It is true that the argument already adverted to, in favour of encouraging the production of commodities at home, lest this country be rendered too far dependent on foreigners for its supply, applies to the article corn, as to others. It is indeed stronger in the case of this necessary of life than in that of other things which may be spared on an emergency. But the evils of a constant limitation of the stock of food for a growing population perhaps more than compensate the risk of an occasional scarcity; which could never be carried to any extreme length, since the desire to sell on the part of those foreigners who habitually supplied our markets would be as great as our desire to buy, and must prevent their governments from taking such steps as would materially interfere with a trade so valuable to them.

At all events, to whatever extent the validity of this argument may be admitted as against the free

rage of deaths during these periods must exhibit itself: while this increase of marriages, indicating, as Mr. Barton himself acknowledges, a feeling of plenty among the labouring population, effectually disproves the alleged coincidence of an increase of general privation. Mr. B. ought to have distrusted inferences which went to establish so paradoxical a proposition as that the cheapness and abundance of the necessaries of life tended to abridge the lives and deteriorate the condition of their consumers. He challenges any refutation of his argument. The remarks here made upon it, are offered in a spirit of respect for his benevolent intentions by one who is a fellow-labourer with him in the advocacy of colonization, as a sure means of relieving want; but who cannot exclude from his view another resource almost equally effective, and which, indeed, ought to form an element in every scheme of colonization, viz., the importation of food in exchange for manufactures.

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importation of foreign-grown corn, its force is ma terially lessened, and, indeed, disappears almost wholly, in the case of corn grown in our colonial possessions, by the application of British labour and capital. We have allowed the propriety of fiscal restrictions to a moderate extent on foreign commerce; and it is because we maintain a colony to be the very opposite, in every respect, of a foreign country-to be properly considered as an outlying province of the parent state, an integral portion of the empire, or a member of the same federal union-that we are anxious to see our colonial not merely distinguished from our foreign commerce by its lower scale of duties, but placed upon the same footing with our home trade by the abolition of all duties on articles of first-rate importance, the growth of our colonies, and measures taken for facilitating the supply of our most urgent wants from their inexhaustible soils. The truth is, we are at present stinting our population in the prime necessaries of life, and keeping down the wages of labour and the profits of capital in this country to the minimum level, by confining our superabundant capital and labour to the cultivation of our home soils, and our hungry population to their scanty produce-which, through the limited extent and fertility of our island, cannot be increased to meet the increasing demand-whilst we have millions of acres of the richest possible soil courting our ploughs in our transmarine dependencies; in districts enjoying the healthiest climate, subject to our government, attached to our laws, and asking only to be peopled by the overflow of our population, and to have their vast

resources developed for the common advantage, by the profitable application of our redundant means. By treating the most fertile and accessible of our colonies as an extension of our home territory, we should obtain all the advantages derivable from an unlimited command of fertile land, secure a considerable rise in the real wages of our labourers, and in the profits of our capitalists, and render the improvements that for years past have been daily taking place in our productive capacities, what they ought to be-and but for the limitation of the territorial surface to which they have been confined, would have always been-a source of continual improvement in the condition and means of enjoyment of every class of society.

We have hitherto argued the question of cornlaws solely with reference to their principle. Whether the present scale of duties on foreign corn is injurious from its varying character or excessive amount, is quite another consideration, and much more open to doubt.

It appears that the present duties on wheat have not prevented the importation since the last alteration of the corn-laws of a quantity equal to one-twelfth of the entire consumption of England, and that though the rates of duty paid have varied from Is. to 28s., the average upon this very large quantity is only 6s. 8d. It would seem from this that the present rate of duties is not very burthensome upon the consumer; and it is doubtful whether it would be an improvement to exchange this varying duty, averaging only 6s. 8d., for a fixed duty of more than the same amount; while it is certainly out of all question that any proposal for a

lower rate of duty would be listened to at present by the legislature. On this ground we are by no means confident that any great advantage is to be gained by hastily unsettling the present system, so far as relates to foreign corn. That system having been acted on since 1815, has placed the agriculture of the whole island in a false position; has encouraged the investment of much capital in the tillage of poor soils, and the growth of a large agricultural population upon them. To repeal therefore, or to lower the corn duties suddenly, would do much mischief by throwing a large portion of the home soils out of cultivation, and of the agricultural labourers out of work. When, however, the impediments are removed, which we have noticed as barring the profitable employment of productive industry in agriculture, when tithes are commuted accommodation afforded to farmers by a better banking system-the working of the poor-laws improved, and their cost reduced,our labouring population restored to their moral and industrious habits-Ireland pacified, and her vast agricultural resources developed by a law compelling the employment of her able-bodied poor-when also a system of colonization has applied our agricultural skill, labour, and capital to the cultivation of our colonial soils;-the diminished cost of raising corn within our own territory will lower its price without loss to the grower, who will by degrees become able to compete with the foreigner; and the corn-laws may then be repealed without injury to any one. wish for cheap bread should call for such measures

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as may enable it to be raised cheaply by British industry from British soils.

On the whole, the conclusion is, that absolute freedom of commerce, in the present state of society, would be unsafe. Freedom is the true principle towards which we should be always approximating in practice; but until nations are fully awake to their community of interest, and are linked together in the bonds of a fraternal or federal union-until commercial jealousies have disappeared, and the chances of war are materially reduced-it will be a prudent course for every state to give a moderate encouragement to the supply of its own wants from its own resources, by imposing duties on such foreign commodities as can be almost, though not quite, as cheaply produced at home as they can be procured from abroad. The only question is as to the extent of these duties. With respect to articles of small bulk, the smuggler determines the limit. The duty must never be such as to throw the trade into his hands. With regard to articles not liable to contraband introduction, the duty must be regulated by balancing its disadvantages, viz., injury to consumers, and discouragement to industry, against its advantages, consisting in security for a constant supply and uninterrupted trade, and (a consideration not to be overlooked) the easy collection of a considerable revenue.

That sound ideas are beginning generally to prevail in other countries as well as our own, on this momentous subject, is a source of great satisfaction. As an instance, we may quote a passage