strument of profit. One shilling is to be given, that two may be received a gudgeon is to be thrown away, that a whale may be obtained. It is declared that this liberality will be amazingly beneficial to every one, therefore it is popular and fashionable. It is, in fact, neither more nor less than cold-blooded, disgraceful avarice. This avarice has made one interest seek the destruction of another throughout the country. The trade which cannot be touched by the foreigner readily supports what will ruin that which can, for the sake of the profit; the cotton or woollen trade, is willing to gain extension by the sacrifice of the silk, or glove trade. While the different mercantile and manufacturing inte rests thus fight against each other, they combine for the ruin of agriculture. When this boasted liberality is stripped of its gaudy disguise, it is hideous, loathsome, guilty, and dangerous beyond description.

These things ought to make every one regard the clamour against the Corn Laws with distrust, who wishes to judge correctly. When he hears these laws called odious, hateful, disgraceful, &c., and finds that enmity to them is to be used as a test at the approaching election, let him turn from their slanderers to examine their operation. Let him rigidly scrutinize their fruits from their birth to the present moment. Let him ascer tain what scarcity they have produced -what trade they have ruined-and what degree of want and suffering they have brought upon the inhabitants of large places. If he find-as find he will-that, in the period in which they have raised corn the most, trade has been in the most flourishing condition, the merchants and manufacturers have enjoyed the highest prosperity, and the working classes of cities and towns have been blessed with such abundance as they never before possessedthen let him think, as he ought, of the clamour and the clamourers.

In our remarks on Agriculture, we shall not array it against Commerce and Manufactures. We feel equal friendship for the three, we believe them to form a whole; and in throwing our shield over the one in its danger, we conceive that we likewise throw it over the others. If we òccasionally turn our weapon against VOL. XIX.

Commerce and Manufactures, it will be merely to disarm them in their unnatural and disgraceful war against Agriculture, and to prevent them from working their own destruction. There are, we know, very many merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen, who wish to judge correctly on the question-who are willing to act on the maxim, Live and let live-who seek not to distress their agricultural fellow-subjects-and who are anxious for the weal of the whole community. Let all such attend to us; we will not intentionally attempt to mislead them, and they will still be free to follow their own opinions. If there be one whose grovelling, despicable soul can regard neither countrymen nor country, can never look beyond the circle drawn by its own cupidity, and can sigh to gather wealth through the ruin and misery of his fellow-creatures, if there be one such pitiful wretch in the British nation, let us be listened to even by him. We may say something that will gratify his avarice and benefit his pocket.

We must begin with dividing the community into two great bodies-the one comprehending the Agriculturists, and the other, the Merchants and Manufacturers. The first body, strictly speaking, comprehends, not only all who draw employment from the land, but all who draw income from it. The great landlord is as much a producer of corn, as the great manufacturer is of manufactures, or as the great merchant, calling the latter for the occasion a producer, is of merchandise. His tenants are practically his junior partners; with every one he finds the chief part of the capital, and, if he do not attend daily to the business, he lays down the plan for its management, and keeps it under his general superintendence. His income arises from it, and fluctuates with the profits which it yields, like that of his tenants. The agricultural body includes the nobility, the country gentlemen, and great part of the clergy, with their servants. The universities, numberless corporate bodies, and various public institutions, have large possessions in land, and all whom these possessions maintain belong to the agriculturists. A vast number of the regular inhabitants of towns derive their income wholly, or princi20

pally, from land, and these belong to the Agriculturists. If the ministers, ambassadors, judges, &c.; the army and navy; those who are employed for the collection of the revenue; the fundholders; in a word, all who draw income from the public-purse, are to be classed at all, a vast number of them are paid by, and of course belong to, the agriculturists. Taking all this into calculation, and looking at Britain and Ireland as a whole, the agriculturists include at least half of the ag gregate population.

Under the terms merchants and manufacturers, we will here include all tradesmen, mechanics, &c. The grocer is practically the co-partner of the importers of tea, sugar, &c. The tailor is a garment-manufacturer; the different tradesmen, mechanics, artizans, &c., are connected with the leading merchants and manufacturers, in fitting for use, and distributing the goods of the latter. Our readers will therefore bear in mind, throughout this article, that by the terms merchants and manufacturers, we mean not only those who commonly bear the names, but all the members of the community who cannot be classed with the Agriculturists; all who draw employment, directly or remotely, from commerce and manufactures.

The commodities of these gigantic bodies are, as every one knows, perfectly distinct, and they reciprocally give employment to each other. The Agriculturists employ the merchants and manufacturers to supply them with merchandise and manufactures; and the latter employ the former to supply them with food and various raw articles to trade with, or manufacture. Every one can see that the agricultural body depends solely on the trading body for the sale of its surplus produce; every one, we say, can see this, and therefore it is not made a matter of dispute. But that the trading body depends, in any material degree, for the sale of its surplus commodities, on the agricultural one, seems in these days to be denied by almost all. It appears to be imagined that it depends principally for employment and a market on foreign nations: the doctrine, which a fool ought to be ashamed of believing in, is maintained by every one who thinks himself individually wise, that, the less the Agriculturists obtain for their produce,

the greater will be the trade and profits of the merchants and manufacturers !

The agricultural body raises all its produce at home from its land. The trading body buys its commodities, or the raw produce from which it fabricates them, chiefly abroad; and it buys them principally with foreign raw produce, or its own manufactures. This buying and selling between the latter body and foreign nations, in which neither the former body nor its produce appear to take any share, form the main source of that ruinous delusion which prevails on the question, and we must therefore ascertain what regulates their extent, and keeps them in existence.

If the Agriculturists could not sell their surplus produce, they could stil subsist, although very miserably; they could still raise food for their own consumption, and manufacture for themselves from the produce of their land. With the merchants and manufacturers the case is different. The latter subsist by buying and selling; they do not grow their commodities, or the raw produce from which they are fabricated; if they cannot sell their commodities, they cannot buy them ; they cannot procure food; they cannot procure these commodities for their own consumption. It is solely from their sales to the Agriculturists that they are themselves enabled to consume, not only food, but merchandize and manufactures; that they are enabled to buy of, sell to, and employ each other. The Agriculturists give an order for cottons to the cotton-manufacturer, and this enables the latter to employ the cotton-merchant, the maker of machinery, the dyer, the coal-merchant, &c., and to wear cottons himself. Without this original order, none of these could be employed, or could wear cottons.

In primitive times, the Agriculturists contented themselves with the produce of their soil; and then no merchants and manufacturers could exist. When the former began to have surplus produce to dispose of, then the latter came into being; in proportion as their produce increased in value, in the same proportion merchants and manufacturers multiplied. If we look through the world at this moment, we find, that where the Agriculturists have no surplus produce,

there are no merchants and manufacturers; and that in those nations where the Agriculturists have such produce, the value of it regulates the employment of the merchants and manufacturers. We find, that if a nation's Agriculturists buy their manufactures of other nations, it has few merchants, and no manufacturers; the buying only multiplies the latter abroad. In proportion as the Agriculturists buy at home, the merchants and manufacturers are numerous at home.

In this country, up to a recent period, the two bodies have been compelled by law to buy, as far as possible, exclusively of each other; and this has produced the best fruits to each. Our fand yields little save corn and cattle, and these are yielded in profusion by the land of most other countries. If our Agriculturists had constantly bought their merchandize and manufactures abroad with corn and cattle, they must have sold their wheat for less than twenty shillings per quarter, and their other produce in proportion. Of course, their purchases must have been very small, and they must have been always in the lowest state of penury. By buying solely at home, they have multiplied merchants and manufacturers in this country; they have paid higher prices for many things than they could have bought them at abroad; but to counterpoise this, they have obtained higher prices for, and sold much more of, their own produce. The merchants and manufacturers have paid much higher prices for corn, &c., than they could have bought these for abroad, but they have charged proportionally high for their own commodities; and in proportion as the price of Agricultural produce has been raised to thein, their trade has been extended and their gain increased. They have likewise been compelled to buy as far as possible of each other, and each division of them has supplied the whole community with its commodities.

If every nation should manufacture its produce before exporting it, a vast portion of our manufacturers would be useless. Our cotton and silk manufacturers, rope-makers, &c., &c., with all of other callings who draw employment from them, would be deprived of bread. We should have little to sell that other nations would want to buy, prices would fall, an immense part of both the bodies would be only

a burden to the rest, and we should be one of the poorest nations in the world. A large proportion of this would fall upon us, were every nation to manufacture for itself all the manufactures that it consumes. Our manufacturers supply, not only ourselves, but more or less several other nations. The whole world can only employ a certain number of manufacturers, and if one nation have more than its share, another must have fewer. We have infinitely more than our share, according to a fair division, and therefore some nations have but few, and others have scarcely any.

The Agriculturists raise their produce solely with their own capital and labour, and they sell it free from duty. Fluctuations in its prices, therefore, fall exclusively on themselves. The traders buy their commodities, or the raw produce from which they fabricate them, abroad; they pay upon them duties which sometimes are exceedingly heavy, and therefore their prices may be very high, or very low, without their profits being varied. A considerable part of the price of bread and shambles' meat to the town consumer consists of the profits of the factor, miller, cattle-jobber, and butcher. At this moment, in London, people are buying their bread at the rate of ninety shillings per quarter for wheat, when the farmers cannot obtain sixty shillings. The price of meat is still higher in proportion. The rate of this profit does not vary exactly as the price of wheat and cattle varies, and therefore a rise or fall in the latter does not cause an equal rise or fall in the price of bread or meat. If a rise of fifty per cent take place in agricultural produce, it does not raise the price of what we buy abroad, or the duty upon it; and therefore a rise in merchandise and manufactures, of two per cent in some articles, five in others, and of perhaps from fifteen to twenty on the average, is sufficient to balance it on the part of the traders.

The Economists assert that a rise in

corn raises the price of all other things. Generally true, but how? They reply

solely by raising the price of food. This is false. If a bad season destroy half the crop, double prices do not be nefit the Agriculturist. He cannot increase his consumption of merchandise and manufactures; the high price of food diminishes the consumption

of these amidst the trading body, causes a glut in them and labour, and the price of many things is perhaps even reduced. If, with only half an average crop, the Agriculturist can obtain no advance of price, his consumption is prodigiously diminished, and this runs down ruinously by gluts the price of labour, merchandise, and manufactures. It does to the traders more injury than the doubling of his prices.

If, with average crops, the prices of the Agriculturists be raised fifty per cent, what follows? The advance is almost all expended in the consumption of merchandise and manufactures. The agricultural body instantly demands one-third more of merchandise and manufactures, and of such too as yield the best profit, and employ the most labour. This sudden demand outstrips, at the first, supply, and enables the trading body to raise its prices at pleasure. What the latter pays to the foreigner and the exchequer remains the same, and a small advance of price places its wages and profits on a level with those of the other body. The advance of price to the Agriculturists on what they buy, falls far below their increase of profit on what they sell, and their purchases continue to be infinitely greater. The merchants and manufacturers, not only increase their per centage of profits and their wages, but they extend very greatly their sales, and a vast number more of them are employed. They are enabled to sell infinitely more to each other, as well as to the Agriculturists. With them, as with the latter, the advance of price in what they buy, falls far below their increase of profit in what they sell.

This universal rise of prices, therefore, gives employment to an immense additional quantity of labour; and it raises the net income of almost every individual in the community; it raises to him the price of what he has to sell, more than that of what he has to buy.

It is because taxes, duties, and the price abroad, of foreign produce, remain unaltered-because the farmer cultivates his land to a great extent with horses, and the cost of these and of his bread and animal food remains practically the same because most of our goods are prepared in a consider

able degree by steam, horses, wind, water, or foreign labour and capitalbecause the same extent of land will yield the same quantity of producebecause the same number of labourers will do the same quantity of workbecause twenty shillings' worth of labour will often suffice for twenty pounds' worth of goods-because, in fine, most of the leading ingredients in the price of everything, are not affected by the fluctuations in this price

it is from this that high prices benefit, and low ones injure, almost every individual in the community. The rise or fall, falls wholly on our own wages and profits of capital; these constitute but a trifling part of the whole price of most commodities, and therefore a rise or fall of twenty or thirty per cent in this whole price, will often raise or sink wages and profits fifty or one hundred per cent.

To disprove this, it must be proved that a rise in corn, not only raises other things, but raises them in an equal degree. It must be proved, that if the quarter of wheat rise from sixty to one hundred and twenty shillings, the price of raw cotton, &c. must be doubled abroad, the taxes must be raised from fifty to one hundred millions, the pound of tea must be raised from eight to sixteen shillings, the pound of tobacco from four to eight shillings, the yard of broad cloth from thirty to sixty shillings, the dozen of port from fifty to one hundred shillings, &c. &c. No such disproof will we think be offered us; and if it cannot be offered, a rise in agricultural produce must raise the profits and wages of the Agriculturists. If a rise in corn raise other things at all, it must raise the wages and profits of the merchants and manufacturers, for it is almost solely upon them that it operates.

It is demonstrable to all, that the Agriculturists can only dispose of a certain quantity of produce in the year-that in reality they exchange it for merchandise and manufactures

that if the price be reduced one half, they cannot bring more to market, and they can only consume half the quantity of merchandize and manufactures. If half the population strike one half from its consumption of certain commodities, the other half must raise its consumption of them by

the same amount, or the whole consumption must be reduced. A reduction of fifty per cent to the Agriculturist, could not, on account of the baker, butcher, &c., reduce bread and animal food to the town consumer more than thirty per cent, and therefore, if the merchants and manufacturers could keep their wages and general prices unaltered, their increase of consumption in merchandise and manufactures would do little more than cover half the diminution on the part of the Agriculturists. The whole consumption of the country would of course be greatly reduced; vast numbers of them would be thrown out of employment, and this would throw vast numbers more out of employment; gluts would reduce their wages and profits to the lowest point, and of necessity their sales to the lowest point likewise. If a rise in corn raise all other things, a fall in it as certainly reduces them; the rise, by increasing trade and employment for labour, raises the wages and profits of the trading body more than it ought in proportion; and the fall, by diminishing trade and employment for labour, sinks such wages and profits more than it ought in proportion. The truth of this is attested by the whole of experience.

By compelling the two bodies to buy exclusively of each other, we have, in the first place, carried the number of our merchants and manufacturers to the highest point; we possess far more of them in proportion than any other nation. This has enabled us to get our superabundant land into cultivation, and to secure to our Agriculturists good prices constantly. This has operated to multiply the traders still more, and to secure to them good prices constantly. The fruit of the whole is, consumption is far greater here than in any other part of the world. Notwithstanding the condition of a part of Ireland, our twenty millions of souls perhaps consume as great a quantity of agricultural produce, merchandise, and manufactures, as sixty millions of any other people. From this immense consumption, which originated with, and is regula ted by, the Agriculturists, flows our foreign trade. If we cannot consume, we cannot buy; and if we cannot buy, we cannot sell. The merchants and

manufacturers, who carry on this trade, are merely the agents to this consumption of the whole country; and not by them, but by the consumption, the trade is regulated.

The system which thus compelled the bodies to buy of each otherwhich thus prohibited the nation as a whole from buying anything of other nations, save such articles as it really needed, either for consumption or profitable re-sale-is now destroyed, as one of error and injury. The Agriculturists, and the different divisions of the traders, may now buy their manufactures of other nations. The traders are still compelled to buy solely of the Agriculturists, but the compulsion is to be soon removed. Ministers declared, in the last Session of Parliament, that the trade in corn ought to be made free in the present one, and they now declare that this ought to be done in the first favourable moment. Sentence has been pronounced-the executioner is preparing for the discharge of his functions-and when the quarter of wheat shall rise to seventy shillings, the death-stroke will be given to the agriculture of England. The trade in corn is already free, so far as regards intention, and we shall speak accordingly.

The destroyers of this system declare that its destruction, and the establishment of their new liberal one, were called for by the wealth, trade, and prosperity of the empire. We will now glance at this new liberal system, which is the perfection of litical economy and philosophy-which is to prove, that Mr Huskisson and Mr Robinson are first-rate statesmen, and that all who before them conducted our commercial affairs were dolts and drivellers.

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If a grocer buy more sugar than he can sell, he brings himself to poverty by it-if the farmer, who has nothing but corn to sell, buy corn and thereby render his own unsaleable, he ruins himself-if the labourer buy the labour of others, instead of selling his own, he reduces himself to starvation. The principle is the same to the nation, as to the individual. The latter may be trusted for avoiding, but the former is very liable to fall into, the error. The nation is composed of bodies, each of which subsists by the sale of its separate commodities; and