The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-01 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST

SlR,—Ministers in their present hopeless position resort
to reckless and desperate measures ; their emissaries are
abroad in every direction endeavouring to excite and agitate
the people with the plausible cry of " Free trade and no
Corn Laws." They possibly may impose upon the ignorant,
but the sober-minded are not to be so deluded.

When called upon to explain what they mean by free
trade, they answer generally, let us have no monopolies, no
restrictions, no preferences. Then let us inquire what the
facts are ; and to begin—
They state to us that a net revenue of above fifty millions
pounds must now be raised to meet the public expenditure ;
that since they came iuto, and have remained in, power, in
the midst of peace, they have contrived, for popular objects,
to abandon sources of productive taxation, such as the Post-
office revenue ; and at the same time add above three mil-
lions per annum to the expenditure. In 1830 the net revenue
was £50,056,616, which left a surplus of £2,913,000 above
the expenditure. Since then eleven years of peace in Europe
have elapsed, and now we require a revenue of above fifty
millions, this excess having been created by the Melbourne
government ! One of two causes must be assigned for this
—a wasteful injudicious expenditure, or a falling off in the
resources of the country. The last is not the fact, for our
manufactures have been extended, and our foreign trade,
whatever may have been its individual fruits, is more consi-
derable now than at any former period, notwithstanding the
injudicious measures of the government.
To meet these exigencies they propose to increase the
duty on British timber, the produce of our colonies, and
to diminish that on foreign, and thus to employ foregin ship-
ping and foreign seamen in preference to British. This
may be what in the present day is called a " liberal", but it
cannot be a " national ", course of policy. Their partisans
affect to say, " These are the interests of individual parties,
not national." Are we. then, reduced to a state in which
our commercial navy, the nursery for rearing British seamen,
is not to be considered a national interest 7 Is the source
of all our power, our wealth, and glory, to be laid prostrate,
to make way for the pernicious principles and practices of
modern liberalism ?
In my former letters to you I think I have shown the fal-
lacy and injustice that would be the result of their plans for
the introduction of foreign slave-made sugar into consump-
tion here, whilst we have an abundant supply from free la-
bour, the produce of our own possessions. On this subject
it has been attempted to mislead and delude the people by
stating that if slave-labour sugar was admitted to home con-
sumption the price would be reduced from 2d. to 3d. per
pound, or 18s. Bd. to 28s. per cwt. under the present rates.
Now, in point of fact, British plantation sugar is now nearly
as low as foreign would be were it to be so admitted to-
morrow. At present dry brown West India sugars are sold
at 60s. to 61s. ; such as are of a similar quality of foreign
produce being about 21s. to 225. in bond. Their proposed
duty of 365., with 5 per cent., is 375. 9d., average 59s.—diffe-
rence in favour of foreign Is. 4d. to 25., as stated correctly
by Lord John Russell, although he afterwards wished to back
out of this statement, as he found it did not answer his pur-
pose. Now, these prices are considered to be very low, if
not ruinously at least injuriously so to the foreign planter;
but the hope of the Brazilian merchant is, that their admission
here would be followed by an advance in price, for as they
can at present obtain these low prices from purchasers for
the continent, without advance, their position would not be
at all improved, or their means increased for buying more of
our manufactures than they do at present ; but such an ad-
vance could not take place, for as we have enough of our own
growths that would still be partially protected by Lord John's
proposed duty, the British planter would, at whatever fur-
ther sacrifice that he might be called for to make, undersell
the foreign grower; therefore, to speak of a reduction of 2d.
or 3d. per pound to be gained by the introduction of foreign
sugar, only proves the grossest ignorance of the subject or
worthless folly, to call it by no plainer name, whilst the dif-
ference of the price could not exceed one farthing per pound.
With sugar I have done, at least for the present, and the
corn duties, the present all-absorbing and vital question about
to be decided, alone remains for consideration. In doing so
for a second time I will begin by giving to the advocates for
either a fixed duty of Bs. per quarter on wheat, or an unre-
stricted free trade on corn—l will for the moment take it for
granted that the interest of the landlords and their agricul-
tural tenantry are not to be weighed in the balance ; but that
the plans of their opponents are by themselves to be practi-
cally considered, and that the only object for consideration
is now to give them effect ; more I think the supporters of
these measures could net deserve. Yet, notwithstanding, I
am disposed to think that, if they will do me the honour soberly
to weigh what I am about to state, they may possibly come
to the conclusion that their schemes, on their own showing,
are alike visionary and impracticable.
I will confine myself to the growth and supply of wheat
alone, in order to clear and narrow the subject. This grain
now forms the food of nine-tenths of the people of Great
Britain, and upon it they depend for their bread.
It is admitted on all sides that our annual consumption of
wheat is about twenty millions of quarters, and that in good
seasons the home growth has been sufficient to meet the de-
mand ; but in bad seasons the deficiency has been consider-
able, amounting in some years to one-fourth, in others even
to one-third, which has always been productive of high
prices and great economy in consumption.—lt is admitted
that in the years 1838 and 1839 our crops were deficient, and
foreign supplies required ; that previous to 1838 a consider-
able quantity of foreign wheat had been speculatively im-
ported and warehoused in bond, having been bought at low
prices, to wait the time when it might be required and ad-
mitted to the home market ; that with these previous sup-
plies the whole quantity of foreign wheat entered for con-
sumption in 1838 was 1,715,771 qrs ; in 1839 the quantity
was 2,500,045 qrs ; in 1840 2,020,144 qrs ; together 6,235,960
qrs ; not equal to one-ninth part of our ordinary consump-
tion. Of flour, the aggregate quantity in the three years
was 1,828,000 cwt. which it would require 457,000 quarters of
wheat to produce ; of this flour a considerable quantity was
re-exported ; but I will include the whole in the home sup-
ply, which thus forms an aggregate of 6,693,000 quarters of
foreign wheat received in three years, or 2,231,000 quarters
per annum, being about one-ninth part of our consumption;
and taking the cost price, including freight and charges, at
50s per quarter, a rate much under what was paid for it by
the consumers here, it amounts to £5,571,500 per annum, or
£16,732,500 in the three years. It will also be admitted
that the bullion in the coffers of the bank in December 1838,
was £9,591,000, and that by August, 1839, it was reduced to
£2,164,000. It will also, I trust, be allowed that the differ-
ence between these sums being £7,130,000 was remitted in
payment for the foreign grain then imported ; that during
this period the balance of our trade with South America was
paid to us in the precious metals to a considerable amount,
which was also applied to the payments for foreign corn ;
and that in addition a further sum was drawn from the gold
currency of the country by private individuals and transmit-
ted for similar purposes.
It will be admitted that, with the exception of Hol-
land and Sweden, all the countries lying to the north
of France, including Southern Russia, are capable of pro-
ducing more corn than they consume when a foreign market
can be found for their surpluses, that market, with the ex-
ception of the United States, having been ours alone for the
last three years, and, therefore, that from these countries our
foreign supplies were drawn during that period.
It will, I trust, also be admitted that, since the termination
of the war in 1815, peace has remained uninterrupted ; that
previously war had reduced the population of these countries
to a comparatively low ebb; and that their principal, if not
their sole, employment. was then in agriculture, drawing their
supplies of manufactures and other goods from the cheapest
markets, of which ours was the principal ; that in the course
of the 2. 6 years which have elapsed their population has
greatly increased ; that, having no foreign possessions to
which they could emigrate, the necessity for employment
being found for them at home became annually more urgent,
and was unavoidably pressed upon the attention of their go-
vernments.

It will not be denied that agriculture alone will not afford
employment fora dense population, and that, to do so, other
means must be resorted to ; that the government of these
countries, aware that the only means for this purpose were
manufacture, trade, and commerce, turned their attention to
these resources; that no choice was left thcm, and, aware
of it, they have advanced capital in many instances to pro.
mote their encouragement (that capital having been greatly
increased by our gold, paid to them in the last three years for
their corn) ; they have loaded foreign manufactures with
heavy duties to discourage their importation and encourage
their growing establishments, as the only means they possess
to provide employment and food for their people.
It will, I also think, not.be denied! that the present rates
of wages paid to the manufacturing and labouring classes in
in the countries to which I have referred are only about one-
half of those paid to the same classes in England, two-thirds
of those paid in Scotland and the north of Ireland, those in
the south of that country being about the same; that those
classes in this country are accustomed to live in a degree of
comfort which, although now in too many instances subjected
to privations, is such as is generally superior and unknown
to those on the continent.
Now, sir, with these facts before us, I appeal to the common
sense and sound judgment of all reflecting men, who are not
to be led away by plausible but impracticable theories, or by
vapid, frothy declamation, founded on an assumed but false
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