactory of hat,. Srtppose the legislature
were, by evidence betore a select committee, to ascertain .the
average at which sugar can he grown and imported, and hats
mitunfactoted, in this country; and then they were to apply
the principle and practice of the 55th Geo. 111. c. 26, to the
import of sugar, and 111 e manufactory of hats, whenever the
price of either should exceed such average; how long elo void
think the growth of the one, or the mautifactory of the tither,
.would exist, under such extraordinary regulations ? Iteguhi-
tiohs that, if applied to these productions, would be ca lied
monstrous and absot d. Would men embark capitals, and
erect factories, under such chilling, •h may say destructive,
provisions as that. act would prove to those brai:hes, of in-
dustry ? And can you bring yourself to believe that agricul-
ture is alone immortal, and invulnerable to the operation of
such destructive provisions ? •Impossible ! The success of
either is alike the offspring of skill, capital, and industry,
duly protected aild secured; and neither branch of industry
could !wig sustain itself, whether the cultivation of grain ,r
of sugar, or making of bats, under such disadvantages, sac's
ductnations, and insecurity, as the principles and ed.. cts cf
the 55th Geo. 111. c. 26, when applied to either, imposes upc
them.

The first care, therefore, of every enlightened and profound
statesman, should he to foster and protect the Agticnsiture
of his country,. and all other. .prosperity will naturally tit
from this fountain,

Let us appeal to' Doctor Adam Smith on this subject !.
" Whatever," says the Doctor, " increases the fertility s.f
land in prodocing food, increases not only the value of the
lands upon which the improvement is bestowed, but Conti- o-
likewiSe to increase that of many other lands,-by creat.
iOg a new demand for their produce. That abundaisec isf
food of which, in consequedce of the improvement of land,
many people have the dispersal beyond what they themselves
can consume, is the great cause of the demand hothJor the
precious metals and the precious stones, as well as for every
other conyeniency and • ornament of dress, lodging, house-
hold furniture, and equipage. Foed not only constitutes the
principal part of thes iches of the world, lint it is the abun-
dance of food which gives-the principal part of their value
to many other sorts of riches." •
But the mercantile and manufacturing interests of the pre-
sent slay seem not to attend to these wise and profound obser-
vations of Doctor Adam Smith: they seem nut to know that
the fund Irons which all their enterprize and industry have
been so well rewarded in this country, has been fire printut-
tions of the soil Of these islands ; and that in proportien as
his fund has been degraded and reduced Iselow its status at
standard, has their own means of prosperity been ride ail and
degraded also. They, on the contrary, Seem enamoured.
the more fascinating but superficial maxims of a Itiardo,
" That the rise of wages is the fall of profits ;" and contend,
that it is essential to their prosperity to have bread cheap, ar-
tificially cheap, by importing corn, duty free, whenever the
price shall be OM, farthilig per quarter above the lowest price
at which it can be grown in this country, on an average of
years whereby they may hemp down the wages of tabour, and
60 compete in foreign markets with foreign inantifactnrera.—
But let us again appeal to the more eulightened and profound
Adam Smith, and examitie what hr sals on tiois part of the
subject ;—'• in raising the price of commodities, the-rise of
wages operates iii the same nosoner as simple•inf crest /toes in
the accumulation of debt. The rise of profit operates •li!se
cons pouts d interest. Our merchants. anil master mann facto e-
ers complain :touch oft he bird 'effects of high Wages in raist:4..
the price, anti thereby Lessening the sale of their.goods.ho;l/4
at home and ahroad. They say nothing concerning the- b.,a.
effects of high priifits. They are silent -,sitti regard- to the
perniciims effects of their own gains. They.euniptans only of
thine of other people."
And in another place he says, " The superiority which the
industry of thetowus has every where in Kw opt over that of
the country, is not altogether owing to ein potations aI) f: •
poration laws. It is supported by nia:oy other tegalaiionn.
The high duties upon foreign 11M011f.lettares, and upon all
Bonds impartial by alien inerehants, all Nord to the same pur-
pose. Corporation laws enable the:rola:shit auts. of limits to
tai ,:e their ••piices, without fearing to be under/If:Id by the
competitioo of their own couotrymiis.• Those other regula-
tions secure them equally against that of foreigners. The
estrous resent of price oceasi.h.e.l ter tom) is every where finally
paid, my the landlords, farmers, and labottrers of the ceuotry,
who !sore seldom opposed the establishment of such monopo-
lies. They hare commonly neither inclination nor fitness to
enteranto combinations; and the clamour and sophistry of
merchants and manufacturers easily persuade them that the
private interest of a part, and of oi•sishordiorate part of the
secocty, is the general Interest or the whole."
['ro ter continued.]