The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-31 00:00:00

to some extent been the case under the law of 1828.
The period at which corn was imported is not to he
Last

determined b.

yr the period at which it prtic

year, upwards of one million quarter

into consnn

of quarters

on in one week; and near

'ere brought

two millions

within one ?flout h ; but the purchase and

Iportation of this two million quarters extended over

Under a fixed duty, the Guardian con-

tinues, the importations will be made "as consignments
are nw made from Essex and Sussex to London."

They will be made whenever there is .a pros-
pect of their being profitably made; and, when there
is none, they will cease ! This is the extreme of the
attainable " regularity." When wheat is, at Ham-
burg or any other foreign port, offering,. at a price at
which it becomes an object of profitable speculation for
the British market, it will be seized upon as a remit-
tance to this country ; and it is just as absurd to sup-
pose that this will always be the case under a fixed
duty as that it will not, to a greater extent, become so
under the present law.
Of the two, indeed, we much question whether the
present does not possess advantages over a fixed duty
in this respect, if honestly worked. We are told—and
experience seems to confirm the truth of the assertion
—that, it being only the surplus produce of other
countries which comes into the British market, the
nett price attainable here contributes greatly to its va-
lue . abroad. At the present moment this is the case.
'The continental prices are within a few shillings of our
own, minus
,the duty ; and a slight advance of the
averages would let in supplies. 'Well, such being the
case, is not foreign wheat now quite as legitimate a
materiel of remittance as it would be under a fixed
duty, with the market to the same extent below the im-
mediately remunerative point ? We may want a sup-
ply before harvest, or as the result of its failure ; and
if so, importation must result favourably, and payment
of 'duties commence as soon as the duty and cost price
together are less, than the price in our market. On
the other hand, if no supply is required, there is 14tle
chance of the importer's Position being worse'under
the present law thaa' it Woutd be under a fixed duty—
the glut, Which would, in all probability, exist in the
latter case, being quite as complete 'an estoppal to the
profitable operations of the foreign merchant as a pro-
hibitory, duty; and scarcely so soon got rid of. In
fact, at the present moment, if the high duty of 20s.
can be said to have any direct operation, it is to pre-
vent glut, and to preserve something like buoyancy of
tone in the market, rather .than to prohibit those mo-
derate importations which are the most likely to be
regularly made; for the merchant can assure himself
that, though • his imporsations are not at. the present
moment profitably admissible into consumption, the
revival of demand will be at once met by such a re-
laxation in the scale as to allow it to be fed from them
sparingly, without the risk of being choked by an-over
supply.

Just so

We have forborne enterin at all into the agricul-
tural part of the question, confining ourselves solely to
its bearing upon the mercantile community. Our
sentiments, we trust, are, at the least, intelligible to
our contemporary. We anticipate from the working
of the present bill sufficient regularity, and absence of
the gross defects of the old law, to serve all the legiti,
mate purposes of the merchant, and at the same time

to protect the consumer, on the one hand, from ex-
treme high prices and violent fluctuations, and the far-
mer from the consequences of glutted markets. 'When
experience has shewn its inability to ensure these advan,
tages, the Guardian will not find us backwaid in con-
fessing the fact, and seeking for a better system; but
even then we shall seek for such system without anti-
cipating from it anything at all approaching to perfec-
tion of operation, or the realisation of one-tenth of
thoSe visionary advantages which, though 'insisted
upon by the more reckless advocates of change, the
good sense of the Guardian, we are sure, scouts as
absurdities.

We hope to be able in. our next to announce the
arrangements for the approaching anniversary of the
Church Pastoral Aid Society, fixed for Sunday, April
23d. The Rev. W. Sinclair, of Leeds, and Rev. J.
Burnet, of Macclesfield, are expected to form part of
the' deputation. The speech of the former gentleman,
at Leeds, will be read with much interest. It will be
• •
found elsewhere. •