Mr. M'Culloch has published some brief but clear and forcible
me- morandums, which he wrote in aid of his friend Mr. Murray, the Mem- ber for Kirkcudbrightshire, in order to show his constituents that they need fear little from the importation of live-stock under the new Tariff. The vast number of 1,350,000 head of cattle are annually slaughtered in Great Britain : to suppose that 100,000 could be imported, Mr. M'Cul- loch calculates, were extravagant ; and therefore prices cannot be per- ceptibly influenced. Since 1826 the importation from Ireland has trebled, Bow amounting to 180,000; but is the price of meat less than in 1826 Why change, then? "The proposed measure will not lower the price of butcher's-meat, but it will prevent its further increase, and enable Provision to be made for the wants of our rapidly-increasing popula- tion." It is as great a delusion to suppose that a similarly liberal ad- mission of corn would injure any interest- " Suppose the ports were constantly open to importation at a fixed duty of 15s. a quarter on wheat, it admits of demonstration that our average prices would not thereby be in the least degree affected. But such a measure would have given us an additional security against the mischievous effects of bad harvests, at the same time that it would have made an end of a gigantic delu- sion, and have dried up a most prolific source of misrepresentation, abuse, and agitation."
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