Repeal of the Corn Laws

“ The repeal of the Corn and Provision Laws being a measure admitted, not only by its advocates, but by its opponents, to be of the most vital importance to the empire, cannot, with justice or safety, be made an open question by any administration. ”

“ These resolutions were passed unanimously. Men not knowing the course of procedure in the business meetings of the League, have expressed astonishment that so much unanimity prevailed, and that Manchester should be the head quarters of the movement from its commencement until its termination. The singleness of the object tended to the first. It was simply to obtain the repeal of the Corn Laws to have no Corn Law, as the title of the various associations declared. ”

“ That a total repeal of the Corn Laws is absolutely necessary, from the great decrease of our manufactures and commerce, and the great increase of manufactures on the continent of Europe and other places ”

“ It required, therefore, some firmness of resolution to declare that, in future, no distinction should be made between whig and tory candidates, and that none should be supported on the hustings but those who would pledge themselves to vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws. The men in office cared little for the declaration. They had a happy indifference to what other men might regard as signs of the times. ”

“ I hear on this side of the house, in all directions an acknowledgement of the principle of perfect freedom in the trade of corn. (Hear.) But, there are some of my noble and right honourable neighbours who think that there should be a duty for the purposes of revenue. How can there be a duty for revenue which is not a duty for protection? (Hear.) The gentlemen who think that the Corn Laws ought to be repealed, but cannot reconcile themselves to their immediate repeal, are showing a very great sympathy for the few who are gaining, and vastly little sympathy for the many who are suffering. ”

“ But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble so much as the farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed it be the shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of Parliament, supported the repeal of the corn laws. ”

“ I cannot, therefore, agree in the importance so often attached to the repeal of the corn laws, considered merely as a labourers' question, or to any of the schemes, of which some one or other is at all times in vogue, for making the labourers a very little better off. Things which only affect them a very little, make no permanent impression upon their habits and requirements, and they soon slide back into their former state. ”

“ But all questions of this kind were presently lost sight of in the excitement produced by the measure which more than any other has stamped Sir Robert Peel's administration with a lasting character, the repeal of the Corn-laws. Many statesmen, even of those who were most in favor of free-trade in other articles of commerce, made an exception in the case of corn, partly from a feeling of the necessity of encouraging agriculture, and partly from a conviction of the danger of in any way contributing to create or increase a dependence on foreign countries for the food of the people. ”

“ He was sorry to see men trying to set reformers at variance on other questions in order to keep them back from looking at this.The repeal of the Corn Laws would probably amount to six times the good that would attend the repeal of the new Poor Law. The profit to the country would probably be six times the amount paid to the poor altogether. ”

“ Holding one of those eternal principles to be—the inalienable right of every man freely to exchange the results of his labour for the productions of other people; and maintaining the practice of protecting one part of the community at the expense of all other classes to be unsound and unjustifiable, your petitioners earnestly implore your honourable house to repeal all laws relating to the importation of foreign corn and other foreign articles of subsistence ”

“ George Chappell having advocated gradual repeal for the sake of farmers, I spoke at some length in favour of its being immediate, were it only for the benefit of farmers themselves, who were deprived by the Corn Laws of any outlet for the employment of their sons. The farmer could not make a provision for his family unless he sent them out to engage in commercial pursuits, and if commerce continued in its depressed state, the farmers in England and Scotland would soon be reduced, like the same class in Ireland, to a state of destitution and beggary. ”

“ The colliers, dependent on the manufacturers, are as badly off as the potters; already bodies of them perambulate our streets, and I will not say ask, but demand money or food; the bricklayers, carpenters, and others are without work and the means of subsistence, and it is impossible to foresee the issue, unless the government repeal the Corn Laws, restore the trade, and give employment to the country. The people want work rather than relief, and justice rather than compliments, or even compassion. ”

“ It is also perfectly true, as has been stated by my noble friend behind me, that there is not a country of Europe in which corn laws do not at this moment exist; but, nevertheless, I suppose if it were proposed to repeal these laws, and adopt the measures recommended by the petitioners, your lordships would be told of the quantities of corn that might be had from Russia and from Prussia, and other parts of the world. But are there no corn laws in those countries? Has the noble earl heard of no laws prohibiting all exportation of corn to other countries? ”

“ That the whigs would be defeated every body knew—that the very same Parliament under a tory administration would reform the tariff to a greater extent than the whigs contemplated, and totally repeal the Corn Laws, which the whigs proposed only to modify, nobody could have dreamed of.
The debate upon the address, in the Lords on Tuesday August 24th, was a Corn-Law debate, ministers and their supporters endeavouring to show that an eight-shilling duty would not ruin the agriculturists; and their opponents, not knowing what was to come, protesting against any changes. ”

“ Heyworth characterised the Corn Law as operating to make the poor still poorer, and the rich still richer, and said that the remedy lay in making a proper use of the elective franchise. An intelligent-looking man, named Travis, rose and proposed a resolution, uniting opposition to the Corn Laws with the six points of the charter, but arguing that the repeal of those laws would throw land out of cultivation. ”

“ Where is the protection of the frame-work knitters? When he needs protection most—when the high price of food renders it most difficult for him to support his family—have we heard to-day that the Corn Laws are a protection to him? No; we have heard that just in proportion as the Corn Law effects its object for those who gain by it, just in the same proportion does it minister to the misery and degradation of the working classes of this district. ”

“ Laing regards the abolition of the Corn Laws as a Conservative measure—"which will preserve, for some generations at least, to our nobility, gentry, and landed interests, their domains, their estates, and their proper social interests." ”

“ They are permitted to tell their story, day by day, without contradiction, and their uncontradicted falsehoods come, at length, to be regarded as truths ! The League, in like manner, issues, periodically, cheap publications condemnatory of the Corn Laws. These publications are diffused with incredible zeal, and the result will yet be visible on the state of public opinion. It is true, we repeat, that the agricultural interest should shake off its apathy in this matter. The Corn Laws are not to be saved by parliamentary majorities alone. ”

“ I am at a loss to understand what this protection to agriculture means, because I find such contradictory accounts given in this House by the promoters of that system. For instance, nine months ago, when my honorable friend, the member for Wolverhampton [Mr. Villiers] , brought forward his motion for the abolition of the Corn Laws,10 the right honorable gentleman, then the President of the Board of Trade, in replying to him, said that the present Corn Law had been most successful in its operations. ”

“ The day of their [the Corn Laws’] entire abolition ought to be a day of jubilee and rejoicing to every man interested in land.”
Now, sir, I do not stop to connect the cause and effect in this matter, and inquire whether your Corn Laws or your protective system have caused the want of leases and capital. I do not stop to make good my proof, and for this reason, that you have adopted a system of legislation in this House by which you profess to make the farming trade prosperous. I show you, after thirty years’ trial, what is the depressed condition of the agriculturists ”

“ If their trade should be ruined, this neighbourhood must become the theatre where a fearful tragedy would be enacted,—which it became their duty and their interest to avert, by a timely effort to repeal the Corn Law. ”

“ But, Sir, if by any legislative measure, if for instance it were to be enacted, that from and after the first day of next August, foreign corn should be admitted duty free, from such a measure suddenly resorted to, I should have fears of the worst consequences; the effect would be to stultify the farmers; they would at once imagine ruin staring them in the face. They would endeavour to provide against it. They would throw their poorlands out of cultivation, and their labourers out of employ: they would in fact produce the very mischief that has been foretold. ”

“ The movement against the Corn Laws is likely to be the most formidable ever made. The apathy for which we have blamed the population of large towns has not existed, for all that has been wanted has been concentration of opinion, and this will be obtained by associations such as the one of which Manchester has set the example. There needs but a spark to ignite the mass of smouldering discontent. ”

“ I have for many years been of opinion that the Corn Laws, as they exist, are extremely oppressive to the labouring population, and injurious to every branch of society. Had I been a monopolist,—had I been one of those who had voted for charging an additional price on the food of the poor man—I am quite sure that the testimony laid before you to-day by the reverend gentlemen who have spoken would have been enough to persuade me that I had been in the wrong. ”

“ We look not so much to the temporary relief of a few thousands only, as to the permanent benefit of millions, who are suffering now, and will continue to suffer, unless relieved by the repeal of the Corn Law." The belief being that the Bazaar would be heartily supported, a discussion arose as to the time of holding it, in which Mrs. ”

“ It may fairly indeed be said, that to restore the freedom of the corn trade, while protecting duties on various other commodities are allowed to remain, is not really to restore things to their natural level, but to depress the cultivation of the land below other kinds of industry. ”

“ The last objection with which I shall venture to trouble the House, and it is, in my mind, a very strong one against the existing Corn Laws, is, that they are, in fact, in their working highly prejudicial to the agriculturists themselves; the effect of them is to prevent the farmer receiving a fair remuneration for the produce of his industry, at the very moment he most wants it; in fact, they fix a maximum on the produce of human industry. ”