The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-26 00:00:00

Ztteflt

LONDON :
TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 26, 1842.

Sir ROBERT PEEL and his friends boast very much
of, the effect of the new tariff. During the first week
it came into operation, the Custom-houses of London
and the outports were crowded with people clearing
goods—extra clerks were required, it was said—and
more business was done in that week, than had been
dOne before for six months. Its beneficial effects are
visible in an importation of horned cattle from Rot-
terdam and pigs from Sweden. Already, the grocers
of the Metropolis have placarded their windows with
" Effects of the Tariff. Prime Java Coffee, is. Bd.
per lb," and so on. Potatoes may soon be expected
from the Ems and the Weser, and, conjoined with a
good harvest at home, we are told to expect universal
cheapness.
Far be it from us to deny the advantages of ever
so small a reduction of duty, or of the removal
of ever so trifling a restriction on trade ; but
we inlay. be allowed to ask, if such great
benefits are to flow from reducing certain extrava-
gant duties, and lightening certain onerous restric-
tions, what would he the effect of the total abolition
of such fiscal regulations ? if the grocer, instead of
placarding his windows with Coffee, ls. Bd., could
put up Best Coffee, is. ; Best Refined Loaf Sugar,
3d. ; Best Rice, Id. ;—if the butcher, too, instead of ests
hibiting no bill at all, by the total abolition of all duties
on foreign cattle of all descriptions, could announce
the glorious news of Prime Joints at 4d., Necks and
Scrags, Id. ;—if the baker, also, by the total abolition
of Corn-laws, could put up bills, stating Best Bread sold
here, four pounds for 3d. ;—and if the green-grocer
could gladden the hearts of all the eaters of potatoes
with an announcement that he would willingly sell
six pounds for a penny—would there not be a jubilee
throughout the land? Men would be frantic with hap-
piness. Would not the hearts of thousands be imme-
diately gladdened, and their eyes be dried ? Would
not mothers again clasp their little ones to their
bosoms with affection, and piously and gratefully
thank GOD the dreadful famine was at an end ? Would
not the down-stricken father, ton, immediately hasten
to his old employer, and willingly offer his services on
the master's terms, sure to receive the employment
which had been denied him for weeks ? Would not
all the green-grocers, bakers, butchers, and grocers
immediately hold up their heads, and feel certain that
their trade would again revive ? All these things
would occur ; and the rejoicing of the Monopolists or
Peelites over the benefits of some paltry reduction of
duties, and some substitution of high duties for prohi-
bitions, is their testimony to the immensely larger be-
nefits which would accrue from th?. total abolition of
all discriminating duties.
And who would be injured by tit: sa! cheap-
ness ? We are all consumers and must all benefit
by it. Consider for a moment what a large mass of
society is composed Under the terms manual
labourers and shopkeepers, clerks 'and manufacturers,
artisans and salaried workmen ! Why these terms
embrace four-fifths of society, and all would be
benefited by following out the principles which are
so feebly acted on in the tariff. The remaining fifth of
society, consisting of the landowners and parsons, and a
few great capitalists, the value of whose stock or ca-
pital might be subject to a reduction—though the an-
nual income derived from it, considered as a power of
purchasing other commodities, would not be at all
lowered—might be injured, though we doubt whether
they would, by the inestimable benefit conferred oil
the other four-fifths of the society. In a communi-
cation read yesterday at the Anti-Corn-law Con-
ference, a farmer dwelt on the price of seed and of
labour, as enhanced by the Corn-laws; he might
have added, the cost of the keep of his animals for
labour, and of all the skilled labour he is compelled
to buy, is enhanced by the same cause ; so that he
would share the inestimable benefits of the universal
cheapness, as well as starving women and children,
and unemployed workmen. In fact, the whole com-
munity, without exception, would share in the delight
which labourers and Shopkeepers would feel at the
announcements we have adverted to.

To confer these immeasurable benefits on society
is yet in the power of the Legislature. It is only

necessary to forego its deadly gripe, to loosen the
fetters it has cast around us, to remove the taxes and
restrictions which it; and it alone, has imposed. Na-
ture, or Gm), puts no impediments in the way of
trade. He leaves commerce free. Ile invites men,
by endowing the world with different climates, to
engage in it. He teaches them how to make
the trackless ocean, which might seem an insuperable
obstacle to communication, the means of wafting
nation& and their wealth from shore to shore. All
the obstacles, therefore, to universal cheapness and
universal plenty, which those who boast of the benefit
of the small reductions made by PEEL imply would
be the result of the abolition of duties and restrictions,
are caused by the ignorant or the malignant law-
maker. Contrasting what society might be,
merely as to plenty—the admitted result of the
abolitiOn of fiscal duties and restrictions—with
What it is under those restrictions, legislation assumes,
as it were, the characteristics of a demon which
delights in blasting the happiness of mankind.
and delight, from
On the one hand is abundance, joy,

removing fetters, taxes, and monopolies ; on the other