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1826.

one sent abroad caused the production of one at home CHAP. who would not otherwise have come into the world, there is a great gain the supply is kept twenty years behind the demand occasioned by the removal. But the truth is, that the emigration of the poor, so far from occasioning their reproduction, has a tendency to check it. It is among the utterly destitute that the principle of population always acts with most force, because they are wholly uninfluenced by the reason and artificial wants which in more comfortable circumstances restrain it. This has now been decisively demonstrated. Since the great emigration from Ireland began, in 1847, the population, so far from having increased, has declined above 2,000,000: the cottars have got better clothes, better beds, more comforts, higher wages, but not more children.

32.

The prosperous state of the country during the preceding year enabled the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Finances. take credit for the large amount of taxes, amounting to £3,146,000, taken off in that year, making, with those of the three preceding years, above eleven millions taken. off since 1822, and £27,522,000 since 1815.* He observed with pride that, notwithstanding this great reduction of taxation, nearly £23,000,000 of debt had been paid off in the last three years, funded and unfunded, being at the rate of £7,500,000 a-year, and that the annual charge of the debt during the same period had been diminished by no less than £1,339,000. Such were the financial resources of the country during the three years that small notes had been in circulation, and the nation had enjoyed the advantage of a currency adequate to its necessities, and capable of sustaining prices.

XXI. 1826.

CHAP. But the deplorable state of commerce and manufactures in the beginning of 1826 rendered it impossible in that year to make any reduction of taxation. reduction of taxation. On the con1 Parl. Deb. trary, he anticipated a diminution of no less than 1322; Ann. £1,300,000 in the excise alone, and could only hold out the hope of a surplus of £714,000, being not a tenth of that of the preceding year.1

xiv. 1315,

Reg. 1826,

73, 74.

33.

the repeal

Laws.

The year 1826 witnessed the first serious discussion Motion for which had occurred since they were established in 1814, of the Corn for the REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. This question, which became so momentous in after years, had never been mooted for a long period,-for this obvious reason, that the contraction of the currency had lowered prices of agricultural produce so much that it was thought they could not well be lower, and more distress prevailed among those engaged in its production than among those who depended on the various branches of manufacturing industry. Now, however, the case was in some measure altered. Distress had spread to all classes alike, and, if not more acutely felt, was at least more loudly complained of in the manufacturing than in the agricultural districts. The operatives, suffering under a great and sudden fall of wages, vehemently demanded a corresponding diminution in the price of their subsistence. Government, anticipating such a demand, had in the close of the preceding year sent a very intelligent gentleman, Mr Jacob, on a mission to the various harbours in the north of Europe, to ascertain the price of various kinds of grain, and at what rates they could be brought to this country. He brought back a great deal of valuable information, which was embodied in a Report that was printed and laid before both Houses of Parliament. From thence it appeared that the price of wheat in some parts of the north of Germany was 14s., and in some as low as 10s. a quarter; and that, including every charge, it could be brought to any British harbour at from 20s. to 25s. These prices, compared with 56s. to 60s., which wheat

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1826.

bore at the same time in England, made a prodigious CHAP. impression, the more so, as the wages in the manufacturing districts had fallen during the last three months from thirty to forty per cent, and great numbers of persons of both sexes were out of employment altogether. The opinion consequently became general, and was eagerly spread by the leaders of the popular party, that all the public distresses were owing to the Corn Laws, and would be effectually, and for ever, cured by their repeal. The time was deemed, in consequence, favourable for bringing 1 Ann. Reg. forward the question, and a motion was made on the 49. subject, in the House of Commons, by Mr Whitmore.1

1826, 44,

for the re

On the part of the advocates of the repeal, it was 34. argued by Mr Whitmore, Mr Phillips, and Sir Thomas Argument Lethbridge: "The present moment, when we are on the peal of the eve of a general election, may possibly be an inconvenient Corn Laws. one for the discussion of this great question; but the circumstances of the country are so pressing, the general distress is so overwhelming, that it is not safe to delay the discussion of it for a single hour. After Government has applied the principles of free trade to every other branch of industry, it becomes indispensable to apply it also to that which has for its object the providing subsistence for the workman; for what can be so unjust as to pay him his wages at the reduced rate produced by free trade, and compel him to buy food for himself and his family at the high rate produced by a monopoly in the raising of grain? The British manufacturer can never enter unprotected into competition with his Continental rivals, while the chief means of his subsistence are kept up at an artificial rate, far above their cost in any other country of Europe. If reciprocity of trade is to be established at all, it is evident that we ought to select those articles for its operation in which foreign countries had the greatest interest. Now, to all the countries from which grain is to be obtained, nothing is of so much importance as the exportation of corn, and yet our system

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1826.

CHAP. of Corn Laws had actually been diminishing in those countries the production of that with which alone they can purchase our manufactures. In consequence of our prohibitory system, the price of wheat in some parts of Germany is only 14s. the quarter, in some only 10s. The result is a diminished production of grain on their part, and a diminished ability, in consequence, to purchase our manufactures. This appears from Mr Jacob's report, who states that the exportation from Dantzic and Memel, which from 1801 to 1805 had been 549,365 quarters, sunk, in the years from 1821 to 1825, to 83,000 quarters, and a similar falling off had everywhere taken place. If home grain was so low as 56s. to 60s., we need never fear a greater importation than 400,000 quarters; and with such an average price the English agriculturists ought not only to be satisfied, but to regard themselves as the most enviable class of the community.

35.

"It is this free trade which Adam Smith has so beautiContinued. fully described, as exhibiting the harmonious operation of the commercial system; by means of which the private interests of individuals, the more they are exercised, conduce the more to the general prosperity of the community. But the Corn Laws tend alike to depress the general interest, and to ruin the individual trade. Between 1817 and 1822 the fall of prices was from 94s. to 43s. a quarter a fall quite sufficient to ruin all engaged, whether in its production or its purchase.* In consequence of that depression, both the agriculturist and the corn-dealer

It never occurred to Mr Whitmore that the Bill of 1819 had anything to do with this great fall, or that of 1822 in restoring prices, which in the three following years stood thus :

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1826.

were constant losers. Corn in bond can now be purchased CHAP. at from 20s. to 30s., while that in the market brings 50s. or 60s. It is evident, from these prices, that no man in his senses will engage in the corn trade under its present restrictions; and if the capital now engaged in that traffic is either destroyed or diverted into other channels, what resource will remain to the country in those seasons of periodical scarcity which must always, in this climate, be looked for? As matters now stand, a single bad season might bring us, without the possibility of relief, to the very borders of famine.

36.

"The extremely small quantity of foreign wheat imported, being only 12,577,000 quarters in twenty years, Concluded. or about 600,000 quarters a-year, proves how little danger there is to apprehend any inordinate supply from foreign countries. * The importation, it is to be recollected, has been thus small, though the average price of corn during the period was 84s. 6d., and though until 1815 there was, in reality, no obstruction to the importation of foreign grain. It may safely be concluded, therefore, that, with prices from 55s. to 60s., the importation of wheat will never exceed 400,000 quarters. Mr Jacob has stated that a duty of 10 or 12 per cent would stop the importation of wheat altogether, even though the price were from 60s. to 64s. The cost of bringing

* WHEAT IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM FOREIGN PORTS.