this form, is, in bulk, much smaller, and in nature, much less perishable; and therefore, on these accounts alone, were it recommended by no other advantages, much more convenient for the purposes of exportation.

The advocates of prohibitory restrictions on the importation of foreign corn, argue that it is not only impolitic, but unfair and unjust, that the foreigner, who bears no portion of the burden of our taxes, should be allowed to come into competition with the English agriculturist, who must therefore enter into this competition under a great and manifest disadvantage. This is all well as the subject of theoretical declamation-but let us examine how the matter stands, in fact-let it be enquired whether the foreigner, when he has imported his agricultural produce into England, enjoys the exemption from taxation which is thus said to give him an unfair and overwhelming advantage over the home grower. I am inclined to believe that he enjoys no such exemption, and that the foreign grower, who brings his raw produce to be exchanged for English manufactures-that is, who brings a cargo of wheat into England, to be converted into wrought goods, becomes immediately subject to the operation of every impost, either direct or indirect, which presses upon the British agriculturist, and that in this respect at least, they are perfectly on a level.

For my own part, I am one of those who look with admiration on the effect of the increased impetus, which, we are assured, has within the last twenty years, been applied to the human mind and sent it forth on its "march." With the confidence of intellectual power, the brilliant geniuses of the present day tell us also, that this march is not the march of a raw and undisciplined recruit, beating time against a dead wall, but a progressive "march," which cannot ultimately fail to subdue the inertness of matter and render it entirely subservient to the volitions of the mind. I anticipate then with sanguine expectations, the bright period when the whole human race shall acknowledge cockney philosophers to be the greatest in the world-when, by the unwearied exertions of these sages in stimulating the human mind and accelerating its "march," all arts shall be brought to a state of absolute perfectibility: when the construction of a metallic pipe reaching from Madeira to the Mansion House, will be attended with no more difficulty than the construction of the piston of a water pump, or of that ingenious and useful machine, which conveys the "foaming blood" of John Barleycorn from the cellar to the bar of the Chequers in Little Britain. Let me suppose the existence of such a pipe, with its ends resting-the one on the shores of the Baltic, and the other near a cotton mill in Lancashire; I may suppose the whole surplus corn of Poland put in at one end near Dantzic and dischar

ged out of the other in England, where it is converted into cotton goods which may be sent back into Poland by the same medium of conveyance. While this corn is being converted into cotton goods, or any other manufactured article—that is, while it is consumed, in a variety of forms required by the manufacturers employed by the foreign corn grower in fabricating such goods, it must, I conceive, pass through all the strainers which his Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer is so ingenious in applying. This foreign wheat is no sooner brought into Lancashire, to be consumed in the fabrication of cotton goods, than its transformation, into almost every shape, in which it is wanted for the use of the workmen, is superintended by delegates from the Exchequer. The manufacturing laborers, employed by the foreigner, will consume beer, spirits, tea, soap, candles, leather, &c. The foreigner, therefore, who has brought a cargo of agricultural produce into England, hired a manufactory, and taken workmen into his employment, must convert a portion of his raw produce into these necessary articles; and on every progressive transformation of corn into malt, of malt into beer, and of beer into spirits, excise duties are levied. The only taxes, which may be said to fall exclusively on the produce of the home corn grower, and from which the foreigner may be supposed to be exempt, are the very few imposts which are levied upon the British agriculturist before his property assumes the shape of corn: and the only taxes of this nature are, perhaps, the window tax, the horse duty, and a few other charges technically termed assessed taxes. But all taxes levied by the Exchequer, in every other shape, on articles charged with excise duties and customs, and which constitute the great body of our taxes, fall with the same pressure on every quarter of wheat imported from abroad, as they do on that which is of home growth. Every quarter of foreign corn, brought into this country for the purpose of being converted into manufactured articles on English ground, must, therefore, bear its full proportion of the revenue raised here for the expenses of the state; and every foreign country, from which raw produce of any description is imported hither, is thus rendered actually tributary to our Exchequer. The supposition, that the British agriculturist enters with disadvantage into competition with the foreign corn grower, because he pays nothing towards the public revenues of the country into which his raw produce is imported, has no foundation in fact; they are both placed precisely on a level as to the quantity of produce taken from each of them in the form of taxes: foreign corn, when consumed in England, is subjected to the exciseman's gauge with as much rigor, and in as great a variety of shapes, as that which is of home production. The foreigner pays his full proportion of the taxes levied on all consumable articles; and by

lessening the whole amount of the revenue which, in the absence of foreign produce, would be levied exclusively on the home grower, the portion thus paid by him becomes an absolute and direct pecuniary advantage, which the whole body of British agriculturists derive from permitting the inhabitants of other countries to bring their raw agricultural produce into England, to be converted into the manufactured articles which they want.

Foreign manufactures imported into England, lessen the demand for corn which is of home production by the exact quantity which would have been consumed in fabricating them in this country, and escape entirely the payments towards the revenue which are charged on consumable articles. The introduction of these manufactures, therefore, equally interferes with agricultural produce of home growth, and must be also much less beneficial to the public than the importation of corn to be consumed in the fabrication of manufactured goods for exportation, and which becomes subject to the payment of all the taxes levied on articles of consumption. It appears to me, at least, a proposition placed beyond dispute, that the English agriculturists, so far from being injured, in any sense, by the importation of foreign corn, must derive from it an immediate and demonstrable advantage, arising from that portion of it which flows into the Exchequer in the form of taxes levied on the remainder which is consumed by the workmen employed in fabricating the manufactured articles which the owner of this corn wishes to obtain. For although the grain brought by a foreign grower, to be consumed in England in the fabrication of manufactured goods which are afterwards exported, come not into competition with that which is of home production, it becomes instantly liable to all the fiscal charges imposed on every article of consumption, on which excise duties are charged. If, therefore, all the corn grown from one end of the continent to the other, which exceeds the demand of those who are employed in agricultural labor, were imported into England to be consumed in the fabrication of the manufactured articles which they may want for use, for convenience or for ornament—the mere circumstance of this corn being converted into these articles, or what is precisely the same thing, being consumed in manufacturing them on English ground, could not affect the exchangeable value of British produce; it would, however, in the exact ratio of its quantity, make an addition to the amount of the fiscal duties already levied on articles of consumption. Assume the quantity of British grain annually consumed, to amount to 100 millions of quarters; at the present price of corn, about one fourth of this quantity, or 25 millions of quarters, would be taken from the grower to defray the taxes levied by the Exchequer; foreign grain imported into England, becoming by that means

liable to the payment of most, if not of all, of these imposts, the amount levied upon it-that is, in other words, the portion of this foreign produce which is taken from the grower by the operation of these fiscal charges-will form a deduction from the 25 millions of quarters taken from the home grower. If the importation of foreign corn be taken at 20 millions of quarters, one fourth of this quantity would be exhausted in taxes; and the pressure of taxation on the home grower would, therefore, be lessened one fourth, and increase or diminish in proportion to the increase or diminution of foreign importation.

Considering the subject as a mere question of profit and loss no rational mind can, therefore, entertain a doubt that the importation of raw produce is much more advantageous than the importation of manufactured goods; and it is equally certain, that the importation of corn must be more advantageous than the introduction of any other species of raw production, as it is the only article which, in its consumption, becomes liable to all the fiscal charges levied on produce of home growth: and the larger the quantity of such foreign produce imported into England, to be exported hence in its manufactured state, the larger will be the foreigner's contribution towards our revenue and the more lucrative will it prove to the public. I repeat then that, regarding this subject as involving merely a consideration of loss or gain, the importation of foreign corn must be pronounced beneficial, not only to the public generally but even to the British agriculturist himself.

If the view which I have given, of the purpose for which foreign corn is brought into this country, be correct, it must, I think, convince every person, who is not an absolute slave to the blindest and most invincible prejudices, that its importation cannot have the effect which is generally ascribed to it, in lowering the money price of the wheat which is of home growth; and when it is remembered that the foreign corn imported into this country is consumed, as sustenance, by the workmen employed in fabricating the manufactures which the owner of this raw produce wants for use; and that all the exciseable articles consumed by them are charged with all the duties and imposts to which our own produce is subject; it will further appear, in the clearest manner, that foreign corn, when imported into this country, is not exempt from taxation, and cannot, on this account, be correctly said to possess any advantage when coming in contact with that which is of home growth. Let any man conceive that a foreign owner brings 10,000 quarters of wheat by a direct communication, similar to that which I have already described, into Lancashire, where he hires a cotton mill, with its appendant machinery, engages a number of workmen, and employs them, till the whole of his produce be exhausted

in fabricating the manufactured goods, which he may take with him abroad; and it cannot, I am persuaded, be for a moment supposed, that under such circumstances at least, this foreign wheat comes in contact with that which is of home growth, or is exempt from any direct impost, tax, or charge, to which our own productions are subject. If the Polish corn grower were thus to bring his produce directly into this country, and return into his own, carrying with him the manufactures into which it had been converted, or in fabricating which it had been consumed, few indeed would, I conceive, maintain that it would make any alteration in the money price of wheat in the English market, and that it would not have to bear its full proportion of all the fiscal charges levied here on articles of consumption. And it cannot seriously be maintained, that the indirect introduction of this produce can have a different effect—that if it come into Lancashire through the intervention of many hands, it will have the effect of depressing the price of English wheat and exempting that which is of foreign growth from all fiscal imposts and charges. For it can make no possible difference, as to the ultimate influence of its introduction into Britain, whether the Polish farmer bring his produce into this country at once, and take hence the manufactured goods in the fabrication of which it has been consumed, or sell it to a corn chandler at Dantzic, from whom it passes into the warehouse of a Liverpool merchant, and thence into the hands of the miller, the baker, and the brewer, who supply the manufacturers at Manchester who are employed in fabricating wrought goods, to be sent abroad by a channel perhaps equally circuitous, in exchange for this raw produce.

The policy, however, of converting this country into one vast manufactory, or of permitting the establishment of numberless small ones, into which foreigners may bring their raw produce to be converted into manufactured goods, is not, by any means, equally clear. An attempt to ascertain how far it may be consistent with sound maxims of policy to permit foreigners to establish a description of colonies in this country, where their corn may be consumed by the artisans employed in fabricating the manufactured goods which they want, would involve me in a discussion on which I shall not now enter. But whatever doubts may be enter tained, with respect to the expediency of increasing our manufacturing population much beyond the number required in the fabrication of goods wanted for home consumption, none can be justly felt with respect to the immediate profit to be derived from this encouragement. It is possible, that the residence of a large body of manufacturers on English ground, employed in fabricating wrought goods for the foreign countries from which the means