86" 



extended abroad even without being reduced at home. 

 Indeed, contemporaneously with the field of employ- 

 ment being enlarged for our manufactures, may it be 

 enlarged for our agriculture, and the prosperity of 

 both interests be simultaneously promoted, without 

 any free trade in corn, or a nearer approximation to 

 it. Thus, by extending and improving the agricul- 

 ture of our own islands, there is still a wide field for 

 the employment of agricultural capital and labour ; 

 and in the vast empires of the East there will be, now 

 the monopoly of the East India Company has ceased 

 and the trade is thrown open, a great demand for 

 British merchandise, and a new and extensive field 

 for the employment of manufacturing capital and 

 labour. Here are resources, independent of any alte- 

 ration of the Corn Laws; independent, too, of the 

 great resources which can scarcely be said to be en- 

 tered upon, and which the English have in their colo- 

 nial possessions. And though, notwithstanding, the 

 field is before us in which capital and labour may be 

 beneficially engaged in extending our agriculture and 

 increasing the produce of our own territories, it is not 

 likely to be so engaged, until the public mind is satis- 

 fied that the advantages of a free corn trade have been 

 very much overrated, and it feels mistrust whether the 

 change would be for the general benefit of the people ; 

 until the delusion is dispelled which has been created 

 by agitators, by theoretical and experimental politi- 

 cians, by men whose opinions are formed, too exclu- 

 sively, upon general principles, and I may add, also, 

 by men of political experience, who, yet, are not 



