The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-08-27 00:00:00

struck, there

xpectation that the

coming haivest, althou

linot likely to exceed

averag

the natur

during the next

an average an

Comment upon the cc

lition, upon the ftilfilment

contemporary bases his anticipation
harvest; but pursue his speculations

ht that the quotations of

should fur

a us with the t

of local correspondence.
vs of such persons should
•

leir own irr
,f the dealer

the year when the
This
rk

quotation
st busily s

,nsidera

:fence, an afternoon's rain suggests
The supplies from abroad are

ught up or rejected as the barinneter rises or th
er-cock turns. We could not, then, accept the

erages as decisive evidence, Even if thi

vere of an unfavolrable character."

And as a proof that we ought not to accept the
average prices quoted in the Gazette as affording
decisive evidence of the probable yield of the crop,
he reminds us that " from the commencement of

July until the middle of the present month, the
imperial weekly average has only been effected
2d., no extraordinary rise at the present

season."

_____
We suspect that the real meaning of the present
state a things is not precisely that which the

Times assumes it to be. Dependence can no longer
he placed upon the quotations in our leading

arkets, as_ 'affording an index of the probal:

amount and quality—of our grain crops, b+cause
prices are no longer regulated by the extent bf the
home growth. This is evidently felt to r?e the

case upon his own showing. We have a prpspect
of an average crop only, under circumstances of
great uncertainty. During the present nlontb,
and a portion of the last, the weather hag been
anything but propitious. Blight and mildew have
been observed in some of our most impintant
wheat-growing districts. In others the yield is
reported as likely to be indifferent; and disease
has again made its appearance in the potato. crop.
We have no wish to assume that all the repotis on
any of these heads are correct ; but at any rate
there is enough truth in them, patent to the ordi-
nary observer,-and other concurrent circumstances
—the abundance of money for speculative invest-
ment amongst them—sufficient to induce a consi-
derable rise, at a period when farmers are usually
too busy in their operations in the fields to be
enabled to exercise any great control over markets.
Yet in six weeks of weather unfavourable to the
crops, and at the most important crisis of their
fate, prices have only been got up, after immense
exertion, 3s. 2d. per quarter over those following a
harvest affirmed by the free-traders to have been
of unusual abundance ! The testimony of our
oldest corn-merchants establishes the fact that,
under similar circumstances, in former years a
large advance would have been maintained; and
obviously it would have been justified. A wet
blanket, however, has hung over the spirits of the
dealers in our principal markets. Blight might
attack our fields and the elements destroy their
products; but there is the foreign grower standing
in the distance, ready to pour his supplies into our
markets to any extent required. We have accord-
ingly seen within the last fortnight falling quota-
tions in Mark-lane, whilst the skies were emitting
a deluge ; and two hours of sunshine destroying
the calculations based upon as many days of bad
weather and the evidence of the most experienced
members of the trade.

In a further portion of our contemporary's specu-
lations he appears desirous to allay the alarm felt
by the agriculturist with respect to a low range of
prices accompanying a year of deficient yield.
" There is an advance of prices already," he says,
"in France and Belgium." What a wonder it
would be if there was not ! Prices in those
countries are ruled by those of the British markets,
just as prices in Lincolnshire are ruled by the
prices at Wakefield and other markets. When
France and Belgium let us have their grain at
much less than its value in this country, we shall
set down their merchants and factors as fools of
the first water.

Our contemporary, after a while, proceeds to

" But, whatever may be the event, we may well con-
gratulate ourselves upon the fact, that there is no longer
any artificial barrier interposed to interfere between de-
- . If there should be any deficiency in
British soil, at least the merchants and

mand and supply
the yield of tl
shivowr''

in all quarters of the globe are ready to corn-
I pen
Pensate for the shortcomings of our own supply. Thus

that ruinous advance in price which prevailed on such
occasions during the operation of the sliding scale and the
restrictive duties becomes impossible. At least we shall
not be compelled to pay from 70s. to 80s. for a quarter
of wheat when the proper price should not exceed 475.

We have in the first sentence of this paragraph
the whole doctrine of free trade in its stark naked-
ness. There should be no " artificial barrier be-
tween demand and supply." Let us act then upon
this principle, and see how it will work ! We have
a demand for such articles as wines, tobacco, spirits,

tea, st

ar, timber, &c. The supply in the world
is abundant and cheap. Knock down then "the
artificial barrier" which prevents so many millions
of the British people enjoying them to the extent
of their wishes! The national creditor may indeed

object to such a carrying out of free trade; but
who and what is the national creditor ? He is only

a portion of the " artificial barrier," of which the
Times speaks, and which hedges us round on every
side. Poor rates, land tax, church rates, excise
duties, assessed taxes, and other imposts of the
sort are portions of the same barrier. They inter-
pose between supply -nd demand, offer a rather
serious impediment to cheapness of production,
and ought to be removed or at least to he light-
ened if, as the Times asserts, "the proper price" of
wheat " should not exceed 475. or 485."
The conclusion at which the Times arrives is,

and may be regarded as a gage of defiance flung
in the face of the agriculturists of the empire.
'Faking of the expectations of that class, in the
of unremunerating prices prevailing as the
result of free trade in corn, he continues
The sooner sue' hall»•-

event

_a vain hallucinations are dismissed
from the minds of all practical men the better for all par-

If there should unfortunatel

yprove to be any con-

siderab!e deficiency in the present harvest, we can look
forward to such an event without terror. As matters
stand at present, we cannot believe that there will be any
deficiency, but, if it should come, we are prepared. The
salutary change in the law which provided for such an

which can never be retraced."
This is tolerably cool, at all events. If a defici-
ency in the harvest should occur, "we are pre-
I." Should the whole of the existing cultiva-
soil be ruined, and the value of that

tors of the

tting in our edito

iris' stool, or in our snug

apartment in the city, or the west end ! The
foreigner will feed ourselves, and the favoured few,
who happily possess incomes not dependent upon
the soil of the country

Such, at all events, is the
anticipation of the Times, and of the class whom he
represents. The fiat has gone forth; and the repeal
of the corn laws, however ruinous it may prove,
" is one of those steps in the history of a nation
which can never be retraced." We rather fancy,
however, that the majority of the people of Great
Britain are not of such an opinion, nor are so well pre-
pared for the emergency which the Times contem-

and they are no contemptible portion of the people.
We strongly suspect moreover that, with a little
more experience, some other classes, at present
sufficiently enamoured of a cheap loaf, will discover
their error. Landowners, with incomes almost an-
nihilated, are not likely to be good customers to

who is driven to live upon his capital, must
diminish his consumption of luxuries, if not also

farmer

of necc

We may have too a pauper pea-

entry on our bands, to be an

pported upon our

means we know that we have to support the nati-
onal institutions, and to pay the interests of our
enormous debt. How long we shall continue to
do all this, after we have prostrated our agricultural

THE 8

is of free trade

and the pane

of the r

sent whi

urn, that pauperism, throughout the United
om, under the operation of their favourite
has decreased. We greatly doubt the
ctness of this statement ; and shall, as briefly
,ssible, give a few reasons for our disbelief.
the first place, we are not satisfied as to the
manner in which the accounts either of the number
relieved, or the actual annual cost of
leir maintenance, are made out. The former is
imate only, and may be very far wide of the
Mr. Baines selects a particular day at two
periods of the year—the first of January and the
first of July; and from the numbers receiving
relief on these two days he makes up the averages
for the entire year. July, however, is a month in
which the bulk of our agricultural population, and
the poor of many of our towns, are engaged. in
harvesting operations; and although this objection
to his test as a fair one is in
sened by the selection of a day in winter
obvious that the pauperism in the January of any
two years may differ only owing to the difference
of seasons. Besides, the amount of employment
accessible to the poor in the intervening months
may differ materially, as there may be a late spring
and an early winter in one year, and the contrary
in another. To any deduction being drawn from
the alleged net cost of maintenance last year, as
compared with preceding years, we demur alto-
gether, owing to the changed system upon which
the accounts of the past year have been made out,
and the difficulty of ascertaining what is purely
cost of maintenance and what has been spent upon
buildings, &c. It is not significant, however, of
any great decrease in pauperism to find the total
gross amount of expenditure in 1849 £4,411,784,
against £4,294,948 in 1848, and £3,743,684 in
1847.
To arrive at the truth, however, ae to the corn.

of paupe

an. est

some measure, les-
, it is