and commerce at present labor, or in any material degree to advance their general interests.

We are informed by Mr. Jacob, that in the year 1810 our exports (setting aside fractions) amounted to sixty-two millions; and that a deduction of fifteen millions of colonial produce re exported, left an amount of forty-seven millions, which consisted entirely of British produce and manufactures. This sum is not far, I believe, from the truth at present, though I have not at hand the full opportunities of ascertaining the point. It is apparent, however, that if this is at all near the average of our exports, an addition of 720,000l. to them would be only a sixty-fifth part of the whole; and it is difficult to see how an increase of our exports to this extent, though of course useful as far as it goes, can be the means of rescuing our manufacturers from a state of utter depression and debasement, to that of the high prosperity which, we are told, would be the effect of repealing the corn-bill.

You are too candid to insist that the distress of the manufacturing districts is mainly attributable to the corn-laws. You admit that it is not strictly dependent on them; and speak with a feeling of doubt on the extent to which they are even accessary, in increasing the difficulties which our manufacturers have so largely experienced. It can hardly be questioned, that the great cause of those difficulties is the weight of goods with which ma chinery and enterprise have loaded them; and it does not appear, on any calculation of the amount which a probable aunual importation of corn bears to the probable mass of accumulated production, that the relief to the manufacturer would be very sensibly felt, by an importation being permanently allowed by law to the extent which you mention. In point of fact, an experiment has been made, as you yourself state, of an admission into our markets of corn from Canada, or from bond, during each of the two last years, to an extent nearly equal to that for which you contend, and yet without any material influence arising from it, in either preventing or removing the evils complained of.

It seems, indeed, to be apparent, that no permanent extension of trade can keep pace with production, which is conducted as if demand were interminable and unlimited.

In reasoning from the past to the future, you appeal to the period between the years 1773 and 1815, as proving the very high state of prosperity which Great Britain enjoyed, in all the particu lars which constitute the greatness of a country; and you connect this with the existence of a principle of law, relative to the impor

Considerations on the Protection required by British Agriculture, and on the Influence of the Price of Corn on exportable Productions, by W Jacob, Esq. F.R.S.'

tation of corn, which was interrupted at the latter period. I have no difficulty in admitting the correctness of your statement, as to the rapid strides which this country made during the period mentioned by you, and particularly the latter part of it; but cannot consider this as having any thing to do either with the facility of importing corn, or the quantity imported.

It is rather the year 1767, than 1773, that should have been mentioned as that in which a greater than ordinary importation commenced for the average excess of annual importation, up to the latter year, was nearly as great as that of the first five years of the halcyon period mentioned by you, and was much greater than that of the third and fourth five years; while, in the second, it is to be observed, that the exportation exceeded the importation, nearly as much as the importation did the exportation at any, and more than at two, of the periods just mentioned.

This will be seen more distinctly from the following tabular view :

Quarters.

From 1767 to 1772, both inclusive, the annual
average excess of imports above exports, was . 120,778
From 1773 to 1777

From 1778 to 1782, excess of exp. 95,930

From 1783 to 1787, excess of imports

From 1788 to 1792

149,588

84,577

70,123

425,066

95,930

329,136

It appears, therefore, that for twenty-six years, viz. from 1766 to 1793, in which twenty-two of the forty-two years quoted by you are included, the average excess of importation was not quite 70,000 quarters per annum; a trifle not to be named as having any sort of palpable national operation.

From the year 1793 up to 1814, inclusive, the importation of corn increased so as to make the annual average nearly 500,000 quarters, or, reckoning the value paid for it to the grower at 24s. per quarter, a seventy-fifth part of the exports of the country. The

nationab population was, without doubt, at this period rapidly ad, vancing; and this, with the exigencies of war, produced a greater than ordinary demand for agricultural produce. But the real cause of such an importation; small as it must be considered in a national point of view, is to be seen in the bad harvests and deficient crops which so frequently occurred between the years 1793 and 1812. On referring to Mr. Tooke's valuable work on high and low prices, you will find that during this period, amounting to twenty-two years, there were no fewer than eleven years of scanty harvests

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Deficient production was therefore the ultimate cause of this increased importation; and, in reasoning from effects, it would be just as philosophical to refer the prosperity of that period to bad harvests, without which such an extent of importation would not have taken place, and to advancing prices, which were the conse quences of increased demand for corn in this country, as to a sys tem of laws which would have had no palpable operation, except under the uncontrollable circumstances of seasons.

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An increased importation would have occurred on any necessity for it arising, if the change of law effected in 1773 had not taken place. Such was the fact after the deficient harvest of 1765; such was likewise the case after that of 1757; and those were two of the only three bad seasons which had occurred from the year 1715 up to the first mentioned period. The third was in the year 1740; and then it was found that the extra supply wanted was produced from our exports of corn being diminished from an average of above 300,000 quarters per annum, (as occurred in the preceding five years,) to less than 50,000 quarters.

It is a favorite idea with yourself and other modern political economists, that a valuable result of a freer importation of com, will be that of removing a principle of fluctuation in the price of the article, which is regarded as materially depending on the present laws, and eas equally unfavorable to the farmer, the landlord, and the consumer.››

But I would appeal to the experience of the whole period to which our documents extend, whether it is possible, by arty human efforts, to prevent fluctuations in the price of corn. A glance at Mr.Tooke's Tables will demonstrate that the thing is impossible; and that the effects of seasons, whether bad or good, will setpt nought the pigmy efforts of human skill to counteract them out

It sounds very plausibly, too, that by a freer importation of corn, we allow the plenty of one country to counteract the scarcity of another; whereas, it is found that Great Britain is very much an epitome of Europe; and that from the best evidence which can be obtamed on the subject, as given by Mr. Tooke, and as sanctioned by the high authority of the House of Commons itself,

there is a prevalence of a general similarity of seasons over the whole of Europe, within certain latitudes.

sedMr. Lowe's information is highly important on this subject. The public," says he, particularly the untravelled part of the public, are hardly aware of the similarity of temperature prevailing throughout✅ what may be called the corn-country of Europe, we mean Great Britain, Ireland, the north of France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the north-west of Germany, and, in some measure, Poland and the north-east of Germany. All this tract is situated between the 45th and 55th degrees of latitude, and subject, in a considerable degree, to the prevalence of similar winds. Neither the superabundance of rain which we experience in one summer, or its deficiency in another, are by any means confined to Great Britain and Ireland; while in winter, both the intensity and duration of frost are always greater on the Continent. Exceptions certainly exist in particular tracts; but in support of our general argument, we have merely to recall to those of our readers who are of an age to recollect the early part of the war, or who have attended to registers of temperature, the more remarkable seasons of the present age: thus, in 1794, the spring was prematurely warm on the Continent, as in England; there, as with us, the summer of 1798 was dry, and that of 1799 wet: again, in 1811, the harvest was deficient throughout the north-west of Europe, generally from one and the same cause, Blight; while that of 1816 was still more generally deficient, from Fain and want of warmth. In regard to a more remote period, we mean the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries generally, if the temperature has not been so accurately noted, we find, from the coincidence in prices, that it is highly probable that there prevailed a great similarity in the weather of the Continent; thus, in France, the latter years of the seventeenth century, the seasons of 1708 and 1709, as well as several of the seasons between 1764 and 1773, were as unpropitious, and attended with as great an advance of price, as in England."

1

Similar statements are given by Dr. Adam Smith, as noticed by My Tooke. 4 to 95 11 31 of monte goldThe forty-two years which your mention, as being remarkable for the prosperity of the country, presented a greater extent of fluctuation in prices, than any which has been experienced since; the lowest prices having been 36s. in the year 1779, and the highest 128 Odin the year 1801. Here was a fluctuation to more than three and a halftimes the extent; whereas a fluctuadaidw sonobiva 189d d rent full bas oyd. lo smojies no en The present State of England in regard to. Agriculture, Trade, ar Finance, &c, by Joseph How did yoɔnce Lowe, Esq.

and

tion to only about double the extent occurred since the year 1815: the highest price, 94s. being in 1817, and the lowest, 45$ in 1822.

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Not less remarkable are the fluctuations which have occurred in the price of corn from the year 1646, at which the registry begins, to the commencement of the period from which you date your calculation. A slight inspection of the table of prices will prove this to be the case; and the following are some of the most striking differences :

S. d. s. d.

From 1648 to 1654, 6 years, the price varied from 75 6 to 28 1

From 1655 to 1659, 5 From 1662 to 1666, 5 From 1672 to 1674, 2 From 1674 to 1676, 2 From 1676 to 1679, 3 From 1687 to 1688, 1 From 1689 to 1693, 4 From 1695 to 1696, 1 From 1698 to 1702, 4 From 1706 to 1709, 3 From 1710 to 1715, 5 From 1716 to 1719, 3 From 1723 to 1725, 2 From 1727 to 1728, 1 From 1728 to 1732, 4 From 1740 to 1743, 3 From 1743 to 1746, 3 From 1755 to 1757, 2 From 1757 to 1761, 4 From 1761 to 1765, 4

It seems to be demonstrable, therefore, that no alteration which can be made in the system of corn-laws, no assimilation to what has been regarded as the practice of former periods, will, in any material degree, prevent that fluctuation of prices which, though depending mainly on the season, you are disposed to regard as very much the fruits of the present system. In considering the subject of fluctuations, you are, indeed, a little hard on state doctors, without considering how natural it is for doctors to disagree, and how difficult is a decision as to the judgment exercised, either by the medical or political physician, when it is by the result, not by the means employed in effecting it, that ability is for the most part estimated;" ab eventu, præcipue, honorem aut dedecus reportant." But when you charge the Parliamentary faculty with throwing their patient, the agricul turist, into an ague, you appear to forget that there is such a thing as mistaking an ague, which is generally considered as san inno