The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-09-26 00:00:00

THE CORN TRADE.

Hum,.—We understand that the duty of 14. per quar-
ter has been paid on about 60,000 quarters of wheat at
this port.—Hull Packet.

The duty on the importation of Foreign Wheat last week
advanced to 17s. per quarter, at which rate it is expected
the more recent arrivals will be taken our of bond for
home consumption.
NEWCASTLE.—Friday the large sum of £40,000 was
paid at the Cunstom-house in Newcastle, for duty on corn,
and on the two preceeding days £13,000 was paid, making
£53,000 ; one house alone paid £13,000. The duty was
14s. per puarter.

LEITH.—On Thursday the holders took the alarm, and
commenced clearing from bond; and before three o'clock
on that day £36,000 of duties were paid. Friday they
were equally busy at the Custom-house paying duties, and
there seems no falling off in the importations, 10,000
quarters being entered in two days.—Edinburgh Evening
Post.

GLASGOW.—Subsequent to Friday last, the duty on
foreign wheat advanced from 14s. to 15s. per quarter; but
previous to that day a very large quantity—in fact, the
total amount remaining—was liberated at this port at the
low duty. The amount upon which duty was paid at our
custom-house was 19,331 quarters of wheat, and 2,327
quarters of barley. A similar course on the part of the
holders of foreign grain would he followed all over the
country, and as the imports yet to come are likely to be
thrown on the market, so long as the duty does notexceed
175., it is computed by some journals that the total amount
liberated will ere long amount to 700,000 or 800,000 quar-
ters, and reinforce the Exchequer to the extent of more
than half a million sterling. This estimate /Ray be ex-
aggerated, but certain it is that many of the speculators
on a bad harvest have burnt their fingers severely.—Glas-
gow Mail.

INCREASE OF WHEAT.--In July, 1842, Mr. A. Palmer,
of Cheam, Surrey, but one grain of wheat in a common
garden-pot. In August the same was divided into four
plants, which in three weeks were again divided into
twelve plants. In September these twelve plants were
divided into thirty-two, which in November were divided
into fifty plants, and then placed in open ground. In
July, 1843, 12 of the plants failed, but the remaining
thirty-eight were healthy. On the 19th of August they
were cut down, and counted 1,972 stems, with an average
of 50 grains to a stem, giving an increase of 98,600!
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.—" We cannot deny,"
says the National, " whatever be the causes which para-
lyse the progress of our agriculture, that our produce is
much inferior to that of the English. The following is a
comparison of the agricultural produce raised by 1,000
families in France and in England:—
In England. In France. Difference.
Horses.... 273
Oxen .... 1,230
Sheep .... 11,000
Corn 56,000 hectolitres 40,000 hectolitres.
In France it is calculated, that on every thousand square
yards of ground there are 33 cultivators—in England only
28. Our agricultural produce ought, therefore, to be at
least equal to that of England, and our inferiority conse-
quently proves the want of skill amongst the agricultu-
rists."

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE FARMERS

(From the Quarterly Review.)

The corn-law and tariff of last year were organic mea-
sures, whose operations can only be tested by experience;
and we do not suppose that any man, except an Anti-
corn-law Leaguer, would have wished to have seen a new
experiment on those great interests. As far as our mate-
rials for judgment extend, we find that the advantages
anticipated from those measures are fully confirmed ;
bread and all other kinds of provisions have been lowered,
and remain at moderate prices—exactly at the present
moment those of 1835—and that without any decrease,
but, on the contrary, with in some instances an increase
of protection to the farmer. For instance, it will he seed
by reference to the tables in our 70th vol. p. 522, that the
importation of foreign wheat in the year 1839 was
2,702,848 quarters—and that the protectio❑ to the farmer
in the shape of the net duties o❑ that importation was
£670,034, or about 4s. 11d. the quarter—whereas in the
last year, ending the sth July, 1843, under the new corn-
bill, we find that the importation has been nearly the
same, 2,695,281 quarters; while the protection in the
shape of duty has been no less than £1,200,000, varying
from Bs. to 20s. per quarter—and affording, on the ave-
rage, double the former protection ; and in the year 1841,
the year immediately before the operation of the new law,
on an importation of 2,393,061 quarters, the protection
in the shape of duty had been only 3s. sd. per quarter.
It is true that the home prices have been lower in the
present year, but that is the inevitable and—whatever
partial inconvenience it may operate—the happy result of
a good harvest; and it is clear that they would have been
still lower but for the additional protection afforded, when
most needed, by the ❑ew corn-bill. The prices too are
positively higher, and relatively much higher, than in
1833-4-5 and 6; and let us add—no inconsiderable fea-
ture in this satisfactory retrospect—that upwards of
£1,200,000 have been paid into a very needy exchequer.
Let us now turn to the tariff. Can we recollect with-
out a smile what a bugbear the admission of live cattle
was this time last year ?—can we recollect without pity
the panic of so many farmers who sacrificed their stock
under the terror of foreign invasion ? It is really worth
while to preserve a record of the real effect of this formi-
dable aggression on the agricultural interests.
An account of Live Stock imported in each of the first
six months of the year 1843 :

Oxen and Duty paid
Month onding Dulls. Cows. Sheep. Swine. thereon.
sth February.... 125 6 15 49 £147
sth March . 7 3 19 9
sth April ...... 131 39 8 26 172
sth May..
sth June
sth July . •

Total . 422 154 93 142 £595
In addition to this account of live stock, let us see what
salted provisions were imported in the same period.
An account of Foreign Salted Provisions imported in
each of the first six months of 1813 :

Dutypaid
Month ending Beef, cwt. Pork, cwt. Hams, cwt. thereon.
sth February..
sth March lO2 219 96 251
sth April 73 136 371 420
sth May 43 65 542 488
sth June
sth July 24 680 571 745

T0ta1...... 478 1414 2191 £2698
And we subjoin a comparative account of the whole
importation of salted provisions in the year 1841, before
the tariff, and in the year 1842:
Imported Beef, cwt. Pork, cwt. Hams, cwt. Total, cwt.
In 1841 42,960 45,319 5,078 93,357
In 1812 29,990 54,163 7,842 91,925
Now is it possible, in the face of these accounts, to
pretend that the tariff has done any serious injury, or in-
deed any at all, to the English or Irish agriculturist?
We therefore entreat our agricultural friends to consi-
der this remarkable evidence as to the real effect of the
most important and most litigated measures of last year,
and to do the ministers—and us for our humble share in
the defence of the ministers—the justice to recollect that
these are exactly the results which they announced, and
which we anticipated; namely, that the tariff might tend
to regulate markets, and to lower prices to the poor con-
sumer, without doing any essential injury to the home
producer. We ask them, furtl.er, to apply this experi-
ence to the bugbears of the present year—Canadian flour
and Nova Scotian wheat -which we are satisfied are
about as formidable as the beef of Spain and the mutton
of Belgium.