The reader will remember the following extract, in our last
week's Postscript, from a Manchester letter- The reader will remember the following extract, in our last week's Postscript, from a Manchester letter-
" Opinion is rapidly shaping itself into a demand for a bounty on imported corn, as in the time of William and Mary for seven years, of 5s. a quarter, as being necessary to enable the commercial 'interest to recover their position in Europe."
On this the Standard of Monday remarked- " A bounty on imported corn as in the time of William and Mary! In the time of William and Mary the importation of foreign corn was absolutely pro- hibited until the price should rise to 48s. the quarter of wheat ; and by the first act of the reign of William and Mary, a bounty of 5s. the quarter was granted upon exportation."
The Standard is right; and the Globe is also perhaps right in saying "the blunder of the Manchester man was probably a slip of the pen. Our correspondent ought to have known better ; and in that confidence we sent the extract to press at once, without detecting the blunder, in the bustle of Saturday morning. But, apart front the mistake, we enter our protest against the principle of a bounty on corn, imported or exported. Free trade is or ought to he the aim of those who oppose the Corn-laws ; and retaliation, though the landed interest would have no right to complain of it, would be in- jurious to all parties.
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