Paisley, when he tells us, that "many of the land-holders are certainly placed in a very disagreeable situation. They must either reduce their present establishments,” he says, emigrate to a country where they may enjoy the same comforts of life at a less expence!" or And why not reduce their establishments? Are the manufacturer and artizan to sacrifice their interests, in order to support the extravagance of land-holders? Have not multitudes of manufacturers been placed, by the fall of property and diminished capitals, in a "situation" still more" disagreeable" than the landed interest? and yet they call not on the community to have a legislative enactment--a "protecting duty," in order that they may obtain remunerating prices for their goods. If they did, what would the landed gentlemen think ? That there are restrictive duties on commerce is what all know; but, then, these are for the benefit of the agriculturists, and the finances of our country, not for the advantage and profit of the merchant. In so far as they affect mercantile concerns, it is our belief, that every intelligent merchant would be glad to see government lay aside all restrictive measures on commerce, and to permit a free trade to all the nations of the earth. This, as will be shewn by-and-by, would be for the good of the whole; but before touching this and other topics, it will be necessary to consider the consistency of the speeches of some of the principal speakers at the above meetings. And, I. Mr Maxwell falls foul of the Corn Bill." It operates," he avers, "to the hurt of the commercial classes, and, in his opinion, materially to the injury of both the landlord and the manufacturer," while " he thinks a protecting duty of 5s. or 6s. lower upon wheat than the present prohibitory prices, would not be prejudicial to the landed interest." Now, we deny the position that the Corn Bill has operated" to the hurt of the commercial classes;" on the contrary, we affirm, and are ready to show, that it has operated, substantially, in their favour; whilst this " protecting duty," if obtained, will injure them, and that most materially, should it work, as the Honourable Member expects. The high maximum of 80s. tempted speculation. A bad year, and the idea of scarcity and dearth, excited the cupidity of the monied interest. Corn was brought from all quarters, and warehoused, ready to be poured into the market the moment the ports were opened. In a little the markets were glutted with foreign corn. The supply exceeded the demand. Day after day the prices fell; and for seven years past, in consequence of the speculations of the fund-holders, or monied interest, the average price of wheat, in England and Wales, had fallen to 55s. id. a quarter, on the week ending the 2d of November 1821. We are not surprised at the Honourable Member, and other freeholders, loudly vituperating the fundholder. But, for his exertions, corn must have continued, on an average, since 1815, at about 70s. or 758. a quarter, and thus the landed interest would have put into their pockets the difference betwixt 55s. 1d. and 70s. or 75s. i. e. from 15s. to 20s. upon each quarter of wheat! and taking the gross amount of agricultural produce in Great Britain at two hundred millions, the sum which would thus have been put into the pockets of the land-owners, would have been no less than about 20 millions Sterling-a sum, exclusive of the interest of the public debt, and sufficient for all the expenditure of government! Is it wonderful, then, that Mr Maxwell and his coadjutors should be angry at the fund-holder? But, in proportion as he and they are dissatisfied, in the same proportion the manufacturer and the community should be glad. Indeed the word speculator is just as applicable to the farmer, or land-owner, that discounts bills, in order to keep up grain to the dearth, as to the fund-holder, who speculates in grain, to order to sell it when the ports are open. In the one case, in bad years, we might, through the greed and avarice of the farmer, reach almost to the point of scarcity, with an extraordinary high price; in the other, we cannot, in general, rise above the maximum; for the immense quantities poured in at once by the fund-holder from all quarters, have a tendency both to give plenty and to keep down the markets. This has, in fact, been the actual operation of the present Corn Bill. The greed of the landed interest in fixing the "maximum" so high as 80s. defeated itself; and had this not been the ease-had the corn remained at 79s. or even 75s. a quarter, we should have had no meetings of the land-owners at present for a revision of the Corn Laws, whatever might have been the privations of the working classes-nor any attempts made, we believe, to bring back those comforts to which the majority of them have long been strangers. With these impressions, let us think on what, in all probability, would be the effect of this protecting duty, were it to pass through both houses of Parliament, and become another Corn Bill. The effect, we hesitate not to affirm, would be more ruinous to the farmer and land-owner themselves, than the present bill, with all its sins and infirmities about it. Whether the Honourable Member's maximum, of 30s. a boll of wheat, or Mr Alexander's scale, commencing at 40s. and ascending to 75s. be assumed, they are both injurious, we deem, to the landed interest. If 30s. a boll, that is, 60s. a quarter, be adopted as the price when the PORTS are to be opened, will this relieve the farmer's present difficulties? The price of wheat, during the last month, in the Haddington, Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow markets, has been, we believe, nearly as follows: The best old wheat has been quoted at 35s. and 36s. a boll: and if, at these prices, the farmer cannot pay his rent, how is he to do it at 30s. Must not the bill be totally inefficient, for effecting the purposes for which it was intended, and become a perfect mockery? If, on the other hand, Mr Alexander's scale be adopted, a similar result will follow. Corn, it is true, may be imported when wheat is 40s.; but then the foreign grower has to pay a duty of 35s., which just leaves him 5s. a quarter, or 2s. 6d. a boll for his wheat imported hither; and, therefore, to him, 40s. amounts to a complete prohibition. From this 35s. of duty, Is. it is true, goes off, as you ascend from 40s. to 75s. when the duty ceases: but then, this prevents the foreign grower from importing till the price of wheat is 52s. 6d. Then, indeed, he can pay the surplus duty betwixt this and 75s., and have a profit on his wheat. But say that the foreign grower cannot send it hither from Dantzic under 32s., and from France under 34s., and have a profit. In this case, the one cannot import till it is at 53s. 6d., and the other till it is at 54s. 6d. But then, at these prices, he can effectually undersell, in his own market, the British grower, on the supposition, that the home grower cannot, as the Honourable Member thinks, sell his wheat for less than 60s. a quarter, or 30s. a boll, so as that it shall be a "price conducive to the welfare of the country." But the difference betwixt 60s. and 53s. 6d. is 6s. 6d. ; and the difference betwixt 54s. 6d. and 60s. is 5s. 6d.; so that, by Mr Alexander's scale of duties, the British farmer must either sell his wheat at 53s. 6d. or 64s. 6d., or keep it. If he cannot sell it at this, he is driven out of the market in ordinary years; and, instead of having a rent for his landlord, and a capital for improving his poor soils, he has not a farthing, and must therefore give up his improvements altogether. adopting, therefore, Mr Alexander's scale, we see no amelioration to the agriculturist. Ruin stares him on every hand, and he is made to feel all the evils of a free trade, whilst. the community shares none of its benefits. By But if such a protecting duty be hurtful to the farmer, as it leaves the ports at all times open, on paying according to the scale of duties; it is also most oppressive and unjust towards the manufacturer and the community. There is nothing more true, than that cheap bread is best for the working classes. At his usual wages, a man is better off with the meal at 10d., than at 20d. a peck, and with the quarter loaf at 9d., than at 18d. The first would be the necessary result of a free trade in corn; the last, that of this "protecting duty." In ordinary seasons, we could import wheat from Dantzic at 30s. This is just the half of 60s., at which the Honourable Member would keep it. In like manner, we could import oats, in ordinary years, from 12s. to 14s. ; but by this measure, the average price of oats must be kept at about 27s. 6d. Thus, in whatever light we view this measure, whether as it regards the farmer or the manufacturer, it is alike prejudicial to their best interests. By keeping the ports always open, the never-failing tendency would be to keep the prices betwixt 55s. and 60s. and thus neither to do good to the landed interest, nor relieve, in any shape, the present agricultural distress; whilst, by this price, the manufacturer and his operatives are obliged to purchase wheat at 55s. or 60s., which they might have at 30s. or 32s. or 34s., if the trade in corn were absolutely free*. And as to the sound policy of a free trade, many of the arguments of the Honourable Member, as well as of the Lord Provost of Paisley, bear sufficient recommendation. "A free trade," says Mr Maxwell," is an object to be desired by an experienced and wealthy people." "It is perfectly evident," he adds, "that all restrictions upon trade narrow the profits of the manufacturer, reduce the wages of the workman, and diminish the powers of consumption." Now, we ask, is not this protecting duty restrictive? Is it not pro * If the farmer or agriculturist cannot live when the average price of wheat, for these six years past, has been 76s. 3 d. a quarter, and oats, 27s. 8d., and barley 40s. 11gd.; how can they live, and improve their farms, with wheat at 60s. a quarter ? hibitory to the foreign grower, till the price rise to 53s. or 55s. a quarter? If, instead of preventing him from importing his wheat at 50s., you allowed him to import it, when he could sell it at 30s. or 34s., would the foreign grower not take a greater quantity of our manufactures in return? and would not this demand increase the number of our artizans, and enable them to receive higher wages? By such a free trade, every class in the community would be benefited. By doubling, or trebling our manufactures, the finances of the state would be proportionably increased, and the profits of the merchant ultimately enlarged. The prices of corn being cheap, would leave a greater surplus to the labourer for comforts, or for luxuries. Every other kind of agricultural produce would rise; and, through the rapid increase of population, take up a much larger portion of land for pasture than before. The farmer, by such an arrangement, would live better; the landlord have steadier rents; and the whole operations, within and without doors, be more suited to our soil and our circumstances. Nature has marked out Britain as the seat of manufactures and commerce. Her Mines, Coals, Waterfalls, Capital, Machinery, Ingenuity, and Navigation, all point to trade as her chief province; while the sterility of her soil, and the humidity and uncertainty of her climate, alike forbid her to rest on agriculture as her prefitable employment. The Honourable Member illustrates our meaning well, when he says" If, by working a certain number of hours as an artizan, a man can exchange the commodity he has wrought up against Table of the Average Prices of Grain foreign raw produce, sufficient for for six years. Wheat. Barley. Oats. his wants, whilst by cultivation, for as many hours, he could only obtain a scanty and inadequate subsistence, trade is his proper employment."Now Britain can work up her raw materials, against foreign corn, sufficient for quadrupling her wants, in the same time, and with less expence, than in raising her supplies from the soil; and, therefore, on the Honourable Member's own principles, manufactures must be best for Great Britain. Would it not be folly, for in stance, for the people in the Highlands, and in Galloway, to grow corn, when their soil and climate are so ill adapted for husbandry; and leave off the rearing of young cattle, which is so profitable, and best suited to them, when, by going down to the low country, they could supply themselves with cheaper and better corn than they could possibly raise? and is it not equal folly for Great Britain to grow corn on her poor soils, when she can supply herself with better grain, and at a cheaper rate by one half, in the foreign market? Would any wise man raise corn at 60s. a quarter, when he could have it from his neighbour at 30s. or 28s.? or would any manufacturer give 2s. for a peck of meal, when he could have it for 6d. ? Taking the soil of this country, and the soil of the corn countries in Europe, as productive machines for manufacturing corn, can there be a doubt which of them is best calculated to yield the greatest quantity, and of the best quality, in the same given time, and that, too, at the least labour and expence ? And duction from the best machinery, and if the prices were to be depressed lower, the whole of the commodity would be withdrawn from the market. "The machines which produce corn and raw materials, on the contrary, are the gifts of nature, not the works of man; and we find, by experience, that these gifts have very different qualities and powers. The most fertile lands of a country, those which, like the best machinery in manufactures, yield the greatest products with the least labour and capital, are never found sufficient to supply the effective demand of an increasing population. The price of raw produce, therefore, naturally rises till it becomes sufficiently high to pay the cost of raising it, with inferior machines, and by a more expensive process; and, as there cannot be two prices for corn of the same quality, all the other machines, the working of which require less capital, compared with the produce, must yield rents in proportion to their goodness. Every country may thus be considered as possessing a gradation of machines, for the production of corn and raw materials; including, in this gradation, not only the various qualities of poor land, of which every large territory has generally an abundance, but the inferior machinery, which may be said to be employed when good land is further and further forced for additional produce. As the price of raw produce continues She to rise, these inferior machines are successively called into action; and as the price of raw produce continues to fall, they are successively thrown out of action." taking Great Britain, and comparing Mr Malthus has finely illustrated our position. He says, "When a machine in manufactures is invented, which will produce more finished work, with less labour and capital than before; if there be no patent, or, as soon as the patent is over, a sufficient number of such machines may be made to supply the whole demand, and to supersede entirely the use of all the old machinery. The natural consequence is, that the price is reduced to the price of pro Such is Mr Malthus's opinion; and from it, it is quite clear, that if a free trade were established in corn, the inferior machines, that is, the inferior soils of Great Britain, would be thrown out of culture, and the superior machines, that is, the superior soil and climate of the European corn countries, would afford this manufacture of corn much cheaper than our home manufacturers could, and consequently, "with a duty exactly equivalent to the peculiar expences of farming in Britain," would drive the British agriculturist entirely out of the British market; for, it is perfectly clear, that soils which require a greater expenditure to work them, and which produce less, can never compete with soils that require little expenditure, and which pro duce more. (To be continued in our next.) ADDRESS WRITTEN FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF BURNS'S BIRTH-DAY. WHEN Homer, parent of the epic strain, And such, when Nature, with benignant smile, The hills-the vales re-echo back his lays; From shore to shore resounds the ploughman's praise; They lead the bard where wealth and rank resort, The dews of heaven fell on his clay-cold bed, And Fame proclaim'd his name should ne'er decay; |