by the advocates of restrictions, were not attainable by the
measures they proposed; that it was really impossible for us to grow
at home a sufficiency for our own consumption, without keeping up
the price of corn considerably above the average of the rest of
Europe; and that, while this was the case, as we could never export
to any advantage, we should always be liable to the variations of
price, occasioned by the glut of a superabundant harvest; in short,
that it must be allowed that a free trade in corn would, in all
ordinary cases, not only secure a cheaper, but a more steady, supply
of grain.

In expressing this distinct opinion on the effects of a free trade
in corn, I certainly meant to refer to a trade really free--that
is, a trade by which a nation would be entitled to its share of the
produce of the commercial world, according to its means of
purchasing, whether that produce were plentiful or scanty. In this
sense I adhere strictly to the opinion I then gave; but, since that
period, an event has occurred which has shewn, in the clearest
manner, that it is entirely out of our power, even in time of peace,
to obtain a free trade in corn, or an approximation towards it,
whatever may be our wishes on the subject.

It has, perhaps, not been sufficiently attended to in general, when
the advantages of a free trade in corn have been discussed, that the
jealousies and fears of nations, respecting their means of
subsistence, will very rarely allow of a free egress of corn, when
it is in any degree scarce. Our own statutes, till the very last
year, prove these fears with regard to ourselves; and regulations of
the same tendency occasionally come in aid of popular clamour in
almost all countries of Europe. But the laws respecting the