Sir Henry Brooke Parnell, 1776-1842.

Irish statesman, Bullionist and an architect of the 1815 Corn Laws.

Irish baronet and politician Henry Brooke Parnell (future Lord Congleton) was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (albeit leaving without taking a degree).  Parnell was elected to the Westminster Parliament in 1802 for his home, Queen's county in Ireland.  He lost his seat later that same year.  In 1806, he regained his Queen's county seat and would sit in the Westminster Parliament until 1832.  

An Irish patriot, Parnell opposed the Act of Union of 1801.  In an 1807 book, he denounced the Penal Laws.  In 1809-11,  Parnell tried launch an inquiry into the inequitable system of Irish "tithes".  He was one of the main forces behind the Catholic Emancipation Bill.  He was the grand-uncle of another patriotic Irish politician, Charles Stewart Parnell.  

Henry Parnell was particularly respected for his expertise in financial affairs -- perhaps unsurprisingly, given that his father had been the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the Irish government. Parnell famously took the bullionist position in his 1804 tract on the state of Irish currency, giving evidence that the excess of note issue in Ireland had been the principal cause of the c.10% discount by which Dublin notes circulated below par with English notes (compared to the 3% over-par in Belfast, which used metallic currency).  In 1806-7, Parnell served as Commissioner of  Treasury in Ireland.  He was a member of the famous Bullion Committee of 1810 and defended the Bullionist position of gradual resumption of payment in specie. 

In early 1813, Parnell was appointed head of the Select Committee on the Corn Laws to look again into corn prices (which had begun declining lately).  In their Report (delivered May, 1813), the Parnell committee recommended strengthening the Corn Laws and restricting imports, citing food security and envisaging expansion of grain cultivation in Ireland to feed British workers.  The report was published on May 11, 1813 (Hansard, v.25 p.lxv) , and its dramatically protectionist recommendations.  Unlike prior Corn Law schemes, Parnell did not promote a fixed schedule, but rather a flexible threshold based on the average price of the prior twenty years plus a seventh, when prohibitive duties would kick in.  The report was eloquently defended by Parnell in parliament (June 15 and June 21. 1813).  Parnell insisted it was not a subsidy scheme for the landed interests, but rather blamed the apparently high high corn prices on import-dependence as domestic producers cut back production, and predicted that a protective regime would, in the long run, result in low prices permanently (partly as a result of increasing returns to agriculture).  Although many landed lords which dominated parliament welcomed the recommendations,  it was unable to act upon them before the end of the parliamentary session.  The bill was revived by Parnell the next year (May 5, 1814), submitting new set of simpler resolutions, but, facing prickly opposition from George Rose, its finalization was postponed again for another year. 

Finally, in early February 1815, Frederick J. Robinson gave notice of his intention to go forward with it, and submit a Corn Law Bill.  The same month of February 1815 saw the rapid and near-simultaneous publication of the tracts of Edward West, Robert  Malthus, David Ricardo and Robert Torrens, each articulating independently a version of the Classical differential theory of rent.  Parnell's 1813 report and presentation had been their main touchstone, and their theory was constructed in an effort to disprove every one of Parnell's carefully-arrayed economic arguments, in the hope of persuading politicians to defeat the bill.  They failed.  The 1815 Corn Law bill resolutions submitted by Robinson (proposed Feb 17) were stronger than Parnell's, with absolute prohibition of importation of grain if the price of wheat fell below the fixed threshold of 80s per quarter.  The bill was submitted on March 1 (Mar 1) and went through much vigorous debate.  Parnell and Rose were relatively quiet this round, the main duel being between Robinson and the banker Alexander Baring.  Although Parnell's report was now two years old, and parliament was flooded with petitions against it, it passed the House of Commons on March 10 (Mar 10).  Kicked up to the House of Lords on Mar 13, where the Earl of Lauderdale defended the bill, the Corn Laws passed Lords two days later (Mar 15), and became law (55 George III, c.26).  The repeal of the Corn Laws would become the cause celebre of the Ricardian economists for the next thirty years.  After a vigorous campaign by the Anti-Corn Law League of Cobden and Bright, the Corn Laws were finally repealed in 1846.

Despite his instrumental role in originally erecting the Corn Laws back in 1815, Parnell was nonetheless well-regarded by many "Manchester School" liberals for his later repudiation of those laws (cf. 1832: p.70), and embrace of free trade, as well as a wide range of other laissez faire positions.  Henry Parnell's most memorable performance in this regard was On Financial Reform (1830).  Parnell advocated a repeal of most taxes on industry, the balancing of the government budget, the lifting of tariffs (incl. Corn Laws), and end to colonialism and an end to the privileges of state-sponsored monopolies (which included the Bank of England).   Parnell (1827, 1832) advocated the adoption of a free banking system in England.   He stopped short in regard to roads (1833), recommending that the turnpike trusts be placed under the Commissioner of Land Revenues.

One of the leading lights of the liberal Whig faction in the Westminster Parliament, Sir Henry Parnell initiated the vote of no confidence that led to the downfall of the conservative Tory Wellington government in 1830 and brought the Whigs back to power after a long absence.  In 1831, Parnell joined the Whig government of Earl Grey as Secretary of War, but resigned in 1832 over the Russo-Dutch War.   With the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 (one of his pet causes), Parnell lost his old seat, but he was promptly re-elected to Parliament, this time for the city of Dundee.  From 1835 to 1841, Parnell served in the lucrative post of Paymaster-General of the armed forces.  In 1841, he was elevated to a peerage -- Parnell was the first Baron Congleton.   After a long struggle with depression, Parnell committed suicide in 1842.

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