25 Quotes by Joseph Hume

If the corn laws were altered, the British artisan might again be able to subsist by twelve hours' labour, a most desirable event.

I will undertake to prove that the present corn laws have been detrimental to the public, without being beneficial to the agricultural interest.

Land, in England, is valuable, because we have highly-paid artisans to consume the produce on the spot.

What farmers require is, that the prices should be moderate, and the markets steady and for this reason I did, in 1826, 1827, and 1828, take the course which I would now recommend to the House.

Now, what produces a want of demand A refusal to take from other countries the commodities which they produce.

There is abundant proof that the opening of our ports always tends to raise the price of foreign corn to the price in the English market, and not to sink the price of British corn to the price in the continental market.

I maintain that the existing corn laws are bad, because they have given a monopoly of food to the landed interest over every other class and over every other interest in the kingdom.

I am willing to admit that if the agriculturists are oppressed by peculiar burdens, they ought to be relieved from them, or be allowed a fair and just protection equivalent to all such peculiar burdens.

I see no reason for giving the capital employed in agriculture greater protection than the capital vested in other branches of trade, manufacture, or commerce.