This table shows that averages, spread over wide periods of time, may be very fallacious in several ways. The total import in fourteen years being about 15,000,000, writers have stated that we import annually somewhat more than a million of quarters of corn, and as our total annual consumption (for seed and food) is calculated at about 24,000,000, the import has been stated at a fortnight's consumption. Now this, if true, would imply both a regular import and a regular supply at home, and in that case something might be said for a fixed duty; but, in fact, we see that, in the first four years, the average importation was about 1,200,000 quarters; the next four, only 700 quarters; and the last four, as much as 2,300,000 quarters. It is quite clear that, for a country that sometimes requires to import a tenth part of its annual consumption, and at other times needs little or no importation at all, a fixed duty would be an untenable absurdity, which would alternately ruin the producer and starve the consumer. The reader will also observe that the general average given by the sliding scale is 2s. 5d. less than the 8s. fixed duty proposed by the Whigs; so that this scheme for cheap bread would have raised the price of the loaf in the proportion of about one-third for the last fourteen years. We confess, however, that we do not much rely on these yearly averages of duty; they are liable to individual disturbances, which render them unsafe guides when there have been great fluctuations. Let us take, for example, a case which happened in 1839, and which happens in a greater or less degree every year-14,000 (in round numbers) quarters of wheat were imported early in the year at 1s. duty; 700 quarters were also imported late in the same year at 20s.-the duty on the whole would be 1400l., and the average of the whole would be stated at 1s. 10d. Yet who can doubt that the 1s. paid on 14,000 quarters would be, for all practical purposes, a fairer measure of the effect of the duty on the general market than 1s. 10d.? Again; we have now before us an official document which states the average duty for Michaelmas quarter, 1841, at 16s. 8d., to which is appended a note to say that the real average was only at 1s. 6d. This enigma we suppose means that there was during all the earlier part of the quarter a very high duty, at which little was entered, which in the very last days fell to 1s.when a large importation was effected: and we shall see more fully by and bye that the stated average of 5s. 7d. on the whole period is very much higher than the real and effective rates of duty. We must also notice in this table that the price of wheat and flour in the great markets does not influence, as directly as might be expected, the price of flour in detail. In 1828, when wheat and flour were at 60s. 5d., Greenwich Hospital

paid for the sack of flour 46s. 6d.; when in 1832 wheat had fallen 1s. 9d. the quarter, the sack of flour rose 8s. 1d.; and in 1839, when wheat had risen to 70s. 8d., flour fell to 52s. 2d. In the deluge of papers which have been called for in this corncontroversy, we are surprised not to find any return of the successive prices of bread-which, being really what the lawyers call the gist of the whole case, we should have expected to find a prominent object of inquiry; but it has not been so, and the imperfect information we have privately gathered, coupled with the strange discrepancy between the prices of wheat in the official averages and of flour in the Greenwich books, induces us to suspect that the actual prices of bread might offer very different results from the official prices of corn.*

The following account, which ranges the whole of the quantities of wheat imported under the respective rates of duty actually paid, is more valuable—it rests neither on averages nor on any

*The price of bread has recently-while this article was printing-attracted considerable notice, and a kind of controversy has arisen as to the fairness of our bakers' prices. We extract from the Times of the 8th of September the following interesting statement of the relative prices in London and Paris:—

The fairest mode of investigating this matter appears to be, to take a large city, such as Paris, where an assize or legal price of bread exists, and which has continued for many years to work well in detail; and to compare the prices now prevailing there and here, both of the manufactured article and the raw material, and then see where the difference arises.

The highest price of white wheat of the first quality in Paris is 38 francs per 14 hectolitre, which is equal to a price of 588. per quarter English; and the highest price of white wheat in London being 60s. per quarter, it follows that wheat is 3 per cent. higher in London than in Paris.

The highest price of the finest wheaten flour in Paris is 70 francs per 159 kilogrammes, which is equal to a price of 44s. per sack of 280 lbs. English; and the highest price of flour in London being 47s. per sack, it follows that flour is nearly 7 per cent, dearer in London' than in Paris.

The price of wheaten bread of the first quality in Paris is 38 cents. per kilogramme, which is equal to a price of 6d. per 4lb. loaf English weight; and the price of bread at most of the full-priced bakers' in London being 8d. per 4lb. loaf, it follows that the price of bread is 30 per cent. higher in London than in Paris. If the price here is taken at 8d., as stated by some bakers, the price in London will still be rather more than 23 per cent. higher than in Paris.

The price of bread of the second quality in Paris is 30 cents. per kilogramme, which is equal to about 5d. per 4lb. English weight; and the price at which bread is sold in London by some of the low-priced bakers being 6d. per 4lb., it follows that bread of this description is 20 per cent. higher in London than in Paris.'

These are very remarkable facts-and particularly the statement that in France, a country generally so cheap as compared to England, and where there are no corn-laws, wheat is at a price equivalent to 58s. per quarter English. We very much doubt whether the current price here was higher on the same day: we know that in some markets it has been lower.

As to the variations in the price of bread, it is clear that they cannot, fortunately, be so rapid as those in the price of corn, and that, for many reasons, bread must be somewhat dearer than even the average price of wheat might seem strictly to warrant: every step in the process-from the wheat-field to the baker's counter-operates as a rest which tends to level and to steady, though at the same time to raise, the retail prices.

other

other conjectural data, but is the exact statement of the real operation.

The total quantity of foreign wheat and flour imported between 1828 and 1841 was 15,034,794 qrs.,* of which there came in

At 1s. duty,

2s. 8d.

6,392,258 qrs.

3,177,016

At all rates of duty from 20s. 8d. to 25s. 8d.

572,201

We think this account shows that, for all practical purposes, the New scale, varying from 1s. to Il., has a sufficient range, and there is reason to believe that it will afford a sufficient protection. We see that 9,569,274 qrs., considerably above three-fifths of the whole importation, came in at the prices of 72s. and 73s., and at the two lower rates of duty, which are not altered; and that considerably above four-fifths (12,648,855 qrs.) came in at the four lowest rates of duty, which are the least altered, and which are altered merely by following out the general principle of advancing one shilling each step, and thus removing the chasms and jumps which did so much mischief and afforded the most plausible objections to the system. As to the entries at the highest rates, they were obviously accidental and of no importance either as affecting prices or protection. In short, it is clear that the chief, business-that which alone can, in ordinary times, operate in a large way-must lie among the lower rates, and there was certainly the defect of the former scale, which jumped 4s. on each of its second and third steps-from 2s. 8d. to 6s. 8d., and from 6s. 8d. to 10s. 8d., and then at 2s. each step up to 20s., after which it went on at the regular increase of 1s. We need not now examine why Mr. Huskisson permitted these jumps in the earlier and more important stages; suffice it to say that experience has shown, and all parties are agreed, that they have had an injurious effect. The possibility of making a profit of 4s. and Ss. in

* The difference between this sum and the total of the foregoing table is one of those discrepancies to which we have alluded: it arises from this account including some amounts damaged or exported which were excluded from the former account of the net duties received-but the variance is of no importance.

the

the duty, on the rise of 1s. and 2s. in the price, was a strong incentive to fraud of various kinds-frauds which we admit appeared to be generally in favour of the consumer by tending to the introduction of corn at a lower duty, but which were in truth injurious to everybody, by artificially deranging the trade, discouraging the fair trader, frequently ruining the speculator himself, and defeating the main object-a constant and steady supply. It became, therefore, absolutely necessary that these jumps should be removed, and that the slight and equable advance of each step of the scale should be introduced to diminish, if not wholly prevent, all fraudulent disturbance of the market; and when that was to be done, it would have been, as we have already said, impolitic-even if it had been possible-to evade a general revision of the scale so as to fit it to the prices at which experience had shown us that it was likely to be called into operation. We believe that considerable improvements-although no great extension of arability-have been made and are in progress in practical agriculture; and we venture to anticipate much benefit from the influence of the recently formed Agricultural Association, which, we trust, will direct the application of science to the first and most important of the Arts; but, looking at what has been practically done, we do not think that any one is sanguine enough to suppose that the increased supply from the British soil has as yet been at all proportionable to the increasing demand. Whence are the four or five millions of additional mouths that have grown upon us since 1821 to be fed? Art,' says the sage, 'is longlife is short! Can we wait for the slow experiments of the Davys and Liebigs? Here are the people swarming upon us! And will any rational man-be he farmer or be he landlord—say that we should not endeavour to create increased facilities for meeting an increasing deficiency? The strongest advocates of the agricultural interest admit, we believe, that in the most favourable season Great Britain can do little more than feed herself; and we most readily admit, nay, insist, that for all that she can raise she ought to be secured, as far as human means can do so, a remunerating, and, we will even add, an encouraging market; for as the home supply is the only safe and certain supply, it should be, we say— more for the interests even of the consumer than of the producer -not merely remunerated but encouraged. The question then is as to the degree of encouragement necessary to maintain—and to stimulate the exertions of the home producer.

The solution of that question must be always in a great degree conjectural and experimental. A Cabinet of able men, long practised in public affairs, some of them parties to the former arrangement, and essentially and almost exclusively belonging

to

to the landed interest, have recommended a scale which the representatives of the landed and all other interests throughout the country have passed with little objection, and we therefore indulge a very confident hope that it will be found sufficient to fulfil its object.

Our experience is as yet too short to enable us to speak decidedly of its effect, but as far as it has gone it has produced some singularly satisfactory results, as the following table of the weekly operation of the new Act will show :

Account of Wheat and Wheat Flour entered for Home Consumption at ten of the principal ports of Great Britain in each week since the passing of the New Corn Law, with the Average Price and Rates of Duty.

Thus we see that from the 28th of April to the 3rd of September, the latest possible date, the importation of foreign wheat and flour at ten principal ports has been no less than 2,457,931 qrs., being considerably more than was imported in all Great Britain in any whole year (except 1839) of the existence of the late law; and be it observed that this importation has been made in face of a most promising harvest, and with less irregularity than in any corresponding period. Well, then, here is at least a very unusual supply of food for the people-but does it ruin

the