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THE MINISTERIAL PLAN,

219

the displacement of hand-loom weaving by steam power; to
Monetary difficulties in the United States, and consequent Er. 38.
diminntion of demand for our manufactures ; to interruption
of the China trade ; finally, to alarms of war in Europe, and
the stagnation of commerce which always follows such alarms.
To alter the Corn Law would touch none of these sources
of the mischief, and would be no remedy. At the same
time he thought that the Corn Law, as it stood, was capable
of improvement. The working of the sliding scale of 1828°
Was injurious to the consumer, because it kept back corn
til it wag dearer ; to the revenue, by the forced reduction of
Tuty; to the agriculturist, by withholding corn until it
reached the highest price, which was then suddenly snatched
from him, and his protection defeated; and to commerce,
becauge it introduced paralysing uncertainty. How then
Ought the Corn Law to be improved? Not by changing a
Variable into s fixed duty, because a fixed duty could not
bear the strain of a time of scarcity and distress, and could
006 be permanent. It must be by modifying the existing
Principle of g duty varying inversely with the price. Now
What wag the price which would encourage the home-growth
of corn? Qn the whole it was for the interest of the agri-“wburist
 that the price of wheat, allowing for its natural
Oscillations, should range between fifty-four and fifty-eight
Shillings, The legislature could not guarantee that or any
Other Price, but the scale might best be constructed with a
View to this range of prices. ‘What he proposed, then, was
3 New scale, considerably decreasing the protection hitherto
wfforded to the home-grower.’
® See g)
rag pritdiat Corn Law denounced by Cobden during the nghtation
Beale an 1846, it is well to describe the difference between x be Dem
59. ang po” of the Act of 1828 in Pecl’a a oo shal a reaon
those ny - 60s., id duty at present - . ys E00 £16
Sitting dut 16 duty I propose is 13s. When he gel a a iii I
Y ig 883. 8d. increasing as the price 3