Of all errors, those which accord with our wishes are the most pernicious and fatal in their effects :-they flatter favourite opinions, while the judgment is misled, and falls a sacrifice to their delusion.

Never was any principle more fully demonstrated than the foregoing, in our recent mistaken notions with regard to the price of bread, and the excessive importations of foreign corn: for the purpose of reducing, as much as possible, the price of wheat to the consumer, under a false impression, that by so doing we shall relieve the wants of the majority of the people, and give them a more abundant supply of the necessaries of life.

That the price of bread, for the moment, has been reduced, there can be no question. But it is of great national importance to inquire if it were absolutely requisite that it should be so? Does not each succeeding day prove at what an expense the price of bread has been diminished, and how rapidly the finances of the country and its general prosperity have been on the decline? By finances we do not mean the immediate amount of the revenue as paid into the Exchequer; but have reference to the future permanent resources of the country for supporting the national wants-which can only be derived from the productive labor. of the individuals composing the community; the competency of whom to contribute is wholly dependent on their trading to profit, or obtaining an advance on their merchandise after purchase.

The public funds have ever been considered as the national

Barometer. The rent of land-the florishing or depressed state of agriculture-the condition of the cultivator-are likewise criteria of national prosperity or decay: the manufacturer being dependent, in a great degree, on the produce from the soil, claims the least of our attention; for if the former succeed, the latter will be sure to derive a proportionate benefit from their prosperity, on which he must chiefly rely. The actual decline in the value of merchandise at this time is evident in the articles of cotton, wool, &c.

The daily recorded reduction in the price of the public funds, from 84 to 65, is a diminution of more than one-fifth of the whole funded capital: the rent of land in various districts, has also been reduced one-fourth, and must necessarily fall with the reduction in the price of grain; reversing the whole agricultural system, from the difficulty of tenants procuring farms to cultivate, to that of finding tenants to occupy the land.

To what cause, or causes, are all these national calamities to be attributed, if not to the adoption of false policy somewhere? is a question, it is intended fairly to discuss, without regard to either party, whether in or out of power; for both would appear to have been equally in error. The first and principal mistake was, the unlimited introduction of foreign corn from various quarters, immediately after the cessation of hostilities, when grain became such a drug in our markets as to render the English, grower incompetent to its cultivation. To remedy this inconvenience, the question of importation became agitated in Parliament, where a disposition was evident to court the opinion of the lower orders, who, by the bye, cannot be expected to comprehend an abstruse question of national policy; more especially as that under consideration was exhibited to their view through false lights, which, in their effect, militated against their true interest. The whole attention was injudiciously directed to keeping the price of grain as low as possible, instead of increasing the wages of productive labor, to meet the highest prices of corn. High State taxation, and low prices of corn and wages to the la borer, are perfect solecisms:-these can never exist together for any length of time:either taxation must be reduced, or the price of bread and labor must advance; and, under the existing circumstances of the nation, there can be no question to which we ought to have recourse.

If taxation be reduced, we must for ever remain with an im, mense weight of debt, which, whenever we may have occasion to borrow, to maintain any future state of hostility, will hang like a millstone round the neck, and paralise every national exertion. On the other hand, if the importation of grain be prohibited

altogether, or a tax on importation be imposed equal to the extra expense of English cultivation, the nation will rely on its own exertions for its supply, the price of labor will increase, and all will prosper; but if the present system of substituting Foreign for English corn be persisted in, it is almost morally impossible for the political current to flow calm and unruffled.

When the corn bill was in progress through Parliament, there evidently appeared to be a consideration, on the part of Ministers, how far it might affect the permanency of their situations; and, on the part of Opposition, how their future claims to popular favor might be promoted; each individual, in both stations, beheld the advance of price as the harbinger of popular censure and disapprobation, and resisted it by eking out, with a parsimonious hand, a boon to the grower and the community. The corn bill, deficient as it may be, having passed the Legislature, the spirits of the farmer began to revive, and hope led him to believe, that he might be enabled to preserve the price of corn at, or near the standard, which the recent law had created;-he exerted his means to the utmost: but whilst all were disappointed, many were ruined. It is true, that purchases made on the lowest terms, from the ruin of those cultivators destitute of capital, by those who had it at command, enabled the latter not only to save themselves from destruction, but to become considerable gainers. No sooner did such farmers begin to feel themselves in more easy circumstances, than the manufacturer also felt the influence; and wool not only increased in price, but exceeded that which it had reached for many previous years; the grower, in return, expended his money, and both cultivator and manufacturer were mutually benefited. This would have continued to be the reci procal state of both parties, had not a bountiful harvest occurred on the Continent, at a period when corn at home exceeded in price the import limitation. From the circumstance of an abundant produce in foreign countries, and a scanty one at home, every merchant became alive to speculation, and corn of all sorts was ordered, without limitation, from every port of Europe, from Africa, and from America. To such an extent, indeed, were these speculations carried, that both merchants and farmers sunk under the losses sustained. As might rationally have been expected, the manufacturing world has felt the fatal effects of these ar rangements, and is now experiencing the very reverse of what was by that class so fondly anticipated. Instead of being benefited by a reduction in the price of bread, below that at which it can be grown, the manufacturer finds, to his cost, that he is mutually involved, and must become a participator in the deterioration of capital with the agriculturist.

It surely is the excess of folly to imagine, that the manufacturer can florish while the farmer is ruined! The principal or profitable market for the manufacturer is the home market; when that fails (and fail it must if the farmer does not prosper) the exertions of the manufacturer will be to little purpose, and he will never be able to maintain his accustomed station of affluence.

Amongst the various authors who have written on this momentous subject, the sage and eloquent Fénélon-whose wisdom has, almost unrivalled, stood the test of years, admired, if not acknowledged, by all—remarks that it is on the cultivation of the soil a wise people will depend for their prosperity, as the only true source of national happiness whence wealth, political health, and domestic comfort, are to flow. Yet, what avail the arguments of Mentor, if none are disposed to listen to his admonitions? How often will it be necessary to repeat the incontronertible truism, that our own cultivation must constitute our vational wealth, and furnish the means of subsistence to the manufacturer, as well as to the husbandman?

Suppose the manufacturer to have produced his fabric, must he not look to the opulent farmer, or to those who are dependent on the soil (termed the landed interest) as the best customers for his perfected commodity? Or if he dispose of it in barter at foreign markets, must he not look again to home consumption for a return on his articles imported? If means are not possessed by those at home, can he expect that wines, or any other species of foreign produce, can become objects of general consumption?

The usual arguments and objections of the manufacturers, on the exclusion of foreign corn from English markets, may possibly be comprehended under the simple question, how can we expect successful competition with foreign merchants, while we pay exorbitant prices for labor? In reply it may be urged, would you, on the same principle, be willing to reduce English labor to the daily wages of other countries?-that is to say, from 2s. 6d. to 8d. per day. Is not the price of foreign articles regulated abroad by the value of broad cloth, and other exported British commodities? If otherwise, why is the prime cost abroad of a pipe of port wine, now at 501., which formerly was purchased there at 107.? or a butt of sherry, now at 70%., which then might not have exceeded 157. in price?

If it be not the increased value of English manufactures which has thus caused a corresponding augmentation in the price demanded for foreign merchandise, to what other cause is this augmentation in the price of wine to be attributed? certainly not to a less quantity of grapes being grown: for it is notorious that the supply

of wine has increased, or the consumption would not have taken place; and the consumption at home being increased, can only be caused by the opulence of English consumers. And, further,

has not the great proportion of these consumers been more interested in the growth of corn, than the manufacturers or dealers in merchandise, although the manufacturing and commercial world may have surpassed, in a tenfold degree, the individual luxury of the country gentleman ?

Few subjects are less understood than what are termed national wealth and national poverty. In England we, nominally, are more opulent, and pay more for labor than in other countries, and, consequently, we are esteemed richer than our neighbours. Our ideal riches enable us to pay 2s. 6d. a day for labor, while other countries pay 6d. or 8d. ; yet the laborer only gains the same quantity of bread to support nature, as he would get abroad, or nearly so; with this difference, that the English laborer eats white wheaten bread, while the foreign laborer may eat coarse black barley bread:-White bread, in this instance, is the riches of one country, while black bread is the poverty of the other; and as the enjoyment of comforts is generally attendant on increased industry, it follows that we may be esteemed more happy and more rich in point of national wealth; but this, it may and will be said, has very little to do with the grand question of our having more or less gold in the country. Spain possesses more gold;-yet Spain is poor, compared with England.

How have we lately fallen from the proud pre-eminence we occupied, by indulging in that unfortunate jealousy which one part of the community has entertained of the other, under a false notion, that the advancement of one description of men must necessarily be the depression of the other! While these prejudices govern our opinions, it does not require peculiar sagacity to predict, that the country must continue as much to retrograde from, as it was heretofore advancing towards prosperity.

To justify the proposed alteration in the mode of admitting foreign corn into the English markets, by permitting the importation at a high price only, or excluding it altogether, unless a proportionate duty be paid; it may not be uninteresting to the reader, to give a simple statement of facts, and to draw a parallel between England and the low countries round Brussels and Malines, (whence the information is derived) stating the price of labor and amount of taxes which are actually paid in Belgium.

Labor in Belgium is eight sous du pays, equal to the French decimes, or English pence, per day in winter, and from ten to twelve in summer; making the average through the year 10d. per day of our money. Let one individual be supposed to farm in Belgium,