text:  But that which here we insist on is that it never _was_ the object of our own corn-laws to increase the price of corn; secondly that the real object was a condition of equipoise which abstractedly is quite unconnected with either rise of price or fall of price; and thirdly that as a matter of fact our corn-laws have as often reacted to lower the price as directly they have operated to raise it; whilst eventually and traced through succeeding years equally the raising and the lowering have co-operated to that steady temperature (or nearest approximation to it allowed by nature) which is best suited to a _comprehensive_ system of interests