CHAP. II. The Corn Laws-Resolutions introduced by Mr. Canning-Motion for the House going into a Committee opposed by the AgriculturistsViews of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Peel-Mr. Bankes's Amendment to raise the medium Price lost-Mr. Whitmore's Amendment to lower the medium Price lost-Ministers agree to raise the medium Price of Barley and Oats-Attempts to raise the medium Price of Rye, Pease, and Beans-Attempts to increase the Duty on Oatmeal and Flour-Scheme of Mr. Hume in opposition to the Resolutions-Bill founded on the Resolutions brought in—Amendments proposed-Debate and Division on the second Reading-Bill passes the House of Commons. E QUAL, if not superior, to the attention excited by this great constitutional question, was the anxiety with which parliament and the public awaited that permanent system of regulations for the Corn Trade, which ministers had pledged themselves to propose during the present session. It had been originally intended to introduce the subject simultaneously into both Houses; and, accordingly, at the opening of the session, lord Liverpool gave notice, that he would bring forward the intended measure in the Peers on the 19th of February; but, in consequence of the state of Mr. Canning's health, who was to take charge of it in the House of Commons, it was delayed for a week; and, in the meantime, lord Liverpool himself was attacked by that illness which removed him from political life. The consequence of this was, that the propositions were brought forward only in the lower House, and it was not till the 1st of March that the health of Mr. Canning was so far re-established as to en able him to perform that duty-a duty which, he said, had been imposed upon him (although there were many others better qualified to develop such a subject in all its variety of details), but because it was thought proper, when the propositions of government were brought forward in parliament, that they should be introduced in such a manner as to indicate most clearly that they were recommendations from authority, and not the act or speculation of any individual, however high in rank and character. In introducing the subject on the 1st of March, Mr. Canning expressed his surprise, that so much of hostile feeling should have been allowed to enter into the consideration of a question where none ought to have been found, and that this asperity should arise where there was no necessity to fly to extremes, and where the difficulties were, in point of fact, less than they were stated in argument. Every body admitted the necessity of protecting the agricultural interests, and the only ques tion was, the mode and degree in which that protection should be administered. That protection was due to domestic agriculture, could scarcely be denied; to what amount, and in what manner, were the points in question. Stern, inflexible, prohibition, as a measure of protection, could hardly be defended; for even those of the agriculturists who were most attached to it, uniformly made it a recommendation of their plan, that parliament, if it were sitting, and the executive government, if it were not, might always step in to furnish aid in case of necessity: to provide for such interference to remedy the consequences, or what might be the consequences, of prohibition was to acknowledge, that no system of absolute prohibition could be inflexibly maintained. Of late years, three different modes of protection, without prohibition, had been proposed. The first was that of Mr. Ricardo: it imposed on wheat a duty of 20s. per quarter, to be diminished by one shilling every year, till it should have reached a minimum of about 10s. The second proposed to begin with a duty of 16s., to be gradually lowered to 10s. By the third plan, which had been broached in a well-known periodical publication, a duty of 5s. or 6s. was to be imposed, once for all, without any reference to the price. All these three plans had been devised by persons who were generally favourable to a free trade in corn; but to all of them there lay the objection, that, when a pressure came, it would bring with it distress to the agriculturists. Those again, on the other side, who advocated total prohibition, modified by the occasional interference of parliament, or of the government, VOL. LXIX. Leaving these extremes, the more difficult question was, what was the degree of protection which should be extended to domestic agriculture-did the laws, as they at present existed, afford sufficient protection, or did they afford it to an unnecessary extent? With the exception of an act, passed in the reign of Edward III. and of which it was enough to say, that it not only prohibited the importation of foreign grain, but prohibited the corn grown in the neighbourhood of any one town in England from being carried into another town, it was the law of 1815 that introduced absolute prohibition, for the first time, into the legislation of this country regarding corn. On the other hand, when the price arrived at 80s. importation was to be unlimited; so that the law attempted to unite two opposite extremes. In the year 1816, the harvest was one of the most unfavourable that had ever been known in this country. So early as the month of August in that year, corn had risen above the importation price, but, from the delay of making up the average returns, the ports were not opened until the month of November. Thus the ports remained shut during three starving months. The harvest of 1817 was nearly as bad as that of the preceding year; there was a whole winter of suffering, and the ports were opened again in February. The harvest [F] of the year 1818 was extremely 38s.; and if merely a duty of 12s. were then added, it would be as much too small as the other was too high. With respect to the price, he did not wish, in any degree, to find fault with that which had been assumed in 1815; and he was equally ready to admit the same with regard to that of 1822. The price of wheat for the twelve years which preceded 1815 was 85s. 4d., and the price of the last six of those years was 968. 6d. In It 1815 it was 80s. If, therefore, much was to be allowed for the inflammation and excitement of war, he thought that the prices had been fairly fixed. The prices of corn, from the year 1815 to the year 1820, were 75s. 11d. In the year 1822 the new price was taken; and, upon the whole, he could not entirely blame those who had taken 70s. as the price, because the average of the prices from the year 1815 up to the last year was 65s. 10d.: in the last year it was 55s. 6d. No man could doubt or deny that the medium price might fairly be taken at between twelve and six years. The exact average for the last four years came up to this price, and the average for the present year, as far as the present year had gone, amounted to 53s. per quarter. In considering, therefore, the price of production at which the legislature could interfere, according to the principles which had governed former parliaments, 60s. per quarter had been taken as the point at which the grower was entitled to the protec tion of a high duty, to guard him against the injury which he might sustain from the importation of foreign corn. He next came to consider the mode in which the object which they had in view was to be effected, and he was decidedly of opinion that a fixed and certain duty could never effect that object. Let them take, for instance, either the plan of Mr. Ricardo, or either of the other two; let the duty be fixed and invariable, and see what would be the effect of its application. In one year corn was at the price of 112s.; add a fixed and invariable duty of 12s. to this, and the price would be rendered enormous. another year, corn was so low as In The next question was, as to the mode in which this duty ought to be regulated. The experience of past years proved, that, to impose a fixed duty, with out any reference to the variation of prices, was extremely objectionable and inefficient, because it was, inevitably, sometimes too high, and at other times too low, with reference to the actual state of the country. It was, therefore, more advisable to adopt a scale of duties which should vary in a relative proportion to the price of corn. The duty of 20s., when the price reached 60s., had been fixed on as one which it would be reasonable to propose. That duty was to diminish 2s. per quarter for every one shilling of increase in price, and to increase 2s. for every proportionate diminution of price, taking 60s. as the average price of the quarter of corn. The effect of this scale would be, that when the average price was 60s. the duty would be 20s.; from 61s. to 62s., it would be 188.; from 62s. to 63s. it would be 16s.; from 63s. to 64s. it would be 14s.; from 64s. to 65s. it would be 12s.; from 65s. to 66s. it would be 10s.; so that, at 70s., all duty would cease, and the importation be perfectly free and without duty, excepting the ordinary registration at the Custom-house. On the other hand, when the average price should amount only to 59s., the duty would be 22s., and for every diminution of Is. in price, 28. of duty would be added; so that, when the average price reached 55s., the duty would be 30s. It had been the earnest desire of his majesty's government to hold the scales equally between the conflicting interests of the country. There was a disposition, he was ready to admit, in point of principle, in favour of an open trade; but ministers saw also, that it was necessary to establish such a regulation of the price as might protect the interests of the agriculturists. If he were asked why, since he proposed a prohibitory duty, he did not, at that point, propose an absolute prohibition, he would answer, that he did not think the results of the innovation (for so he must call it) made in 1815, upon the former policy of the country, were such as to make it advisable, either for the agriculturists themselves, or for the public generally, to recognize the principle of a prohi bition, on a subject which involved the main interests of the nation. It appeared to him, that, if the trade in corn was to be continued at all, it ought to be continued, as far as was practicable, under the same principles as were applied to other species of trade; that it should be kept in a sober, regular course, and not subjected to the perpetual jerks and impulses which had been experienced of late, on the occasion of any extraordinary emergency. He was persuaded, that the only means of securing so desirable a state of things was by making the importation of corn free. He was aware that, considering the varying course of the markets, it could not be wholly and literally free; but it might be made sufficiently free by taking security against an inundation from abroad, and a failure at home, by means of a correct and equal register. Thus the real wants of the country would be supplied, the danger of an overflow would be avoided, as well as the danger arising from the principle of prohibition, which would cause a constant alternation between a drought and a deluge. The market would then exhibit no more such fluctuations of price as had been experienced, and which had extended from 112s. to 38s. per quarter; the vibration would be bounded between 55s. and 65s., and the plane on which it acted would be much greater. This plan would also get rid of an evil of the first magnitude the abuse to which the system of averages had been exposed. When it had happened, that, twice in the course of two years, a fraction of 5d. one way, and 2d. another, had had the effect of opening the ports when they ought to have been shut, and of shutting them when they ought to have been open, it was impossible to divest one's mind of the suspicion that unfair practices had prevailed in that system. The averages would be declared weekly, in such a manner as to prevent the deep speculations which now took place, and to guard, as much as possible, against the frauds that now were practised. The Resolutions were the following:-"That it is the opinion of this Committee, that any sort of corn, grain, meal, and flour, which may now by law be imported into the United Kingdom, should at all times be admissible for home use, upon payment of the duties following; viz.-if imported from any foreign country: -WHEAT, viz. :— "Whenever the average price of Wheat, made up and published in manner required by law, shall be 60s. and under 61s. per quarter, the duty shall be, for every quarter, 1. And in respect of every integral shilling by which such price shall be above 60s. such duty shall be decreased by 2s. until such price shall be 70s. "Whenever such price shall be at or above 70s. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 1s. "Whenever such price shall be under 60s. and not under 59s. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 11. 2s. And in respect of each integral shilling, tegral shilling, or any part of each integral shilling, by which such price shall be under 59s. such duty shall be increased by 2s. up BARLEY.-"Whenever the average price of barley, made and published in manner required by law, shall be 30s. and under 31s. the quarter, the duty shall be, for every quarter, 10s. And in respect of every integral shilling by which the price shall be above 30s. such duty shall be decreased by 1s. 6d. until such price shall be 37s. Whenever such price shall be at or above 37s. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 1s. "Whenever such price shall be under 30s. and not under 298. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 11s. 6d. And in respect of each integral shilling, or any part of each integral shilling, by which such price shall be under 29s. such duty shall be increased 1s. 6d. OATS. "Whenever the average price of oats, made up and published in manner required by law, shall be 21s. and under 22s. the quarter, the duty shall be, for every quarter, 7s. And in respect of every integral shilling by which such price shall be above 21s. such duty shall be decreased by 1s. until such price shall be 28s. "Whenever such price shall be at or above 28s. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 1s. "Whenever such price shall be under 21s. and not under 20s. the duty shall be, for every quarter, 8s. And in respect of each integral shilling, or any part of each |