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THE CORN LAWS. .

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THE CORN LAWS. We fast week made some remarks on Mr. Macaulay's ominous speech at Leeds: by the following extract from a talented London journal, our readers will per- ceivc the light in which Mr. Macaulay's statement is generally-regarded We hope that this will be communicated to every farmer and every farm labourer through the kingdom ,they will here see who are their true friends, and know ,how,to,act when the destruction of the House of Lords shall be next proposed to them. Meanwhile, they must see also, that they have no chance of ultimately escaping -the workhouse, but from the dismissal of the Whig Cabinet. The Whigs confess the disposition to destroy the agricul- tural interests, but lament that the House of Lords stand in their way—they farther lament that they have not the • present power of swamping the House of Lords. Give them a little time, however, and they promise to change, by an insensible process, the character of that assembly; aud they have too much interest in the matter to permit us to doubt that, in this case, they will keep their word. Every Say, therefore, which the Whigs remain in power is, to borrow a-familiar phrase, a nail in the farmer's coflin'-every vote given by a farmer to a Whig candidate is as'plainly a shove of his own offspring on the road to the workhouse." With all due deference we must take leave to say that the question has come to this ?-Shall the misera- ble pittance which a timid policy has given to a loyal yeomanry and bold peasantry, be at last taken from them, and they be told that themselves are are valueless, and the food raised by their unwearied industry not wanted, because it may, and therefore ought to be, purchased at a lower rate in Foreign countries? Shall England become a barren waste in order to encourage Foreign agriculture, and hence a famished people, because dependant on Foreign countries for the means of subsistence—bread ? This yre say must be the inevitable result of a free trade in corn- it will at once paralyse our agriculture, already degraded almost below bearing and at last (and this shortly) annihilate all our leading resources. The opiuions promulgated at the dinner above alluded to, seem of a character stronlgy to encourage the clamour against that Ibere shadow of protection which the landed interests new possess. In the face of rapidly increasing pauperism amougst the ag- ricultural community, not labourers merely but even occupiers, we find Mr. Macaulay (having first avowed that he is nearly connected with the Government) 1Itating U that ke holds the corn laws to be one of the greatest possible evils." In a similar tone we find others pouring out their rhetoric; and in fine we •notice with pain that, with an occasional show of -right intentions in the recommendation of u mutual understanding, mutual accommodation, &c. a pretty general feeling pervaded the meeting that the Corn Laws are the bane of the country. Lord Morpeth was one of the leading personages present. Now we would say, Proprietors and occupiers of the British soil, look to yourselves—we know that the former of you have already sacrificed much of your rental- we know that the latter have sacrificed a full third part of their ,capital-we much doubt whether by further sacrifices on the part of the landlords it •u-t- u to preserve as a class the n ish Farmers; but of this we are certain, that j j he dePrive<1 °f the little protection! afforded by the existing laws,—down, down farmers to "the lowest depth" of ruin, and say that Free- j trade sent you there. We strongly recommend the constituency to urge upon their representatives the duty of suppressing, as far as they are able, the almost generally prevailing, but wofully infatu- ated cry against the Corn Laws; not forgetting remark of a great man,—of one, who advocated liberal principles, — that "the bread which we eat should be the produce of our own comstry; and then he cared not how cheap it was.Cum., berland Pacquet. ( From Cobbett's Register.) "1 beg Mr. Morrison's pardon as to the standard being a comparison with the prices of flour in foreign countries. Everything is higher priced in England than it is in France; and why should not the farmers and labourers compluin that they cannot get their linen from France, and their cloth from France ? I can never get ah answer to questions of ttrs sort, Why should I not get ny materials for making implements of husbandry, and why should not I get my American waggon, without a Custom-holise duty; and why are English landlords prohibited from cultivating tobacco on their estates ? Yet I do not call it robbery" of the farmers, the labourers, and the landlords, that these taxes are imposed upon them, and that the rest of the commu- nity seem very willing. that they should pay them. Mr. Morrison teems to think, that I do not want the =Corn Bill repealed at all. I do want it repealed; but I want the Malt-tax repealed a great deal more, in which respect I differ very wiJely from Mr. Morrison. Whether the Corn Bill do injury to the manufacturers and artisans is a question of considerable difficulty. I allow, that, upon an average of years, it may make bread a little dearer than it would be without a Corn Bill; but in whatever degree a repeal of the Corn Bill would reduce the price of corn, it would reduce the means of the greatest mass of the people to employ artisans and purchase manufactured goods; and the industrious part of the people actually loses thirteen millions a year by the Malt-tax. Mr. Morrison seems to think that repealing the corn bill first would produce a repeal of the malt tax and other -burdens on the land. I would rather not trust to that; I would ratfeer.that the people should demand a repeal of the burdens oa -the land, as the groundwork of their de- mand for thre. repeal of the CDrn 'bm'. ".Mr. Morrison seems to think that the free importa- tion of corn woiild affect the agricultural people in the article of wheat. He forgets oats and barley, and rye, and beans, and pease. And would Mr. Mo-irison think it just to lay a tax of inoreitfian a hundred per cent. upon English barley, which is now the case, and yet admit foreign barley without any tax at all upon it 1 Nor do 1 comprehend, as coming from a sensible man like Mr. Morrison, all this spite against the landlords. There must be such people as landlords; somebody must own the land; and men are not tobe hated and ruined, and hunted down, merely because they own land. If, indeed, he talk to me of their injustices with regard-to the Game Laws; if he talk to me of their partiality and selfishness, in case of the Legacy and Probate Duties and Auction duties, I join him with all my heart; if he talk to me about the hateful conduct of 'those who have driven the inhabitants from their estates -in so cruel a manner if he talk to me of these things, i roost heartily join him, and should be very glad it' he would send up from Fifeshire, or srom any part of Scot- land, a Member tojoin me in my endeavours to put an end to these oppressions. But I cannot join in the saying or -doing of anything against the landlords. My business is ,to make them jest, ifl caa; and not to do one act of injus- tice, because other acts of injustice have been done, particularly when this new act of injustice would be attended with injury to millions, who have not, themselvesc1 been unjust. There is one point that has wholly escaped the at. tention of Mr. Morrison, and that is, the striking fact so often mentioned by me namely, that though wheat is now asi cheap.as-it-was in 1792, the four pounds of best bread, which then sold for five. pence halfpenny, now sell for -eight-penee halfpenny. I should tttke to hear some one attempt to give an answer to this. These advocates for the repeal of the Corn Bill seem to care nothing at aU about thatPI»Ko°i A?*'J ,'le "heat >3 low priced! so lifm ,r<ls suffer> these public spirited persons think thpv eJ)»0ti at al1 about themselves. One would ,«SlP ^J,eVhcat 1101 bread i they never tiouble their heads about the price of the loaf. Now, it appears to me, tha. the rational course would be, to inquire j.ow it comes to pass that the bread is so dear, when the wheat is so chcap ? i

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