NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.
To maintain the existing Corn-laws, will be found " too painful an endeavour" by the landed interest, predominant only when other classes, forming the great bulk of the community, are apathetic or deluded on subjects affecting their own welfitre. Those classes are now thoroughly roused ; and already the main question seems to be, not whether the present system shall be preserved, but what shall be substituted in its place,—entire freedom of trade in corn ; a reduced duty, gradually diminishing ; or a " moderate fixed duty." Not baseless, it seems, was the rumour to which we alluded last week, that Lord Jour; RUSSELL would " talk about a duty of ten shillings the quarter." In a letter to his constituents, assem- bled in an Anti-Corn-law meeting at Stroud, the Home Secretary announces his dissatisfaction with things as they are, and his incli- nation to support a " moderate fixed duty" in the House of Com- mons. Presuming that the Ministerial leader speaks the senti- ments of the Cabinet of which he is a principal member, some will hirer that the Government is in unison with the great body of Libe- rals, to the extent of opposition to the existing scheme of protec- tion. But the Corn-law question has been called " open" since the Whigs came into place ; and, following the Tory precedent on Catholic Emancipation, it would not be surprising if' Lord MEL- BOURNE supported in the Lords what Lord JOHN RUSSELL attacked in the Commons. If any such policy is contemplated, in order to.
keep the Ministerial forces together, and to deceive honest men with false hopes, we venture to predict its failure. There is urgent necessity for settling this question. It cannot be made the subject of sham debates. In comparison with its importance and reality, insignificance and simulation arc stamped on every other ; and it will not be borne, that for mere party objects it should be bandied about in Parliament. Deep, solemn, all-absorbing is the interest which it excites. Every body is thinking, talking, or writing about it. This question must not be " open :" a divided Cabinet will not be endured either by the landed interest or the middle classes.
And if Lord Joust RUSSELL'S letter is to be received as a decla- ration of the Government policy, and Ministers have resolved to
propose a fixed duty to Parliament, they will discover that the time
has passed when such terms would have been accepted. At the great " gathering " at Manchester on Wednesday, Mr. GREG de-
clared, with the entire concurrence of the assembly, that a " ten shilling duty was not to be named." " Repeal, total Repeal, and no- thing but Repeal," is the rally-cry gone forth from Manchester. It shilling duty was not to be named." " Repeal, total Repeal, and no- thing but Repeal," is the rally-cry gone forth from Manchester. It was adopted by a meeting more influential in point of intelligence and wealth, and more formidable in numbers, eucrgy, and enthu- siasm, than has been held in this country for many years. From almost every quarter of Great Britain were assembled Members of Parliament, speaking the opinions of their constituents, or dele- gates from important manufacturing and trading districts, to con-
cert measures for obtaining a speedy subversion of the Corn-laws especially, but also of the entire system of commercial restriction. To a compromise there must be two parties ; and at least one of those now in the field scouts the RUSSELL pis aller. The Home Secretary will not be allowed to play fast and loose. If he adhere, with his colleagues, to the " moderate fixed duty," he and they
will " take nothing" by the overture in the letter to Stroud. They will lose another opportunity, which their luck, not wisdom or de- sert, presents, of recovering a portion of the popularity they seemed to have irrecoverably lost. But it may be said, that the total abolition is contemplated by those who recommend a gradual reduction of duty till it disappear, or be lowered to a nominal amount ; and that the difference between such and the advocates of immediate and entire repeal, is to be found in the desire of the former to effect the change without sud- den and insupportable injury to embarrassed landowners. Let us look a little closer at this. Were the Corn-laws abolished in the first week of the next session, the operation on the prices of Eng- lish agricultural produce would really be gradual. The stocks of wheat are now small in proportion to the demand existing ; and this state of things must continue for at least one year more. A very [LATEST EDITION.] abundant harvest—which is not impossible—would reduce the price far more rapidly, under the ordinary relations of supply and demand, than the abolition of the protecting-duties in this year of grace 1839. When wheat was under forty shillings the quarter, men of ordinary foresight said—" Now is the time to abolish the Corn-laws ; for the consequence will not be felt, till an unproductive period return, and then there will be a foreign importation, to the advantage of all." So it may be at present ; for the state of the supply, taken against an inevitably increasing demand, precludes the possibility of sudden depreciation of agricultural property, and provides an opportunity for adjusting the claims of landlords and tenants, and of lenders and borrowers, before the foreign grower can operate upon the home market to any considerable extent. That there might be cases of hardship—that the compensation for reduction in the rent of arable land, would not be received by many, or at least not received in time convenient for them, in the shape of augmented demand for their property, to be applied to grazing, building, and other purposes—is more than probable. But it is preposterous to imagine that the injury to these persons should prevent a great national benefit, and stop a measure neces- sary to the preservation of English trade and manufactures, to which land owes so much of its value. Improvements on a large scale are always injurious to those who rely for support, or gain, upon exploded practices. The invention of the power-loom has reduced hand-loom weavers to beggary. Railroads have made turnpike bonds of comparatively little value. But who would ven- ture to maintain that miserable weavers, or victimized bondholders, ought to be considered before a public, requiring cheaper and better apparel, and more rapid and easy locomotion ? Perhaps, however, it might be politic, with a view to smooth the progress and insure the success of a measure whose advantages are incalculable—greater beyond conception than those received in return for Negro emancipation—to vote a sum for the relief of those who make out a case of irreparable and severe distress arising from reduction of rents in certain districts. It certainly would not be a bad bargain to vote twenty millions for the repeal of the Corn-law. The country could well afford the act of gene- rosity—not justice, for there is no righteous claim for compensa- tion on the part of the landed interest : on the contrary, an equit- able adjustment would require that the millions of plunder, sacked by landlords, should be restored to the public. But this point is secondary, and must be left for future consi- deration. Immediate and total repeal should be demanded. Doubtful it is whether much of the foreign trade that has left the country is not irrecoverable ; but it is reasonable to suppose that the progress of foreign competition fluty be checked, and that pro- jectors of rival establishments on the Continent and in America would be paralyzed by a measure that opened the British market to their customers. In the meanwhile, although no great increase in the sales of British manufactures might take place instantanepusly, a stimulus would at once be given to capitalists eager to take ad- vantage of enlarged markets. The field of employment would thus be immediately extended; and, in the present condition and pros- pects of the masses, this consideration is most weighty.
