CORN LAWS 



33 



large forces which really govern the condi- 

 tions of life — a truth always forgotten or 

 ignored by advocates of legislation. Laws 

 can regulate action and encourage or dis- 

 courage effort but they can neither initiate 

 nor suppress it. On the natural conditions 

 within which effort must operate and by 

 which it is absolutely limited they have no 

 influence whatever. 



The abolition of the Com Laws un- 

 doubtedly encouraged imports and discour- 

 aged home production through the great fall 

 of prices which eventually followed ; but 

 the effective causes were the improvement of 

 transport and the opening up of vast corn 

 lands in America which Porter did not 

 foresee. 



Growth of Imports. 



The following table, compiled from the 

 returns of the Board of Agriculture, gives the 

 imports of foodstuffs more comprehensively : 



