THE CORN LAWS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 51, 25 February 1843, Page 204

THE CORN LAWS.

The following able article is taken from the Times of the 20th of September: it proposes a further reform of the corn-laws, and also furnishes some particulars of the rather unlooked-for result of the experiment made by Sir Robert Peel in the last ses-

sion : —

" We have read with some attention an article in the Quarterly Review, which we suppose may be considered as a kind of Conservative manifesto on the subject of Sir Robert Peel's financial measures, whipping, to the best of its power, the unhappy Sir Richard Vyvyan for his attempt at ' mutiny,' and panegyrizing, rather too broadly for our taste, the genius and measures of Sir Robert Peel.

" Though not disposed to adopt the unmodified tone of the Quarterly while speaking of Sir Robert Peel, we yet cannot avoid drawing attention to the very remarkable results, if results they are, of his modification of the corn-laws, as disclosed in one or two tables of duties and averages, which form, perhaps, the most valuable part of that article. From these tables, which we reprint in another part of our paper, it appears that, from the end of April to the beginning of September, a period of eighteen weeks, the price of corn rose in the first fourteen weeks with remarkable equability, from 595. id. to 648. 7d. ; and then, when the harvest was fairly got in, fell in the remaining four weeks to 618. l()d., giving, it will be observed, in all this period, a difference of only ss. 6d., and that not by any rapid leap, but in general by a gradual rise of 4d., 5d., or 6d. a week; the duty, of course, varying proportionally from 13s. to Bs. " At these rates of duty, no less than 2,457,931 quarters of corn have been entered for home consumption ; which have on an average paid no less a sum than Bs. 4d. a quarter duty, giving in all a revenue of £974,024; and this in five months.

" This is the result of one table ; and now for the other. .It appears that, in the fourteen years preceding, we have imported on an average about one million of quarters a year, which have paid an average duty of ss. 7d. a quarter, producing an average annual revenue of something under £300,000 ; the annual importation being considerably less than one-half, and the annual revenue very decidedly less than one-third of what has been produced by the present law in the course of five months. Or, setting aside the system of averages as fallacious, we may observe that the quantity of wheat imported in the four months succeeding the enactment of Sir Robert Peel's bill has exceeded the whole importations of any one of these fourteen years, excepting 1839, and has nearly equalled that; the former amounting, as we have already said, to 2,457,931, the latter only to 2,702,843 qrs. And, what is still more remarkable, these enormous importations have taken place, as the Quarterly remarks, in the face of a most abundant harvest at home ; and the average price of corn, which since 1828 has amounted only to 595., has, in spite of all this, stood for the last four months at 625. id. the quarter. " Now, we are willing to allow that it is not fair to draw any certain inference from an experience so limited. The excitement consequent on the sudden opening of the corn trade will account for some considerable increase in the imports. Again, it is probable that many entries have been thrown upon these four months which would have taken place in the earlier part of the year, but for. the expectation of a favourable change. Still, this is not enough to account for the enormous difference which we have stated to exist between the last and any preceding four months ; still less to explain the more extraordinary fact that that importation, joined to a most promising harvest, has not reduced the price of corn even so low as its former average. But, let us make what deductions we please, we cannot so pare down the fact as to extinguish a most remarkable and decisive testimony to the wisdom of the Premier's measure : and two or three remarks especially suggest themselves. " First, with regard to cheap food. This is a point on which the ministerial supporters of the ministerial bill are in something of a dilemma. Either their bill will or will not lower the price of corn. If it will, it will damage, pro tanto, the farmer ; if it fail to do so, it will not satisfy the cry for cheap food. And so, whatever they promise, they bring somebody or other about their ears. The two claims are plainly irreconcilable ; and if they please one demandant, they must, however some very zealous partisans may struggle against the difficulty, make up their minds to affront the other. But it must be allowed that the event of their measure has proved as valuable to them as any could possibly be in this respect. It has hitherto appeared that the relaxation of the restrictive system, though it has increased importation, has not materially lowered prices. And this goes at once to reassure the farmer, by showing him that his prosperity is far less dependent on this artificial protection than he has been in the habit of thinking ; and to quiet the more violent section of those who denounce all restriction as a tax on the head of the poor man, by showing that he is mistaken in charging the evil under which he suffers upon this part of our fiscal system. The corn-laws have been partially repealed; they have produced the importation; but this importation has not produced the cheapness of corn which might have been predicted. The fact is moat extraordinary; but hitherto each is the fact; and certainly it is a convenient one for the Ministers.

" On this the Quarterly observes, that the measure just passed has united advantages hitherto treated as incompatible ; it has rawed the revenue, it has given abundance of provision

to the people, and this without interfering with the prosperity of the farmer. We will add, it has given steadiness to, the averages, which cannot fail of being advantageous to all parties. " But we would now suggest, not as being in any hurry about the matter, but for the mature consideration of Government, whether an experiment which has hitherto answered so well does not tempt to a further advance. If the duties are really of so little importance to the farmer as the experience of the last four months would show, and their reduction so efficacious in throwing into our hands an abundance of the staff of life, it may be thought that we are wanting to ourselves in not pursuing to its legitimate limits a course of so great promise and open to so little objection. And indeed, the very fact that the great increase of supply has not been sufficient to lower the prices, would seem to imply a sudden and proportionate increase in demand, and to give force and application, even beyond the speaker's intention, to Sir Robert Peel's argument, when he urged that the population of the country was increasing faster than their means of subsistence, and that it was the plain duty of the Parliament to keep pace with that increase by the gradual extension of our sources of supply. It can hardly be unsafe, one would think, to carry on the necessary system of extension, at least till the plenty which it is to accomplish begins to affect the market.

" Lastly, the new scale bore a kind of approximation to a fixed duty. The variations were compressed within narrower limits, and the differences were in themselves smaller and more regular. The result has been a vast increase in the revenue, and a more steady and sound state of the market. Here, too, we would venture to suggest that the result is not only satisfactory, but encouraging. Success invites progress. Advantages which have been gained by the present might surely be doubled by a more extensive reform ; and such, we hope, before long, will be the opinion of the Conservative leaders. " We owe to Sir Robert Peel thanks for what fie has done. He has done — events show that it is so — he has done all that could be done at the moment. A bolder attempt would have effected the disruption of his own party, and that at a moment- most critical for the wellbeing of the country. But we shall still hope to be more in his debt before we have done with him. jThere has never been any one reason given for his stopping where he has. Figures are not principles ; and we have not yet heard any argument for the particular figures composing the present corn-law scale, excepting that there they were. The scale has slid once ; there is no visible reason why it may not absolutely Collapse. Duties have diminished once ; we look to see them waste away yet a little more. And we will venture to predict that whatever review, under those circumstances, undertakes a justification of the Premier's policy, will appeal to a no less striking display of success than has been done by the Quarterly."

Three members of the House of Representatives, at Washington, have addressed a letter to the President of the United States, praying his excellency to solicit from the British Government the liberation of upwards of a hundred American citizens, now suffering in Van Diemen's Land the penalties of joining in the rebellion in Canada. To this letter the Secretary of State has returned an answer to the effect that the President will lose no time in complying therewith, and that Mr. Webster would himself urge Lord Ashburton to press the subject upon the consideration of the British Government. — Atlas.

A Canadian newspaper, the Montreal Herald, mentions a rumour that an official gentleman was expected to return to Canada carrying with him from Downing Street " an unconditional pardon for both refugees and rebels." The want of such a measure constitutes a practical grievance in Canada, where so many families have been divided by political proscription needlessly prolonged. We should be pleased to say that our own advices gave confirmation to the rumour ; but hithert6 they have not done so. Should it be true, however, scarcely any measure could have been more felicitously selected to conciliate the colonists at the beginning of Governor Bagot's difficult parliamentary campaign. — Spectator.

By way of the United States, recent intelligence has been received from Mexico. - The Mexicans had taken a war-steamer belonging to Yucatan ; and they had also assembled a large army, report says 50,000 men, designed for an invasion of Yucatan or Texas. .

The London Gazette of September 23d contains a notification, that, up to the 21st of June, no effective^ steps had been taken by Texas to maintain the blockade of the Mexican ports; and. therefore the blockade declared on the 26th of March is held by the British Government to be null and of no effect.

The Queen has been pleased to appoint the Right Honourable Henry Ellis to proceed on an extraordinary and special mission to the Court of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil. — London Gazette, Sept. 23.

The Lords Cemmiaioners of the Admiralty have caused very handsome silver medals to be struck, to be presented as rewards to engineers of the first class sewing in the steam-vessels of the Navy, for good conduct and ability. The first medal has been "Warded to Mr William Shaw, who served under Lieutenant Smith, in the Tartarus, on Ac < West Indian and Norh American station.

Sunday the 4th September was a great day for Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant assisted at the celebration of high mass in the Cathedral of Cologne V being the first time since the days of Tyrconnell that any individual holding that office has been known to be present witnessing and countenancing such a solemnity. — Dublin Monitor.

The proprietors of the Atlas newspaper have advertised a prize of £100 for the best essay " On the causes of, and remedies for, the existing distress of the country.'' It is intended to publish the essay in that paper, and also the second and third best, should toe writers of them desire it.