The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-17 00:00:00

MR. VILLIERS ON THE CORN LAWS.

(From the Farmer's Journal.)
Mr. Villiers being the recognised leader of the anti-corn-
law party in the House of Commons, the sayings and doings
of the honourable gentleman, in regard to the great question
of free trade in corn, possess at all times considerable im-
portance. A dinner was given to him a few days ago, by his
Wolverhampton constituents ; and on that occasion he in-
dulged, after his accustomed fashion, in invective against the
agricultural " monopoly."' We desire to weigh the value of
his statements :

" He alluded to those silly and selfish laws (loud cheers),
that irropoued eo rezulate the price and quantity of our food,
and which regulation had been made uy t•-------
depended on that price. (uneers.) Tie must consider those
laws a perversion of the powers of the state for selfish pur-
poses (cheers) ; and it was they, and not the people, 'who
discredited the legislature by maintaining laws so selfish in
object—so unsound in principle, which were, beyond all
possibility of question, injurious to the community—which
each year received their condemnation by the further evil
which they annually produced, and which evil, annually in-
creasing in
intensity, at length presented the country in its
present condition. (Loud cheers.")
Mr. Villiers proceeds to charge on the corn-laws, the re-
cent derangement of the currency ; and then observes :
" Will they who defend the corn-laws venture to repeat the
foolish falsehood that this limited territory is adequate to the
supply of food for its constantly increasing people—cries of
" No, no"—and will they speculate upon the results of
trusting to this untruth, when the consequences are bringing
misery and ruin to every man's door, and leaving no man in
doubt of their policy. (Cheers.) For what is the effect of
restricting the intercourse with the food-growing countries,
and being cast in utter dependence on these home producers ?
Why that, in our emergency, they were obliged to send out
their money to buy up at great cost other men's food:
(Cheers.) And when they got the food, in what plight were
they without their money ? (Hear, hear.) Why, like a car-
penter who had pledged his tools for bread ?—when his bread
is gone how is be to earn more without his tools? (Cheers.)
What then does he do ? Why he is then obliged to sell up
all he has, his household goods, to get back his tools, and has
to endure, for this purpose, great privation and distress—
(cheers)—and this is the position at this time of the country."
(Hear.)
Mr. Villier's charges against the corn-laws resolve them-
selves into the following points :—The soil of England is in-
sufficient to feed the population of England. The corn-laws
derange the currency, by Compelling, from time to time, the
exportation of large quantities of bullion in exchange for
foreign corn. The corn-laws, therefore, act upon the condi-
tion of the English operative, as if they should compel him
to pawn his tools !

In reply to the assertion that the soil of England is insuffi-
cient to feed the population of England, it might be sufficient
to advance a single counter-assertion on the subject. It might
be no difficult matter, moreover, to establish that England
possesses many millions of acres uncultivated—a vast amount
of capital lacking profitable investment—together with a
" surplus population " craving employment. Until the
energies of the unemployed population' and the " fructifying"
power of the unemployed capital shall be brought to bear up-
on the Uncultivated land, it will he unsafe, especially for a
" philosopher " of the stamp of Mr. Villiers, to pronounce
that the soil of England is unable to sustain in comfort all
the inhabitants of England !
What reasoners like Mr. Villiers really mean, when they
allege that the soil of England is unable to feed the pOpgla-
don of. England, is—that if the land were fully cultivated,
and the population fully employed at remunerating wages,
our modern system of foreign trade would be annihilated.
England, in other words, cannot fully cultivate ber soil; and
employ her population, unless her foreign trade, as now con-
ducted, shall be abandoned ! When so shaped, Mr. Villier's
proposition is true. So costly to England—so destructive of
national happiness—is that foreign trade, to which Mr. Vil-
liers would sacrifice all the more profitable varieties of na-
tive industry !
Let us, however, place in yet another point of view, Mr.
Villier's assertion, that the soil of England is unable to feed
the population of England l•
Does Mr. Villiers forget that he, and the other leaders of
the anti-corn law party are in the habit of taunting the agri-
culturists of En-gland with the " distress" of which farmers
and landlords complained some years ago—that " distress"
being adduced by the advocates of free trade as a proof that
the corn laws do not protect the English farmer? But was
there, let us ask, contemporaneously with the " distress" in
question, any CoMplaint that the soil of England did not pro-
duce enough to sustain the population of England ? Or ra-
ther, did not the " distress" of the years alluded to prove,
that the farmers of England extracted more from the soil
than the people of England, could afford to pay for ? And if
the surplus production of the years 1833, 1834, 1835, and
1836 had been stored up, in order to meet the deficiencies of
the last two harvests, will Mr. Villiers venture to allege that
there would have existed any necessity for introducing five
millions of quarters of foreign wheat into England within the
last eighteen months ? _

On the average of years, therefore, even under the des-
tructive influences of our prevailing system of foreign trade,
the soil of England is proved to be sufficient to feed her po-
pulation. A better system is, it is true, required, in order
to bring the surplus of one year in aid of the deficiency of
another ; but the want of that better system is, clearly
enough, not to be assumed as an objection against the prin-
ciple of the corn laws.
_ _

If, again, as we have already shown, the capital and the
industry of England could be fairly brought to bear upon the
uncultivated soil of England (and the only obstacle to such
an arrangement is our system of foreign trade I), England
might, with ease, sustain a population twice as dense as her
present population !

But the corn laws have, according to Mr. Villiers, demng
ed the currency ! _ _ _

The charge may be safely denied. The currency has been
deranged because we have been called on to pay for foreign
wheat in gold ; and if a free trade in corn were established
to-morrow--and if the basis of that trade should be an ex-
change of English manufactures for continental wheat—still,
whenever a dearth should make itself felt in the country with
which we might deal, then, as now, would arise the necessity
of sending abroad English gold in exchange for the wheat of
some country on which we should not, even on the assump-
tions of the advocates of free trade, habitually depend for
food.

A free trade in corn, therefore, would obviously not pre-
serve'our currency from occasional derangement ; nor will
any other system than that which we have hinted—the system
of storing up the super-abundant produce of one year to meet
the deficiencies of another—the system, in short, of elevating
England above dependence on the harvest of each successive
season—prevent the recurrence of such an exportation of the
precious metals, as that, from the effects of which, the trade
of Englang suffers at the present moment. If, when wheat
should fall in the home market to a certain price, it became
the business of government to buy ; and if, on the other
hand, when wheat should rise to a certain price, it became
the business of government to sell, England would be ren-
dered absolutely necessary and at all times independent on
foreign countries for her supplies of food ; and the currency
of England would be preserved from that ruinous derange-
ment to which it is now liable.
Mr. Villiers, as we have seen, waxes figurative, as he dis-
cusses the Corn-law question. He alleges that the Corn-
laws, by driving gold abroad, act upon the operative, as if
they should compel him to pawn his tools for bread—the gold
of England representing in Mr. Villiers's simile the tools of
the operative !

We have already shown that the Corn-laws do not drive
gold abroad : and, as to the metaphorical reasoning of Mr.
Villiers, it seems to us liable to the charge of being confused !
When Mr. Villiers alleges that money represents the
tools of the operative, and describes the payment of money
as the infliction on the" operative of a severe hardship. does
Mr. Villiers mean to insinuate that the operative ought to
receive bread without paying for it ? Or does Mr. Villiers
mean to prove, that the hardship in question consists in the
Eayment of money to the foreign grower, rather than to the
nglish ? Such is, undoubtedly, Mr. Villiers's meaning ;
but that meaning being admitted, Mr. Villiers's argument
resolves itself into an argument in favour of home trade,
rather than of trade with foreigners !
Mr. Villiers is a person of respectable talents •, but let him
avoid reasoning by the aid of rhetorical figures. The figures of
arithmetic, he will find to press with severity enough against
his arguments in favour of free trade !

THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN AND THE

REV. T. D. GREGG.

The public have learned, with some surprise, that. the
Archbishop of Dublin has, by an ecclesiastical inhibition,
prevented the Rev. T. D. Gregg from preaching in the parish
church of Lucan on Sunday last. This inhibition has led to
the further proceeding, on the part of Mr. Gregg, of resign-
ing the Chaplaincy of Swift's-alley, which he had occupied,
without episcopal molestation, for above three years; and
where, though not licensed, yet by the tacit permission of
the Archbishop, he has lawfully preached the Gospel, accord-
ing to the ritual of the Established Church. Proceedings of
such a kind are always harsh and repugnant to the good feel-
ings of society • in this case they are aggravated by the length
of time in which, without censure and by acquiescence of his
ordinary, Mr. Gregg has discharged his pastoral functions in
rnion, on
havethe doctrines in
imputed
the diocese. There is no motive assigned ; but as it is known
Mr. Gregg was to have preached at Lucan a controversial
se
o to
fPopearyn,
unwillingness
snomn might
reasonably
part of the Archbishop to have such topics discussed, had
not his Grace himself been amenable to Roman Catholic
repetition.bilf Yo reonthteh the
public eTrrhoe r ofsaocnt
othfPopery.dismissal
sini discus-
sionss a
censure for a similar offence, and become by his writings a
Thies standardtooc
correspondenceot
nnetrgvr ee r st
oi
justify
laidtitli
is purely arbitrary ; the absence of episcopal license,"
though a.good ground of power will prove but a bad apology
for its abuse, if such should appear to be the case.
To the credit of Mr. Gregg we mention, that in honest
adherence to his principles as a churchman, he has submit.
ted without reservation, to the authority of the diocesan or-
dinary. Under such a censure as implied in the inhibition
he could consiste
ntly
with preach at Lucan, he did not conceive 0 .
with his vows and duty, or with benefitt illsc_rtregation,
retain his appointment to the church in. Swift 4.1ey.7_-and,
he has accordingly resigned his chaplaincy.—Dublin Even.
ing Mail.