66
BOWRING'S SPEECH.
send us, and you have millions of hungry mouths to take our corn.' The same language is held by every nation in trade. We talk, and with some good reason, about the evils inflicted by some of the minor German states who have consented to increase the duties upon British manufactures. They have been following the advice of certain honourable gentlemen who have ever that most mischievous word 'reciprocity' upon their lips, for no word has done so much damage to commerce as that word. Why every man who buys, sells reciprocity; and everyman who sells, buys reciprocity; and if one government had courage to government and overthrow reciprocity' in the intercourse of nation and nation, it would do a noble deed. I wish my right honourable friend, your representative, would consider this his high and noble mission—(cheers )—and that he would obliterate from the statute-book every statute by which governments have pretended to teach merchants how to trade, and manufacturers how to work. Gentlemen, but what did Prussia say? No doubt the object of Prussia was political rather than commercial, for she managed so that she got a great many little states in her power, and influenced their commercial interests while she interfered with their political position. I believe that Prussia made a great mistake, because she not powerful enough to overpower the smaller states, and the smaller states being a 'bundle of sticks' which Prussia had unwittingly tied fast together, they were enabled to dictate terms to Prussia herself. But the Prussian Union say, 'We do not wish to legislate against the introduction of your manufactures—take our corn and our timber and we will take your manufactures:' and many said to me, 'We hold this union as a means of forcing you to change your legislation.' (Hear, hear.) If I could, or if I had any influence with the Prussian ministry, I would say, Take goods from England, and no doubt the English people will have good prices for them, for I do not think it likely our merchants will long sell their goods unless they can obtain their value.' And I believe the great secret of the mode of changing the legislation of every country is to change your own; admit what you want, buy what you want upon the cheapest terms, and be sure that those who sell it to you will be paid. Now, a very serious state of things has come on in consequence of the existence of these Corn Laws. Nobody can estimate the amount of capital withdrawn from agriculture, in order to be applied to manufactures in consequence of our not taking from other nations the commodities with which they would buy our goods. The other day coming down the Danube, an Hungarian nobleman told me that they had quite ceased to think of producing corn for the English market, and they were turning their capital to manufacturing, as they could not sell their corn. (Hear, hear.) There was abundance of corn
