366 
sary to enter into any examination of it, 
nor to lay it before the house. 
Much as your committee lament that so 
little prospect of immediate relief can be 
held out to the urgent distresses which have 
been submitted 10 their anxious considera: 
tion, they think it material to obviate and 
counteract any unfounded alarm which 
may have been, either casually or industri- 
ously, circulated, that there was ever the 
least intention entertained by your com- 
mittee of rendering the present condition 
of the British cultivators worse than it is 
under the existing law ; and they therefore 
submit, with great confidence, to the 
House, that the Act of the 55th of the late 
king, ¢. 26, which regulates the importation 
of foreign corn, ought to continue in force 
until the average price for wheat shall be 
8)s. per quarter, and other kinds of grain 
in proportion. 
Should parliament decide to legislate 
during the present session, your committee 
would recommend, that, after onr wheat 
shall have reached 80s, wlienever circum- 
stances, not now to be foreseen, may have 
effected so great a change, a lower price 
may be assumed for the future import, 
subject to a duty. 
When the importers know that their 
grain can in no case come into the market 
without paying a certain sum as duty, be- 
sides the charges of importation, ware- 
housing, and other incidental expenses, 
they will be Jess ready to adventure rashly 
than under an entirely free trade ; they will 
also withdraw their corn, which may be 
lodged in warehouses gradually, and with 
more circumspection, than they do at pre- 
sent, and will naturally endeavour to feed 
the market rather than inundate it. It is 
now their interest to take their whole 
stock, immense as it may be, at once from 
under the king’s lock; but, when they 
must pay duty for every quarter which is 
removed, they will prudently calculate the 
time that any large stock may remain on 
hand before they cau dispose of it to ad- 
vantage. 
The foundation of any future bill should 
e the principle of so far modifying the 
operation of the existing Jaw as to obviate, 
as far as may be, by the imposition of rea- 
sonable duties upon the admission of 
foreign grain for home consumption, the 
sudden and irregular manner in which 
such foreign grain may now be introduced 
upon the opening of the ports tinder cir- 
cumstances inconsistent with tle spirit and 
intentions of the law. 
For carrying this purpose into effect, it 
would be expedient, after the ports ehall 
have opened at 80s. (subject to a scale of 
duty hereafter to be fixed) to preserve the 
piinciple of an import price at a rate 
somewhat lower than the existing import 
price of 80s., and your committee are of 
Political Affairs in April. 
[May 1, 
opinion that 70s. would not be an improper 
limit to assign to that price. c 
That'a duty from 128. to 15s. should be 
imposed upon foreign wheat for home con- 
sumption, when the price is from 70s. 
to 80s. 
Also, that a duty of 5s, should be im- 
posed upon such wheat, when the price is 
from 80s. to 85s.: after which the daty 
should be reduced to 1s. 
And that a further additional duty of 
5s. should be imposed upon wheat imported 
or taken out of warehouse for home con- 
sumption, tor the first three months after 
the ports open, and when the price is from 
70s. to 85s. 
And, for the purpose of rectifying the 
scale which governs the import, the general 
proportion which the price of oats bears to 
the price of wheat, appearing to exceed 
the proportion which was assumed to 
exist, when 27s. was fixed as the import 
price of oats, your committee suggest, that 
it wonld be expedient to increase that 
price, so as to bear a more accurate pro- 
portion to the price of wheat. 
The scale at which barley is estimated 
appearing to be more correct than that of 
oats, the same proportion which it, now 
bears to wheat appears fit to continue, 
under any future alteration of the import 
prices. 
The Gth, 7th, 8th, and 9th clauses of the 
act, which regulate the importation, of 
corn, make provision for admitting eorn, 
meal, or flour, being the growth, produce, 
or manufacture of any British colony or 
plantation in North America, for home 
consumption, when British wheat is at a 
lower price than 80s.; with regard to 
which colonies, it will be consistent with 
good faith and sound policy to preserve the 
same relative preference above foreign 
corn, in the event of any future alteration 
being applied to the scale of prices or of 
duties. 
In compliance with an application made 
to them by several of the owners of the 
foreign grain now stored in warehouses, 
your committee have already recom- 
mended, that permission may be granted, 
under sufficient and adequate: regulations, 
to convert it into flour, and export it in 
that shape ; by which means some portion 
of this large stock will be carried out of 
the kingdom, and remove all apprehension 
that the quantities so ground down can 
ever enter into competition with our home 
produce: but, in the event of a large por- 
tion not being thus disposed of, and still 
remaining in store, it appears practicable 
to adopt a method which may render this 
remainder also advantageous, rather than 
detrimental, in its effect upon the value of 
British corn, whenever the average price 
of our wheat shall have risen to 70s. and 
fluctuate between 70s. and 80s.; for, if it 
be 
