Cli.xii. Restrictions iqwn TmjTbrtation. 209 



ciaj. I cerlainly think that, in reference to the 

 interests of a particular state, a restriction upon 

 the importation of foreign corn may sometimes be 

 advantageous ; but I feel still more certain that 

 in reference to the interests of Europe in general 

 the most perfect freedom of trade in corn, as well 



fore, must be considered as mere assertions quite unsupported by 

 the least shadow of proof. 



1 am very far however from meaning to say that the circumstance 

 of different countries having often an abundance or deficiency of 

 corn at the same time, though it must prevent the possibility of 

 steady prices, is a decisive reason against the abolition or alteration 

 of the corn-laws. The most powerful of all the arguments against 

 restrictions is their unsocial tendency, and the acknowledged injury 

 which they must do to the interests of the commercial world in 

 general. The weiglit of this argument is increased rather than di- 

 minished by the numbers which may sufter from scarcity at the same 

 time. And at a period when our ministers are most laudably setting 

 an example of a more liberal system of commercial policy, it would 

 be greatly desirable that foreign nations should not have so marked 

 an exception as our present corn-laws to cast in our teeth. A duty 

 on importation not too high, and a bounty nearly such as was re- 

 commended by Mr. Ricardo, would probably be best suited to our 

 present situation, and best secure steady prices. A duty on foreign 

 corn would resemble the duties laid by other countries on our 

 manufactures as objects of taxation, and would not in the same 

 manner impeach the principles of free trade. 



But whatever system we may adopt, it is essential to a sound 

 determination, and highly useful in preventing disappointments, 

 that all the arguments both for and against corn-laws should be 

 thoroughly and impartially considered ; and it is because on a calm, 

 and, as far as I can judge, an impartial review of the arguments of 

 this chapter, they still appear to me of weight sufficient to deserve 

 such consideration, and not as a kind of protest against the abolition 

 or change of the corn-laws, that I republish them in another 

 edition. 



VOL. II. P 



