The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-22 00:00:00

trienin PrAtit

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1845,

Since the commencement of the agitation for the repeal of
the corn-laws the prospects- of the manufacturers and the
labouring classes in general, with regard to that obnoxious
tax, have not been so favourableas at the present moment.
We have blaMed Sir It. PEEL for not urging the question on
at an earlier period, knowing well that he would be backed
by the whole of tae Liberal party of all shades of
politics, and supported, too, by not a few of
his own adherents. Possibly be thought the Maynooth
question, the Irish Colleges Bill, and the•new tariff quite
enough for one session, and did not wish to presume too
much on the pliancy of the agricultural repre-
sentatives. Possibly, seso, he saw that the tide
was turning, that the landlords, . who complained
of low prices for wheat, and every other species of grain,
were beginning to open their eyes to the folly and wicked-
ness of monopoly, and that, in a very brief period, they
would be more willingly led into the right path. We are,
therefore, not disposed to pass strictures on his dilatory
conduct, partly because he had a very obstinate class to deal
with, and partly because he had fairly begun the free trade
system, by reducing the duties on many necessaries of life,
and thereby could exhibit to them facts which no reasoning,
no bigotry, no blindness, in short, could gainsay. Some of
these facts are already admitted by the monopolists, and they
gaze at them as at the works of an enchanter. While
the sliding scale has been preserved in all its integrity, while
American flour and Odessa wheat are all but prohibited by
its absurd regulations, while the landlords have been relieved
of many taxes, and the agricultural farmers LaVe no reason
to complain that they are more burdened by the income-tax
than others, are they in a prosperous condition ? Has the
sliding scale benefited them? Are they not, on the eon-
trarv, convinced that it has done them incslculdble mischief,
that it has prevented leases—that it has not raised the price
of grain, or, if raised it at all, only • for the
benefit of corn-dealers and corn-speculators, and that there
can be no security for them till the whole question is
thoroughly investigated, and such a settlement adopted as
shall prevent all further legislation on the subject. Even these
facts, conclusive as they are, give only one.view of the case.
When the impost on foreign cattle was reduced, a
universal terror seized the graziers; the apostate PEEL had
ruinedthem ; the country would be inundated with oxen, and
sheep, and calves, from Belgium, and Holland, and Prussia,
and even Spain ; butchers' meat would be sold at half the
usual price, and agricultural shows—even the Great Smith-
field Cattle Show—would soon be nip bered among
the things that were. What lzr..s been the result ?
Though foreign cattle itave been imported to
an extent hithtlio unknown, though some fifteen
thousand b7iail of cattle, independent of sheep and other
aniMils for consumption, have been imported within the
year from only one country, the price of butchers' meat has
bee* rising, and is now too high fur the use of all that portion
of the working classes who are not in full and good employment.
Corn has fallen with a high duty, and cattle have risen with
a low duty—a duty, in fact, so small, that it can hardly be
taken into account when calculating the value of a pound
weight. Cannot the farmers, or rather the selfish land-
owners, see the real cause? It is nothing else than the pros-
perity of the manufacturing districts, the best market, after
all, for our agricultural produce. Little more bread is
used now than when times were worse, because
without bread or potatoes, the prices of which
mutually affect each other, the very lowest population could
not subsist ; but when trade revives, when the British manu-
facturers can compete with foreigners nay, undersell them,
the wages of the labourer are raised, and: he is enabled to pur-
chase,
which
theh in
high price of butchers' meat,
animal f ,od, from
poverty he is totally de-
barred. This is the real
secret
and it is, theretre, needle.: tot
attribute it to deficiency of
fodder, or to any other cause.
it rises because there is a
demand for it, and that demand isa
prosperity which the advocates of entirely by that
cmono
their way, would entirely destroy,
neePcr as
cause had
cannot prosper when the manufacturing classes are d esses
intevest
and the wer-being of both is as intimately ted
cause and effect. The mere provident and sensible Tories ,