PROGRESS OF ANTI CORN LAW AGITATION.
LAST week, we called attention to the oporati MI of the Corn-laws on our foreign commerce. We stated our belief that the subject was beginning to be understood in our manufacturing districts ; and lye warned the monopolists of the consequences which must inevitably follow the spread of information on this point.
Sonic of the seed sown by the opponents of the Corn-laws has indeed fallen in good ground, and produced abuildw :fly. In proof cf this, we quote some passages from a memorial addressed by cer- tain members of the " Sheffield Regeneration Society," to Mr. ROBERT OWEN, the founder of the society. This well-meaning blunderer has lately, it seems, been telling the working men of the Northern counties, that they would gain nothing by a free trade in corn, but that wages would fall in the same ratio as the price of bread. To this dectrine, his "Regeneration" disciples reasonably demur; because, they say,
" We know that labour pars for all things ; and that if a free trade in corn would 41,,uble the quantity or corn in this market, our wages could not possibly, fall in the same ratio as that in which the price of bread would fall, unless we at once doubled our numbers, or at once became four-handed, and employed our four hands as actively as we now 110 our two. . . . . . " We cannot believe that a free trade its corn would not benefit us ; provided WC obtain it before we cease to be a manufacturing people, and while we have commodities to give in exchange for the agricultoral produce of other countries. With a free trade in food, we deny the possibility of there ever being too large a quantity of manufactured goods. The tap-riot of our misery is an insufficient *amply of focal ; and we deny that the quantity of food can be increased by
We affirm that a directly- contrary effect would result --strutting while we Limon- sixteen Lours out of iLe iweniy-
•••• •,■0 : zer
from suit ....eket against our um-bread-taxed rivals, how shall four, we can hatal:v keep the -,•? We are wear y of the conflict of
we keep it if we labour only half that - • ... still reproducing each
monopoly with monopoly, of mischiefs with mischiefs, .• other. Our motto is ' Free trade, with free labour.'"
The object of Mr. OWEN'S recent crusade among the manufac- turers of Derbyshire and Yorkshire has been, to induce the work- ing classes to combine together to reduce the hours of labour, and still to extort the present or a higher rate of wages from their em- ployers. At the same time, he exhorts the masters to form a union among themselves, which shall enable them to command higher prices for their goods, and to reduce the hours of labour without loss. Here is the way the memorialists deal with this part of the subject.
" You tell us, first, that sour great object in forming an union of masters and
and workmen for the restriction of labour, is to compel idlers who consume wealth, and annuitants who no longer produce any, to pay a higher pike than they now do for our productions. But you do not tell 114 how we can compel purchasers to buy your goods dear when they can Iniy other goods cheap. You go On, it is true, to tell Us that it is out your intention to confine your union to this roman.. You propose to invite the cooperation of other nations. Well, Jet us s Lippe your invitation to be accepted. Not in the minutest particuLa would that circumstance alter, Uur unfortunate position. You forget that we ate bread-taxed, that mu rivals are not bread-taxed ; that they would still be able obtain as much feud for four hours' labor as we obtain for eight ; and that, in the cud, they would drive us out of every mat ket. What occasion, then, could there be to restlict labour, when it is as plain as figures could show it, that we should have no work to perform, except that of eating each other in the agonies of famine? It is impossible to get the same wages fin eight hours' labour as for twelv:2, without robherv of some kilo!: and we deny that the public can gain by robbery- of anykiuml. though individuals may arid do, as we know ti, well. Wealzh is the result ef labour, and you propose to labour eight hours instead of twelve. Tben, you propose to produce one-third less wealth than you now produce; mystifying yourself at the same time with the supposition that, by making fewer goods, but of better quality, the labour of eight hours will be worth that of twelve. You forget that you cannot work without materials; that y'ou can curly buy raw cotton by selling your wrought cottons ; and that, huwever excellent your improved article might be, your cheap-food rivals could always sell a better article cheaper. Consequently, you could not sell your wrought cottons; consequently you could not buy raw cotton; consequently you must cease to manufacture ; and consequently your plan is already a failure, evei. in theory."
From these specimens, our readers will perceive that the neces- sity and advantage of a repeal of the Corn-laws are well understood in Sheffield. The author of the Memorial is EBENEZER ELLIOTT, very famous for his Corn-Law Rhymes. We hope that he will not let his pen rest. There is no writer in England, perhaps, more
capable of instructing and interesting the working classes on this subject, than EBENEZER ELLIOTT.
Earl FITZWILLI AM'S Address to the Landowners of Great Br- lain, which we lately noticed in the shape of a sixpenny pamphlet, has made its appearance at a still lower price, namely, three half- pence ! For this we have to thank Mr. HustE ; who has caused a quantity to be printed, with the author's permission, for general circulation. The landowners, it is to be hoped, will see the ad- vantage of yielding on the Corn-law question without much further struggling. The advantage, which they derive from their monopoly, Earl FITZWILLIAM has shown them to be very trilling ; while the author of England and America would make it out, rightly considered, to be none at all. But the people are be- ginning to look further back than the date of the first Corn-bill in 1 8 15. They are beginning to inquire into the circumstances which enabled the landowners during the war to realize such an enormous advance of rent. They find that, owing to the vast increase of population, principally in the manufacturing towns, flue supply of food became quite insufficient for the demand ; and that hence arose the necessity of importing corn from foreign countries. But during the war, corn was imported at heavy cost, and with much difficulty ; and the landowner naturally, and in- deed necessarily, took advantage of this to raise the price of home- grown corn. Thus his profit increased with the cost of importing coru. from abroad ; and the war, which was a calamity to others, was profitable to him. With pence, returned the power of im- porting corn at peace prices. Then it was that the first Corn- prohibiting bill was devised, as a means of bolstering up the lo milord's rents. The monopoly was intended to answer this purpose as well as a war. As far as his own benefit is concerned, his scheme has miserably failed; but, unhappily, it has bad also the effect in no small degree of depris ing the other classes of the community of the advantages which peace should have brought. This part of the subject has been handled with much ability, in some letters which have lately appeared in the Horning Chronicle, under the title of " Rights of Industry." We should hope that the " landed interest," who supported the measures of Govern- ment from 1799 to the present (lay, could scarcely read them without some feelings of remorse for the stall:rings of the people whom the Corn-laws have pillaged.
Previous page
