The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-27 00:00:00

ANTI-CORN-LAW AGITATION.

(From the Farmer's Journal.
The efforts of the free-trade party have been incessant, of
late, to induce the labouring population to join in the outcry
against the Corn Laws. Hitherto these efforts have been
fruitless. At length, however, symptoms are discernible,
that some, at least, amongst the artisans and ►mechanics who
reside in our great manufacturing towns, are not unwilling
to lend themselves to the projects of the -owners of untaxed
machinery. 'The operatives of Sheffield, for instance, have
formed an Anti-Con-Law Association j_ and that Associa-
tion has just issued an Address to the .Labourers of Great
Britain-7-an Address, in which all the principles of tree trade
are broadly recommended.
We are not disposed to exaggerate the importance of this
fact :—still less, however, are we disposed altogether to over-
rate its import and influence. The Anti-Corn-Law agitation
during the last session of Parliament failed to a great extent,
because the labourers refused.to take part in it. A junction
between the leaders of the free-trade party, and any consi-
derable section of the labouring population might lend a very
different complexion to the struggle.. ~To landowners, and
farmers, therefore, we say " BEWARE. Trust not too much
to the goodness of your cause. Trust not too 'Mich to Par-
liamentary majorities. A new public opinion must be formed
on this vital question. Parliamentary majorities may be
converted into minorities. Good causes have often, ere now,
been lost. In sound public opinion is your only safety."
The operatives of Sheffield, in their Anti-Corn-Law Ad-
dress seem to be fully aware of the importance of public opi-
nion. They boast, indeed, that the tide of modern public
opinion runs altogether in favour of free-trade principles :
Do we not see daily men of all parties joining the ranks
of the Anti-Corn-Law Association ? Does not the present
state. of the monetary system press the necessity of some great
alteration upon the attention of all classes? have we not
the acknowledgement of Lord John Russell, the most effici-
ent minister in her Majesty's Cabinet, that these laws are in-
jurious, in their present form, to all partieS ? Did not the
late Chancellor of the Exchequer declare, that-it was to these
laws we owe our embarrassments, and the drain of gold from
the country ? Had we not last session of Parliament a poiver-
ful minority of 220 Members favourable to an inquiry into
these laws? And do we not know that, if the whole force bf
public opinion be brought to bear upon them, it must be
overwhelming? How many great measures has 'the force of
public opinion carried during the last twenty years? The
Reform Bill, the East India Bill, the Repeal of the TeSt and
Corporation Acts ; and even the greatest soldier England
ever had was forced to bend, contrary to.his will and to his
judgment, and to succumb to the opinion of the public, and
pass the Catholic Emancipation Bill. Why, then, despair
on this question, when all classes but one are interested in
our success ?"
It is important that landowners and farmers, no less than
the operatives of Sheffield, should weigh. these facts, and ex-
tract from them the great truth—that the soundness of the
principles on which the Corn Laws are based, may prove no
guarantee against the erasure of them from the Statute Book.
The Anti-Corn-Law Address of the operatives of Sheffield
abounds in the usual misrepresentations, on which the argu-
ments of all the champions of free trade are founded. Here
is the old fallacy about the effect of the Corn Laws on
wages:—
" The attempt has been made to cajole our agricultural
brother labourers into the belief that these laws increase
their wages, and their supplies ot food and raiment. We
would ask, has the condition of the once bold and happy
peasantry of England been improved ? Has not nearly every
vestige of common right, by which the peasant could have
summered a few sheep or cows, been wrested from them to
add to the domains of those who already possess thousands
of acres ; and their cottages, once the lunnble homes of hap-
piness, plenty, and domestic contentment, with the well-filled
meal ark, the flitch of bacon on the hook, with another pig
in the sty and a barrel of home-brewed to cheer the labourer
after his daily toil ; is this the condition of the agricultural
labourer under these laws? We know it is not. Nor have
they the means left them of improving their condition, or pro-
viding:against sickness or old age.. We would also ask, have
their wages,been .doubled since 1836, or raised in equal pro-
portion to the increasing price of bread ? We would also re-
mind them', that .the manufactories of England have found
employment, for thousands of their families, who have sent
out those of their sons and daughters that were without work,
and had become too numerous at home, and who have there
found employment.
--* • *

Alli•therefore;- hut ono class Are interested in the- abolition
of these laws, which are destroying our manufacturing
superiority, which is the primary cause of this nation's great-
ness—which enabled us to carry on a war of long duration
and of unexampled expense, and filially to triumph over the
greatest conqueror and the most skilful soldier whose name
is recorded in the annals of the world."
" Have wages been doubled since 1836, or raised in pro-
portion to the increasing price of .bread ?"
Such is the question universally •asked, at present, by the
advocates of free trade. We shall answer it ; and if there
were aught of candour iii the anti-corn-law party, we should,
in turn, demand answers to the questions which we 'shall feel
entitled to propound:. •
The object of the anti-corn-law .party in asking whether
wages have doubled since 1836,,is to prove that wages are not
regulated by the price of corn, ,but by the laws of " supply
and demand" in the labour market !
If we should, for , the sake of argument, concede for a
moment, that wages are not regulated by the price of. corn,
nor by any other influences than those of supply and demand
in the article of labour, we should, at once, require of the
anti-corn-law agitators, the reason of their clamour against
the corn-laws ? If wages ,are. not regulated by the price of
corn, the corn laws—even admitting that they keep the price
of corn high—can have, on. the showing of the advocates of
free trade themselves, no effect in rendering labour dear.
Yet-it is of the high price of English labour, when compared
with the price of labour on the continent, that the owners of
untaxed Anachinery complain, as of their chief grievance !
The opponents of the corn laws, in short, deal in self con-
tradictory assumptions: They must admit, either that the
corn laws do .sustain the wages of labour—or, on the other
hand, they must admit that the corn laws inflict no injury on
our foreign trade.
Let us, again, recur to the question—" Have wages been
doubled since 1836, or been raised in proportion to the in-
creasing price of bread ?"
Our answer is, that_ agricultural wages have, in. almost
every part of England, been 'very considerably raised, since
bread rose in price ; but ther,e lies been no corresponding rise
in the wages of manufaCtiiring labour.
.`Throughout large
agricultural districts, Wages which, three years ago, were
eight, nine, and ten shillings a week, are now, eleven, twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen shillings ; while throughout
the manufacturing districts, the rise in the price of bread has
not been accompanied by the slightest addition to wages!
Not merely have wages actually risen of late very consi-
derably in the agricultural districts; but the rise in wages
would, moreover, have been much greater, were it not that
our modern manufacturing system is based on principles,
which exercise, at every moment, a most pernicious influence
on the condition of the labourer. True it is, indeed, as the
opponents of the corn laws allege, that the laws of supply
and demandin the article of labour, regulate to a great extent
the labourer's wages'; but; then, it happens, that " the laws
of supply and demand" are themselves modified by-co-exist-
ing social influences. 'With the class of labourers it does not
rest (although the advocates of free trade always falsely
assume that it does) to regulate the- supply and demand of
labour; by regulating the number of labourers. No • the
supply of labour, and the demand for it, are regulated,
partly by the number of labourers—and partly by the quan-
tity of untaxed machinery which happens to be in operation
at that time. The laws of supply and demand in the article
of labour are, in short, regulated as much by the owners of
untaxed machinery, as by the labourers themselves. What
avails it, therefore, to babble to the labourers about the neces-
sity of regulating the supply of labour by the dethand, unless
the labourer be invested with the power to regulate the sup-
ply effectually, by being invested with protection against the
competition of untaxed machinery
The chief clamourers against the corn laws—the owners of
untaxed machinery— are(let the fact be always borne in
mind) the men who chiefly regulate the supply of labour in
the labour market; and they have always used the fearful
power with which they are invested most mischievously, so
far as the interests of the labouring poor arc (*turned. If
wages have not universally risen in proportion.to the price of
bread, the owners of unbind machinery are themselves the
cause. They invariably control the " laws of supply and
demand" in the labour market, and so control these laws,
that there always shall exist " a surplus population" of la-
bourers. The operations of Untaxed machinery prevent the
wages of agricultural labour from rising so high in times of
scarcity as the protective spirit of the corn laws would carry
them :—the operations of untaxed machinery prevent the
wages of manufacturing labour, in such seasons, from rising
at all ! Yet the owners of untaxed machinery, on the advent
of each period of general suffering, turn calmly round on
landowners and farmers, and -require them to demonstrate
that the corn laws have effectually counteracted all the inju-
rious influences of our modern manufacturing system !
The owners of untaxed machinery are, we repeat; the ori-
ginators of the clamour against the corn laws. Yet none
know better than these men do, that the corn lawS are the
only protection now left to the order of labourers—and that
a repeal of the corn laws would grind labourers of all des-
criptions into dust, by removing the only semblance of re-
straint on the operations of untaxed machinery.

Accounts from Rome, of the 30th ult., state that several
shocks of an earthquake were felt in that city on the 25th.
• - '

On emptying a pool in 1765 which had not been fished for
ages, at Lilleshall Line Works,l near Newport, Salop, was
found an enormous pike, weighing 170 lbs.
Between the hours of twelve and one o'clock a very re-
markable arch was observed in the heavens at East Retford,
extendino. from N.E. to S.W., and crossing the meridian
about 30 deg. from the zenith. The outer portion of this
phenomenon was extremely dark and well defined, but the
inner part gradually became paler and paler, until it was of
the same colour as the other part of the heavens, which to
the south was dense and thick, and this density and thick-
ness extended to the earth, so as to have the appearance of
smoke up to the apparent verge of the shadow of the arch
above. To the north of this line the air was uncommonly
clear, and the sky without a cloud, which remarkable con-
trast excited the surprise of all who witnessed it in the
northern parts of the county of Nottingham. Within an
hour afterwards the thermometer suddenly fell upwards of
five -degrees but up to the present time, with one single
exception, we have had no rain, and the weather during the
week has been snore favourable than we have experienced for
some months past.—Doncaster. Gazette, Dec. 20.

Mr. Bell, our postmaster, is keeping note of the number of
letters which have passed through the post-office since the
4th current :—The number of letters posted at Dundee on
the 4th- current, the day preceding the change, was 581: the
number posted oa the sth of December was 1,107 ; ditto on
the Gth (being post day to London,) 915 ; ditto on the 7th,
1,410. On Monday the number of letters posted here was
about the same as Saturday-7-1,400; on Tuesday there was
a slight falling off; but the general result will be a duplication
of the letters despatched, as well as of the letters received.—
Dundee Adsbertisee.

On Saturday afternoon last, about two o'clock, as the
Countess of Eldon, accompanied 'by another lady,.was walk-
ing front her ladyship's house to Shirley Chapel, a distance
of about half a mile, they were met by four men in the dress of
railway labourers, who stopped them, and laid hold of Lady
Eldon by the arm, ming the most disgusting language. An
officer, who was at some distance, saw them, when they in-
stantly ran away, but were followed and all secured. On
Tuesday they were committed by Joseph Reid, Esq. Her
ladyship is reported to be very ill from the abuse and alarm
she experienced.--814sex Express.
GLASGOW AND AYR RAILWAY.—This undertaking at
the terminus here is going for to alter the face of matters in
the suburb of Tradeston. A passage for the railway has. been
cleared from Cook-street, down to the proposed depot in
Clyde-place, and throughout its entire length a great number
of buildings have been removed, under authority of the Act.
For the purpose of making the depot as ample as possible,
the Methodist Chapel in Bridge-street has-been taken down,
and other buildings in the neighbourhood will speedily fol-
low. The whole of the work, from the canal downwards to
the depot, will be attended with great expense, in eonsequence
of the necessity that exists for carrying the line over the va-
rious streets by which it is crossed. A bridge is forming
over West-street at the Canal Bridge, from which the line
will proceed to a point immediately to the east of Commerce-
street, where it enters Tradeston, crossing, in its progress,
Cook-street, Wallace-street, Wilson-street, and King-street,
on strong iron arches. In the spaces between the above
streets the railway is to proceed over a continuous range of
brick arches, about twenty-five of which have already been
erected, while others are in progress. These operations are,
of course, attended with great labour and expense, but they
are going forward in the most satisfactory manner.7-Scottish
Guardian.-