ecie payments,
the nation had to begin to feel the whole naked weight of the war debt,
and the idea of the protectors of a high price of corn was proved by the
event to be an utter hallucination. The corn statutes of the next twenty
years, though occupying an enormous amount of time and attention in the
Houses of Parliament, may be briefly treated, for they are simply a
record of the impotence of legislation to maintain the price of a
commodity at a high point when all the natural economic causes in
operation are opposed to it. In 1822 a statute was passed reducing the
limit of prices at which importation could proceed to 70s. for wheat,
35s. for barley, 25s. for oats; but behind the apparent relaxation was a
new scale of import duties, by which foreign grain was subjected to
heavy three-month duties up to a price of 85s.,--17s. when wheat was
70s., 12s. when between 70s. and 80s., and 10s. when 85s., showing the
grasping spirit of the would-be monopolizers of the home supply of corn,
and their reluctance to believe in a lower range of value for corn as
for all other commodities. This act never operated, for the reason that,
with the exception in some few instances of barley, prices never were so
high as its projectors had contemplated. The corn trade had passed
rapidly beyond reach of the statutes by which it was to be so painfully
controlled; and as there were occasional seasons of scarcity,
particularly in oats, the king in council was authorized for several
years to override the statutes, and do whatever the public interests
might require.

In 1827 Canning introduced a new system of duties, under which there
would have been a fixed duty of 1s. per quarter when the price of wheat
was at or above 70s., and an increased duty of 2s. for every shilling
the price fell below 69s.; but though Canning's resolutions were adopted
by a large majority in the House of Commons, his death and the
consequent change of ministers involved the failure of his scheme of
corn duties. In the following year Charles Grant introduced another
scale of import duties on corn, by which the duty was to be 23s. when
the price was 64s., 16s. 8d. when the price was 69s., and only 1s. when
the price was 73s. or above 73s. per quarter; and this became law the
same year. This sliding scale was more objectionable, as a basis of
foreign corn trade, than that of Canning, though not following so
closely shilling by shilling the variation of prices, because