lesson is this; viz. that the distress which they have both experienced for so many years past, could have continued so long, only because each party was set against the other, as if they had opposite interests. It seemed, it is true, to be the interest of the operative that the cheaper he had his corn, the more bread he could buy; while the farmer knew that a higher price than what prevailed was necessary for him; and, in the anger of the fight, they forgot that they might be battling only against shadows, or, worse still, against themselves.

The fable of the lion and the tiger fighting for the prey, whilst the fox took advantage of the engagement to secure the prize, has thus been completely realized. While the farmer and the working classes have been disputing about the price of corn, those gentlemen who trade in nothing but philosophy, and employ no labourer but the tax-gatherer, and who leave others to pay even him-these two-legged foxes have not only obtained the prey (or the profit) which these two great parties sought for themselves, but they have absolutely abetted the contest. But now people are wiser; for distress, though a severe, is a sure teacher. They find that the parties interested in the home trade, which are at least 22,000,000 out of 25,000,000 of the population, have one common interest; they now know, from bitter experience, that if the agriculturists, who are the great source of the home trade, are distressed for any length of time, that distress is sure to penetrate every corner and cranny of the home trade population. The operatives having learnt this, (and the farmers aware that they know it, and being no longer jealous of them) what can be more certain, than that a peaceful combination of the efforts of the two greatest parties in the state must, sooner or later, or rather very shortly, command measures in Parliament that will, at all hazards, restore them to prosperity and comfort. If one set of representatives refuse to adopt the right measures, another election will send a set that will.

It has been frequently thrown out as a taunt to the landed interest in the House of Commons, that they allowed the free traders to destroy our shipping interest, and our silk trade, because the land was not immediately affected. The shipowners and the silkmen have no wish to injure the land. Let it no longer be said that the agriculturists look only to themselves; but that that protection which they ask for themselves, they are willing to extend to others.

Here, then, is the true interest of the agriculturist at the present critical era: not to fancy himself as of a separate class, but to invite the hearty co-operation with him of all the distressed interests to obtain remedial

measures. We know that it is the feeling of some good friends to agriculture, that the landed interest should act alone. We say, no. The greatest and the proudest strength of the farmer is the conviction of the nation at large that his claims are just, and that he is just to the claims of others in return. Under that conviction let him invoke the nation to his assistance; and at this moment, if he will do it, the great body of the people are ready to join, and to demand such measures as shall relieve him.

But these measures, to be satisfactory, must be so effectual, that, in relieving one class, they shall relieve all.

We have taken it for granted that the agricultural interest is distressed, because Ministers do not acknowledge distress, through the King's mouth, until the very stones would cry out if they did not. And the King has said that the farmers and proprietors of land are distressed.

Distress! great God! what distress has not agriculture suffered? In twenty short years there have been more heart-rending scenes in the rural districts than in any 200 years since the days of the Conqueror. And all for what?-to satisfy the scheme of a coldblooded theory. Our bold peasantry, once their country's pride, pauperized, unemployed, demoralized, nay, all but revolutionized ! The farmer, the sturdy honest yeoman, the faithful British lion-the high spirit of this noble class levelled to the dust, brokenhearted, insolvent, breaking stones on the road! The landowner, the beloved, the indulgent, the generous, the hospitable country gentleman, driven an exile and in poverty from his home! We can scarce command our honest indignation whilst we write. To have the towering pride of a great and glorious nation thus laid low, and by no foreign enemy, but by the crafty hands, and the flinty hearts, and the craving ambition of a mere handful of her own degenerate sons-it is sickening, it is maddening to think of it.

But to return. What has Parliament done, the last two sessions, that any man has even the dream of a hope will effectually relieve agriculture?

The Poor Law Amendment Bill, it is evident, was not originally proposed for the relief of distress; because the Poor Law Commission was sent out two or three years before the distress was acknowledged by Parliament. Besides, it is not pretended that relief from this source is any thing but prospective where it is calculated to do good; and the North is as distressed as the South, without any great pressure of the poor laws.

Neither were the Tithe Bills of this and the last session proposed with a view to relieve distress. They were introduced into Parliament before distress was acknowledged;}

for even in the best of times tithes were considered an objectionable mode of raising an ecclesiastical revenue. But if great care be not taken in the mode of commuting tithes, instead of a benefit, it may work a vast injury to the farmer.

Then what are all the paltry things which the second budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to do for agriculture? Is there a man in his sound senses who imagines that the relief from this budget will be equal to adding 1s. a quarter to the present price of wheat? That present price (the grower's price we mean) is not above 41s. per quarter, the old Winchester measure. And we have no hesitation in saying, that, for the best interests of all the productive classes, under the debts and taxation they have to pay, and which were mainly incurred under the thriving prices of the war-we repeat, we have no hesitation in saying, that 44s. per quarter for wheat is 20s. too little. And, what is more, the country will not be right or satisfied, or any ministry (by whatever name it may call itself) safe for six months in their places, until wheat be somewhere about that price again, with wages and other things in proportion.

“But (we shall hear) wool and stock are high in price." True; but how came they so? Half the sheep farmers in the country lost their flocks by three or four successive years of rot in sheep; and the remainder of the sheep and stock farmers are deriving a profit only from the losses which have befallen their neighbours. Is this a cause for national rejoicing? We do not want a higher price from scarcity, but a higher price flowing from the increased capacity of the consumers to buy: those best consumers who are producers also.

In our next number, we propose to shew the progress of the distress in British agriculture, and the causes of it, from the peace to the present time; we shall also explain the extent of protection afforded by the corn laws. In the mean time, from what has gone before, we think it will be scarcely necessary to assure the farmer that we are bis friend, and that his interests are safe in our hands. He is part and parcel of the most important interest in the state; and we consider it, therefore, not only our duty, but the duty of every good citizen, to 'speed the plough" in that best of all ways, viz. by making it pay the man that drives it. It will not pay, it cannot pay, at the present prices, even if the county rate committee should reduce those rates one penny in the pound. Low prices (deceive ourselves as we may), compared with the debts and taxation we have to pay, are the real bottom of our distress. We mistake much if we cannot point out the way to raise prices, with advantage to all the productive classes, and

with no real injury to the drones of the hive.

It is not impossible that the drones (who have the activity of bees only in this) will be on the alert to meet us with a loud buzz about spoliation and public faith, the moment we venture to ask for profitable prices. We are used to this argument; it is after the manner of the gentry who occasionally frequent police offices, and whom we have before described. We have neither the wish nor the intention to spoliate; but we are sick of seeing one-sided justice only, and we are resolved, as far as in us lies, to see the debtor righted as well as the creditor. B.

THE FINANCIAL STATE OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE.
PART I.

THE historic scroll of nations is pregnant with this remarkable truth-Political revolutions have their origin in oppressive or unequal taxation! To illustrate the axiom by example would be supererogatory; every page of past events is a lesson, and the feelings of the present are a warning to future generations. It is singular, however, notwithstanding the obvious, and, indeed, indispensable utility of financial science, how little it is understood, or has been attended to, in England; particularly among a commercial people, naturally eager for gain, attached to liberty, and peculiarly tenacious of the rights of private property. apathy of bygone years is now being superseded by an earnest desire to examine minutely this highly important branch of our social system, on the right administration of which the happiness or misery of a nation is so intimately dependent; consequently it is necessary that the public mind should be possessed of a clear, and, as far as possible, brief elucidation of facts, in order that a sound judgment may be formed on a subject interesting in the strongest manner to the weal of every individual in a free state.

The

Within the brief space necessarily allotted to an article in a periodical, it would be impossible to demonstrate at one view the complicated nature of the British financial system. Happily, however, the subject is properly divisible into several distinct branches, each of which, although forming a separate topic for consideration, becomes in the aggre-gate a sectional whole.

In soliciting public attention to the following series, the writer would beg it to be understood that no political principles are mixed up with his financial statements; he is disposed to believe that whether Whig,

Tory, or Radical be in the ascendant, an anxiety for the benefit of their common country is the predominant motive for action; and the slightest knowledge of human nature would impel to the belief that the rich can never derive the full benefit and enjoyment of wealth, so long as the mass of human beings, who are the main stay of that wealth, are sinking and perishing from want. To expose, therefore, the evils of the existing system of finance, and to propound for consideration a better, because a juster system, is a benefit to the rich as well as to the poor: the immediate advantages being greater (while the permanent fruits are equal) to the former than to the latter; and as regards the governing and the governed, it must be equally obvious that, in the present pounds, shillings, and pence age, no party can long hope to hold the reins of authority but by the adoption and execution of sound financial principles.At present the greater portion of the revenue of Great Britain and Ireland is levied on the necessities of the working classes, and consequently on the industry of the country: therefore whenever remissions have been made in taxes which enter extensively into the consumption of the bulk of the people, the elasticity of our revenue is remarkably observant. In the present Number there is only space to shew our intention to lay before the public a complete view of the finances; and we have no more room than is sufficient to demonstrate the argument with which we set out, namely, that the burthen of taxation now unduly presses on the working classes, as thus exemplified.

1. MALT-LIQUOR.-If a labouring man consume one pot of beer (porter) daily, the taxation direct and indirect is-1st on the land whereon the barley is grown-2nd on the taxed labour which grows it-3rd on the malt-4th on the malster's charge for vexatious excise regulations-5th on the hops-6th on the license for a publicanon all these items, (3d. out of the 4d. is tax, therefore on 365 pots of stout, the working man pays a tax of £4. 11s. 3d. per

annum.

2. SUGAR. If a labouring man consume one lb. of sugar weekly, (which is allowed in some workhouses, and to the lowest household servant) the taxation direct and indirect thereon is

Direct on the Sugar 24d.

Indirect by W. Ind. Monopoly 14d.} 4d.

Therefore on 52 lbs. of sugar, the poor man pays a tax of 17s. 4d. per annum.

3. TEA OR COFFEE.—If a labouring man consume 4 oz. of tea per week, valued at 48. per lb. the direct taxation thereon is full 100 per cent, therefore 12 lbs. of tea per annum consumed, imposes on him a direct

tax, (on a wholesome stimulant) of £1. 45. per annum.

N. B. If coffee be used instead of tea, it will not make any perceptible difference in the amount of the taxation, because the indirect mulct by reason of the West India monopoly of the coffee market fully compensates for the difference of tax levied. This is independent of the license for permission to sell tea or coffee;

4. SOAP.-If a labouring man use one lb. of soap weekly, to wash himself and his clothes, he pays a direct tax thereon for making and license of 2d. per lb.; and an indirect one of a penny more, owing to harassing excise laws, and custom duties on tallow, oil, barilla, &c. as well as on the taxed labour preparing it: thus 3d. per week for one year is-13s. per annum.

5. HOUSING.-A labouring man it is to be supposed requires housing-for the poorest tenement or part of a tenement he is taxed in a variety of ways; and the income of the ground or land (house) lord must be made up from his portion of rent: thus, if he pay 18. per week or £2. 128. per year, he pays a proportion of the land-tax, of the tax on window glass, on timber, on bricks, and on various building articles, as also on the outlay of taxed labour in preparing the house; to say nothing of the window tax, or of the local rate or parish assessment which every house must pay-it is therefore a very low estimate to say that the tax for all these is not less than 12s. per annum.

6. BREAD AND MEAT.-The indirect effect of the corn laws, (the result of heavy taxation) in raising the price of bread and meat, it is difficult to make evident by figures, but to a person who studies the subject of finance, a conclusion may be readily arrived at in his own mind. There can be no doubt that the burthens which the landed interests endure, such as tithes, poor rates, county cess, land-tax, &c. &c. enhance the prime cost of the necessaries of life by at least 20 per cent, if not more, while the general taxation on the labour requisite to grow the food, still further augments the price thereof to the working classes. We will estimate the cost of bread and meat to a labouring man, or artizan, at 10d. per diem, or £15. 4s. 2d. per annum-the minimum of supply to a hard working man, who is thus directly and indirectly mulcted, by local and general taxation, at the very least £3. per annum. At the same time, if the Corn Laws were repealed, numbers of labourers would be thrown out of employ, and the general distress would be increased rather than diminished, by withdrawing protection from our agriculture.

7. CLOTHING.-The poorest clad man will require in the year in shoes, stockings, shirts, smock-frock, trowsers, hat and hand