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1842.

been eating like a cancer into the vitals of the State, by CHAP. raising an increased revenue out of a suffering and starving people. The attempt, however, was made, and in a courageous spirit; and the remainder of this work is little more than an exposition, so far as the domestic history of England is concerned, of the consequences of the measures adopted for its furtherance. From this time down to the fall of Sebastopol, the annals of its internal legislation, instead of a confused and complicated tissue of abortive or contradictory measures which no art can render interesting, and which the historian himself has great difficulty in understanding, exhibit a steady and consistent system, which, for good or for evil, produced durable and important results, and which must for ever command the attention of mankind, from the immense consequences in both hemispheres with which it was attended.

27.

the Parlia

1842.

Parliament met on the 3d February 1842; and the anxiety of the nation was wound up to the very highest Opening of pitch as to the remedial measures which were to be pro- ment of posed. It was generally understood, from the character Feb. 3. of the Prime Minister and the great strength of his Government, that they would be of a sweeping and decisive character; and the agricultural party had already taken the alarm in consequence of the retirement, in the middle of January, of the Duke of Buckingham from the Cabinet and office of Lord Privy Seal, who was succeeded by the Duke of Buccleuch. As he was the uncompromising friend of the landed interest, his retirement from the Cabinet was justly regarded as of ominous import to that portion of the community. The session was opened with unusual splendour, as well from the great concourse of members whom the importance of the measures to be submitted to their consideration had attracted, as from the presence of the King of Prussia, who had come to England to stand sponsor for the Prince of Wales, and who was present with her Majesty on the occasion. The joyous

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CHAP. event of the birth of an heir to the throne had taken place on the 9th November preceding. The Queen's Speech noticed with deep regret the continued distress in the manufacturing districts of the country, and bore testimony to the exemplary patience and fortitude with which it had been borne, and recommended to the consideration of the House "the state of the laws which affect the importation of corn, and of other articles, the produce of foreign countries." The Address was carried in both Houses without a division; the attention of all parties, and of 1842, 2, 3; the whole country, being fixed on the remedial measures expected from Sir R. Peel with a degree of intensity which never had been witnessed on any former occasion.1

1 Ann. Reg.

Mart. ii.

529.

plan.

28.

The eventful debate came on on the 9th February, in a Sir R. Peel's very crowded House, surrounded by a still greater multitude around the doors, which saluted the members as they passed with loud cheers or groans according as they were understood to favour or oppose the removal of the duties on grain. Cries of "No Sliding Scale!" "Total Repeal!"" Fixed Duty!" were heard on all sides. Corn at the moment was 62s. 9d. the quarter, and they fully expected by the measures in preparation it would in a few weeks be at 45s. Below the bar were the Duke of Cambridge and numerous members of the Upper House. Six hundred anti-Corn-Law delegates marched down to the House, and on being refused admission to the lobby, thronged the doors, and added to the general excitement. Already, since the meeting of Parliament, 994 petitions had been presented for the total repeal of the Corn Laws. Sir R. Peel looked grave; he listened unmoved to the cries for the entire removal of the obnoxious duty. At length, amidst breathless silence, he rose and said in substance: "The distress which every one sees and laments, and which has now continued for five years, may be ascribed to the establishment of joint-stock banks, and the connection subsisting between them and our manufacturing establishments, and the consequent immi

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gration of labourers from the agricultural to the manufacturing and mining districts; the immense building speculations which have recently been going on; the great increase of mechanical power; the reaction of the monetary crisis in the United States, and the consequent diminution of the demand for our manufactures: from thence the interruption of our commerce with China, and the apprehension, which has hardly yet subsided, of the renewal of a general war in Europe. Extend as you will your foreign commerce, you may depend upon it that it is not a necessary consequence that the means of employment for manual labour will be proportionally augmented. While I admit the existence of commercial distress, while I deplore the suffering it has occasioned, I feel bound to 1x. 203; declare that I cannot attribute the distress to the extent 1842, 16, to which by some it is supposed to be imputable to the ii. 529,530. Corn Laws.1

1 Parl. Deb.

Ann. Reg.

17; Mart.

29.

"The export of our manufactures has fallen off considerably in the last two years; their declared value in Continued. 1840 fell short of 1839 by £1,817,000. This has chiefly been owing to the great diminution of exports to the United States, which in 1839 were £8,939,000, and had fallen in 1840 to £5,283,000.* This is no doubt a very serious defalcation; but it is fortunate that it is in course of being compensated, and more than compensated, by the great increase in the exports to our own colonies. In 1837 they were £11,208,000; in 1840 they had risen to £15,497,000, and they are still in a course of progressive increase. The state of our trade with the principal countries of Europe is equally decisive against the

In 1842, the year in which Sir Robert Peel was speaking, the exports of Great Britain to the United States were only £3,500,000, while six years before they had been £12,500,000.

+ EXPORTS TO OUR COLONIES-DECLARED VALUE.

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CHAP. idea that the depression which exists is to be ascribed to the operation of the Corn Laws. Our exports to Germany, Holland, and Belgium, so far from having declined when these laws were in operation, have, on the contrary, steadily increased. The exports to these three countries in 1837 were £8,742,000; in 1838, £9,606,000; in 1839, £9,660,000; in 1840, £9,704,000; so that, even with respect to those countries from whom we derive our chief supplies of grain when we stand in need of it, which are supposed to be such formidable competitors in manufactures, and from which the demand for British manufactures is said to be rapidly diminishing on account of our exclusion of their produce, it still appears that there has been, on the whole, a progressive increase in the amount of our commerce carried on with them. I cannot therefore infer that the operation of the Corn Laws is to be charged with the depression which is at present so severely felt in many branches of trade. I see other causes in operation which are sufficient in a great degree to account for the evils which no one can deny to exist. "Those who argue against the continuance of the Corn Continued. Laws are enabled to appeal to arguments which give them a very great advantage. They urge that they impose a tax upon bread, upon the subsistence of the people, and that this burden is imposed for the benefit of a peculiar class. It is easy to see what impression an argument of this sort is calculated to make, especially upon those who suppose they are suffering under the system complained of. A comparison is often made also between the price of corn in this and other countries where it is grown cheaper, and the inference is immediately drawn, that if the people of this country were put on the same footing with respect to the articles of subsistence, they would be benefited by the whole amount of the effected reduction in price. It appears to me that any conclusion founded upon such a position will be altogether erroneous. question is, whether you will improve the condition of the

30.

The

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labouring classes by effecting a reduction in the price of CHAP. their food? No position can be more unfounded. The true question is, not what is the price of food, but what is the command which existing wages give the labouring classes over all that constitutes the enjoyments of life, whether they be necessaries or luxuries? Judging by this standard, the labouring classes in Great Britain have no reason to envy those of any other country. There is no greater error than to suppose that a great reduction in the price of various articles, and particularly of food, must necessarily lead to a great increase in the comforts and enjoyments of the labouring classes in this country.

31.

"So far from this being the case, the fact appears to be directly the reverse. Generally speaking, wherever Continued. food is very low-priced, the condition of the labouring poor is miserable. I will begin with Prussia. I admit that meat is dearer in this country, that corn is dearer, that all the great articles of human sustenance are much dearer here than in Prussia. But what then? Are the people better off in Prussia than in this country? Do they enjoy and have at their command a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life? So far from doing so, it appears from the evidence collected by Dr Bowring, and referred to in the Report of the Committee for the Revision of the Import Duties, that while each individual in England consumes, on an average, a quarter of wheat a-year, in Prussia the consumption is only a barrel, or an eighth part as much, the difference being made up of rye, a very inferior grain. Then as to sugar, the average consumption in Britain is seventeen pounds a-head; in France it is only five pounds a-head; in the states of the German League, four pounds; in Europe generally, two and a half pounds. It is calculated that the people of this country consume fifty pounds of meat annually, at the very lowest. Some writers say one hundred pounds; but take it at the lowest figure, it is much more than they consume in Prussia, which is only thirty-five pounds. Examples of this sort, to

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