Year. Quarters imported. Average price. _s._ _d._ 1830, 1,701,889, 64 3 1831, 1,491,631, 66 4 1832, 325,435, 58 8 1833, 82,346, 52 11 1834, 64,653, 46 2 1835, 28,483, 39 4 1836, 24,826, 48 6 It will thus be seen that it was a succession of good harvests which brought down the prices gradually from 66s. 4d. in 1831, to 39s. 4d. in 1835. Last year we had one good harvest following a remarkably bad one, and yet Mr Gladstone would attempt to persuade us that the present reduction of price arises solely from excessive plenty, as in 1835! If it were so, where would be the room for that importation, which, during the first eight months of the bygone year, has more than doubled that of 1848, for the corresponding period? For his own sake, we are sorry to find Mr Gladstone resorting to fallacies so exceedingly flimsy and transparent. Surely he must be aware that the extreme depreciation of price, which is the cause of agricultural distress, could not by any possibility be the result of the late harvest--for this unanswerable reason, that, in the earlier parts of the year, before the corn had shot in the fields, prices were rapidly dwindling. The deficient crop of 1848 could not have put prices down--we presume that even Mr Gladstone will not maintain _that_--and yet, for the week ending April 7, 1849 we find the averages of England as follows:-- AVERAGE PRICES OF GRAIN FOR WEEK ENDING APRIL 7, 1849. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Rye. Beans. Pease 44s. 5d. 28s. 9d. 16s. 9d. 26s. 5d. 28s. 1d. 29s. 6d. So then, after a poor crop in 1848, we find prices lower than they were in 1834, after a series of fine crops, and we are calmly asked to adopt the conclusion that a single good crop in 1849 has done all the mischief! Mr Gladstone might just as well tell us that our present prices are affected by the crop of 1850, which is now lying in embryo in the seed. But we have not yet done with Mr Gladstone, who goes on to assert that low prices have nothing to do with importations from abroad. This position he tries to fortify by rather an ingenious process, as will be seen from the following extract from his speech:--