Excerpt from A Reply to the Letter of the Hon. Langdon Cheves: His Former Opinions Contrasted With His Present Views Sir, I wish now to draw your attention to the operation of Sir Robert Peel's Slid ing Scale upon the grain-growing States. By this scale, the duty on grain, is arran ged according to the price, the one decreasing, as the other increases. Thus, for instance, the price ranges from 505. Per quarter, or a bushel to 73s. Per quar ter, or a bushel; and the duty from 365. 8d. Per quuarter, 01-8109 a bushel, to 1d. Per quarter, or 3 cents per bushel. When wheat is a bushel the duty is and as the price goes up to the famine point of the duty comes down a shilling or two. But as England produces a sufficient supply in good sea sons, and at all times a large quantity, very little grain is imported except at famine prices. The price is arranged by taking the weekly average of 150 towns, and is constantly fluctuating, from the Operations of the London speculators. In 1828, the price changed thirty-five times, and in the average from 1831 to 1838 the duty was never below 205. 8d. Per quarter, or 61 cents a bushel. By this constant fluctua tion produced by her laws, the United States is almost entirely shut out Of her mar ket, while she has made the most pressing offer to us to become the best customer for her manufacturers. A mercantile house in England would not dare give an order in this country for grain, because. Before it could be filled, the orders to the near ports in Europe would be answered, the market glutted, the price lowered, the duty raised, and the merchant ruined. Suppose wheat in this country is worth a bushel and in England and the duty down to 21 cents - and suppose a Lon don merchant, with a fair prospect, gives an order in this country for wheat, but be fore it arrives the market is filled from Europe, and the price falls 1 shilling per bush el, which it frequently does in a week - what is the consequence? Why, Sir, when the American wheat comes in, it is worth 55 shillings per quarter, or a bushel, and the duty has gone up to 42 cents, and the merchant instead of making a profit of' about 50 cents a bushel on an order for bushels amounting to he loses about 14 cents a bushel, and on the whole Do you wonder at the British merchant saying, he should deserve to be branded as a gambler and to have his credit destroyed, if he were to venture upon a like experiment again. Sir, of' England's seven hundred prohibitory duties, not one of them is rescinded by this new bill. By it she still retains all her prohibition and all her protection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.