Star.
London, England, 1814-05-17 00:00:00

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commerce must over be wilctetckir. The quotas
then was, whether there now was reason 'why the in-
terests of commerce, which required true traninfahoold
be departed from. The resent time' was** worst
possible for imposing any-restriction ow the freedom
of the Corn Trade. He desired the House to recol-
lect that no two of those who had spoken in favour of
the measure, had beers able to agree as to the detail,
or to the way in which it was to be carried into execu.
tion. This was one
‘good reason for delay. sit
there were some reasons mach stu °tiger. One of thew
arose from the present state of the money system of
the kingdom. All were agreed that the termination of
the war would produce a very great alteration in the.
money market and in the state of exchange. Another
reason arose from foreign trade being about to be
new modelled, not by the operations of the law, but
by the skill of the merchant. Yet by passing the pro-
posed resolution, they would embarrass the operation&
of the merchant at the very time when it would be
productive of the worst effect. The necessity of at-
tending to our manufacturing interests, afforded ano-
ther strong reason against the proposed measure. At
a time when there was so much competition against
our manufactures to be expected, it will ill become
us to lessen any advantage which we •Inight have by
adopting any measure which might have the possible
'tendency of increasing the price ',Norm Thesecir-
cumstances, if there were no others, would be MA:
cient to induce him to advise the House to pause—TA
because there had not been enough of time tor con:,
sideting the subject, but because the aspect of our
affairs had been so totally changed, that even if they
went into the Committee -talked of by a Right Host:
Gentleman (Mr. Rose) in the present unsettled state
of affairs, the most sagacious could not know how it
would be most wise to proceed. What the House had
already done was enough to chew that they had-not
neglected the subject during that session. As to the
measure itself, there were two general reasons stated
why the importation of corn shouldbetirdhibited. The
first was for the purpose of making us indepc.ideet on
foreign supplies. The second from the disadvanta.
geous state of agricultute in the country. On the last
be would observe, that one who knew nothing of the
state of agriculture in the kingdom, and listened to
Hon. Gentlemen arguing on chit; point, would. sup.
pole that it was in a most ruinons condition. So far
from the case being such, agriculture had never, in
luny country, been carried to such a degree of perfec-
tion. As to the other reason, namely, the dependance
on foreign supply, if it could be proved that there was
' any such depeaciance, he will not te much more
rimed on that account to approve of the measure.—
The case in this respect put in the extreme was, that,
by the present system we might become so dependent
lo( supply from other nations that' they could takead-
vautage of it in case of hostility,. and refuse to supply
as. The experience of the Continental system proved
the impossibility of any-measure of hostility excluding
Us from foreign supply. The danger apprehended
from allowing the importation of corn by some was,
that it could be sold for so Joy a price as would dig.
courage agriculture. The expence of freight and car-
riage of so bulky an article as corn, besides the ex:
pence of shipping and unshipping, warehousing, Bce.
was &sufficient security against thii.,ln tact fresould-
4mt see what effect the proposed meastare ;squid pro.
'duct except towaise the price of corn. Raising the
,price of corn could not even afford any permanent
,advantage•to agriculture. The price of cure entered'
into the price of every thing else, and iq process Mf
;time entering into the prices of the instruments of agri-
culture, and the wages of labourers, would give no
additional profit to the farmer. Besides this, in the.
present state of the poor laws, the increase of the price)
of corn would affect the profits of the farmer most se.
'riously by encreasing his poor rates: What was the
stimulds to agriculture ? Certainly the home mar-
ket. And any thing tending to limit the extent 'of
our manufactures, such as the high price of corn,
could not but be reflected on the agricultural interest,
and in spite of all laws, essentially injure them. Some
frivolously had contended that the effect of the mea-
sure would be to make the country more an agricul-
tural. and less a commercial one than it was now.—
Admitting it to be for the advantage of the country
that this should happen, no law could bring about
that which in the nature of things was to be effected
only by industry and enterpriie He could hardly
bring himself to consent to the measure at any time.
' But he conjured the House to pause before they adop-
ted a measure inn hich one false step might be atten-
ded with ruinous consequences to the country for
many years.
Mr. BRAND agreed, than it would be better that
no new measure should be now adopted, if it were
not for thfroalects before the edunny. He main-
tained that half the population of the kingdom de-
pended on the encouragement of the agricultural-in-
termits, by some such measure as that now before the
House,
Mr. ABERCROMBIE professed himself unfa-
vourable to the Bill. He said,- the question -in his
.Mind simply was, whether It was better- for the *in:
-wrest of the community at large, that they should
ray this prospective tax on the consumer of corn ? He
.called upon the House to pause before they laid on
'this additional tax. At least time for further inquiry
.he thought absolutely necessary. The Report which
,had been brought up contained information and de-
tails with , respect to Ireland only ; but if this infor-
mation was necessary with respect to Ireland, he
could not see why it was not equally important with
respect to England.
Mr. HUSKISSON conceived that the appeal
which had been made by a Noble Lord (L, rd ilrchi.
bald Hamilton). so general and abstract pt of
political econo,my, totally failed ; because the wtioie
of our commercial and economical system WAS a sys-
tem of artificial expedients. If our other regulations
with respect to the price of commodities stood upon
the basis of the principles of a free trade, then there
could be no objectionto leaving our agricultural pro-
ductions to find their own level. But while our com-
merce and manufactures were encouraged and forced
by protections, by bounties, by restraints on importa-
tion from abroad, he saw no reason why the laws rela-
ting to thegrow thof corn should alone form an exceptic n
to thisgeneral want of system in almost all ether respects.
The examples of Holland, Hamburgh, and Venice,
which had been alluded to by the Noble Lord in sup-
port of his taument Appeared to him by no means
in point. two latter., klamburgh and Venice,
Were trading towns; and Holland
did-not contain a sixth part of the arable land which

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