NEWS OF THE WEEK.
" Is there to be no Order in Council, then ? " meets one at every turn, but never an answer to the question. There is no news on the subject, but only rumours scarcely worth notice, and abun- dance of newspaper-writing. Foremost in the latter has been the Times; which has had two elaborate and useful papers to show what would be the probable sources for importation if the ports were thrown open ; a compilation from materials which are not published, but which, we are made to understand, have been collected with great care, abroad as well as at home. We will rapidly state the general results. The principal countries of the West and South of Europe are at no time exporters of wheat. In France the present crop is probably not below the average, but also not more than sufficient to compensate for the destruction of other food. In Spain and Italy, the harvest has been indifferent. Vuzgary is blessed with abundance ; but that will be all required Ariake up for the deficiency in the other Austrian dominions. The stock at Trieste has nembeen so much reduced as it is now. In the lower provinces of the Danube and Moldavia the scarcity is great. The usually fertile provinces of Russia and Poland are this year importing. Sweden and 'Norway seldom grow enough for their own consumption, but this year Denmark has a harvest of singular abundance. Its excess, however, though large for so small a territory, will not go far as a relief to the necessities of other countries. Europe, therefore, will supply but little in our time of need : what of America? There the harvest has been ex- cellent, the crop of Indian corn especially abundant. The con- sequences of the potato disease are less severely felt in that region. But the amount of agricultural produce available for exportation has been greatly exaggerated. The progress of the population almost outstrips the progress of tillage : the percentage of the ex- port as compared with the population and gross produce has de- creased since the end of last century ; and the whole surplus pro- duce of the United States to foreign countries, including Canada, is in fact grown in the territories North and West of the Ohio river, far from the shipping-ports of the Atlantic. For some years to come it will not exceed twelve millions of bushels, or 1,600,000 quarters ; and the largest importation direct to England, that of 1840, a year of uncommon abundance, was 615,972 bushels of wheat and 620,919 barrels of flour. The effect of our Corn-laws has been to render this trade with us variable and uncertain—. dependent on casualties, and not deliberately provided for. The subject of maize or Indian corn demands especial at- tention. Maize is eaten both green and ripe : we have never tasted the green, so lauded by Cobbett ; but the preparations of the meal have always seemed to our taste far from palatable : however, it is a wholesome grain, and almost as nutritious as wheat. The growth of it in the United States is most sur- prisingly abundant—fifty or sixty millions of quarters annually, with a population not exceeding twenty millions. Not a hun- dredth part of that quantity is exported : in 1844 the quantity was 825,106 bushels in grain and 404,008 barrels in meal. It is in fact devoted to the fattening of pork; in which shape it is admissible to our provision-market, while the grain itself is excluded from our ports by the operation of the Corn-laws. It could be de- livered at Liverpool at 16s. a quarter, or at most 20s. " But the duty imposed on this grain by the existing Corn-laws of Eng- land is the same as the duty on barley—that is to say, I1 s. per quarter when the price is below 26s., and so on diminishing by the usual scale till the price is 37s. and the duty Is.: this amounts in reality to a fixed duty of Ils., since no such grain is likely to be imported at all at a price above 26s." Thus it appears that no very great amount of corn is avail- able—that, however abruptly we might " open the ports," not much would enter them. The measure might be imposing, and [LATEST EDITION.]
even consolatory to the feelings of the people, as showing a de- sire to do the best that could be done ; but it is to be doubted whether the benefit derivable would be very large. On the other hand, it must be obvious that the longer such a measure is delayed, the more the small available supply will he diminished; since other countries are competing with us for it, and are at the same time closing their ports against the emission of grain. If these considerations blunt the desire for any hasty "opening of the ports," they say nothing for the Corn-laws generally. Quite the reverse. Mr. Cobden puts a legitimate question when he asks why a law for " protection" should be abrogated when pro- tection most is needed—why a law professing to secure plenty should be set aside in time of dearth? In fact, the new Corn-law has broken down. We now recognize its most positive working as a means of preventing the growth of corn for the English market in America, and compelling the maize which would be a blessing for the sans-potato Irish to be bestowed upon _pigs in the wilds of the Far West. Whether the ports be opened or not for a supply that is now nonexistent, the Corn-laws are equally doomed; for they prevent the existence of that supply, and we find by bitter experience that we are not independent of it. We have tried that game once too often, and may we get safely through the experiment !
The Minister must be as deeply imbued with these conclusions as any other man. We can conceive that the very sense of the fact may form one of his difficulties in acting on the conviction.. It is shrewdly suspected, particularly by his hostile " friends," that he has in his heart condemned the Corn-laws to be abolished' on fit occasion ; and whenever he does so, the howl will be raised, that the occasion is a mere pretext. The actual necessity for the measure, therefore, and the peremptory wish of the people, must be glaringly apparent before he can move with safety. We believe that he need not fear ; that a bold course would be justified by its own success, and bear down opposition. But an excess of discretion is the Premier's besetting sin. He has sometimes carried cau- tion, in the form of inaction, to a pitch of foolhardiness. The opening of the ports by a coup-de-main would be comparatively a small measure; but he cannot be too diligent in making known to the corn-growing countries of the globe that the impedi- ment of the Corn-laws is to be swept away.
