§ The EARL of HARDWICKE, in rising to put the questions of which he had given notice, respecting the quantity of corn at present in the country, stated, that it was strongly impressed on his mind that the supply of wheat which we possessed was 671 not sufficient to sustain our population until the next harvest came in. He was led to this conclusion by the rapid decrease of wheat in his own county, and by all the inquiries which he had made as to the general supply throughout the country. In his neighbourhood, in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Ely, and Royston, the corn markets had been recently attended by buyers from France and Belgium, who had purchased so largely, that in one week corn rose from 96s. to 120s. per quarter; and, as a further proof of the correctness of the view which he took, he could refer their Lordships to a document which had been placed in his hands. It could not be considered official or authentic; for, unfortunately, they had no means of obtaining such information; but it appeared that some person or persons had endeavoured to ascertain an accurate statement of the condition of food in the country, and had written to accredited persons in the different counties for that purpose. From the statement that had been made in answer to those applications, he should select the places that were in the worst condition, though in selecting those he might assure their Lordships that the condition of the rest was extremely bad. Supposing that the harvest in Scotland last year was of such an extent that, at the commencement of autumn there was enough housed to last until the next harvest came in, as there were now two-thirds of a year elapsed, there ought to be in Scotland at present one-third of the supply of the whole year, or sufficient for four months' consumption; but from the document which he held in his hand it did not appear that such was the case. In Perthshire, it appeared, from the statement of Mr. Playfair, of the Carse of Gowrie, that there was only one-tenth of the wheat of last harvest left; in Lanarkshire, as stated by Mr. D. Gairdner, of Hamilton, one-eighth; in Mid Lothian, as stated by Mr. J. Finnie, of Swanston, there was little for disposal; in East Lothian, as stated by Mr. J. Bruce, of Waughton, the quantity much under the usual stock; in Fife, one-third; in Roxburghshire, one-sixth, according to the account of Mr. J. Brodie, of Hawick; in Wigton, almost all was gone, as stated by Mr. A. H. M'Lean, Stranraer; in Ayrshire, about one-eighth, as stated by Mr. Tennant, of Shields by Ayr; in Stirling, one-sixth; in Forfarshare, one-fourth. That was the state of the supply in Scotland as regarded home produce; and the following list, with the names of those on whose authority the 672 statements were made, showed the condition of England, if the accuracy of that account could be relied on;—Northumberland, stackyards very empty, Mr. John Grey, Dilston; Westmoreland, one-third, J. Crosby, Kirkby Thore; Yorkshire, one-sixth, H. Briggs, Overton, Wakefield; Lancashire, very little, E. Evans, Wigan; Lincolnshire, one-twelfth, R. Westland, Freeston Boston; Shropshire, nearly all gone; Rutland, probably one-fourth, S. Cheetham, Oakham; Huntingdon, nearly exhausted, P. Purvis, Kimbolton; Cambridgeshire, one-fifth, S. Jones, Ickleton; Suffolk, one-seventh, W. Green, Ashfieldplace; Monmouthshire, one-tenth, R. W. Puchas; Kent, very short, R. Matson, Wingham; Devonshire, one-eighth, S. Cornish, Kingsbridge; Wales, not one-tenth, E. W. David, Cardiff; and according to the statement of Mr. W. Edmond, Swansea, the stock in Wales was almost exhausted. That was the state of England, Scotland, and Wales, if the accounts in the document which had been placed in his hands were correct; and as it was the only information to which he could have recourse, he would ask Her Majesty's Government if they had any reason to think that those statements with regard to the supply of wheat were well founded? His own impression was, that there was not enough in the country to maintain our population until the next harvest came in; and if the buyers from the Continent were to continue purchasing corn in our markets, he would ask, was there a prospect of an equivalent importation on our part? The competition of the continental buyers with us in the markets of the north of Europe, and on the banks of the Vistula, as well as Odessa, and the ports of the Mediterranean, was such, that we had to look principally to America, and even there the quantity already purchased for Europe was very considerable. If what he had heard stated were true, the prospects for the country were most dismal; and although our condition might be so far irreparable, yet by a proper economy of our corn, and by putting the ship's company on half allowance, we should be enabled to tide ourselves over this trying period, and so arrive at the next harvest in health and security. It would require the greatest economy to effect that object, and it behoved them to lay aside all luxuries and indulgences, in order to accomplish it. Brown bread, made of the whole corn ground, might be used with the advantage 673 of a great saving of food, whilst a cessation from the consumption of starch would also be the means of increasing in a very considerable degree the supply of corn for food. He did hope and trust that the; landed gentry would take the case into their consideration, in their own counties, and take means to prevent the corn from leaving those counties, in order to enable the people to meet a time of emergency. He saw that a noble Lord opposite did not appear to concur with him.
LORD CAMPBELLthought that this course was calculated to encourage mobs —meal mobs as they were called in Scotland.
§ The EARL of HARDWICKEsaid, his object was to prevent the stocks being purchased up by the large dealers, and then retailed at enormous increase of price to the people. He hoped that such of the landowners and gentry as had large supplies of corn would hold them in their own hands, so that they would be better able to meet the pressure when it arrived. He begged to ask the noble Marquess, whether he was aware of the quantity of corn then in the country; and if they had not a sufficiency, whether he was enabled to state that a sufficient supply could be procured from foreign countries?
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEwas sure that the noble Earl, who had, in the exercise of his public duty, thought it right to put these questions, would feel that they were questions which related to a most perilous subject, and would feel also that he (the Marquess of Lansdowne) exercised a sound discretion in abstaining, on his own part, and on the part of the Government, from hazarding anything like an opinion which might have the effect of deceiving the public or any interest in the country. The noble Earl stated rightly, that in this great country there was no organized machinery by which they could become accurately possessed of the amount of stock in the country, or of the probable amount of demand as compared with that stock. Every individual had the same means of judging as he (the Marquess of Lansdowne) had; every individual had the same means as Her Majesty's Government of collecting information on this subject; and he knew of no information which could be collected more carefully or with greater attention to accuracy—though, as he did not know the particulars, he could not speak to the entire accuracy of his returns —than by the individual to whom the 674 noble Earl had alluded, and who had recently printed the returns he had received. Any opinion, therefore, as to the amount of stock, he should decline to give; but thus much he might say for the satisfaction of the noble Earl—not subscribing to his opinion as to the amount of stock at the end of the harvest of last year—that there had not since the harvest been brought into the markets of this country a more considerable or a greater amount of corn than during the corresponding period of the former year; and, therefore, unless the deficiency of the last harvest was much more than the deficiency of the preceding, it must be presumed that a considerable quantity was now in stock. There he should have stopped, had not the noble Earl gone further; but he should now state to the noble Lord, what he was sure it would be satisfactory to him to know, that there had been an enormous and an increasing amount up to that moment of the importation of corn into this country, not announcing in any degree that diminution of supply at which the noble Earl appeared to be alarmed. In the month of January, in the present year, 661,000 quarters had been imported; in the month of February 557,000 quarters had been imported; in the month of March 929,000 quarters had been imported; and in the month of April 1,043,000 quarters had been imported: thereby indicating an increase proportioned to the amount of the demand, and that on the appearance of the deficiency, of which at an early period of the year the public were not aware, there were corresponding efforts made to supply the demand; and the result would be, if the supply were continued during the entire year at the same ratio as during the last four months, the amount of supply for the year would be 9,000,000 quarters. Another statement, equally satisfactory, he could make in explanation to the noble Earl, and one which, he conceived, was peculiarly satisfactory, as showing the complete command of the markets of the world which had been enjoyed by this country subsequently to the knowledge that there would be no interference here with the course of trade. The moment that was known, an increased and increasing activity was kept up; and the result was, that while, as was unfortunately too well known, other countries were labouring under the same affliction with ourselves, and whilst the demands of those large and populous countries were daily increasing, and 675 their deficiency was daily more and more confirmed, the whole exportation of corn from the United States to the whole world was 2,170,000 quarters; and of that amount not more than 500,000 quarters had found their way to all the rest of the world, leaving this country in possession or enjoyment of four times the amount exported from America to all the rest of the world. To this statement he could add, that he had no reason to apprehend that the supply from America was likely to diminish; on the contrary, the opinion of those most conversant with the subject was, that the present state of prices, which had unfortunately increased of late, was sufficient to secure not only the whole supply of corn which had been destined for this country, but that a portion of the corn intended for other countries would be diverted from those countries to this. These were the only facts it was in his power to state. He had felt it his duty to state thus much; but he abstained altogether from any anticipation as to what the amount of stock was, or what would be required. At the same time, he agreed that the state of the country rendered it an imperative duty on all persons, so far as their influence and power went, and, above all, in their own families, to inculcate, as a matter of feeling, as well as of economy, the strictest care in the use of food.
§ LORD ASHBURTONwas understood to say that he feared the largest portion of wheat from America had already arrived; there might still be some Indian corn to come, as the harvest of that grain was later; but he feared that the noble Marquess's anticipations of a large future supply, proportioned to what we had already received, would not be realized. It must be remembered that the cause of the deficiency which here had been the source of so much calamity, existed also over a great part of Europe, and it was the duty of the Legislature to open the eyes of the country to the possible consequences. He confessed that nothing would give him greater satisfaction than to see the favourable anticipations confirmed; but he could not entertain them, for inquiries among his neighbours had resulted in much the same information as that stated by the noble Earl (the Earl of Hardwicke). The only question now was, whether they ought or ought not to place restrictions upon the exportation of corn; and he admitted that it would be with great reluctance that he could 676 agree to such a proposal. At the same time we stood in the singular position of being the only distressed country that did not restrict exportation: and there might come a case of necessity for such a step to be taken even here.
LORD BROUGHAMthought this to be a very important subject. Nothing could be worse than concealing the fact of a scarcity. Nothing, on the contrary, could tend more to prevent a dearth from becoming a famine, than to give timely notice of its approach; he therefore thanked his noble Friend for having brought the subject before the House. He wished he could say that he experienced no uneasiness in his mind with respect to the prospects of the country for the next two or three months. He was, however, quite clear upon one subject—that the advice of his noble Friend (the Marquess of Lansdowne) was sound advice, and that it was the imperative duty of all in their Lordships' station and in the middle classses of society to practise and to inculcate in others the most strict and rigorous system of economy, especially in husbanding the great and fundamental resource that constituted the prime staff of life. With respect to the labouring classes, they unhappily required no stimulus to exercise economy, because the rise of prices imposed it upon them as a necessity, and in this respect a rise of price operated usefully to correct the effects of improvidence in a season of scarcity. He felt the great importance of what had fallen from his noble Friend (Lord Ashburton) as to the very great impolicy of interfering with the export trade of this country in corn. It would tend at a time of pressure such as the country was suffering under to frustrate and defeat their own object, by preventing a sufficient supply coming to England from America; for he entertained not the least doubt that the immense supplies of corn which his noble Friend (the Marquess of Lansdowne) had stated had arrived in this country within the last four months—amounting to between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000, of quarters—had been brought hither with the view to re-exportation. And all this corn had come from America, for it was impossible that any portion of it could have arrived from the Baltic, the cold season having shut up that sea. So great was the amount of importation, that within the last four or five weeks there had been sufficient to supply this country with one fifth of a whole 677 year's consumption. To what did he ascribe this? Undoubtedly much of it was to be attributed to the great demands for our manufactures, which were purchased by corn which was then bonded for re-exportation. He should be loth to draw a line between British corn and foreign corn; and if they were to attempt to allow the re-exportation of foreign corn and not of British corn, they would experience the greatest difficulty in distinguishing between the one and the other. He hoped their Lordships would give great attention to the subject before they ventured to interfere with the corn trade.