WHO ARE THE CORN-LAW " MADMEN ? "

IN dealing with practical questions, it is our stupid and old- fashioned custom to base statements and arguments on facts and figures. Thus, in the paper, last week, on the operation of the Corn-laws, we referred to the actual prices of wheat in Mark Lane, the duty on foreign corn, and the prospects of the coming harvest, ascertained from persons of knowledge and experience in agricultural pursuits. We also touched upon the injury the farmer sustained from the forcing up of prices, to be followed by a tall in the same, occasioned by the introduction of foreign wheat at a low duty ; while the entire commerce of the country was in danger of derangement from the necessity of paying gold for the wheat, which in the natural course of things, and were there no Corn-laws, would be purchased by manufactures.

These remarks. the Morning, Post considers as a proof that the writ ‘r is fa for Bedlam. Everybody, quoth the Post, is mad on some question, and the Spec/atonal monomania is on the Corn- Jaws

But to impute the insanity under which themselves labour to persons of sound intellects, is a common delusion of Bedlamites; and in his commentary en our sober paper, there is too much

evidence of the flighty state of the Post. Manifestly, our con- temporary lives not duns le bas monde, but in a world of his

own in the seventh heaven, whence he looks down upon vulgar mortals, awl fancies that be understands what is going on among them 1 For instance, he assures us that the Corn-laws are the acme of legislative wisdem—" a better instance of an admirable self-adjusting arrangement could not be desired !" Alas, the farmers have toll a different story, and are likely soon to repeat it. The present Corn-laws are ten years old ; and during the period of their existence, how often has agriculture been on the Vergt3 of ruin, with wheat at 38.r. to 411s. a quarter ! Ask Mr.

CAY1.7,Y, qnestion Lord CHAN DOS, read the evidence given to the AgriculturAl Committee or IS33, and then talk of the " admirable self adjusting arrangement:. J OSt, 110'.1*,•SUid Lord CH AN nos, in

the debate on the Bonded Corn Bill, the agriculturists are cheered

lv a gicont of prosperity ; but suppose that prices should con- tinue to rise so as to admit a large quantity of foreign wheat at a low duty, down the price would go, awl the agricultural prospects aeain become dark, as night. By no means, says the Post, en- shrouded in a placid atmosphere of its own ; the self-adjusting prI nciple would come into play- '. fr there wet,a fall of mice, then up would go the duty in consequence, anI lin mote Mit ign coin bo■ond the thst supply could come in."

Our contemparary needs to be informed that tke effect of a rise Illrriee on the erePrvg.e.s is not felt in an hour or a day. Un- doubtedly. an influx of fareig-n corn on the market would lower

the price of corn and raise the duty ; but in the tneanwhi!e, a sof- tieienily large quantity ini11t be imported, or liberated front bond,

t I keep dew n the price long after the shutting of the ports under

the next averages. The increase of duty would nut protect the farmer against the holder of foreign corn imported or released flout the bonding tvarehouses at the low duty. The " self-adjust- ing pi iticiple" would be ineffectual against an operation so inju- rious to the home grower.

The main benefit to be derived front a free trade in corn, is not the mere reduction in the price of bread, but further and more especially, the opening of unlimited markets for British manu- tateures, But a sudden and capricious demand for foreign corn opens no new market. The carts imported toast be paid for in

geld. The rot fancies the theory of the ,Spee!ator to be, that the eura imported is to be paid for first in gold and afterwards in

manufactures when all the .gold is gone : but the notion is plainly the delusion of a mind unused to the contemplation of sublunary things. We stated it to be a mischievous effect of the Cormlaws that, whereas the natural and profitable exclionee for foreigi: wheat would be in manufactures, gold would actually be sent out of the country to pay for the wheat ; the regular and habitual operation of the Corn-laws being to close markets, which could not be opened at our own convenience. We did not assume that there would not be gold enough to pay for the wheat from abroad, but that the mode of payment was disadvantageous. Another proof of our contemporary's incapacity to talk like a sane person on the subject of the Corn-laws, is exhibited ill the following passage-

" But supposing the contradictions of the Cormlaw haters to he somehow or another reconciled, and a great nude to be in actual existence between British manufacturers and the groners offbreign corn, what then becomes of the great trade which does exist between British manufacturers and the growers of British corn? Is it supposed that the manufacturers will cat the British cora and the foreign corn too ? for if not, the acquisition of a foreign mat ket, at the expense of losing a home muhet, would be rather a questionable benefit—say rather, it would be an unquestionable loss."

But it might come to pass that land in England would be used more profitably than in producing an article which requires an enormous protecting duty. The great trade between British landowners and cultivators would not be destroyed. It would not be a corn-trade ; but experience has proved that the possession of land near manufacturing towns is the sure means of converting a poor into a wealthy proprietor. There would be less corn raised, but more sheep and oxen reared and sold—fewer fields of grain, but more towns and villages in the country.

Be the consequence, however, to landowners what it may, it seems demonstrable, that unless a cheek be put to the growth of population, either the multitude will at some, perhaps not very distant time, be forced to starve, or the Corn.laws must be abo- lished. The deluded Post, monomaniacal on the Corn-laws, pro- bably imagines that the base popular herd will perish, and the " self-adjusting principle" remain in its glory ; for " of all syn terns that modern wisdom has devised, that of the Corn-laws is perhaps the very one which common sense most fully approves!"