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positions of the Vice President of the Board of Trade 

 is wrong. He admits that there is a great disunion 

 of sentiment between persons of all political parties, 

 and he ventures to call those who do not affirm his 

 own opinions, as ignorant, and yet his own reasoning 

 is not very clear and consistent ; and certainly the 

 opinions of the supporters of free trade are very con- 

 tradictory. The Vice President of the Board of 

 Trade does not venture to hint at an unrestricted 

 trade, but says, "he looks upon the substitution of a 

 fixed and certain duty, in the place of the present 

 fluctuating one, as likely to conduce more than any 

 other measure whatever to the prosperity and com- 

 fort of his fellow citizens/' not because he says " it 

 would produce cheap bread for that would not be 

 the result, but because it would produce constant 

 and certain supplies of corn from abroad, and con- 

 stant and certain demand for manufactured goods." 

 The author of the work entitled " England and 

 America" goes much further, he declares that an in- 

 stantaneous free trade, not a trade hampered by a 

 duty, but difree trade would be a means of enlarging 

 the field of employment for English capital and 

 labour, and would benefit all classes. He is not for 

 any fixed duty, he is not for any gradual repeal, he 

 argues that it would be of no ultimate benefit. " An 

 important question remains, whether, the Corn Laws 

 ought to be repealed suddenly, or by slow degrees. 

 Now the object of what follows is to show, and prin- 

 cipally, by correcting an error into which English 

 economists have been led by their ignorance of 



