

J827.] The Re-asssemUing of Parliament. 165 



man demands in his receivings, if the party of whom the demand is made 

 have more power of enforcing their demand in his disbursings ; or, if there 

 be any effect, it is merely the keeping up of an artificial rate of every 

 product of industry and the soil, in consequence of the artificial rent 

 which the owner demands for the latter. In this way the country loses 

 much in the general commerce of the world ; while the landlord is forced 

 to bear more than his average share of the loss. 



This, we apprehend, is the sound and philosophical view of the Corn 

 Laws; and if that view could be but taken, as it ought to be taken, their 

 repeal should be carried by acclamation, and regarded as a boon equally 

 by the man who lives by land, and the man who lives by labour. It is 

 true that, in a country paying taxes foreign grain should not come in 

 without paying an impost. Comparing the whole taxes with the whole 

 productions of the country, the taxes will be some fraction say one-fourth. 

 Now, if corn were to be freely imported at a duty corresponding to this 

 fraction upon its price, as taken in the continental markets, for an average 

 of (say) the last ten years, that duty would satisfy every demand which 

 justice or sound policy could require; and if the Houses of Parliament 

 come, as we hope they will, to some such conclusion as this, they will 

 deserve, and they will receive, the gratitude of that community whose 

 servants they are. 



In the second place, Parliament will have to entertain the great ques- 

 tion of admitting the Catholic population of Ireland to a free participation 

 in the benefits of the constitution. Last month we delivered our opinion 

 at great length in favour of the liberal side of this question : but, from cir- 

 cumstances which have occurred since what was there inserted was written, 

 the question has assumed a new form, more favourable (in some respects) 

 to emancipation than the case exhibited four weeks ago. 



In the third place, there will come before Parliament a measure for ren- 

 dering the police in the environs of the metropolis more efficient than it is 

 under the present system; and, it must be allowed, that no measure of 

 local policy is more called for, or, if wisely and judiciously framed, and 

 vigorously executed, will be productive of ha.ppier consequences. The 

 suburban villages, by which the metropolis is surrounded, form at present 

 any thing but a cordon sanitaire. They are, in very many instances, the 

 receptacles of bands of midnight plunderers, and, as such, call loudly 

 for the interference of the legislature to protect the lives and property of 

 the people. Mr. Peel has already done good service to the country, by 

 the reform which he has introduced into the mode of appointing juries, and 

 the form of proceeding in the courts of law ; and if he shall exert the 

 same skill and the same integrity in the matter of the police, he will confer 

 a most substantial advantage upon the country. 



In the fourth place, the law of libel the most absurd, unaccountable, 

 and inconsistent section even in that chequered code which makes up the 

 laws of England, and in which the wisdom and the folly of many ages 

 are blended in the most inharmonious incongruity calls, perhaps, more 

 loudly, not merely for revision, but for a total remodelling, than any other 

 portion of the thousand-and-one heavy tomes ; and although no announce- 

 ment no formal announcement of a project to this effect has yet been 

 made, we know, from the information of a senator, the very best qualified 

 for framing such a measure, and carrying it (if sound philosophy and splen- 

 did eloquence can carry it), that such a measure will be brought forward 

 in the course of the session, and, we hope, at no remote part of it. We 



