distributes her annual benefits but sparingly in one quarter of the world; the same hand comes loaded with beneficence in another quarter, as if she intended, by this very means of alternate plenty and deficiency in the various provinces of the globe, to oblige her children to draw closer to one another in the bonds of affection, by a more frequent interchange of mutual benefits. The sacrilegious laws of man are devised in mockery. of the splendid and abundant blessings of nature. The voice of nefarious human legislatures is raised to menace the very power, and to laugh at the beneficence of the Legislator of heaven. Our Corn Laws inflict the curse of barrenness on the most fertile regions of the earth, and, what is worse, they inflict the curse of famine on those very men whose happiness the makers of these laws are bound, by the most solemn obligations, to promote and secure. Let it not be supposed that, because we speak warmly on this subject, we therefore speak unadvisedly. We have endeavoured to pay some attention to this great question, not only during its discussion in Parliament, but by studying various writings, both of theoretical and practical men; and the result of the whole is, that whether our landholders are willing to allow the price of corn, and other agricultural produce, to fall to the level of the price among neighbouring nations or not, to this level it will it must come, ere many years have gone over their heads. The monstrous absurdities which the landed interest (as it is called) pours forth as to the necessity of their obtaining a remunerating price for their corn, scarcely deserve an answer. What is a remunerating price? Lord Milton defined it well in the House of Commons, according to the bright notions of the Sir Thomas's and Sir Edward's of that House, to mean, "high rents to landlords, and high profits to tenants." Although this is the plain English of all the demands of the agricultural interest, yet their sense, thus expressed, is too glaringly selfish to permit it to pass sub silentio. It is accordingly denied, and the following definition given by an organ of the landed class: Remunerating price VOL. XVIII. means a profit of three per cent. on The landed interest again claim setting the rent of the land-owner altogether out of view. What, then, becomes of the unfounded clamour of our agriculturists about the burden of taxation, which falls exclusively upon them? But the power of that class of corn monopolists is, we rejoice to think, rapidly decaying in both Houses of Parliament. The triumphant majorities, by which Ministers carried their lately-proposed measures into effect, will, we trust, strengthen their hands in the good work of restoring to every class of the community the same freedom of purchasing whatever commodities they require at the cheapest and the best market; in short, that they will exert themselves to the utmost to legislate for the nation, and not for one small class of the people. Partial legislation has been the curse of this country; but we have every reason now to hope, that the diffusion of sound principles in Political Economy among the whole class of well-educated men in the upper ranks of life, and, above all, the elear views of national good, and the steady resolution entertained and acted upon by the department of the Government which has the more immediate charge in matters of trade and navigation, will ensure this country in future against the wild projects of monopolizing theorists, whether their perverse and shortsighted principles are broached in reference to the agricultural, the coinmercial, the manufacturing, or naval concerns of the country. Much has already been done to break down ancient prejudices, and to introduce enlightened measures; but it will still require the greatest efforts of our Cannings and our Huskissons, to give an entire defeat to the host of advocates for ancient abuses: and we farther think, that not only is the tacit acquiescence of all the wellinformed classes of society, in the measures followed out by these Ministers, required, but that positive acts, indicative of their satisfaction with what is doing, should be expressed either in the form of resolutions at public meetings, or in such other form as may tend best to shew the cordial welcome which the great mass of the community has given to the new and enlightened system of legislation adopted by the Parliament of the country, and so vigorously, so successfully, and, we may well say, triumphantly acted upon by the members of the executive Government. After all, however, the strong conviction which must exist in the minds of these highly-gifted individuals, that they have faithfully discharged, and are continuing to discharge the duties of their offices with increasing benefit to their country, ought to be considered by them as their highest reward, and the chief ground to persevere in the establishment of those salutary principles of commercial policy on which they have almost uniformly acted hitherto. We need not add, that we consider the repeal of every restriction on the importation of foreign corn and provisions to be one of those measures which ought never to be lost sight of, but, on the contrary, brought about as speedily as possible, with having a due regard, but no more than a due regard, to interests which have sprung up during_our present most vicious system of Corn Laws. We fear that we have allowed these observations to run too far; but we could not close this Number of our Magazine without recording some of our opinions on the important question to which Mr Jacob's report refers; and our readers, we are sure, will excuse us for having offered a few collateral remarks, suggested by the subject immediately before us, but relating particularly to that great system of free commercial intercourse throughout the world, which it has, of, late, been the object of some ill-informed (we shall not exactly say ill-intentioned) writers to reprobate. It is our wish to look at principles, and not at men; but whenever we find a class of principles which we cordially approve, embraced by a class of men in opposition to other classes, it is, we conceive, our duty to give those men who adhere to the principles we approve all the support in our power. Our efforts, we allow, may be weak wretchedly weak-compared with the mass of senile prejudices which we have ventured to encounter ; still, we have given the expression of our good wishes to the cause which we 1820. conceive to be that of true liberality and sound policy, standing in diame trical opposition to the dogmatical and superannuated theories, and pernicious actings, of those men, who, by a perversion of the principles of common sense, as well as by a violation of the rules of our language, call themselves "The Practicals.' Let us now attend more particularly to Mr Jacob. In compliance with the instructions which he received from the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade, he passed through the Netherlands, the Prus sian provinces on the Rhine, and the dominions of Saxony to Berlin, and from thence by Stettin to Dantzic. From Dantziche travelled through the kingdom of Poland, visiting Thorn, Warsaw, and Cracow, and deviating in several directions from the main road, he returned through Galicia, Moravia, Austria, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg to Strasburgh, where he entered France, and, by way of Paris, reached England. His obser vations relate chiefly to the Prussian dominions, and to Poland; but a variety of information is communicated with regard to the corn-trade of the neighbouring countries. In the outset of his Report, he states, that he heard every where, among land-owners, farmers, and corn-merchants, complaints of the distress in which they were involved; and he expresses his opinion, that their complaints were far too general to leave room for the suspicion that they were not founded on the existing state of their respective circumstances. The prices of produce of all kinds, he says, within the last three or four years, when compared with the period which had preceded them, or, indeed, with any past period in which prices are accurately recorded, confirmed the conviction, that their complaints were justified by the losses they had sustained. It is in the southern provinces of Poland, namely, Sandomir and Cracow, that the greatest quantity of the best wheat is grown. Scarcely any wheat is consumed in the country, as the corn used by the people is almost exclusively rye. The quantities expofted from Poland by other channels than the mouths of the Vistula at Dantzic and Elbing are There are two modes of conveying iron used in their construction. A large tree, the length of the vessel, runs along the bottom, to which the timbers are secured. This roughlycut keel rises nine or ten inches from the floor, and hurdles are laid on it, which extend to the sides. They are covered with mats, made of rye straw, and serve the purpose of dunnage, leaving below a space in which the water that leaks through the sides and bottom is received, and this is dipped out at the end and sides of the bulk of wheat. Vessels of this description draw only from ten to twelve inches of water, and yet they frequently get aground in descending the river. The cargoes usually consist of from 180 to 200 quarters of wheat. The wheat is thrown on the mats, piled as high as the gunwale, and left uncovered, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, and the pilfering of the crew. During the passage, which varies from three to four or five hundred miles, the barge is carried along by the force of the stream, oars being merely used at the head and stern, to steer clear of the sand-banks, which are numerous and shifting, and to direct the vessel in passing under the several bridges. These vessels are conducted by six or seven men. A small boat precedes, with a man in it, who is employed in sounding, in order to avoid the shifting shoals. This mode of navigating is necessarily very slow; and during the progress of it, which lasts several weeks, and even months, the rain, if any falls, soon causes the wheat to grow, and the vessel assumes the appearance of a floating meadow. The shooting of the fibres soon forms a thick mat, and prevents the rain from penetrating more than an inch or two. The main bulk is protected by this kind of covering, and when that is thrown aside, is found in tolerable condition. The vessels are broken up at Dantzic, and usually sell for about two-thirds of their original cost. The men who conduct them return on foot. When the cargo arrives at Dantzic or Elbing, all but the grown surface is thrown on the land, spread abroad, exposed to the sun and air, and frequently turned over, till any moisture that it may have imbibed Dantzic, which is by far the greatest port for corn in the north, has warehouses capable of storing 500,000 quarters, but had only a stock of 288,000. Bremen receives wheat from Brunswick, &c. and had a stock of 27,900 quarters. Hamburgh receives wheat from the countries along the Elbe as far as Bohemia. The best comes from that country (a distance of 400 miles); but the freight by the river is about 12s., tolls 3s. 6d., charges 1s. 6d., and this heavy expense acts as a prohibition, except in seasons of great scarcity. Hamburgh receives wheat also from Russia and Denmark. Stock about 100,000 quarters, but its annual average exports for ten years have only been 48,000 quarters. Denmark has but little wheat to export, and part of that goes to supply the consumption of Hamburgh; and Mr Jacob thinks that the whole quantity of wheat in store in that kingdom in October last scarcely amounted to 20,000 quar 105,000 27,970 741,473 Quarters. whole mass of consumers, now so 608,503 anxiously wish. If a brisker trade in foreign corn were to increase the quantities produced abroad, there seems the strongest reason, from Mr Jacob's stateinents, to conclude, that the prices abroad would rise so high, from increased freights and tolls on the rivers, and other sums charged higher in proportion to the larger demand for corn, that there would be no danger of a competition materially to injure land-owners at home. With a very low duty on the foreign importations, no danger would arise to our too sensitive landlords, even in years of the greatest plenty abroad. Mr Jacob was assured, that of the wheat thus accumulated in these different ports, nearly one-fourth was of so bad a quality as to find no market in this country, except in seasons of uncommon dearth. "If, then," he adds, "556,330 quarters, or three-fourths of the whole corn in the storehouses, were brought to England, it would not be more than ten days consumption." How utterly absurd, therefore, are the terrors of our agriculturists, that the prices of grain would become ruinously low, even by the opening of the ports to the freest admission of foreign corn! The whole quantity of wheat consumed in this country in a year has been estimated, and, we believe, with tolerable accuracy, at fourteen millions of quarters. Would the admission of a thirtieth part of this grain from abroad overturn the whole of our agricultural prosperity? Would it throw out of cultivation a single acre of land, which any man of ordinary prudence had thought fit to bring into cultivation? It is true, that some very inferior land would be necessarily abandoned by the plough; but are imprudence and folly, when manifested in the cultivation of land, alone to be protected from the natural consequences of their own proceedings? The heavy charges for warehousing, freight, insurance, commission, &c., which must always attach to foreign corn, ought to be the only protection; and we conceive they would, in the natural state of the great corn market of the world, be an adequate protection to our corn-growers; and thus, as soon as we revert to the sound principles of free intercourse, not one acre will ever be thrown out of cultivation in this country which ever deserved to be cultivated. Besides all this, the great object would be attained of steadiness in the supply and price of corn, an object for which landlords and tenants, and the The Prussian provinces, which have access to the Baltic Sea, comprehend East Prussia, West Prussia, and Pomerania. From official documents obtained by Mr Jacob, these provinces appear to have exported 447,000 quarters of wheat, and 1,218,916 quarters of rye, barley, and oats, beyond their own growth, in eight years previous to 1824. Villenage existed in these Prussian provinces till 1807, but has now been abolished, and the right of pos sessing land, which belonged exclusively to the nobility, has been extended to all classes. The land is either held in very large estates by great proprietors, or in very small portions, sufficient for half the sustenance of a peasant's family. With very trifling exceptions, each landlord farms his own ground, and there are no tenants, in our sense of the term, except on the domains of the Crown; and in these the farmers, for some years, have merely paid taxes, the low prices having rendered them unable to pay rent. These domains are let at from 6d. to 3s. 8d. an acre, and may average about 1s. 3d. Land capable of cultivation sells only at from 15s. to 40s. English money per acre. These three provinces contain about 25,000,000 of acres (two-thirds the extent of England); the soil generally level and sandy; and upon these there were, in 1819, 557,000 horses, 1,171,000 cows, oxen, &c. 2,050,000 sheep, and 617,000 swine. In England, the proportion of horses, cows, and sheep, to the same |