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ment and change, is a characteristic of the temper 

 of the present times. It is a mark of the irregular 

 movement of the public mind, which has been so 

 much under the influence of political excitement, 

 so roused by political conflict, so perniciously 

 affected by the influence of mischievous agitators, 

 and by evil and designing men, that the best and 

 dearest interests of society are in danger, and it 

 will be some time before the public mind will be 

 in a state to contemplate things in a rational and 

 right way, even after wise and benevolent mea- 

 sures are more generally put into operation to in- 

 fluence and to guide it. What says the wisdom 

 of Lord Bacon ? " that it is good not to try expe- 

 riments in States, except the necessity be urgent, 

 or the utility evident ; and well to be aware that it 

 is the reformation that draweth on the change, and 

 not the desire of change that pretendeth the 

 reformation." 



Now the " necessity" for any change in the 

 Corn Laws, against which the arguments in these 

 pages have been directed, is not " urgent," or the 

 " utility evident." Instead of the necessity being 

 urgent, or the utility evident, the evils of change 

 are urgent and evident. The evils have already 

 " cast their shadows before." The foreboding of 

 change has, long since, in a measure, deadened the 

 energy of exertion, arrested improvements in agri- 

 culture, and restricted and prevented the employ- 

 ment of capital and labour in this most important 

 branch of industry. The experiment of a free trade in 



