The Sun.
London, England, 1821-01-04 00:00:00

21.

qnantities of °6,799,367 bushels of foreign coin and grain, and
24,731,749 pounds of foreign wool, at a duty of only one-
half-penny and a fraction per pound ; and that between the sth
day of .ianuaty, 1319, and the 15th day Of February following,
the day the ports did close, being a petiod of 41 days mote,
there must have been imported at least, taking the import for
these 41 days on the average of the whole ever, three millions
of bushels of corn and grain niote, toakitig in all, on band in
this (amines: on the day the ports did close, full 30 millions of
bushels of foreign Coro and grain iniptats d duty free. aud.which
on its landing before the 15th Fet,is nary 1319, or being in sight
of land on 01 before that day,.became amalgamated ssitlf,•and
formed part and parcel of our ,own corn and grain, and could
be as freely sold in any of our own markets as any of our Own
productions, which, ou.their growth and production. contri-
buted to all the taxes levied its this country. In this extra-
ordinary import then is to be found the excess, winch has
caused that degradation in the value of grain-, which has pro-.
&Iced the degradation, in the-value of laboui,and of property
of every description of which all complant, without ascribing
it to its real. cause.
With you, Sir, I can base no difficulty in maintaining, that.
supply and demand, isa all cases, govern pr ice-; and, if this be
true, it follow;, that if this 30,000,000 ofbushels of grain
and 24 millions of pounds of wool had not been imported,duty
free, ipto this country, those commodities must have remained
at tract:, natural price., and maintained such a value in our
own markets as the natural relations of supply aiici ffe'rl6nd
bad previously established. Men do not grow what they can-
not sell, nor grow more of any pal ticular article than the de-
mand, judging by the experience of. the past, .shall warrant
for the future; -and thus it is that-supply and demand in every.
age, and in all stages of society, mutually adjust themselves.
to each other. Bence it follows that if our ports bad not
been opened at the return of peace for the import of produc-
tions similar tt, those of our own soil, duty tree, trout coun-
tries where land and labour are so much lower than in this
country, these islands would have maititaitted the 'sante attiL.
tulle with respect to supply and demand in which they stood
in 1816 and our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures,
would lave continued to contribute to the support of each
other is they had done up to that year. The growers of
grain its Russia, or in Poland, could no more have interfered-
with tie skill, capital, and labour of the cultivators of the
soil of the United Kingdom, than the silk Mannfacturers
of Asia, •or of France, can with those of Spitalfields. But,
unbamily for the country, the speculation in grain at
an apparent profit of cent. per cent., that is, from
355. to4os. per quarter for foreign wheat delivered in. Lon-
don, asd
.60s. per quarter there whenever the ports should
open, logether with the fascinating cry of cheap bread,
and that prospect of a consequent reduction in wares, where-
by ou; manufacturers were to extinguish all their rivals
in foreign markets; these wet e blessings too tempt-
ing to be withstood : and, as Doctor Adam Smith has
said, the landlords and farmers haying commonly nei-
ther iodination nor fitness to enter into combinations, the
clamour and sophistry of merchants'and manufacturers, vibra-
ting these expected blessings through every corner of the
United Kingdom, by' means of our extended press, easilypet-
suaded the public, that the private interest of a part, anti of
a subordinate part of the society, is the general interest of the
whole.
But what fruit have these too eager votaries of gain ga-
thered from this most visionary prospect- ?--Why, truly, they
have grasped at the shadow and lust the substance ; they have
dried.up the sources of wealth which the productions of our
own soil, when sold at their natural prices, incessantly
showered down. upon them by the purchase and consumption
of 7-liths of every thing they could import or make, at their
own prices. 'I hey have superseded the lebours of the soili
and with that of every other branch of industry we can name.
By superseding of such labour, and consequent reduction in its
tilor, they have inflicted more personal suffering, more-de-
privations of the comforts and luxuries of - life, upon a very
large proportion of the inhabitants of these islands, in the last
6 years, titan a war of 20 years of unexampled expenditure
ever produced ; mid having set the house on fire, they run
away by the light, and say the taxes are oppressive, and nit-
rite alt the pressure of the times to taxation ! !
When the productions of our soil created annually a
gross produce of the value of 216,000,000 and upwards
as 'they did in ISIS, and when every other branch of industry
bore its relative proportion tothis standard, the taxes were
collected, front "such funds, with the greatest facility; but
when such funds became reduced by an excessive import of
similar productions,,, duty free, to 1-3rd,.and now tit the mo-
ment 1 am writing to one ball of the value they bore in 1313,
my greatest astonishment is, that the taxes are so well paid'
as they are. ,
But, Sir, the great misfortune is, that all mankind-are too
prone to legislate, without sufficiently examining the conse-,
queeces and effrct of their• legislation.; and, therefore, I can
readily believe the commercial and manufacturing interests.
no' more 'contemplated the reduction and degradation of the
commerce and manufactures of this country, by the admission
of foreign proiluee, duty tree„. (whereby every thing was to
become so cheap and plentiful t) than the tanners of old, when
they obtained au Act in the Ist year of .lames 1. to prevent
the felling of. British oak Coulter, except in the months of
April, May, anti June, foresaw, or contemplated, that the
price of such a concession to them would be the sacrifice of the
British Navy, `by• producing dry rot in timber fallen at. that
unseasonable time, of the year. But subsequent experience
has exposed the folly of sacrificing the timber to save the bat It,
themas it wilt ei less mistaken and destructive policy of sacri-
ficing the agriculture, with a view to benefit the commerce,
and manufactures, of the country; and which, in • six short
years, has seduced and degraded all, to a point which the.
most melancholy alarmist we have upon reeved has: never yen.'
tared to predict.
I am . perfectly aware, that in these observations which 1
have now the honour to submit to you, I have laid myself
Open to the returtr 'heti am myself afflicted with the tutor
mania-for legislating which I have imputed to- the twitters,
the merchants, and maoufactuters, and which 1 have veu-
tuted so strongly to condemn in them. To this I reply, there
is this great difference between us.-1 ask of pawn° new
projects, 1 solicit no sacrifice of timber for bock, no interrup-
tion to the commerce and manufactures of the cutintry,
whereby'to create a monopoly in favour of agriculture; bat
I simply address myself to you as the official organ of his Mas
jeity's Government, the immediate arbiter of right and wrung
between all the conflicting interests by which you arc perpe-
loans, importuned and say, grant to ag,riculture the same pro-
tection in principle, but not. in extent, for that we do nut
covet, as the commerce and manufactures of this country
have heett protected and -supported by fur: upwards of three
centuries and a half, and which has stood the test of ex-
perience during the whole of sach period, and that is all I
seek or, to be more explicit, grant os-countervailing duties
-on all the productions of our soil to the extent of-the dale-
!, Fence in value between this country acid poorer nations, or the
1 agriculture of this coo Lary most languish imol decline, curd ours
ourcommerce and manufactures in its ruins.

-For instance, wheat can he bought on an average of years
in Foreign. Count cies for less than 409 per quarter, delivered
in London. in this country it cannot be grown at less than
-BUs per quarter, 'a duty t herefore of- 40s per .ptarter is neces-
sary to co:inlet-rail this difference in wheat,- and so iu propor-
fiarr
for every other pro)lnction of our own soil.
Grant but this, and the British' Merchants ansl'Hanotte-
turers will find tar better customers, in price and payment,
for every thing they can produce, than all the world besides
can furnish them ! they Imve -bad the fairest-experiment Upon
earth it) the converse of Wis. proposition .during the-last ail
years; and surely common candour, common justice, and
sound policy, I, uight to impel them now to i,041 in applying to
you and to the Legislature;. to try-the -experensent, of 11 cutp.
ter-propusition fur the neat six years; and if. it shall fail of
creating industry, an.d prusperity, unknown before, to every
corner of the united kingdom, and in every branch irt i-
'colt uei Cmanterzes: an dinantafael urea-,-irsl3od's tiaras let such
protection be forthwith repealed; but in tin- present stagna.-
lion of every branch of industry, surely the C:lptlillletit
Worth the trial. ' I
j conse.nowto solicit your. attention to the .three importa4
articles of wand, bides, and tallow: these are all permitte4
to be itupcirtrU intii thin country at very inatieqUale ;!title,;
the great in;nry ut the •grow era, but to thre, still great injory
of the country, at tare. The emit awl surf,ce of this country
is perfectly adequate to snpply itself wale the whore ut itp
ecnessiterption of these art les; and 410, cars any thine e.resied
the impolicy.aattwitt lug either of these commodities w,thoot
adevate countervailing ?
Cattle and sheep can uot be bred Sad raised 01,1 country
but .at 0 rrulauerating 'price; w hen that genets, iervedirti,

[PRICE SEVENPENCE.

rearing, and grazing decline,
_until the 'consequent scarci-
ty again raises the price. Now, Svhat our cattle and. stieep
do not retort; in wool,' bides, ant! tallow,—rousi be made up
in carcase, and the unrestrained import 01 these articles is
one of the principal camies of Oh high prices of beef and
tnirt-
ton in this county)'. Its this met:tore again, I fear ;IT imrr
been legislating to save theloark at Om yxpence of the timber.
By tt rough estimate I calculate that every bnllnct. mar sheep
slaughtered in this. cMlute) reti:rus less tot he stale, ti,e row by
40s. and the other by I Os• a head, than they would do f he
import of wool, hides, and tallow were properly restrained.
The additional growth of these articles, theta fore, if planet--
1y encotiraged, would make 'a vet y sensible. addition to Mar
means of sustaining the interest of erne tuitional drill, and,
submit to you, ought not to lie °vet looked; and although upon
the commencement of any restraint of iaport, these firth Its
might, anti would thceSsatily, advance in, price for a time,
vet at no distant period would tI e svpinly, front the extraor-
dinary competition thereby created in the growth, so tom- •
pletely equal the demand, that the cur:sinners would soon he
supplied on the same terms they arc :it present, and the coun-
try at large benelifted by such au a lditional creation of
wealth (ruin one own soil.' Without fatiguing you, therefore,
with a repetition of this argument,. let Me observe once fur
all, that in a country like this, the -fertility of whose soil is
boundless, and the industry of whose people is interminable,
(except hy_the of foreign ea:at-audit ie., duty free,
winch most paralize every efrott of body and mind, and with
which no !lonian frame can compete), this reasoning applies
to every thing which our suit is capatte of producing, Hod
'Security for our skill,lcapital, and labour in the-production, is
all we need.
In former times, the wool of Great Britain was equal to one
fifth of the rental; aloha tire years ago I made 4 comparison
of its relative. proportion, and it was then only one eighth;
but oh adding the' value of 'our int Ports to Cali- Own growth, I
found the whole still equal to one filth of the rental, although
this country-had lost the supply of the diffei yore.
'• But it may be said, we cannot grow a stifliritincy of;ane
wool to supply -our manufactimers. This I deuY; hut, fur
argument sake, I will admit see eannia ; lit the manufac-
turers, therefore, import :tame t+ foreign wool as they please,
at, a fair countervailing dote ; ;And if any mart he desirous Of
wearing cloth or a fitter fate, is thtto ibis soil will supply, the
utmost extent Witte tax will .be 3s. 4d. to 4s, per coat, for the
distinction.
Why, Sir, the difference in the price of his mutton would
pay this tax, and these islands would realize upwards of
two ,millious sterling annually the more itt the growth of
our wool.
Can you contemplate the treble nionopolyWhich the clothi-
ers of this country have (teen permitted by the legislature,
front time to time to weave for themielves,wit bout horrorialits
injustice, and im policy too Permit me to call it to yOur'irecol-
lection;—tst. By the 7th and Silt William 111, and divers
other statutes, they. have effectually prevented the rapoit of
any of our wool its pn tuanufact tired state ; end. They have
procured a duty of il.• Is. 6d. per yard, to be laid ao the 'im-
port of all manufactured woollens. But tuft content with
this double monopoly, to which I believe 1110 grow, rs -11.1eir
not the slightest objection, unless they persist in the that,-
they wain, in the ard' place, to have a free import of:foreign
wools, duty free, ft row every part *tithe globe. •
It is true the legislature has lately imposed a small duty of
6,1. per lb. on the inquiet of foreign wools; but this is only 'a
feather on tlie finest sorts, and will have no effect in promot-
ing the growth of fine wool in this country, although it is
some motectiott tei the coat ser sorts. Nothing short. Qod,
per lb. or 33 per cent. on 55., the average value per lb. of the
finest foreign wools, eau ever restareand secure to this coun-
try, the creation of. npwards of. two millions sterling per au-
num in the growl It of her, wool hot, if this duty were
'posed, the growth would, in a few years, so far exceed the
demand, as to supply our marmfaeturers -atilt) 'all they cod!ti
make up ; and ben:would ;nett competition reduce tlie.prfce
to them to its present average by import, the expence.of which
does not cost the foreign grower less than 20 'per ceht and
this etittatry would derive all, the advantage '..by the. cita-
tion of so much wealth from her- .own soil, whiel:_would
be again expended in this country with our mercliatttt and
manufacture rs. .
flavnng thus, Sir, as briefly as I can, fur I know the'Valhe
of to,viiy to a person of your engagements, .ami I trust
fairly and most -respectfully, Itrhatiteezt to you the.priocipits
intim which our pretensions ale founded, 1 will not attempt
to fatigue or disgust yon, by tiny laboured representations. of
The consequences of this want of protection and security fur
oirr agrieillture, and Of the present- ditscultl?s and embarrass-
ments which all alike Stiffer; who are seekitig affluence,
or
existcuce, employment of skill, capital, and labour, in
this country. Few men havethe means of knowing -the real •
state of this country better than yourself; hut, with all your
advantages, you can neither ,CtitiCcite 11.11 f. of
the embarrassments and difficulties which. iorth..uf
.the mvst
skilful, anal once atllueltt, en itivatoi s of the soil tire tiow.eb-
(hiring, by the degtadation of their capitals, from the.adruis.
lion of foreign productions :duty tree into. this culled y, and
the isnsequent loss of their market for. all their commodities
at their nut mai 'cost of production roar can you he acquaint-
ed with half the .distress which the 'inhuming classes endure
for want of a market for their littnoir ; and that too, its a coon-
try where we have not battik suflietent to cultivate the soil, if
that cultivation .were duly protected and seethed
Before 1 eoneltide this. long letter, it bee/Imes an imperatlte
part of lily duty to_ reloitid yam, that in the last Session of Par-
!lament their were presented to the House of Commoas
ulr-
wards of 230 petitions, signed by upoutids of •100,000
krrowrr
occupiers of land, occupying not less than four. millions
of
acres, almost all, imputing the distresSed state of the agricul-
ture of the country to the horn t of foreign productions, dot?
free, which might have been grown in the United
and as such petitions nosy be considered as almost theaargy
effort of this class of his lajesty's subjects to offer themselei:s
„
to the Legislaturefor any particular protect tan nor twit cap-,
tat and indostry,anti as they were presented ft daralmost every
County its Enetattil—l belie re' from every County, with the
efteeption-or two„which are principally grazing district tr—sfrust
many of the .Wrlslt Crannies, and front !reread Counties ire
Scotland ; it is matter of the deepest regret that such peti-
tions Should base met With sulittle conlideratlit, atitts.iticha
'limited inerstigationnisthey reCtiteti ; Still, hoverVer,. us; tho
grievances of which they complain remain unrethessed, ar.cl
are at this inounnit its full, and i may add ne,:ittno kited and
artalmulating operation oatin the general prosperity of tbe
• country, as :Well- its agriculture its particular, tt,e :peti-
tioners have nu resource, Gat io arepetition of -their
titioos to POrliament,; and in au earnest prayer to_ you,
ins the high official situation which you so able fill. as 'Presi-
dent of the Board of
coed Tetide that you will he Pfeated to
• •
,„o.Aetaia to pt obe their pretensions to the tery. hotter. ;
• and in doing taus, they doubt not tuu.wilt Soon have oCeasims
to alter the opinion whirs you so onfortunritely expressird
in
the House of Commons, that “.flovervet low the prcient,
priet of corn, it. could not, 'with any justice and reuson,•he at •
t ribitteci. to any inefficiency in the present la,e;"--furahe pe-
titioners, on the contrary, aver, thus no Othcr,rsawe.tban the
admission of 30,000,000 ut bostiels of grans, duty fete, could
possibly have piodoced the effect in our ,roarliet .which such
import has effected; that miteti-of the saint grain, minanttsci
b,.fo're the 15th ofFebrnaivy, ta.tn, was the market -unsold
in iNl!ty..1821:1; and that even at this floor there retnalUs a con-
siderattie quantity of such corn on tra.id in WIC markets ; Unit
it was, and ii, the.•exeess of •stipply beyond demand; Irons
Foreign Import, ditty tree, which first produced the deyradt-
tion rif agricultural capital, anti of I:6our ; and that prodoced
the. general- stiqoatiorr of the trade awl manufactures rf the
kimgdow, of winch all, eatapto.a : that
_nutting,
therefore, is wanting to tcliere the general prosperity of
the country, bust the restotationn of itoichtture' tO its wmited
energies by adequate ciMriterr'ailing &dies, which will spec-
diiy re•atilinate every • other branch of iltdostry.in the United
Kinedoot.
To )(air candid and unprejtidirevl consideation, plettfure,
I subunit these•siroplefitersiind.plairt altercations, wittolut
any tit tempt at embellishment or colouring •of arty sort ; and,
if I sst're not wars:rioted as Ms seat geoet al eondeseenstort and
respect to every- nittli-.1.1ma who'hautitte• hvositir to Coram!foi-
Late with psit,l..shastlit opo'nogize for: the Irbvity I 'hoir.e tat rat
in that ;;ditressing three 0tv0n•e:40,4.,,s to you et%
It wilt already rave occurred Ti yat that toy ohj,a:t in so ituinai
is to hare thrift rtaid•andeonsidertal by ottn,r•, yofti
appreciate fra,l forgtee tile motive ;' acid believe that l ant; as
I truly 5%01,101C myself, with the.m.o.t rm.:slot consuJera-
Si-r, your
,roost obedient and faithful Servant,..'.
GEO. WEIAB HALL,
Ctaarrulti tq the General Committee of Nliowgeluent
1,1"