The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-02-22 00:00:00

PETITION IN FAVOUR OF THE CORN LAWS

TO THE HONOURABLE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
The petition of the agriculturists of Great Britain and Ire-
land humbly showeth,—
That a number of restle.:s men, whose minds are ever given
to change, less acquainted with the interests of the community
than with the gullibility of mankind, have, for purposes best
known to themselves, (being inscrutible to us,) collected with
immense industry a combination or conspiracy against the
corn-laws, which your honourable house, in its wisdom, es-
tablished in 1815, for the benefit of the whole community ;
and, laying aside the use of their understanding, and for a
wicked or interested purpose, perhaps, originating and sup-
ported by Nicholas of the north, for they seem to have the
advocacy of all the weakest, perhaps gratuitously, perhaps
not so, with a great portion of the most able of the press,
who have exhausted the whole of the English vocabulary,
whether standard or provincial, in terms of abuse of those
laws, such a. unjust, iniquitous, a dreadful tax on the com-
munity, and a monstrous monopoly.
Now your petitioners humbly show, That this monopoly
consists of about one million of competitors, who possess the
monopoly so long as over production produces a glut and
low prices. But whenever corn gets to unremunerating
prices, away goes our monopoly, and in comes the corn of
our dear brother autocrat of Russia from the Baltic, and
from the Black Sea,—from Prussia,—from Denmark,—from
Germany,—from Holland,—from Belgium, and from our
autocratical-republican brethren in the Uuited States, if they
can now spare any.
Now we humbly beg to draw the attention of your honour-
able house to the official returns of the average price of wheat
which, from 1795 to 1814, inclusive, will be 81s. 10d. per
quarter, and Ghat from 1815 to 1834, inclusive, will be 635. 6d.
per quarter; lower by 18s. 4d.
Now, takng the consumption of the United Kingdom in
all kinda of grain, equal to 15 millions of quarters per annum,
at 18s., the saving in price to the community, for one year,
will be 40 millions sterling, and for the twenty years 800
million. sterling, more or less. as your honourable house may
judge correct, less than in the same period before the corn-
laws were establisned.
Now, although these anti-agricultural-employment men
have gulled millions to believe that your corn-laws have
made corn dear, we hope that your honourable house, with
the assistance of the official average returns as above, will
expose their declamatory assertions,—untwist the conglo-
meration of their minds,—correct their metaphysics,—detect
their sophistry, and protect the community from their anti-
national political economy, by presenting to the astonished
eye of the whole kingdom a result the very reverse of their
assertions.

We also beg leave to mention, that we have a fellow-feeling
for our manufacturers, who complain of the decrease of the
sale of their goods on the continent, and we are sorry to ob-
serve they have also fallen into the gull-trap, that that de-
crease is in the exports of yarn, and with those yarns they
probably make goods.
And your honourable house will, no doubt, perceive that
the people of the continent have not yet enough of capital to
build factories for spinning. They only want our open corn
markets without duties for a few years to enable them to do
so, and be independent both of spinner and weaver.
Your honourable house cannot but observe the very sin-
gular and strong anti-national current ; the mysterious source
of which, for the interest of our manufacturers we humbly
beg of you to investigate.
And we humbly beg your honourable house to give to all
that is conveyed in our humble petition all the attention
which the good of the whole community requires, in which
we hold so great a share.

MISS JULIA NEWMAN.—The ship John Beinvick, has
brought safely to our shores the celebrated female convict,
Julia Newman. What has become of the lady mother of
this interesting damsel we have yet to learn.—Sydney
Monitor.

HYDROPHOBIA.—An American physician is said to have
discovered that a few drops of any mineral acid, applied to
the bite of a rabid animal will prevent hydrophobia. The
acid decomposes the poisonous saliva, and cannot be injurious.

HINT FOR JONATHAN.—There is a little river in Corsica
named Restonica, for whitening everything thrown into it.
It is rather singular that none of the American journals have
availed themselves of the circumstance, and discovered that
a black man who had bathed in it became suddenly white.
A MODERATE CLIMATE MOST CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVI-
NY.—CIimates that are moderately cold are favourable to
long life. This observation applies to the vegetable kingdom ;
and trees that have scarcely attained their full growth in
northern regions are drooping in the south. Dryness of soil
is another source of health and life • and the hardy moun-
taineer's existence is seldom abridged by the diseases that
visit the inhabitants of damp and swampy regions. Sterile
plains are more salubrious than regions covered .with a rank ,
and exuberant vegetation, or highly-cultivated grounds, from
many obvious reasons. The humid earth is not turned up,
and decayed vegetable substances are not acted upon in a
deleterious manner by the solar heat.