75 



ral labourers ; for as the cultivation of the arable 

 land gives employment to two-thirds of them at 

 least, if this land were chiefly converted into pasture 

 land, half the peasantry would not have employment 

 in the cultivation of the soil. 



Thus we see what discrepancies there are in the 

 opinions of the advocates of free trade as to its effects. 

 Lord Fitzwilliam says, that it will reduce the price of 

 corn, and thereby reduce the price of labour, and 

 thereby reduce the price of manufactured articles, 

 and thereby enable our manufacturers to compete 

 more successfully with foreigners, and thereby encou- 

 rage the trade of the country : that it will be an 

 advantage to all classes except the landlords. The 

 author of " England and America" says, that an in- 

 stantaneous free trade will reduce the price of corn 

 one-half, that it will enlarge the field of employ- 

 ment ; that it will raise the wages of labour and the 

 profits of capital, and therefore raise the price of 

 manufactured goods, that all portions of the com- 

 munity will partake of the benefit, landlords as well 

 as others. The Vice President of the Board of Trade 

 says, that a repeal of the Corn Laws for when he 

 alludes to the change which " they," the people of 

 Manchester, " would desire/' I suppose he alludes to 

 a repeal of the Corn Laws, that such a change would 

 not produce cheap bread, but a more equal price of 

 bread, a constant and regular supply of corn from 

 abroad, and a constant and regular demand for manu- 

 factured articles, and which would conduce to the 

 prosperity and mutual comforts of the people. Thus, 



