1851.

Disproportion of Farms to Capital.

167

production, should not have turned their attention to a resource which others with no superior means find it worth their while to attend to. Then the condition of comparative ease, in which the working population are now happily placed through the cheapness of bread, enables them to consume a much larger quantity of meat than was within their reach in former times; and, although considerable capital may be required to keep and fatten any large number of horned beasts, it is not so in the case of pigs, and there is no kind of food more to the taste of labourers and their families than bacon. Pigs may be fed and fattened upon root crops at a moderate outlay; and while they are highly profitable in themselves, the animals furnish a quantity of manure of the most useful description, greatly facilitating and cheapening the general operations of the farm.

It is a very common remark, and we believe not more common than true, that there is a disposition, on the part of many who follow the trade of farming, to undertake more than they have the means to accomplish profitably. The man whose capital is equal to stock and manage 300 acres, will too often be found in the occupation of 400 or 500 acres; and when, at the end of the year, he finds his capital has not increased, but is possibly slipping away, he never thinks of casting the blame upon his own miscalculation. The want of legislative protection, he complains, has prevented him from getting for his produce prices which might have shielded him from the consequences of his own imprudence. It is still more generally the caseand this even with men whose capital is sufficient for what they undertake-to expect that they are to live in a greater degree of comfort and indulgence than falls to the share of tradesmen with equal capital in other branches of business. The man, for instance, who takes a farm of 300 acres, and who stocks and works it adequately with a capital of 3,000l., often lives in a style to which a man of 5,000l. capital, or more, employed in a retail trade, would never think of aspiring. He commonly dwells in a very comfortable house, and spreads his table without stint or carefulness; he is glad to see his friends around his board, which, as it is in great part furnished without any money payment, but from the farm-yard, seems to be scarcely counted by him among his expenses: he keeps his saddle-horse for pleasure,-very possibly, too, a hunter, and never misses attending the town on market days, whether his business calls him there or not. The difference between the cost of his dinner, together with what follows it at the market ordinary in the cause of good fellowship, and the cost of the meal at home, is set down-if, indeed, any heed is taken of

it-to the account of business expenditure. It is, besides, remarked by observant by-standers that, although farming be not without its anxieties, arising from the vicissitudes of seasons, it is without many other and greater anxieties, inseparable from other callings; and that it is seldom pursued with the same assiduity and incessant attention which are indispensable to success in ordinary employments, in other words, it partakes more of the nature of pastime than of business, and for that reason does not justify the demand for an equally high remuneration in the shape of profits. In corroboration of this opinion, we may mention that, conversing lately with an intelligent gentleman of ample means, who farms more than 4,000 acres, he stated it as the result of his own experience, that any man acquainted with the subject, who should at the present time, and with the prospect of existing prices, follow farming as a serious matter of business, would find that there is not a better 'business going.'

We are not aware of having left unnoticed and unanswered any serious Protectionist argument in favour of a recurrence to the system of Corn-laws, from which the country has so lately, and after so severe a social struggle, been relieved. As friends of peace and order, we must, however, venture to point out to our opponents the danger which would be incurred,-if their effort to restore a duty on the importation of food should be temporarily successful, and if it should be followed, as of course they would desire it to be followed, by any serious enhancement of prices. Does the suspicion never cross their minds that, in such a state of things, the millions, who compose the working classes in Great Britain, having experienced for a season the blessings which flow from cheap living, would not fail to question the right of any class to put its class-interests into direct antagonism with theirs, and to plunge them again into want and wretchedness? The careful observer may even now detect symptoms of these feelings, when, in populous places, the choice of a majority of the electors may have fallen upon some one suspected of a desire to favour the Protective System. We are not among the number of the friends of Free Trade, who are supposed to look with apprehension to a general election. We will not, until we see it, believe in the return of a majority to the House of Commons who shall hold the principles of Protection, and be prepared to act upon them; but suppose a Protectionist majority once more to have got possession of the House of Commons, and to venture upon this wild experiment, can it be conceived that organised bodies would not assemble again in thousands through the length and breadth of the land,

1851. Effect of Reductions in the Customs and Excise. 169

in opposition to a course of legislation so generally felt to be unjust, and again compel their adversaries to retrace their steps? and is it not too probable that they would then insist upon taking full securities against the possibility of having to enter upon a similar contest in future with the proprietors of the soil? This is a consideration upon which we are most unwilling to enlarge; and, in the hope that landed proprietors will not overlook it, we proceed to offer a few remarks on some other branches of the Free-trade question, respecting which much misrepresentation is put forward by its opponents.

It is a favourite theory with those who are adverse to a reduction of duties upon articles of foreign produce, that such duties are paid by the producers, and thus come in aid of the taxation of this country,- a theory upon the exposure of which we do not think it necessary to waste another word. Taking it for certain that every penny of tax upon articles consumed within the kingdom, is paid by the individual consumers, let us inquire what has been the effect on the public. revenue, and on the comforts of the people of this United Kingdom, of the progressive reductions which have been made during the past twenty years in our customs and excise duties.

There was collected of these duties, in 1821, the sum of 38,765,8147. Between that year and 1849, various duties were repealed and reduced, amounting to 27,801,6671.; so that the sum remaining to be collected under these two heads of revenue was reduced by computation to 10,964,1477. So great, however, has been the additional power of consuming imparted to the people by the cheapening of articles of general use, that the revenue collected in 1849 from the unrepealed duties amounted to 34,622,2847., being 23,658,1377. beyond the computed amount, and considerably more than three times as great as, without such cheapening, we should have received.

The effect of this state of things upon the comforts of the people may be best illustrated by taking a single article of general use, and showing the addition made to the quantity consumed by reason of the relaxation of the Protective System. In 1821, the customs' duty payable on each hundred weight of sugar, the production of British possessions, was 27s., and the quantity consumed within the kingdom was 3,056,882 cwts.,being equal to an average consumption of 16 lbs. 2 oz. per head. At that time all foreign sugar was completely excluded, by means of a rate of duty greater than the value of the sugar after the duty should have been paid; and thus a most complete monopoly of the home market was given to our sugar-producing colonies. In 1849, when there still remained a protecting duty

to some extent, but not enough to exclude from use the produce of foreign lands, the rate of duty upon British-grown sugar was lowered to eleven shillings per cwt.: upon which, the quantity used within the kingdom, including that of foreign origin, rose to 6,287,217 cwts. This was equal to an average consumption, by the increased population, of 24 lbs. 1 oz.,-being 50 per cent. greater than the average consumption of 1821; while the loss to the revenue between the two periods was but little more than 4 per cent., -the rate of duty having been lessened by more than 59 per cent. The value to the people of this approach to the principle of Free Trade, is not confined to the additional command which it has given them over the use of an increased quantity of an article of general desire; but is also to be sought in the additional amount of industry which it has called into action, that so we may provide the means for making returns to the various countries from which this increased quantity has been drawn.

It cannot be necessary to multiply the instances in which the carrying out of Free-trade principles into practical operation has been found to conduce to the comfort and prosperity of the people; and we shall draw our observations to a close by briefly examining the result, so far as can yet be ascertained, of the approximation towards freedom of commerce lately made in our laws relating to Navigation.

It having been shown, by returns presented to Parliament, that the tonnage of British vessels entering the ports of the United Kingdom in 1850, was somewhat less than it was in 1849, occasion was taken to sound the alarm, as though our whole shipping interest was doomed to destruction. The vessels which arrived in our ports during the two years under the British flag, were

In addition to this-to them alarming fact-it is seen that a very large increase has been experienced in the number and tonnage of foreign shipping, which entered our ports in 1850, beyond those of the preceding year, viz.:—

1851.

Increase in British Shipping.

171

Whatever may be said concerning the decline of British shipping, as revealed by these figures, it is clear that they indicate no decline of British commerce, since it has required 180,000 tons more to convey to us the merchandise which we have imported. But let us inquire how far the figures which we have given above are to be taken as evidence of any real falling off in the employment of British shipping. In the first place, we must remark, that it would have been very surprising, after all that was so industriously circulated, as it were inviting foreigners to engage in a trade newly opened to them, and in which it was so confidently affirmed they would compete with great advantage to themselves, if, they had not been tempted in greater numbers than formerly to our shores. Instead of lamenting that we have been visited by 360,000 tons additional of ships under foreign flags, we may rather feel surprise that a still larger number has not been attracted by the golden harvest which was promised them. The real questions at issue, however, are, has any proportion of our own shipping been deprived of employment in consequence? and has any check been put to the building of additional vessels for the carriage of our constantly increasing trade? It does not appear to have occurred to those who have seized on the fact of a lessened British tonnage having entered our ports, that possibly the prevalence of a contrary wind at the close of the year might have interfered with the arrivals; in effect those arrivals in the first three months of the present year have exceeded those of the corresponding period of 1850 by 134,000 tons: Neither do they take any account of the comparative tonnage which left our shores with cargoes, and which, as not being equally exposed to the uncertainties of weather, might fairly be thought to afford more correct materials for comparison. Now it happens, that the tonnage of national vessels so employed in 1850, exceeded that of 1849 by 198,582 tons; while the excess in the first three months of 1851, over the tonnage in the same three months of 1850, has been 70,000 tons. In making this comparison we have purposely excluded all ships which cleared in ballast, in order to steer clear of the objection, that in despair of obtaining employment at home, our vessels have sailed away empty in search of it elsewhere. There is, however, another answer to the assertion of our inability to compete with foreign shipping: and the answer may be received with all confidence by the most sceptical unbeliever in the competing powers of our ship-owners; since it is drawn from the official records of another government, which cannot be suspected of any desire to falsify the facts. It is well known that, by way of retaliation against the