The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-16 00:00:00

FREE TRADE.

The following circular, which w:is drao7n up at the
close of the meeting at Guildhall yesterday, ,was circu-
lated in the City :
" Ask the advocates of the Anti-Corn-law League
why they promote a free trade in corn and gi.-ve their
votes in Parliament in support of a monopoly in gold, by
supporting Peel's monetary measures ?
Free trade in corn necessarily involves an immediate
removal of all protection in every branch of our national
manufactures.
" The promoters of the League, who are for the most
part cotton manufacturers, think they can afford to
abandon the protection they enjoy of 10 to 15 per cent.,
because they have so extensively substituted machinery
for human labour ; but let it be remembered that the
manufacturers of silks, of woollen cloths, of iron and
other hardwares, of linen, of paper, of ribbons, of cutlery,
of glass, or watches, of jewellery, of shoes, of hats, of
gloves, and of the various articles of British production
on which our industrious artizans depend for their daily
support, are still protected from foreign competition by
duties varying from 15 to 30 per cent. ; and let it be
well pondered how, if free trade in corn be declared and
these duties be abandoned (as they mast be), the work-
men in the above-mentioned trades will find means of
support for themselves and families when their wages are
reduced one-third or more.
" The only way in which the case can be fairly and
honestly met, is by repealing the existing money laws at
the same time time that the laws which protect corn and
other productions of British industry are repealed ; this
would put producers on a safe footing. By the money
laws, which fix the price of gold at 31. 17s. 101 d. per
ounc6b (its natural value as adopted in countries not in-
directly taxed to an enormous extent as Great Britain is),
the whole of the taxes by which the interest of the Na-
tional Debt is paid (amounting to twenty-seven millions
annually) will, as they have done since the fatal mone-
tary Bill of 1819, come out of the pockets of the pro-
ducing classes, instead of being carried forward in price
to the consumers.

" Though the laws which protect native industry were
removed, still there would remain taxes by customs and
excise, amounting to full thirty millions, levied upon
producers. When this mode of taxation was greatly
extended, as it was during the Continental war, the
great William Pitt saw that, with a gold equivalent cur-
rency, such taxation could not be carried forward in
price to the more wealthy consumers, who were by the
Legisluture intended to bear it ; and therefore he adopted
the plan of making the currency of the nation convertible
into gold at its market price in such currency only.
Under this fair, reasonable, and enlightened system
of money, the nation flourished beyond example,
and the wages of labour were paella and sufficient for
14.4,// .4a...b. .1 WV
customs and excise were intended ultimately to reach
the more wealthy consumer through the producer, that
it was called indirect ;' but by the unseen and most
unjust operation of the Act of 1819, this species of im-
post, which amounts to three-fourths of the total revenue
of Great Britain, was, for the most part, rendered direct'
upon the industrious classes.
" These statements are proved demonstratively in the
tracts and pamphlets of the Society for the Emancipa-
tion of Industry,' a society consisting of gentlemen who,
perceiving the enormous wrong inflicted by the action of
the currency as it now exists, associated themselves with
a view of disabusing the Government, the Legislature,
and the producing classes, and of promoting a Parlia-
mentary inquiry into the truth of what they aver.
" Considering that free trade in gold was the remedy,
and that free trade in productions of British industry
under the existing currency was 'a delusion and a fraud,'
which would aggravate beyond endurance the misery of
the producing classes, the Committee of the Society for
the Emancipation of Industry respectfully addressed the
following, among other questions, to the Council of the
Anti-Corn-law League :
" If ' gold,' the measure of value, be excluded from the
law of supply and demand, and its price be fixed, as
it now is, does it not inevitably follow that all prices,
whether of commodities or of labour, must be regu-
lated thereby ; and is it not to the fact of gold '
being fixed at the low price of 3/. 17s. 10id. per
ounce, the price it bore before taxation was so largely
imposed, that the present low and unremunerating
prices for commodities and labour in this highly-
taxed country are to be attributed ?
" The Committee of the Society, not having received
a satisfactory reply to their first questions, offered to
appoint an equal number of gentlemen to meet Messrs.
Cobden, Villiers, and Bright, for a fair discussion of the
question raised by the Society ; but this was ineffectual.
" It is hoped, therefore, that those who regard the wel-
fare of their fellow-countrlvinen engaged in production
of every kind, will cease to give ear to the doctrines of
the League, until they have consented simultaneously
to pray for a free-trade in gold as well as in corn. In
confirmation of these statements, an immediate penned
is recommended of a tract entitled The Case of the
Industrious Classes Briefly Stated,' published by the So-
ciety, and sold by Mr. Samuel Clarke, Pall-mall, East."

THE AGRICULTURAL PROTEC-
TION SOCIETY AND THE CORN-LAWS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir,—l have just read the form of petition which it is
proposed by the " Agricultural Protection Society"
should be adopted by the different agricultural societies
throughout the country, and I cannot refrain from mak-
ing a few observations on it, self-evident to any one who
has impartially studied the question of free trade, as
affecting the agricultural interests.
First, then, as to the " declarations made by several
leading members of her Majesty's Government in the last
session of Parliament being calculated to destroy all con-
fidence in the stability of the present corn-laws.' It cer-
tainly is not owing to such declarations, or, at all event,,,
not solely to them, that the stability of the corn-laws has
been shaken, but to the clear insight the country gene-
rally has obtained of the injurious effect of these
laws, owing, in a great measure, I believe, to the
judicious means adopted by the League for dis-
seminating, information on the subject. This sta-
bility the Agricultural Protection Society never can
restore, therefore the sooner the question is set at rest,
in the only way it can be, the better both for the farmer
and landlord. These gentlemen protectionists seem
fully aware that the present uncertainty is the greatest
bar to the improvement of the land in England, which
improvement is capable, by means of capital and skill,
of being carried to a very great exter.t, for I am satisfied
that not only the produce, but in many instances the
rent also, might be greatly increased, and in this I am
borne out by the opinion of many practical agriculturists,
I as well as by my own observation.
Secondly, the petition states " that the frequent
diminutions of protective duties which have occurred
since 1815 have led to the total loss of a vast amount of
farming capital." That there has been a great loss of
capital in firming no one can deny; but it may be clearly
proved that the loss occurred when the laws framed by
the landed proprietors, with the view of protecting and
encouraging agriculture, were infulloperation and not in
consequence of the slight modifications which have been
made during the last 30 years ; these modifications,
which have been forced upon the Legislature, are the
best proof of the inefficiency of tht se laws. It is im-
possible that the framers of the petition can forget the
precise years during that period in which the cry of
agricultural distress has prevailed. The assertion that
" the production of grain by the improvement of the
inferior soils of this country has very nearly kept pace
with the rapid increase of our population," is a fallacy
which the petition asserts, and which the importation
from abroad, during the last few years, contradicts.
The third paragraph in the petition refers to the prices
of grain in foreign ports ; here also is a fallacy. Nor
can we possibly calculate what the price will be from what
it has been whilst grain has been lying as a drug on the
hands of the producers ; that the price nevercan be lower
in these ports is certain ; the probability is, that it will
be higher, from the great demand there would be to
supply our now half-fed population, which is in-
creasing at the rate of 1,000 per day—to say nothing of
a proportionate increase taking place throughout Europe
and America, which, by adding to the demend, would
increase the price. I am convinced that the market
could not be supplied with foreign wheat under 455. per
quarter, and no land should be cultivated for wheat
which cannot produce from 35 to 40 bushels per acre ;
and, taking the rent at from 40s. to 50s. per acre, I am
prepared to show, from my own experience, that whet e
land is properly farmed, 455. per quarter is a remunerat-
ing price. I, of course, take it for granted that there is
a demand for other agricultural produce, enabling the
farmer to supply at a cheap rate the manure, which is
the principal expense in raising the wheat crop.
But the greatest delusion under which the protec-
tionists labour is, " that by the abolition of the
corn-laws poor land will be thrown out of cultiva-
tion." I admit that in districts where wheat has been
too extensively cultivated, to the comparative ex -
elusion of green crops, which indeed has been
the case in this neighbourhood, some loss for a time
may be experience& and individually I may feel it;
but the ultimate result, even in this case, from
the abolition of the corn-laws, would only force a change
of system, which must in the end be advantageous both
to landlord and tenant. The profit on poor land depends
on the raising of green crops to rear and fatten sheep
and cattle, by which the land is, as the farmers say,
"put into good heart," andrinci rendered capable of producing
grain. Meat beiug ppally consumed in the manu-
facturing districts, causes the farmer to be dependent on
their prosperity, and when the consumption diminished
to upwards of one-half, or from 160 head of cattle to
70 per week, which was the case in Duedee a short time
since, owing to the high price of other provisions, and
consequent depression of trade, the man farming poor
land must inevitably suffer. I therefore again repeat
that there never entered into the mind of man a more
egregious error than the notioa that poor land would be
thrown out of cultivation by tie repeal of the corn-laws.
The fourth paragraph goes on to state, that capital
has been invested in land, tad in the improvement
thereof, " in consequence of the reliance upon the con-
tinuance of protective laws." .k. certain amount of capital
has indeed been invested, but merely because there was
a prospect of profit to be deri•ed; that in many instances
it has not turned out advantigeously is owing either to
its not having been expended judiciously, or to the exist-
ence of those very corn-laws,whieh, by causing fluctua-
tions of from 395. to 80s. or 85s. per quarter, induce
ruinous speculations in grain and impoverish the con-
sumer. What I maintain is, that capital has not been
invested in land anything like to the amount it ought to
have been. Why, when m(ney was to be had at 2 and
21 per eche, did capitalists net invest in the improvement
of land, which would have ridded them a handsome re-
turn ? Nothing prevented ;hem. I believe, but the un-
certainty occasioned by the corn-laws. It is not the
case, as stated in the petitlin, " that the doctrines of
those who advocate a free importation of foreign corn
have no reference to these crcutnstances," or that they
" are based entirely on the rinciple that if corn can be
imported cheaper than it can be grown in this country,

the cultivation of our own soil should be abandoned."
Many able statements have been made and written by
practical men to refute this assertion.
And, lastly, the petition declares that the ruin of
the cultivators of the soil would be the inevitable
consequence of carrying out this doctrine. Has
not the ruin already taken place, according to
their own showing, under the present laws, and which
the numbers of farmers sold up can testify 1' As to
the labourers, the condition of this class speaks for
itself, notwithstanding the farce carried on at th©
dinners given to them by those who, by their own
admission, and it is a fearful one for any man delibe-
rately and after mature inquiry to make, that corn could
be sold at a much cheaper rate in this country, and thus
evidently compelling the poor and industrious workmen,
and their own labourers among the number, to:expend a
large proportion of their hard-earned gains for the fan-
cied protection of what is called the " agricultural in-
terest," besides directly interfering with that wise and
beneficent system ordained by the goodness of Provi-
dence, whereby one country is made to abound in one
commodity and another in another—all more or less
serviceable to the necessities and comforts of human life.

These short-sighted protectionists would render trade
and commerce a curse rather than a blessing to mail-
kind.—Your obedient servant,

Rossic Priory, December 13.

KINNAIRD.

IRELAND.

AGRARIAN OU TRAGES IN CLARE AND