I received yr. Letter fm. Vienna of the 12th, & according
to my calculation you will probably be at Paris about the time this Letter
reaches it,—I read with pleasure your favorable prognostics respecting
finance, & I am sure if my easy sailing could accomplish it, there would be
no fear but where all the Crew are not agreed & counteract one another, the
sails are often tightened even to breaking but we will talk over these matters
& it is a great comfort to have any one to whom one can talk to without
reserve—for tho’ you are interested in the subject—you
| 174 | THE CLOSING DAYS OF |
We are in the midst of violence & dissensions respecting
this Corn Bill which to me, from the first, has appeared the simplest question
that could be agitated—& all their reasons & calculations on both
sides seem to puzzle the question. I look upon experience as the surest guide
on all such questions, where at the first setting out much must depend on
Theory. Now for a number of the most flourishing yrs. we lived under the
operation of a Corn Bill & everything respecting importation &
exportation went on to the advantage of both growers & consumers—two
successive yrs. of bad Harvests all over Europe raised the price to such a sum,
tht. the Corn Bill remain’d on the shelf, & could not be brought into
action. The War & depreciation of the currency kept up the
prices—when the first ceased, & there was also a large produce the
prices fell. Does it not seem wise whilst the depreciation of the currency
continues to raise the price at which Corn may be imported—so as to bring
that trade again under the action of that same Corn Bill, which had succeeded
so well—by raising the price according to the circumstances of the times.
I have gone more at length into this than I had any idea of doing & it may
perhaps bore you but I must mention one circumstance more. The ports are now
shut from the average of the Corn having sunk below this original Corn Bill I
mention—which some of our great Political Œconomists asserted could
never happen, but then this is only for those [or three]
mths.—& a very small rise, will, at the expiration of that time, open
them again. The cry raised agst. high rents has very
| LADY MELBOURNE’S LIFE | 175 |
