66 



54y. a quarter, and the price at 40^. a quarter, 

 would scarcely affect the price of wrought goods, 

 would not prevent, or interfere with the suc- 

 cessful competition of our manufacturers with 

 foreigners, would not lower, much less under- 

 mine, the prosperity of our commercial population. 



I am not contending for the advantage of dear 

 corn, but for the advantage of a moderate price of 

 corn ; and it is very clear that the difference be- 

 tween a moderate price of corn, and a low price, 

 would scarcely, if at all, affect the wages of the 

 artisan, or the price of the manufactured commo- 

 dity. It is a complete fallacy to maintain that 

 the present Corn Laws raise the price of manufac- 

 tured articles, and prevent the successful compe- 

 tition of our manufacturers with foreigners. The 

 present Corn Laws may have restricted the de- 

 mand for manufactured goods from those indepen- 

 dent foreign nations which would have supplied 

 us with cheap corn, if the corn trade had been 

 free ; but they have not been the means of raising 

 the price of manufactured goods, but rather of 

 keeping down the price, by limiting the demand 

 for them, while the competition of capital and 

 labour has been so great as to produce supplies 

 beyond the demand, and thereby to glut the 

 markets. 



Other arguments in favour of a free trade in 

 corn are brought forward, as in the recent speech 

 of the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, to 

 his manufacturing constituents at Manchester, 



