7
him, or what would be a remunerating- price for the labour he had expended on his grounds. Therefore, to meet this fluctuation this uncertainty, and to protect the home farmer and the community, it was thus the fluctuating scale of duties had been taken, regulating and controlling- as far as possible that uncertainty of price. (Applause.) If at the present moment there had been a fixed duty of 8s. per quarter on the importation of foreign corn, there would not have been brought into the British market that amount of foreign corn which had been introduced within the last few weeks, just when the home produce had reached a high price and the supply of home growth was short and scarce. By the fluctuating scale they obtained, at a duty of 1s., 1,500,000 quarters of wheat, which must otherwise, according to the plan of the late Government, have been introduced at a duty of 8s. (Hear, hear.) He said that the existing Corn-Laws produced a comparative steadiness of price. Under them there was less fluctuation in the price of corn in this country than in any other country in Europe, with the exception of Belgium."[1]—Lord Stanley's Speech at Lancaster, 21st Sept. 1841.
"I do not pretend to say that parts of the present Corn-Law are not open to improvement. I think, for instance, that the present mode of taking the average, is susceptible of beneficial alteration. But then, I say, that a fixed duty is an impossibility. It is an impossibility if you wish to give protection to your own corn growers, and I must say, that Mr. O'Connell dealt with this subject with his usual candour, when he said, 'Give us a fixed duty on my principle of instalments, we will take what we can get give us an 8s. duty, and we shall get rid of it in six months.' (Laughter.) And I am quite satisfied that a fixed duty on corn in this country cannot be sustained. A fixed duty must produce one of two effects it must either exclude or admit foreign corn. If it exclude it when the price is high, where is that constant demand for corn from abroad on which the
- ↑ Query, Sweden.
