No. 10. 



Agriculture and the Corn-Law. 



299 



The language of the landed legislature was 

 uniform upon this point. They declared 

 that no lower price could be endured by the 

 farmers ; they told the farmers that such a 

 price should be secured to them by law; 

 and they arranged their rents accordingly. 

 What has been the consequence ? In only 

 two years* since that period has the annual 

 average reached that price; and those two 

 were years of scarcity. The farmers who 

 had contracted to pay rents, which only a 

 uniform price of 80s. would enable them to 

 pay, were, of course, impoverished or ruined. 



In 1822, the average had fallen to 43s. 3d. 

 and the deluded farmers were clamorous in 

 their complaints. It was then declared, that 

 the price of 70s. a quarter must be ensured, 

 in order to induce the farmer to keep a suffi- 

 cient breadth of land under the plough; and 

 a new corn-law was passed to procure the 

 desired result. Again the farmers were de- 

 ceived, and lulled into fancied security. 

 Again rents were readjusted on the new 

 assumption of a permanent average of 70s. 

 Yet in only one year\ since that period, and 

 that one a year of scarcity, has the price 

 reached this point. The rents, however, 

 had to be paid. The landlord whistled, and 

 the farmer paid tlie piper. 



For some years subsequent to 1622, every 

 one was dissatisfied. The consumers of 

 corn thought they paid too much, and the 

 growers of corn thought they received too 

 little. Again in 1828, a deliberate attempt 

 was made to secure prices at once high and 

 steady; — such prices as would enable land- 

 lords to exact extreme rents, and farmers to 

 pay them. Sixty-four shillings was now 

 declared to be the remunerating price ; and 

 rents were calculated and settled on this 

 basis. Yet in only seven years out of the 

 subsequent thirteen, has this average been 

 reached ;X and of those seven, five have been 

 years of deficient harvests. And at least 

 four years out of the thirteen, have been 

 years of severe agricultural distress. 



In the spring of the present year, a new 

 law was passed, in the hope of fixing 56s. 

 as the minimum price of wheat. Yet be- 

 fore the harvest had been fully reaped, and 

 before any wheat could be thrashed out and 

 brought to market, — viz., by September 10th, 

 — the average weekly return had fallen to 

 61s. 6^/. ; and by November .5th, it liad drop- 

 ped to 48s. Id. Each successive corn-law 

 has in fact been a new and cruel deception 

 to the unhappy farmer; yet to each has he 

 looked with renewed confidence for his 

 relief: 



• In 1817, 1813. t 1839. X 1829-30-31-38-39-40-41, 



Cassandra's fate reversed is theirs; 



She, true, no faith could gain ; 

 They every passing hour deceive, 



Yet are believed again. 



Our advice to him is to trust no more to 

 such delusive protectors, — to lean no more 

 upon such broken reeds; but after the expe- 

 rience he has had, to feel convinced that 

 whatever prospects may in future be held 

 out to liim from the same quarter, will be 

 as faithless as the past have been : 



But do not thou 



The tale believe; 

 They're sisters all, 



And all deceive. 



The first evil, then, which the corn-laws 

 have inflicted upon the farmer, has been 

 this: they have induced him to contract to 

 pay rents ivhich — except in years of scarci- 

 ty — the price of wheat will not enable him 

 to pay. 



3. The purpose of our restrictive corn- 

 laws is to secure high prices in this country, 

 by protecting the home grower against the 

 competition of foreign produce. And by 

 dint of looking always at the intention, and 

 never at the operation, of legislative mea- 

 sures, a great number of our farmers have 

 come to" believe, that low prices are the 

 eflect of foreign competition, and that high 

 prices are the consequence of that compe- 

 tition being shut out. Now, how stands the 

 fact] Why, that it is impossible to point to 

 a single year of low prices, in which there 

 was any perceptible import of foreign pro- 

 duce; or to a single year of great foreign 

 importation, which was not also a year of 

 high prices. The years 1834, 1835, and 

 1836, were years of low prices, and of great 

 distress and discontent among farmers, the 

 average of wheat being under 45s. a quar- 

 ter; yet the import of foreign wheat was 

 only 122,175 quarters. The years 1838, 

 1839, and 1840, were years of high prices, 

 and comparatively of farming prosperity, 

 the average of wheat being 67s. 23., yet in 

 those years we imported the enormous quan- 

 tity of 7,858,500 quarters. Of this we say 

 nothing more at present than that it un- 

 doubtedly establishes the ftct, that low 

 prices of wheal in England are not, and 

 have never been, the effect of foreign com- 

 petition. For five months, at the close of 

 1835, and at the commencement of 1836, 

 the price of wheat ranged under 36.v. a 

 quarter, at which price no foreign wheat 

 could have been imported from f ny country 

 in the world, even had the corn-trade been 

 perfectly free, instead of being burdened as 

 it was with a duty of 50s. a quarter. And 



