cate for the repeal of the Corn Laws-one who, asserting general principles, does not condescend to trick and imposture for a temporary purpose. His answer to Lord John Russell is succinct and complete :

'The furor of mutual encouragement in hooting down the laws begets the exaggeration proper to such occasions, and people point to existing scarcity as a thing that demands instant official interference. Lord John Russell speaks in that strain. In Ireland the usual spirit of turgid hyperbole and rash conclusions disguises the facts as to the extent of the potato deficiency. But the Whig alarmists mean something more than an Irish potato famine: they mean a corn dearth in England. Ministers, they say, are criminal not to have interfered in October, or at least in November. Yet what did the Whigs do in their time, when dearth was threatened? In the years of the Whig régime, 1838 and 1839, in the corresponding month of November, prices were higher than they are now ; and the Whigs did nothing. Something is said of the vitiation of the present averages by a redundancy of low-priced bad corn, which makes the article appear cheaper than it is. There is always a redundancy of bad corn when the harvests are bad. But in order not to disguise the facts, we take the raw elements of prices in those years and the present, and it will be observed that 1845 presents no singular case for official interference. Each column [line] represents the highest and lowest prices which corn reached in the November of the respective years, and the average of the month derived from the weekly averages:

If it is necessary to open the ports in November, 1845-necessary to abolish the Corn Laws-how necessary was it in 1838 and 1839! We do not quite believe in the famine. Let us abolish the Corn Laws by all means; but do not let us perform a great act of justice and policy on false pretences.'-Spectator, 29th November, 1845.

This reasoning is perfect; but the averages for November, though enough for the Spectator's argument, are even less favourable to our argument than the averages given in the Parliamentary Returns for the whole year.

We shall, therefore, give the average prices of wheat from the Parliamentary documents up to 1842, moved for by Mr. Cobden, and continued in subsequent returns to the present year :—

However the farmers might complain of this rapid and remark. able decrease of price, the consumers at least cannot complain : but neither have the farmers; for, as we have before insisted, the law of 1842 combines in its admirable operation the three great desiderata of corn legislation

1. A great supply of food to the people, without

2. Injury to the farmer, and with

3. A considerable advantage to the revenue.

That the cultivation of wheat has not been checked by the new law is clear from the following return of the quantities sold in the country markets in the respective years

Here, then, is an increased produce more immediate, and yet more sustained, than the annals of agriculture could ever before exhibit. Not only a highly and satisfactory convincing fact, but a great lesson. The country confided in the permanence of that Corn Law, and agriculture made in consequence that surprising spring which has enabled it, with a diminution of foreign importation, to supply the country at diminished prices.

We need not add a word more, except to point out that every diminution of import and every increase of home production is a double gain to the country, which thus adds to its own resources what would otherwise go to enrich the foreigner, who may any day become an enemy.

We have thus shown, on the general question, that there cannot be, by any possibility that we can conceive, any compensation or substitute for the Corn Laws consistent with the first and most vital elements of national safety and independence.

We have shown that even if the Corn Laws were objectionable, this would be an inopportune season to set about correcting them. A gale of wind is not a very prudent moment for restowing a ship's cargo.

We

We have shown that the potato scarcity in Ireland—the immediate pretence of all this agitation-is, whatever be its extent, no unusual circumstance, and may be now met, as it has heretofore been met-five times over-without any change in the Corn Laws-with which it can have no more to do than with the sugar or timber duties.

We have shown, too, not by our own authority, but by facts and figures, that the cry which on this potato pretence has been raised against the existing Corn Law and its sliding scale is either an ignorant mistake or a factious intrigue.

We have shown that a sliding scale of duty affords the best approach to a fixity of market price.

We have shown that confidence in the stability of the law, and fixity of market price even when it is low, protect and encourage agriculture; and, finally,

We have shown that if corn had only risen-and if there had been any real scarcity it must have risen-to the prices of 1839— the year of the last potato famine the self-adjusting corn scale would have already silenced all objectors by repealing itself! After 72s. there is only a nominal duty on corn.

We cannot undertake to foretell what may be the ultimate effect of all this unparalleled agitation-how high prices may rise under such gratuitous and mischievous excitement as must be produced by seeing the two great parties in the State apparently coalescing in a proclamation of famine-but we must register two or three small facts here. One is, that the Times of the 3rd of November announced the last price in Paris of the 4lb. loaf to be 7 d., while at that same date the average of the same loaf throughout England did not exceed—did not, we believe, amount to-7d. The other fact is, that the price of bread, which had risen on or about the publication of Lord John's Letter, has been since gradually falling, and, in spite of all agitations and machinations, is at this moment (18th of December) cheaper than it was a month ago. Thirdly, it is certain that both potatoes and grain are falling in Ireland. For the fall of potatoes there may be a cause -the fear of their not keeping-but then that fear ought to increase the price of grain. In short, though far from denying the failure of the potato crop and the prospect of a dearth of that article somewhat more severe than usual, we are convinced that this has, with disgraceful cunning, been made the pretext of a political attack on the Corn Laws, when the Corn Laws themselves afford not only no ground for any complaint, but the direct reverse!

Lord John Russell complains that Parliament was not summoned in October: now we, on general principles, dissent from the doctrine of calling Parliament at irregular times when it can

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be reasonably avoided; and we hold the general expectation, which it has become the fashion to entertain, of some great change at every meeting of Parliament in the commercial or financial tem of our country, to be one of the great misfortunes of our day. 'The Government has done little this session,' is a common party reproach. We believe it to be a great merit. Great defects may require corresponding changes; but change is in itself an evil. 'Quieta non movere was the maxim of the greatest of Whig ministers, and one of much wisdom.

If there existed any general unprecedented suffering, it would be the natural course of ministers to look out for the cause, and to summon, if necessary, Parliament to try some remedial experiment; but in the present instance, we believe, it may be said that no period of more sound prosperity could be pointed out in every branch of our industry than during the few years since the accession of the present ministry. An overflowing revenue, commerce and manufactures flourishing, and the farmer contented, though with no unreasonable profits; above all, there was that truest sign of the happiness of a people-good wages of labour; some works on railroads were even stopped for want of labour, and the price of it was everywhere rising; the poor man found himself, for the first time within our recollection, in the happy condition of his only property, his industry, being in hot demand in the market. In the midst of this plethora of comforts we are suddenly assured by ambitious and seditious panic-mongers that, if not starving, we are about to be so-then suddenly the whole scene changes, and distrust and want of confidence succeed.

We have mainly to thank for this disturbance of our peace that joint-stock company of agitation-the League-which, with formidable capital at command, avowedly employ it for corrupting the constituent body; and, despairing to operate on the judgment of the Legislature, avow an intention of forcing it by making fictitious votes a system carried so far that it is openly boasted that in one county no less than 5000 voters have been so manufactured.

What would the old corrupt House of Commons have said to such an impudent conspiracy? What would the present House have said if the same proceeding had been taken by the landed interest? But my Lord Morpeth, in the immediate expectation of becoming a Cabinet Minister, hands his subscription of five pounds to this association. Are we to understand that it is in this way that our Constitution is in future to be worked by the great Agitators of England and Ireland, under the sanction and succour of the Ministers of the Crown?

If reason and experience, and power withal, were safeguards against the arts of faction and the blindness of popular excitement

-if it were not for the furor' that the Spectator speaks of, which occasionally intoxicates mankind,-we should have no kind of apprehension from this factitious hubbub — this not merely irrational, but absolutely groundless agitation, generated between Lord John Russell and the League;-nor, even as it is, have we much. Facts will soon speak in a voice that even faction cannot drown: if there be no scarcity, and prices continue moderate, it will be hard to persuade the world that they are starving, with wheat as cheap as it has been at the best periods of half a century; if there be a scarcity, wheat will rise to 72s., and the duty will vanish. Nor will we, nor can we, believe that Sir Robert Peel, whatever system he may have contemplated (and we have no doubt that it would have been at least a generous and honest one), if he finds-even if it be from the oldfashioned prejudices of his colleagues and of the country,-that system impracticable-we will not, we say, believe that Sir Robert Peel will give the slightest countenance to the only alternative that seems now presented to him-the unconditional repeal of his own Act, which he carried but three years ago by such admirable arguments, by such irresistible facts, and with, as experience has shown, a success that has even outrun his sagacious expectations. That great triumph we followed with our sincere admiration and our humble applause. We have since, on every occasion, congratulated ourselves and the country on that great work-the most important, perhaps, of all the signal services Sir Robert had rendered to his country. He may see from the height of his own superior mind a prospect of rendering still greater;-but that cannot make him less anxious to consolidate the work he has already done, and to protect and encourage, and support and guide the great party-the vast majority of the rank, property, and intelligence and loyalty of the country-which he before led to victory and which raised him to power. We 'bate no jot of heart or hope,' and feel confident that when the proper time for explanation comes, we shall find Sir Robert Peel still worthy and willing to be the leader of the great Conservative party on the union and mutual confidence of which, let us all be assured, depend the safety of this monarchy and the existence of our constitution.

But there are higher and more consolatory considerations than even these. The fate of the people of England is not in the hands of any Cabinet-it is in their own. No alteration in the cornlaws can be attempted, we presume, with any prospect of success in the present House of Commons. A dissolution must probably take place if the Whig Leaguers should succeed in forming an administration—and a dissolution would be in itself a great evil and a considerable