The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-03-20 00:00:00

CORN HUMBUO.

This humbug. though it do.s not thrive so ouch as
humbugs in general, has nevertheless bies doing pretty
well. That profeand statesman, Lunt john Russell. Paid,
the other day at klasitingdon. *at Cos countsy appeared
to he improving.. Thettoan be so doubt that he alluded
to the thew visurlit the price of corn, to which.; indeed,
he Wm!, in ilFprobability, not haiitig .beien well
booted at th at IS, ting. TO aasintUald;khe circumstance!
el the late war .witts AN, of *ay oilier war that cosy
tithe place, you mast first show that another Would pre;
duce another Bank littsteletion 'Act. 130, wears at pre.
sent In a state; With' 401.8 to tlil thinds of these, the
raise and who deal inverts; that sot:will: roioaieg at do*.

ante. It• is not, and cutlet l*this• habit of !itch pee-
( • .
sons, to look much into the history Of the pfices of corn,
or to dive' very deeple'into, the cause,Of hlgh or of los
price. All the active-fat:inert tad corn defiers Of the pre-
sent day know that corn was high in price during
war; that when peace came, the price fed. end that
hires been generally upon the fall ever since. This being
the case. only let them believe that there will, be war
shortly. and they will act upon the firm belief. that theie
will shortly be high prices.—lf they believe this, that be- •
lief will cause the prices to rise. Else hoe happened it
that *beat almost floubled its price open the prospect of
wet weather at the beginning of last harvest?, As solos
as the prospect of hne wrather returned, the prices in-
stantly fell back to what they were before. If the wheat
now in the ground, were perceived to be very much eaten
by the wonu, it would cause the price of wheat to rise.—
Yet, in all these cases, the currency continues the same,
and the quantity of wheat the same. The alterative la i
the price s -,ccasioned merely by the opinions of those
who possess it or deal in it. The recent rise in the prise
of corn was oning to an opinion that there n (laid be war
betweeb this country and France. No matter whether there
be war or not at l'Ast, this was the cause of the rife.—
About twelve days ago this opinion began to change.
It began to be believed that there would be no war be-
tween this country and France; and the moment this
change of opinion began to take place. that moment
the corn ceased to rise in price.—Last week it .recoiled;
and the fall upon the quarter of wheat was, at Newhall*
6s. at Guildford, se. at Uxbridge, ss. at Reading, Ss. at
Norwich, 2s. at Hertford, 3s. at Geeing. 6s. At Mark
Lane, the fall was 4s. and, yesterday. it was from le. to
2s. lower.—The average for England, in the last
Gazette, was only 41s. In the nett Gazette it will be
about 455; because it will refer to the prices of a week
or two back, it taking a number of days to get there.
turas collected. It appears, therefore, that there hai not
been an average rise of more than about 9d. a bushel;
and, in some places, at Devises, for Instance, and New-
bury. that rise bad completely sunk away on last. Thor•
day. Yet has there teen as great a noise made by the
humbug.stock-jobbing London press about this rise, is if
the price had risen sufficiently high to make farsuieg
profitable, and as if every thing promised a contincation
of dive prices. There has been so much exultatioo on
the part of this stupid press; as much exultation over Mr.
Cobhett as if all things had come completely about, and as
if the farmers were become the most prosp-rota and happy
chin of men that ever were beard of in the world.—ln
all human probability another week or tam will have de-
stroyed all the hopes of war which the pious Quakers lace
been entertaining and inculcating ; or, rather, incalcaling
for thn sake of getting rid of the enormous stock of corn
r which they are well known to have ou band. The Qea-
kers at Liverpool and in the north as well as in Loa on,
have been spechlating deeply in corn for a long time ;
and, they have catered at_ this glimpse of war
with as much eagerness as a thief catches at
an opportunity of escaping from a constable.e—
The stock-jobbing press, who dread boiling is
email a. some measure to adjust contracts or to
alter the currency ; that admirable set of foal-rogues who
conduct this press have been using all their efforts to
cause it to be believed that corn would rise in price, and
keep steadily op, so as to take from the landlords and
taimers all excuse for demanding an adjustment of con-
traits. Though, therefore, the prices have actually
Leone down again already, to very nearly what they were
before the rise, these stozk-johhing vagabonds never say
a word about the fall; wd really seem to think, that, as
long as they do not announce the fall, the farmers will
not perceive it. Theiandlords, too, are most anxious to
encourage the notion, that things are coining about.
They know that they must lo•e their estates; that they
must boldly assault the. fund-holders • or that they must
.get high prices for the farmers. The last is what, they
dearly. love. It is easy enough to guess that they do not
wiell to lose their estates. It is easy enough to sea
reasons f.r their wishing to avoid an open war
with the fundliolders. High prices would eats
them from both. High prices is what they watt,.
therefore; and they, according to their several capacitiv,
have endeavoured to encourage a belief that things were
coming about. They know very well what an Infamous
thing the London press is ; but their interest leads then
to wish succe,s to its deceptions ; and, therefore, as far
as they have been able, they have, in this case, given it
their assistance. So that the humbug has thriven to
decent extent ; an I it will, perhaps. add 'owe few thou-
sands to the number of farmers already ruined. This,
however, is the only effect that the thing will finally
have. It will not retard the ruin of landlord or farmer
one single hour.