Those of our readers who ...
The Times, 1824-08-23T00:00:00

Those of our readers who pay any atte!,tion to tlhe C.orn Laws, and who watchl their practical operation, are of course aware that the average price of oats, as reported for the '4uariTr VIIemng rvle A . - _ __ . _: reign grain of that (lescription into the British market- viz., 27s. Vd. per quarter. The law uron the subject is, that wwhen the average price of oats shall reach 27s. pel quarter, so much of that artilel"s shall have been importedl from any foreign country before the 13.h of March, 1s2i, inav be taken out of granary for consumption, duty free. Oats bonded subsequently to the 13th of MIarch, 1SQ2, may now be talcen out for consumption, on paying -4ts. per quarter duty, and 2s. additional for the first three months; as likewise any that may be imported withit s5 X weeks after those three months shall have expired, if from any port comprehended between the Bidassoa and the Eider. It, after the importation of any grain is permitted by 55 GFO. III., orby thelastactofParliament,3t,Eo. IV., it shall ap- pear that the average price of that grain for the first six weeks succeeding the quarterly periods for regulating the importa- tion, shal liave fallen below the import rates, the importa- tion of such grain, fronm all places between the Eider in Hol- stein, atid the Bidassoa on the Spanish frontier, shall cease, until the next quarterly average shall have been pub- lished in the London Ga2ette. WVe have several letters upon our table, inveighing bitterly against the fraudulent practices by which thle averages have been so modified as to admit foreign oats to constumption, at a moment when the real state of the market wouldl be inconsistent with such a result. Of the existence of those practicep, we know no- thing-it is possible tlhev (o exist, since the law invites them. All needlless intrIcacy okt legislation is a lirect en- couragement to fraud but in this instance if the letter of the law be eva(ded, and if a consutmption of foreigti grain he tiereby eff4ctedl, we can only sav that a salutary endl has becn produce(I by a series of rogaish machinations. To us, who ate opposed to the laws regu- lating the trade in corn, no consequence wouild be more delightful, than to see, under their full activity and domi- nlioI, the country deluhgetl with foreign con ; and the au- thors of a barbarous system scourged with the romd of their own cutting. Uintil the cupidity of thc( Country G{entlemen shall have been chastised by the inevitable influence of those rmeasures which they have themselves never ceased to force upon the Government, we shall not see a thorough aboli- tion of this ,aluse. it is nonsense to talk of modlerate but steady prices being hurtFul to the farmers of Great Britain. Ilhe etiect of increased stability of pyiee mutst be to give the rarmer more confidennee in his own calculations; and from low pricos must follow in the first instanec a cor- responding reduction of rents. It is the Countrv Gentle- nien, therefore, who fight againist a free tradle in corn-for- gettilng that troin an urncerlain trale, exhibiting now a giut, andl to-norrow a scarcity, they will in their own persons be exposedl to a re-action oF that precarious an;d fainester.like destiny which betals the occupiers of their antI, and that nothing can relieve them from such a danger, but the adlmissioit into thie corn-trade of that great rmciple which regulates so beneficially everv other-a Erl2lom oFintercourse between the pkodllcer anid the con- surner, or at least an intercourse which shall be limited onlv by teinperate, fixed, and impartial.duties. Itwould ulo douibt be an iroprovement up.Jn the present unfortunate condition of the law, it' a regular an(l permanent tax upon foreign grain were to be substituted for thto;e famnous averages which act as a prohibition of bread, or sometimes as an unlawful instrumetnt of abund- ance. But the ibect of all improvemenits wouldl be, the perfect freedoni-of.. the trade in every description of htuman sustenance. rhe>Country Gentlemen are shal- low pilitician& not to see that the final effect of such a law would be an immense increase in the home consump- tion of their prodluce. But fromn the best of theta, when their own interests are at stake, how little right we have to look for any sound or comprehensive seasoning, muay he judged frotml the fallacies which, session after session, ap- pearedl to have laid hold of that (itt his line) respectable person, Mr. IVEWssrErN, touching the currency, and from the inefficient andl elaborate cobweb-spinning of MrWl.STU.A T lVORTLEY, with regard to ehat second great curse of so- ciety, the law for the preservation of the game, and for the multiplication of poacthers. Tc return to thte averages. May they go on and prosper, to annoy the landedI interest, and to convinice the Uovern- ment that they are good for nothing, but ought to be for ever abolished. HAMZU1tGH, August 14.-Some ehanges have bcenmade in the tlriff, of cus-toms in Sweden. Roa.sted coffee is not to be im- orted in future. The regulation by which the irfiportation of 'rench, Spanish, and Portuge'~c wines, as well as rum, could be made nu yrom thel-tces wiserethey arc produced, is revoked. Ag lor brajidy made frornnrapeg and liqueurs, it is decided *that they- cannot be irnported into Sweden, except from the ports of England, lreland, Spain, Portugal, and France, and from those of the Aledi. terranean nnd frotm ports out of Europe. The export duties on fiii and fish oil have been n little incre&a?l, &c.