I see no reason for giving the capital employed in agriculture greater protection than the capital vested in other branches of trade, manufacture, or commerce.

There is abundant proof that the opening of our ports always tends to raise the price of foreign corn to the price in the English market, and not to sink the price of British corn to the price in the continental market.

The advantage to Great Britain of a regular free trade in corn would, therefore, be more by raising the rest of the world to our standard and price, than by lowering the prices here to the standard of the Continent.

I will undertake to prove that the present corn laws have been detrimental to the public, without being beneficial to the agricultural interest.

Fortunately for England, all her imports are raw materials.

In Great Britain the price of food is at a higher level than in any other country, and consequently, the British artisan labours at a disadvantage in proportion to the higher rate of his food.

If the corn laws were altered, the British artisan might again be able to subsist by twelve hours' labour, a most desirable event.