And then........ 2,585,692 quarters, would be the total amount added to the consumption of the country, which would average about 477,138 quarters per annum. This was a formidable statement of imports, and, no doubt, during the last four years, they had been very large; yet, if they looked at the average price during the last five years, they would find it to have been 37. 18s. 10d. per quarter. It was strange, to be sure, that those, who expected that the corn-bill was to produce a price of 80s., and declared that the agriculturists were ruined, because it had not done so, would find that the price, however, averaged not less than 788. 10d. During the two years 1817 and 1818-the first of them following one of the worst harvests ever known in this country-the total imports were not less than 2,600,000 quarters. But the price during this period was, in fact, 89s. 6d. If they looked at

the imports of corn from the year 1792 to the year 1812, they would find the average importation (of wheat) to have been, as nearly as possible, during those twenty years, rather less than 500,000 quarters annually; and the average price, for the same period, was about 78s. 6d. It did, therefore, appear, that during the last five years the annual average price had been much the same with that of the other period he had mentioned. If, then, the average

price of corn, taking it from 1793 to 1812-a term of nineteen years -had been sufficient to enable the farmer to cultivate his ground with spirit, and with advantage to himself and to its owners, he really saw no ground for contending, that it was not calculated to produce, during the last five years, something like the same beneficial results. They had heard a great deal of the existing distress, but how could that distress be possibly charged upon the corn-laws? No foreign corn had been imported since February 15, 1819, and he supposed there was scarcely a quarter of foreign corn now in a private warehouse. As to the mode of taking the averages, Mr. Robinson admitted, that the method proposed was, in theory, more correct. At present, the average was calculated upon the prices of the twelve maritime districts; and the alteration, which was recommended, was, to take the whole quantity of corn, sold in all the counties, the whole amount of the prices obtained for it, and then to divide the latter by the former. The practical operation, however, of this change, would confer little or no benefit on the farmer. This appeared, from comparing the averages for the six weeks pre→

ceding the 15th of May, calculated in the ordinary mode, with the results which would have been given by the proposed plan. In the week ending the 8th of April, the average price of wheat, by the Gazette, was 31. 10s. 3d. per quarter. According to the other mode of taking the average, it would have been 71s. During the same week, rye averaged 21. 1s. 7d.; by the other mode it would have been 42s. Oats, in the first case, were 24s. Id., in the second, they would have been 24s. Barley was 35s. 5d.; by the proposed mode of taking the average, it would have been 35s. Id. So that in this period, upon the new proposition, the average price of wheat and rye would have been higher; and that of oats and barley lower. The results of the succeeding weeks were all very nearly the same. Unless, then, this calculation was materially wrong in point of fact, which he was by no means disposed to believe, what was the object of a change, the only effect of which must be to put the whole country, from one end to the other, in a state of ferment and agitation? But then it had been said, "What an absurd system it is to frame these average prices, in part, upon those portions of the country which produce little or nothing; and it had been recommeuded, that the Welch counties should be totally omitted in calculating the averages. These Welch counties were included in the 8th and 9th maritime districts; and the county of Monmouth formed a part of the 10th. It seemed to have been imagined, that the averages, by the omission of such couuties, would be materially diminished, but the fact would be exactly the reverse. If

they omitted the Welch counties from the calculation, the average would be still higher; and what then would be the consequence ? That in calling for inquiry-in calling for an alteration of the law, they were calling for a delusion the most gross, by which it was possible for millions of people to be deceived. He did not, however, say, that these averages were a perfect system; they might be liable to fraud-it was just possible that they were so; but such fraud might be, and had very recently operated, in favour of the agriculturist. Lately, in a trial at Liverpool, where a person was tried for a false return, it appeared, that his object was, not to raise the prices as against the agriculturists, but to lower them; and he succeeded. But the agriculturists appeared to think, that all the fraud must be with those who raised the price. Yet it might very well be the interest of a corn-dealer to lower it, so that the fraud, if any, must operate as much upon one party as another. His honourable friend supposed, also, that a great deal of foreign corn was smuggled into the country. He (Mr. Robinson) confessed, that he did not know how that could happen: no information had ever reached him upon the subject, nor did he think, that it had ever been stated to the office with which he was connected, that such a thing had occurred. Mr. Robinson further observed, that many supposed, that the warehouses for the reception of foreign corn, were a great evil, and tended to keep the farmer in perpetual alarm, lest he should be crushed in the market, the moment the ports were opened, by the immense stock of foreign grain which would pour

in upon him. But if they did not allow those warehouses, what would be the consequence? It would be merely to shift those warehouses from one side of the water to the other. Ships were said to fly; and those who knew what was the speed they could exert, would feel, that it was almost as easy for them to cross from Holland, for instance, to England, as it would be to sail from the coast of Essex to that of Kent. The only result of such a prohibition, would be to deprive British capital of that ad vantage which it at present de rived out of a foreign commodity. Mr. Huskisson stated, that he still held, on this question, the same views, which he had enter tained in 1815, and he had then supported the corn law on three distinct grounds. The first was, the encouragement given to agriculture by the circumstances of the war. It was necessary to prevent the great loss of capital, and the great distress, which would result from suddenly withdrawing all the encourage ment and protection which the war had given. A remunerative price was not intended, but such a price as circumstances required. The next ground was, the peculiar situation of this country, which made it most dangerous to depend for the primary article of life on foreign countries. The distress to this country, and to the exporting belligerent, would not be equal. In the one, the consequence would be inconvenience and distress; but in the other it would lead to revolution, and the subversion of the state. The third ground was, the state in which we were placed with respect

to Ireland; to which great injury would be done, if we departed from our system of encouragement to the home produce of corn. Extended cultivation would promote, not only the wealth, but the tranquillity and future welfare, of Ireland. Those were the grounds on which he had supported the measure in 1815, and he thought the measure had had, in a considerable degree, the effect desired. The imports from Ireland had increased every year. In 1815 the opponents of the measure had said, that 80s. would be the minimum; its friends had said, that it would be more nearly the maximum. The result has proved the correctness of the latter opinion. Of the five years since that period, two were years of confessedly defective harvests. In them 2,600,000 quarters had been imported, and the price had been 89s. 6d. If the sum fixed on in legislation had been 85s., the result would have been the same. In the three years 1815, 1816, and 1819, we had re-exported 428,000 quarters more than we had imported in the other two years. The foreign supply therefore did not affect the home market, for we had actually exported. When the price was under 80s., it was owing to the extended agriculture of the country; 80s. was a full protection, unless we were to be restrained from supplies from foreign countries altogether; and if we had been so, it would have brought us in the years he had mentioned, to a state bordering on famine. Ministers on this occasion had powerful allies in Mr. Baring and Mr. Ricardo, who resisted the api pointment of the committee en

Mr. Baring asked, in what situation would the labouring classes find themselves, if 40 or 50 per cent were added to the price of corn? What, in that case, would become of those beehives of population, our manufacturing towns? Already we stood at double the price of the rest of the world, but with this some hon. gentlemen were not satisfied; would they then wish it to be trebled? It was impossible, that any man, calmly reflecting on the principles which formed the basis of our commercial and manufacturing interests, should conceive that they could exist under circumstances so unfavourable. He was aware that the sentiment amongst many was, that a high price of corn must be had at whatever risk, and that if manufactures would be ruined by such a measure, still that the sacrifice was necessary. Now, in the first place, it should be remembered, that what enabled us to bear the present price of agricultural produce was, the superior industry and trading habits of our own people. If the state of society were to be completely changed, and we were to become an agricultural people merely, it was impossible that the existing prices could be maintained. The only hope of a large profit must then be derived from exportation. The agriculturist had, in fact, as deep an interest in the prosperity of manufactures, as the persons more immediately engaged in them as deep an interest as he had in the cultivation of the land itself. The prosperity of the country could only be upheld in the aggregate. It was idle for one class

any permanent advantage from the depression of another. The honourable member for Essex had said, that for the ten years preceding the last act regulating the price of corn, that price was as high as 93s. per quarter, and seemed to intimate that this would be a fit price at the present day. But his honourable friend entirely overlooked the alteration, which had taken place in the value of our currency-an alteration, which, as nearly as he could calculate, left the price at the exact point which his honourable friend thought so desirable. The present depression of agriculture was not ascribable to the introduction of foreign grain, for during the last 15 months none had been introduced. If the importation price had, therefore, been 100s. instead of 80s., the occupiers of land would have been in the same condition. It was true, that the farmer was now suffering; so was the manufacturer, and, indeed, every class of the community. His houourable friend seemed to think, that the cause of all the evil was, that the farmer could not purchase from the manufacturer; but it might be represented the other way, that the manufacturer was not able to deal with the farmer, or find consumption for his produce. It had been recently shown by a great proprietor at Birmingham (Mr. Spooner), that there had been a falling off of from 56,000 to 48,000 cattle in the consumption of that town. Upon the whole, he was inclined to think it useless to go into the committee, unless the House had made up its mind to raise the price at which foreigu grain might be imported.

The agriculturists, said Mr. Ricardo, had contended, that they had a right to be protected in a remunerating price for their produce, but they forgot that no remunerating price could be fixed. If by preventing importation the farmer was compelled, for the national supply, to expend his capital on poor or unprofitable soils, the remunerating price at which he could keep his land in cultivation must be very high. Open the ports, admit foreign grain, and you drive this land out of cultivation; a less remunerating price will then do for the more productive lands. You might thus have fifty remunerating prices, according as your capital was employed on productive or unproductive lands. It became the legislature, however, not to look at the partial losses which would be endured by a few, who could not cultivate their land profitably, at a diminished price, but to the general interests of the nation. He would rather have a great quantity of produce at a low rate, than a small quantity at a high. By making food cheap, the people would be enabled to purchase a greater quantity of it, and apply a part of their earnings to the purchase of luxuries. The high price of subsistence diminished the profits of capital in the following manner :-the price of manufactured articles-of a piece of cloth, for instance-was made up of the wages of the manufacturer, the charges of management, and the interest of capital. The wages of the labourer were principally made up of what was necessary for subsistence: if grain was high, therefore, the price of labour, which might be before at 50 per cent. on the manufactured article, might

rise to 60, and the article being sold to the consumer at its former rate, the difference of 10 per cent would necessarily be a reduction from the profits of stock. If food was high here, and cheap abroad, stock would thus have a tendency to leave the country, and to settle where higher profits could be realized. The error committed in 1815 was in making the corn-law permanent. It was probably wise, to make some temporary arrangement, by which any precipitate change in the situation of the agricultural interest by the opening of the foreign ports might be prevented; but a time ought to have been fixed for the termination of that arrangement. Nothing was more likely to occasion a convulsion, than to persevere in a wrong measure, merely because it had once, for a temporary purpose, been adopted. Adverting to the subject of countervailing duties, he contended, that it was not necessary, to constitute a countervailing duty, that it should make up the difference between the price at which a foreigner could sell grain, and that at which we could raise it. A countervailing duty, in his opinion, was one, which balanced the particular tax laid upon any particular class of the community. Countervailing duties of an opposite description would entirely destroy all commercial intercourse. He agreed that the interests of the agriculturists, and of the other classes of the community, might be identified, provided we were restrained from intercourse with other nations; but this might not be the case in reference to foreign commerce. It might be the interest of the farmer to confine the manufacturer to the supply which he could