declined with
such great rapidity. (16s 8d., 13s. 8d., 10s. 8d., 6s. 8d., 2s. 8d.,)
as to occasion the alarming and frequently recurring evils of glut and
panic. Now the following was the mode in which these serious defects
in the law of 1828 were taken advantage of by the aforesaid desperate
and greedy "rogues in grain," who are utterly prostrated by the new
system; they entered into a combination, for the purpose of raising
the apparent average price of corn, and forcing it up to the point at
which they could import vast quantities of foreign corn at little or
no duty. Thus the price of corn was rising in England--the people were
starving--and turned with execration against those into whose pockets
the high prices were supposed to go, viz., the poor farmers; whereas
those high prices really were all the while flowing silently but
rapidly into the pockets of the aforesaid "rogues in grain"--the
gamblers of the Corn Exchange!--Ministers effected their salutary
alterations, by statute 5 and 6 Vict. c. 14, in the following
manner:--They substituted for the former duties of 10s. 8d. per
quarter, when the price of corn was 70s. per quarter, and 1s. when the
price was 73s.; a duty of 4s. when the price of corn is 70s. per
quarter, and made the duty fall gradually, shilling by shilling, with
the rise of price, to 3s., 2s., and 1s. Thus are at one blow destroyed
all the inducements formerly existing for corn-dealers to "hold" their
foreign corn, in the hopes of forcing up the price of corn to
starvation-point, viz., the low duty, every inducement being now given
them to _sell_, and none to speculate. Another important provision for
preventing fraudulent combinations to raise the price of corn, was
that of greatly extending the averages, and placing them under
regulations of salutary stringency.

So far, then, from evincing a disposition to trifle with, or
surrender, the principle of the sliding-scale, the Government have,
with infinite pains and skill, applied themselves to effect such
improvements in it as will secure its permanency, and a better
appreciation of its value by the country at large, with every
additional year's experience of its admirable qualities. There is a
perfect identity of principle, both working to the same good end,
between the existing corn-law and the new tariff. Their combined
effect is to oppose every barrier that human wisdom and foresight can
devise, against dearth and famine in England: securin