tion, that owing to the great alteration in our currency, 80s. may and do now represent a different and considerably higher value than in 1815, as measured by the price of all articles of consumption.

Should parliament decide to legislate during the present session, your committee would recommend, that, after our wheat shall have reached 80s., whenever circumstances, not now to be foreseen, may have effected so great a change a lower price may be assumed for the future import, subject to a duty.

When the importers know that their grain can in no case come into the market without paying a certain sum as duty, besides the charges of importation, warehousing, and other incidental expenses, they will be less ready to adventure rashly than under an entirely free trade; they will also withdraw their corn, which may be lodged in warehouses gradually, and with more circumspection, than they do at present, and will naturally endeavour to feed the market rather than inundate it. It is now their interest to take their whole stock, immense as it may be, at once from under the king's lock; but when they must pay duty for every quarter which is removed, they will prudently calculate the time that any large stock may remain on hand before they can dispose of it to advantage.

The foundation of any future bill should be the principle of so far modifying the operation of the existing law as to obviate, as far as may be, by the imposition of reasonable duties upon the admission of foreign grain for home consumption, the sudden and irregular manner in which such foreign grain may now be introduced upon

the opening of the ports under circumstances inconsistent with the spirit and intentions of the law.

For carrying this purpose into effect, it would be expedient, after the ports shall have opened at 80s. (subject to a scale of duty hereafter to be fixed) to preserve the principle of an import price at a rate somewhat lower than the existing import price of 80s., and your committee are of opinion that 70s. would not be an improper limit to assign to that price.

That a duty from 12s. to 158. should be imposed upon foreign wheat for home consumption, when the price is from 70s. to 80s.

Also, that a duty of 5s. should be imposed upon such wheat, when the price is from 80s. to 85s. ; after which, the duty should be reduced to 1s.

And that a further additional duty of 5s. should be imposed upon wheat imported or taken out of warehouse for home consumption, for the first three months after the ports open, and when the price is from 70s. to 85s.

And for the purpose of rectifying the scale which governs the import, the general proportion which the price of oats bears to the price of wheat, appearing to exceed the proportion which was assumed to exist, when 27s. was fixed as the import price of oats, your committee suggest, that it would be expedient to increase that price, so as to bear a more accurate proportion to the price of wheat.

The scale at which barley is estimated appearing to be more correct than that of oats, the same proportion which it now bears to wheat, appears fit to continue, under any future alteration of the import prices.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th

clauses of the act, which regulates the importation of corn, make provision for admitting corn, meal, or flour, being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any British colony, or plantation in North America, for home consumption, when British wheat is at a lower price than 80s.: with regard to which colonies, it will be consistent with good faith and sound policy to preserve the same relative preference above foreign corn, in the event of any future alteration being applied to the scale of prices or of duties.

In compliance with an application made to them by several of the owners of the foreign grain now stored in warehouses, your committee have already recommended, that permission may be granted, under sufficient and adequate regulations, to convert it into flour, and export it in that shape, by which means some portion of this large stock will be carried out of the kingdom, and remove all apprehension that the quantities so ground down can ever enter into competition with our home produce; but in the event of a large portion not being thus disposed of, and still remaining in store, it appears practicable to adopt a method which may render this remainder also advantageous, rather than detrimental in its effect upon the value of British corn, whenever the average price of our wheat shall have risen to 70s. and fluctuate between 70s. and 80s.; for if it be then allowed to be taken out for home consumption, subject to a duty of 17s. per quarter, for the first three months, and afterwards to a duty of 12s., the interest of the proprietors of this grain will be brought directly into unison with that of the British agricultu

rist, and into direct hostility to that of all other importers of foreign grain; so that every endeavour will be resorted to, on their part, to advance the price to 70s. that they may liberate their own stock; but to keep it below 80s. that they may exclude all foreign competitors. The equitable claim which the holders of the grain, already deposited under the act of the 55th of the late king, appear to possess, will thus be beneficially preserved to them, and the danger of an immense influx of foreign produce will be mitigated and deferred, if not wholly prevented.

It must of course be left optional to the proprietors in question, to avail themselves of this permission, or to abide by the conditions of the existing law, under which they imported; but in the first case, the payment of a moderate duty will enable them, at an earlier period, to enter a market over which they may exercise some control conjointly with all the dealers in British corn; while in the other, they can hardly expect to stem the torrent of foreign produce poured in upon our existing supply, and the immediate depression of value which must unavoidably accompany it.

If the circumstances of this country should hereafter allow the trade in corn to be permanently settled upon a footing constantly open to all the world, but subject to such a fixed and uniform duty as might compensate to the British grower the difference of expense at which his corn can be raised and brought to market, together with the fair rate of profit upon the capital employed, compared with the expense of production and other charges attending corn grown and imported from abroad, such a

mittee applied their immediate attention to the consideration of them; and the result of this investigation leads them to believe, that, generally speaking, the precautions and checks which are observed and applied, under the act 1st and 2nd of his present majesty, c. 87, to the warehousing of foreign grain, are so effectual, and so regularly enforced, as to remove all suspicion as to the market having been at all affected by a fraudulent supply obtained by any such undue practices; but the instance which happened at Bridlington, detailed in the Appendix No. 1, shows that a constant and vigilant superintendance on the part of the custom-house officers is essentially necessary for the purpose of securing the public against the clandestine subtraction of small quantities of such grain, by the proprietors, from warehouses not well adapted to the purpose, or not duly and frequently surveyed.

If it should be judged expedient to restrict the warehousing of foreign grain to some few of the most considerable ports, instead of allowing it, as the law now stands, to be deposited in any part of the united kingdom, such irregularities as these would probably be prevented in future.

The case of the wheat supposed to have been withdrawn from the warehouses at Glasgow (App. No. 2.), appeared to rest upon such authentic testimony, that it is fit to lay the whole subject before the House, as a proof how necessary it is to examine accurately into any transactions of this nature, and to be cautious in giving credit to them until they have been fully investigated. So far, therefore, as concerns the present system of warehousing foreign corn, your committee have nothing further to

suggest by way of precaution: but by the evidence of Mr. Charles Welstead (collector for the coast business inwards and outwards) and Mr. Thomas Morris (one of the surveyors-general of customs), it appears that there is a possibility of introducing foreign corn into vessels carrying on the trade coastwise, particularly from Ireland, as it is not the practice to measure British or Irish grain either into or out of the vessel, but to rely upon the declaration of the captain of the vessel, and the ordinary cockets, which are not examined with attention. The mode in which any such fraud can be committed, must be by the British or Irish vessel, either touching clandestinely at some foreign port, and taking in a quantity of corn to mix with the declared cargo (such declaration specifying a less quantity than is actually taken on board), or by meeting some foreign vessel at sea and taking in a supply there, without touching at any port. Such a process in either case would unquestionably be attended with many difficulties; and from the number of persons on board who must necessarily be acquainted with the fraud, must be extremely liable to detection; but as it is represented to be not absolutely impracticable, your committee deem it a subject which deserves the attention of those most conversant in the department of the customs, to devise more satisfactory security against it.

The only other object which has engaged the attention of your committee relates to a proposed. alteration in the distillery laws, as calculated to afford a probable extension of the consumption of barley, in case the suggestions contained in the evidence of Messrs. Dunlop and M'Quin upon that

head should be carried into effect: but your committee are well aware that the trade of the English distillers, as well as that of the brewers, and the interest of very extensive branches of the revenue,

are so directly implicated in this question, that it cannot be considered with reference to the benefit of agriculture alone. May 20.

The SELECT COMMITTEE, appointed to consider of the means of maintaining and improving the Foreign Trade of the country, and to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the House, have, pursuant to the order of the House, examined the matters to them referred; and have agreed to the following Report:

In the first report presented by this committee, allusion was made to various burthens that appeared to press upon the navigation and commerce of the country, under the denominations of lights, harbour-dues, pilotage, &c.; and although the intention of your committee to examine these under their several heads was postponed, by the interposition of matters that seemed to require more immediate attention, your committee felt anxious, at as early a period as possible, to take up the consideration of them, from a conviction that they not only were matters of importance in themselves, but that their importance was greatly augmented by their relation to other measures, by which it was hoped to extend the foreign commerce of the country, to the success of which the diminution of the charges, both on our own shipping, and those of foreign states visiting our coasts, was an indispensable preliminary.

To these subjects, therefore, your committee, upon its appointment in the present session, applied its attention; and selected, as the first objects of their investigation, the light dues, Trinity dues, ballastage, surplus pilotage, and the Ramsgate and Dover harbour dues, which formed in their aggregate the principal part of the burthens alluded to, and which furnished grounds of complaint, in their bearing both on British and foreign shipping, as well on account of the amount to which they were levied, as the manner in which the levy of them was made.

The points to which the attention of your committee has been directed, in their consideration of these dues, were, the authority under which payments were exacted from British and foreign shipping; the amount to which they were exacted; the purposes to which the receipts were subsequently applied; and the means afforded of effecting a reduction of them, without injury to the public objects for which they were imposed.

These dues, your committee have found, are collected in part under the authority of acts of parliament, in part by ancient custom, but to the greatest amount under particular patents issuing from the crown.

By the former authority have been established the Dover and