The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-03 00:00:00

PROPOSED CORN-LAW PLAN

We understand that the principle upon which
the present Government will proceed, in modify-
ing the present Corn-law, is - that of obtaining,
with as little disturbance of the general system
as possible, that additional supply of bread corn
from abroad which has been required for some
years past, and is likely to be required in future

.
years. -
The fact, therefore, is assumed that this coun-
try does require some assistance from foreign
countries, or from our own colonies, to provide
the requisite supply of food. It probably will
not be denied that the country might be so culti-
vated as to produce all and more than we want.
But it is not easy to change the habits of a people,
in respect to the employment and cultivation of
land. So far as remunerating price tends to pro-
duce sufficient cultivation it is deemed that the
policy of the country has gone tar enough ; and
it is, we believe, also held that the protecting
and encouraging law of 1828 goes further now
than it was intended to go at that time, because,
in point of fact, a given amount of corn can now
be raised in England at a less expense than it
could be in 1828.
Looking then, not to what is possible from the
capabilities of the soil, and the efforts of expen.-
sive cultivation, but to what is likely, from the
general course and concurrence of events, Minis-
ters deem that we shall continue to import from
abroad a not very inconsiderable portion of bread
corn. The object is to obtain this portion at as
little charge to the British consumer as may be
compatible with fair attention to the interests of
the British producer.
We have ,no doubt that the Minister will be
very well prepared with statistical facts for the
establishment of his proposition, that we have
required for many years past some additional
supply of corn beyond our home growth, and
that the average demand upon external sources
has been, for the last thirty years, gradually in-
creasing. During this time there have undoubtedly
occurredseasons, and now and then several conse-
cutive seasons, in which the home supply has
been ample; but we believe that, if periods of
seven or ten years are taken, it turns out that in
each such period, for the last thirty years, some
ex ternalsupply has been found necessary, and that
each successive period that external supply
has increased.

i It is notorious that in the last ten years, which
comprehends several years of abundant, and se-
veral years of scanty, harvests, the supply from
abroad has averaged something near a million
quarters a year. It is somewhere between nine
hundred thousand and a million.

Now, if it should appear that in corresponding
periods, going back some twenty or thirty years
further, a supply from abroad has been also re-
quired, but less in proportion as the population
was less, it will, perhaps, be admitted as a fair
conclusion, that the Government ought to cal-
culate upon a future supply being necessary from
abroad, not only equal to what has been obtained
in the last ten years, but rather more.
We have heard that inquiries have been insti-

ttited as to the increase of the growth of wheat
from the soil of the United Kingdom. These in-
quiries have been quite distinct from any exami-
nation of the theoretical question whether more
might have been or might -be grown. We un-
derstand they have related to the plain fact of
what has happened under the existing system of
protection. And from the modifications of
the scale which are to be proposed, we conclude
the result of those inquiries to be, that there is
not any existing practical reason for supposing
that a sufficiently increased supply may be
looked for from our own cultivation.

. We have; indeed, heard that in some parts of
the United Kingdom, from which the public ge-
nerally suppose that a gradually increasing sup-
ply is actually obtained, the contrary turns out
to be the fact. The evidence uprnt this point
may be imperfect, but we are sure that, in the
examinations set on foot regarding so important
a matter, the present Government has taken
the utmost pains to arrive at accurate results.
Supposing it, then, ascertained that, accord-
ing to all practical likelihood, this country will
continue to require upon an average of years
some additional supply of corn from abroad,
the next point is, how that supply may be most
safely and advantageously brought into this
country. Now, upon this point, we believe the
opinion of the Government to be, that the most
favourable mode of admission is that which is
most gradual, and most equally distributed over
the whole of the year; and that the least favour-
able mode is that of bringing a large quantity
suddenly upon the market, more especially if
it be likely to happen about the same period of
the year at which the largest quantity is gene-
rally sold by the farmers to dealers in the country
markets.

The question then arises whether, in the prac-
tical working of the present scale, the desidera-
tum of a gradual supply is as nearly attained as it
may be, or is not ? We understand that expe-
rience shows that it is not attained by the present
scale, but that, on the contrary, the interest of
the British producer is frequently injured, not so
much by the introduction of an additional sup-
ply—for that is absolutely necessary to meet the
demand—as by the introduction of it in a large
lump, contrary to the ordinary course of circum-
stances which govern the home supply.
We are assured that none but those who have
given much attention to the subject, can estimate
the seriously unfavourable effect upon the inte-
rests of the corn-producing trade, which is pro-
duced by the sudden influx of large quantities of
corn—not more than necessary for the wants of
the country if the whole year be taken into ac-.
count—but far more than the natural demand of
the markets at the time requires.
It appears that the state of the scale, applied
to the prices between 675. and 735. the quarter
for wheat, is found to produce this sudden im-
port, and to work directly against the gradualness
of the supply. And whether the scale of duties
from one end to the other were altered or not,

still it would be expedient to alter that part of
the scale which holds out so large a temptation
to withhold foreign corn when it begins to be re-
quired, and then to pour it in in large quantities
when the necessities of the country are very
little, if anything, increased.
Even though we look at prices with the same
views of the cost of production which were justly
held in 1828, we must allow that, when the corn-

billed operations of supply and demand bring the
price to 655., some addition to the supply would

be advantageous to the public, and quite-consist-
ent with fair attention to the interests of the home

producer. But, in the present scale, so rapidly
dot s the duty diminish when the price goes above
635., that, by waiting and straitening the supply
so as to raise wheat 6s. or is. more, a difference
of three times the amount is made to the seller

of foreign corn. He, therefore, exerts all his
pdwer of capital and of credit to hold over, and,
when he has achieved his point, being anxious to
realise his profit, he pours the foreign commodity
all at once upon the market. Then the price
soon falls, and the home producer gets far less
than he would have got if no artificial augmen-
tation of the supply beyond the natural demand.
.had taken place.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Government
.that the interests of the public generally, and of
the British producers of corn fully as much as
any other portion of the public, would be pro-
moted by making such a change in the scale as
might seem likely to remove the temptation to
hold back the foreign supply after it is really
wanted, and then to pour it in in larger quantity
than is really wanted.
Another great matter to be attended to is the
mode of taking the averages; but this involves
separate considerations and additional details,
into which our space does not permit us at present
to enter. The object of the Government, how-
ever, is to obtain such averages as shall be a re-
cord of the truth—such averages as will show at
what price the corn actually bought, andbrought
into consumption, has sold for in the British
markets.—Morning Post.

THE BISHOPS AND PUSSY M.—We have
received the following announcement from a quarter
which ought to be wetlalkienfpolia-mceedin:—LnAdomn,eeftoirngtheofptuhre.
pßoissheoopfscwoinlisidsheriortnglythe present state of the Church, in
reference to the doctrines lately put forth in some of the
Tracts for the Times."' The time seems to have ar-
rived when some such proceeding on the part orthe head
of the Church as is here announced is imperatively ne-
da d,