A History of the English Corn Laws from 1660 to 1846 by Donald Grove Barnes (review)

334 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW accepta radical declinein standardsof living in an era of unprecedented productivecapacity. Generally speakingthe title is a misnomer:there is no adequate analysis of the depressionand few definite suggestions as to remedy. H. A. LOGAN A History of the English Corn Laws from 1660 to 1846. By DONALD GROVE BARNES. London: George Routledge. 1930. Pp. xv, 331. (15s.) PROFESSOR Barnes has a great subject, out-rivalling in quantity of material even the navigation laws. For in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,the writers and speakersof Britain were landed personsand clergy, who had an intimate material interest in corn law policy. It affectedtheir rentsandtheir tithes. The pamphletliterature is enormous:it breaks out, like measles,when a change of law is imminent . It was at its height in 1814-5. "Tracts" they are usually called, when bound into volumes: among them the most famous are C. Smith, Tracts on the corn laws and corn trade (second, and first full, edition, 1766); E. West, Essay on the applicationof capital to land (1815); D. Ricardo, On protectiontoagriculture(1822). Mr. Barnes'sbibliography is by years:if the year were indicatedon the margin and the author's namesitalicised, its perusalwould be easier. May we protest here, as always,againstthe intolerablepracticeof packingaway the hundreds of footnotesat the end of eachchapter, and referringto them by figures so small that they cannot be deciphered except under a strong light? The most important note is on page 46: TownshendPapers:Letter of December18th, 1751: These papers...are some miscellaneous letters, papersand memorandabelongingto different membersof the Townshendfamily. I was permitted to usethem through the courtesyof Mr. Kashnor of the Museum Book Store, London, in whosepossession they were in 1921. Mr. Barnes would do us a service, if he would send,say, to the Economic historyreview(England)a memorandum, enlargingthis noteand giving someinformation about the subsequenthistory of the papers. The author on the domesticsidesayspretty well all there is to say; and he is especiallystrong on the detail of corn law averages,bounties, debentures, the Rusby engrossingtrial, and so forth. He is less successfulwhen he summarisesthe opinions of modern writers on enclosures , in order to relate this problemto the corn laws; and he is not very discriminatingin his referencesto generalpolitical events. From a Canadianstandpoint,however,thereisa regrettableomission, all the more surprisingin that the author is an overseasstudent. He omits Canada and the Canada Corn Bill (Canada is not even indexed), as well as the whole long and important story of imperial preference. Canadaplayedan importantpart in the lastdaysof the cornlaws;and the repercussions of repealonCanadianeconomic welfarewereprofound. Happily, however,this hasbeenadequatelytreatedby Mr. D. L. Burn in "Canada andthe repealofthe cornlaws" (Cambridge historical journal, II (3), 1928,252-272); and by the late Adam Shortt in the Cambridge historyof the British Empire, volume VI, Canadaand Newfoundland (Cambridge, 1030), chapter 15. C. R. ...