THE CORN LAWS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 229, 25 July 1846, Page 81

THE CORN LAWS.

[From the Spectator, February 7.]

There has now been time to observe the reception of Sir Robert Peel's measure by the country. It has been met, however, by no national demonstration — by no wellpronounced declaration on the part of the pc :>ple ; and the signs of the prevalent opinions have to be gathered from various quarters, in manifestations particular as well as 'general, official as well as popular. Though it has of course provoked alarm ana dissent, even among those nearest to thi Minister in political connexion, the desertion of persons in connexion with the Ministry has not gone on — it seems to have stopped where it was last week ; and it cannoir. be said to have removed any important it embers of the Government.

To retain their official places, however, some have been obliged to relinquish their parliamentary seats. Lord Jocelyn, for instance, remains at the Board of Control, but resigns the representation of Lynn ; Lord Arthur Lennox adheres to the Ordnance, but abandons Chichester ; Sir Thomas Freemantle receives a permanent appointment, it is surmised as chairman of the Board of Cujstoms, but he certainly gives up the borough of Buckingham.

There appears to be no destitution of recruits for the new Conservative section of Free-traders. The vacancy left by Lord Hcudwicke has been filled by Lord Glenlycjii, the actual chief of the great Scotch hoiLe of Atholl. Earl Talbot, Earl Bathurslt, and other peers, Sir Charles Coote, Mr. Hope Johnstone, and other influential commoners, are understood to have given in fheir adhesion to the Premier's policy.

'j.liere have also been parliamentary resigtuitions and elections not official ; and the|y afford varying but not uncheering signs of ithe predominant feeling. Certain conscientious members, mindful of pledges in favour of Protection, express or implied, ha^e referred the matter to their constituents; but they have done so in very different fashions. In North Staffordshire, Mr. Watts Russell has met the electors face to face, declared his conversion to Free-trade principles, announced that he shall vote for thera, and promised to resign if called upon. Lord Ashley has resigned his seat for Dorsetshire, as Mr. Dawnay had resigned his for Rutland, in order to stand the test of a new*- election. Mr. Sturt has followed his colleague. Mr. Townshend Mainwaring has doiue the same by the Denbighshire boroughs. Mr. Charteris and Mr. Wilson Patten have formally announced their conversion, to the electors of East Gloucestershire and North Lancashire, and have offered to resign if call fed upon. Lord Henniker has given up East Suffolk. Lord John Manners' atttempt to reconcile incompatibilities, by voting, for the j remainder of the present Parliament, agayi3t Free-trade and his own matured convictions, was mentioned last week.

The final result of these resignations, in the shape of new elections, is not yet known ; but some elections there have been. Midhurst, vacated by Sir Horace Seymour, a Peel Free-trader, is filled by the Honourable Spencer Horatio Walpole, a high Protectionist; East Sussex, vacated by Mr. Darby, a waverer, has elected Mr. Charles Hay Frewen, also a high Protectionist, though rather obscure in his pledges on the point. The largest constituency in England, that of West Yorkshire, has once more returned Lord Morpeth to the House of Commons, in place of Mr. John Stuart Wortley, now Lord Wharncliffe, who was elected as a Protectionist in 1841. But the triumph of Free-trade in the West Riding is not confined to the election of a new member : Mr. Ferrand has been doing his best to rouse the spirit of Protection in the county, and he successively provided two candidates — Mr. E. Lascelles, who preferred to be elected for Lord De Grey's quiet borough of Ripon (the mild, good sense of Mrs. Lawrence no longer ruling the independent electors), and Mr. George Lane Fox, who proved an invalid, unable to stand the excitement of the hustings or the labours of Ihe House. Meanwhile, Mr. Ferrand had effectually roused aggressive rather than Protective spirits, having infected numerous meetings with the contagion of his own excited temperament; insomuch that his Pro-Coru-Law-Anti- Poor-La w High-Tory Anti-Peel agitation became a series of " rows." It is no wonder that Mr. Fox's medical advisers thought it prudent to keep him away from Mr. Ferrand's company and incidents. The upshot was, that the Pro-Corn-Law agitation became an affair of medical police ; the delirious Ferrand became at once the object of desertion and the sole champion of Protection ; and at last he evaded — the sport of his own futile fussiness and of universal derision. The West Riding, therefore, has been the scene of a most signal discomfiture for Protection ; it has returned the member whom, on Protective grounds, it set aside in 1841, and has sent him to Parliament authorised to support if not to extend Sir Robert Peel's measure of free trade. If some of the smaller constituencies that have just been called upon to exercise their functions remain where they were on the question — which is not exactly certain — the great constituency of West Yorkshire has pronounced its conversion. We have in that fact a remarkable proof that constituencies as well as representatives have come round to the Peel policy.

The Protectionists have not failed to attempt more direct demonstrations against the new measure ; but success has been very partial. Some few meetings have been held ; but they have been just of the same sort with those that were held before the meeting of Parliament: even the foolish speeches were of the identical Tyrell pattern. On the other hand, although the avowed adherents of the League make a show of striving to force a more complete or at least a more " immediate " measure of free trade from Sir Robert Peel, various provincial bodies, Liberal and Conservative, have emphatically declared their support of it. If there has been no enthusiastic and unqualified manifestation for it by " the country," the opposition to it proves to be disjointed and petty in the extreme.

[From the London Daily News, Feb. 9.] The Annual Corn Circular of Messrs. J. and C. Sturge has just been issued : it is as follows : —

Birmingham, Wednesday, 7. p.m. Until the uncertainty which so long hung over the intentions of Ministers with reference to the Corn Laws was removed, we were unwilling to issue our usual annual circular. The declaration on the part of Sir Robert Peel, though not embracing an immediate abolition of the Corn Laws, is a more complete recognition of the soundness of the principle both of an unrestricted importation of food and of free trade generally than its most sanguine advocates could have anticipated. This declaration and the measures proposed by Government have no doubt been greatly accelerated by the un-

favourable wheat harvest in many parts of England and on the Continent, but principally by the disease amongst the potatoes. It is asserted by many that the extent of this disease has been exaggerated ; but we think no evidence has yet appeared to confirm this ; and it should be borne in mind that we have still to supply our great population with food for seven months before a new crop can be available, and already good potatoes are 100 per cent, above their average value. The moderate price of wheat in comparison with potatoes must cause an increased consumption of bread ; and although the Corn Returns for six months, ending the 2d instant, instead of showing an increase of 30 per cent., as they did during the first three months, only exhibit an addition of 42,425 quarters compared with the same period last year ; yet it is universally admitted that the dealers, millers, and bakers have very rarely so completely exhausted their stocks, though they are accustomed to hold largely at this season of the year.

It would have been difficult, if not impossible, to choose a more favourable time than the present for the abolition of the Corn Laws, as the foreign markets were probably never in a state less likely to cause a depression in Great Britain. The stocks of grain are low throughout the whole of Europe ; and there is every reason to suppose that Belgium, France, and several ottftr countries, will, during the spring, be competitors with us for what America has to spare ; and the rapid increase in the consumption of the better kinds of food which will be the result of the adoption of the enlightened principles of free trade, will preclude the danger of any extra supply to force the price below a fair remunerating one; indeed there is scarcely any part of the world from which wheat could now be imported without loss, and we consider the probabilities strongly in favour of an advance on our present quotations for a considerable time to come. The future range of the prices of grain must ultimately depend on the advance of the science of agriculture ; but the relative proximity of the English agriculturist to the markets of consumption will give him an advantage over the foreign grower, which it would be a reflection on his skill and enterprise to suppose would not prove an amply sufficient protection.

The stock of bonded wheat at Gloucester is about 45,000 quarters, consisting of about 10,000 quarters of hard Russian, 3,000 quarters of hard Spanish, 15,000 of Polish Odessa, 5,000 of Dantzic, and 4,000 of Rostock; the remainder Danube, &c. Since the Government measure has been known, we have had an increased demand, and an advance of Is. to 2s. per quarter on wheat. Present prices are — English new, 6s. to 75. ; old, 7s. 4d. to Bs. per 62 lbs. here. Polish Odessa, 7s. 3d. to 7s. 9d. ; hard, 7s. to 7s. 6d. Dantzic, Bs. to Bs. 6d. per 60 lbs. at Gloucester.

Our supplies of barley continue large, and there is but little indication- of any improvement in its value. Dry grinding qualities are most inquired for, and are worth 275. to 28s. per 392 lbs. here.

Of the large quantity of oats which arrived at Gloucester the latter part of the year, nearly the whole of the good qualities have been cleared oif : and, as there are few shipments making from Ireland, when the supplies from our farmers fall off, as they generally do before the end of the next month, we think an improvement on their present high relative value very probable. Irish white sells freely at 265. to 275; black, 235. to 235. 6d. ; Welsh black, 245. per 312 lbs. at Gloucester.

Our supplies of beans are about equal to the demand ; but as they cannot be imported from any quarter at a profit on the present price, although that is high, compared with wheat and barley, we believe the value of all descriptions will be at least maintained. We have a fair demand for French, at 15s. 3d. to 165. ; Egyptian, 15s. per 196 lbs., at Gloucester. Old English, 19s. to 20s. New, 12s. to 15s. per 196 pounds.

We have for some time had only a retail sale for Indian corn, pease, &c, and their value is nearly nominal. A couple of cargoes of the former have been taken for Ireland, at 355. per 480 lbs. free.

The Premier and the Farmers. — Mr. William Cross, a respectable farmer in this neighbourhood, on Tuesday last (February 3) addressed a letter to the Premier, in connexion with the proposed new plan of protective duties, in which he respectfully submitted, that were the income tax levied on farmers according to the profits derived from their farms, instead of, as now, on half their rental, this would be one of the best methods that could be adopted to afford compensation for the withdrawal of protection from agriculture. Mr. Cross instanced his own farms as having yielded him little or no profit for these several years past. To this letter Mr. Cross received, by return of post, the subjoined pithy reply: — "Downing Street, 4th February, 1846. Sir — I am desired by Sir Robert Peel to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday. Sir Robert Peel trusts that your farm will be more profitable under the law which he has proposed, than it appears to have been under a system of high protective duties. He has no intention of making any alteration in the Income Tax Act. It is clear that in such a case as yours, there could be no claim for compensation, as a change in the law can hardly operate to your injury. I am, sir, your obedient servant, W. H. Stephenson."

M. Pelouze, the celebrated chemist, who has been for some time placed at the head of the works at the Royal Mint, has recently presented to the Academy of Sciences, a paper on the means he has discovered, and of which be has made experiments with complete success, of measuring, with extreme precision, the quantities of copper contained in the alloys of copper, zinc, and tin. The proportions of these alloys had not hitherto been accurately ascertained, to the great detriment of commerce and the arts.

Ireland. — At the weekly meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, the conversion of Sir Robert Peel to the doctrines of Free-trade was deemed encouraging to the cause of Irish Repeal. Mr. Smith O'Brien asserted that he should not be the least surprised if Sir Robert Peel were to state in the House of Commons, some of these days, that in resisting the call for Repeal he had acted in error, and was now ready to confer on the Irish people the boon of selfgovernment. The success of the Anti- CornLaw agitation should prove the best incentive to the Irish Repealers to persevere in theirs. — Mr. Steel denounced and repudiated resolutions lately brought under the consideration of the American Congress recommending the annexation of Ireland to the United States. The rent for the week was £27^ 2s. — Spectator, Feb. 7. The Limerick Chronicle states that one of the judges had lost £60,000 by railway speculations.

A letter from Gottingen announces that M. Koch, a geologist of that city, has just discovered in the United States, in the State of Alabama, at a depth of 111 feet below the surface of the ground, the complete skeleton of an antediluvian serpent, 114 French feet (121 feet 6 inches English), the vertebrae of which are from 24 to 30 inches high, and 18 in circumference. M. Koch is of opinion that the animal must have lived in the sea, and that it was carnivorous. He proposes to give it the name of archihydra.

A letter from Berlin, in the German Journal of Frankfort, informs us that the Jews of that city have made an appeal to the Jews of Europe generally, in order to raise a fund by shares for the foundation of a Jewish colony in America.

A fully organized and widely extended conspiracy had been discovered in Poland. Amongst those arrested by the Government were several soldiers of the garrison, and a number of the Catholic clergy. In an almost official letter dated Augsburg, February 1, it is stated that the conspirators' intention was on the night of the Polish ball, which is given at Thorn at the end of the year, to master the chief persons of the German party, the commandant, the principal military officers, &c, and seize upon the public establishments and the fortifications ; at the same time an attack from without would have been attempted. The judges have declared the conviction of Serva and the other pirates, under sentence of death in Exeter gaol, invalid on two grounds — • first, that it is not piracy for the Brazilians to carry on the slave trade until they have made it so by the Brazilian municipal law; and, secondly, that the Felicidade was wrongfully taken, not having any slaves on board, and therefore that she did not become a British ship, and was not accordingly justified in capturing the Echo.

The extensive locomotive engine manufactory at Forth Banks, Newcastle, the -property of Messrs. Hawthorn, was destroyed- by fire early in February. The damage is estimated at £20,000.