Joseph Hume Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

Our people are unemployed and anxious to work for the food which foreigners can give us.

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.

Fortunately for England, all her imports are raw materials.

In Great Britain the price of food is at a higher level than in any other country, and consequently, the British artisan labours at a disadvantage in proportion to the higher rate of his food.

Scotland is a great country and many wonderful things have come out of this country, however England gets the glory.

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

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