78 



against the competition of corn, the production of which 

 had not given employment to British and Irish capital 

 and labour, but raised on the unexhausted and fertile 

 land of other countries, with scarcely any expense 

 save the labour of husbandmen. The circumstances, 

 therefore, of the landed interest and the manufacturing 

 interest are very different. And it does not follow 

 that the same line of policy that is adapted to the one, 

 is necessarily suited to the other : indeed, this is 

 emphatically the case in respect to these interests in 

 this country. 



If there should be a free trade in corn, or a near 

 approach to it, and the rent of land considerably 

 reduced, and on a considerable portion of land anni- 

 hilated, trie proprietors would have less to expend, 

 they would employ fewer labourers, fewer servants, 

 keep fewer horses and carriages, in short, they would 

 have much less to lay out on the comforts and luxu- 

 ries of life. The landlords, the farmers, the labourers 

 in husbandry, the inhabitants of country towns and 

 villages, who are chiefly dependent upon the agricul- 

 tural classes, form a large portion of the home con- 

 sumers of manufactured articles ; it surely, therefore, 

 is of importance to the manufacturers whether these 

 classes of their customers are in a flourishing or suf- 

 fering condition ! Mr. Stanley, in his speech at the 

 hustings, at Lancaster, says, " my friend who did me 

 the favour to propose me, coming from a manufac- 

 turing district, and being himself no corn grower, and 

 having therefore a strong interest in procuring corn 

 as cheap as possible, has told you, that his opinion, 



