33 



property, and character, should contribute to sup- 

 port this popular delusion ; that he should pro- 

 claim a free, unrestricted trade in corn, to be the 

 grand specific to appease the outcries of discontent, 

 to remove the distempers of faction and the suffer- 

 ings of poverty, and to restore health and vigour to 

 the industrious classes of the community. It is 

 rather strange that Lord Fitzwilliam should not 

 allude to the defence which the existing Corn 

 Laws afford, but should level his attack against 

 the ruined walls of former protection. His argu- 

 ments are entirely directed against high prices, and 

 the Corn Bill of 1815. He seems to have for- 

 gotten that any alteration had taken place in 

 1828 ; and it was an alteration, too, which appear- 

 ed to the enlightened mind of Mr. Canning, and 

 even to the liberal views of Mr. Huskisson, as ex- 

 tensive as was expedient and safe under the cir- 

 cumstances in which the landed interest were 

 placed ; and no alterations in their circumstances 

 have taken place since that time to justify a fur- 

 ther change. 



During the last forty years there have been 

 nearly 4,000,000 acres of land inclosed and culti- 

 vated, and this for the most part inferior land. 

 There is also a great extent of poor old inclosed 

 land, which would no longer answer to cultivate. 

 The injury arising from this retrocession of home 

 agriculture cannot be calculated. The immense 

 capital expended by the owners and the occupiers 

 in the cultivation and improvement of this land 



