health, and strength, and industry united, instead of spreading its sheltering wing over others, was scarcely able to feed and to clothe itself."I If any thing further be necessary, to prove that the increase of pauperism is occasioned by the high price of the necessaries of life, the following statement must be conclusive, by which it appears that it gradually decreased, as agricultural produce became cheaper. It should be observed too, that 1814 and 1815 were looked upon as years of great distress, particularly to those engaged in agriculture; and it was in the latter of these years that the Corn Bill was passed, with the intention of relieving that distress. Number permanently relieved, (not including the children of persons out of the House.) An attentive consideration of the documents, which the author of these Letters hus given, in connection with that of Mr. Barton, before alluded to,' must convince every impartial person, that the high price of agricultural produce, by whatever means occasioned, is the greatest of all evils to the laboring classes; and it behoves Mr. Malthus, and the other friends to restrictions on its importation, either to prove that these statements are inaccurate, or to advocate the cause of a free trade. For, until they are proved to be erroneous, the only conclusion that can be come to, is, that laws, passed with the intention of raising, or keeping up the price of the necessaries of life, are, of all others, the most cruel, the most impolitic, and the most unjust. ad ot 1. The following statement, (extracted from Mr. Barton's pamphlet, on the condition of the laboring classes,) will show what proportion the wages of husbandry labor have borne to the price of corn, at different periods, during the last seventy years. "The price of labor in the two first periods is from Mr. A. Young's Farmer's Tours. The third and fifth from communications to the Board of Agriculture. The fourth from Sir F. Eden, on the state of the poor. The price of wheat is taken from the Windsor returns." 2. The following statement is extracted from the Quarterly Review, No. 36. p. 263, to show how closely the high price of corn is connected with the increase of pauperism. 3. PROTEST against the CORN BILL. DISSENTIENT, 1. Because we are adverse in principle to all new restraints on commerce, We think it certain that public prosperity is best promoted by leaving uncontrolled the free current of national industry; and we wish rather, by well considered steps, to bring back our commercial legislation to the straight and simple line of wisdom, than to increase the deviation by subjecting additional and extensive branches of the public interest to fresh systems of artificial and injurious restrictions. II. Because we think that the great practical rule, of leaving all commerce unfettered, applies more peculiarly, and on still stronger grounds of justice as well as policy, to the corn trade than to any other. Irresistible indeed must be that necessity which could, in our judgment, authorize the legislature to tamper with the sustenance of the people, and to impede the free purchase and sale of that article on which depends the existence of so large a portion of the community. III. Because we think that the expectations of ultimate benefit from this measure are founded on a delusive theory. We cannot persuade ourselves that this law will ever contribute to produce plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price: so long as it operates at all, its effects must be the opposite of these. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity, of dearness, and of uncertainty. To cut off any of the sources of supply can only tend to lessen its abundance; to close against ourselves the cheapest market for any commodity, must enhance the price at which we purchase it; and to confine the consumer of corn to the produce of his own country, is to refuse to ourselves the benefit of that provision which Providence itself has made for equalizing to man the variations of climate and of season. IV. But whatever may be the future consequences of this law, at some distant and uncertain period, we see with pain that these hopes must be purchased at the expence of a great and present evil. To compel the consumer to purchase corn dearer at home than it might be imported from abroad, is the immediate practical effect of this law. In this way alone can it operate. Its present protection, its promised extension of agriculture must result (if at all) from the profits which it creates by keeping up the price of corn to an artificial level. These future benefits are the consequences expected, but, as we confidently believe, erroneously expected, from giving a bounty to the grower of corn, by a tax levied on its consumer. V. Because we think the adoption of any permanent law, for such a purpose, required the fullest and most laborious investigation. Nor would it have been sufficient for our satisfaction could we have been convinced of the general policy of an hazardous experiment. A still further inquiry would have been necessary, to persuade us that the present moment is fit for its adoption." In such an inquiry, we must have had the means of satisfying ourselves, what its immediate operation will be, as connected with the various and pressing circumstances of public difficulty and distress, with which the country is surrounded; with the state of our circulation and currency; of our agriculture and manufactures; of our internal and external commerce; and above all with the condition and reward of the industrious, and laboring classes of our community. On all these particulars, as they respect this question, we think that Parliament is almost wholly uninformed; on all, we see reason for the utmost anxiety and alarm from the operation of this law. Lastly, Because, if we could approve of the principle and purpose of this law, we think that no sufficient foundation has been laid for its details. The evidence before us, unsatisfactory and imperfect as it is, seems to us rather to disprove than to support the propriety of the high price adopted as the standard of importation, and the fallacious mode by which that price is to be ascertained. And on all these grounds we are anxious to record our dissent from a measure so precipitate in its course, and, as we fear, so injurious in its consequences. |