298 



Agriculture and the Corn-Law. 



Vol. VIII. 



the especial care of Parliament; the agri- 

 cultural interest has been the one to which 

 all others have been at all times unsparingly 

 sacrificed; and, if their measures have not 

 answered, — if their end has not been ob- 

 tained, it can only have been either because 

 their object was not attainable, or because 

 their measures were unwisely adapted to 

 their end. 



Now, what is the actual state of the case? 

 None can answer this question so well as 

 the farmers themselves. Since 1815, they 

 have had almost every thing in their favour. 

 Their customers, the consumers of agricul- 

 tural produce, have multiplied with enor- 

 mous rapidity; the wealth of these custom- 

 ers, and their consequent powerofpurcha.se, 

 have increased with the extension of trade 

 in a still more rapid ratio; — the manufac- 

 turing and engineering enterprise of the 

 country has absorbed immense numbers of 

 labourers, who must otherwise have re- 

 mained a heavy burden on the land ; — of 

 late the remodelling of the poor-laws has 

 relieved them from a pressing and severe 

 embarrassment; — and taxes which bore ex- 

 clusively upon the agricultural interest, have 

 been repealed to the extent of a million 

 yearly.* Yet what has been the result? Is 

 it not notorious, that, during this period, 

 farmers have been in a state of frequent and 

 deplorable depression? During this period, 



* The following table is taken from Parliamentary 

 returns, and the details may be found in the Compan- 

 ion to the Newspaper for 1836, p. 232:— 



have there not been three several corn-laws 

 passed for their relief and encouragement 

 alone ? And, during this period, have there 

 not been^^DC parliamentary committeesf sit- 

 ting, to prove the existence, and inquire into 

 the causes of agricultural distress? 



It is clear, then, that the object of our 

 legislators has not been attained ; — not, we 

 believe, because it is unattainable, but be- 

 cau.se the measures pursued have been un- 

 fitted to their aim. VVe are convinced — and 

 if we were not, the history of our corn-legis- 

 lation would go far to produce the convic- 

 tion — that in public as in private matters, 

 selfishness, if too gross, generally defeats 

 its own purposes; that unjust laws are al- 

 ways unwise ones; that the prosperity of 

 any branch of industry can have no frailer 

 basis, no more precarious tenure, than pro- 

 tective enactments; that the elevation of 

 one class of the community cannot be per- 

 manently procured by the depression of the 

 rest; and that an end which can only be ob- 

 tained by oppression and injustice, carries 

 its own condemnation on its face. 



The corn-laws, then, so far from having 

 ensured success to the farmer, have not 

 even secured him from frequent and severe 

 distress. Thus far, all men will agree with 

 us. Let us now inquire whether this dis- 

 tress may not be, in a great measure, traced 

 to the operation of these very laws. 



2. The case may be thus briefly stated : 

 The existing corn-laws profess to secure a 

 certain price to the farmer for his wheat. 

 On this price the landlords — the authors of 

 these enactments — calculate and fix their 

 rents ; and on this price the farmers make 

 their calculations, and contract to pay those 

 rents. But it turns out that the corn-latos 

 do not ensure this price. The rents have 

 been adjusted on a fallacious supposition: 

 the two contracting parties, therefore, can- 

 not both be satisfied, and the weakest goes 

 to the wall. The landlord exacts his rent, 

 and the farmer is ruined. We appeal to the 

 farmers themselves, whether this is not the 

 true process in five cases out of six, in which 

 they have been unfortunate. 



The avowed object of all the corn-laws 

 that have ever been passed, has been to fix 

 and secure a price which would remunerate 

 the grower; and the agriculturists generally, 

 having a most religious conviction of the 

 omnipotence of Parliament, have naturally 

 concluded that the avowed object of any 

 law would be effected by that law. The 

 avowed purpose of the law of 1815, was to 

 fix the price of wheat at 80s. a quarter.^ 



t In 1816, 1821, 1S22, 1833, 1836. 

 X Eight bushels. 



