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where he saw an immense Griffin sitting on his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.

PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE. (To be continued in our next.)

but it's as much as my life's worth to show them to any but the lady I marry. In fact, they only have an effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person they utterly fail to improve; they are, therefore, intended for a marriage present, and his majesty, the Lion, thus generously THE COLONIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. atoned to me for relinquishing the tenderness of his queen. One must confess that there was a great deal of delicacy in the gift. But you'll be sure not to mention it.' "A Magpie gossip, indeed!' quoth the old blab.

"Britannia needs no bulwarks, no towers along

the steep,

Her march is on the mountain wave, her home is on the deep."

THE small domestic and vast transmarine

"The Fox then wished the Magpie good Empire of Britain may be thus seen. night, and retired to a hole to sleep off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the beautiful young Cat.

"The next morning, heaven knows how, it was all over the place, that Reynard the Fox had been banished from the court for England the favour shown him by her majesty, and Wales that the Lion had bribed his departure with Scotland three hairs that would make any lady, whom Ireland the Fox married, young and beautiful for Bengal

ever.

"The Cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to see so interesting a stranger, possessed of 'qualifications' which, in the language of the day, 'would render any animal happy!' She was not long without obtaining her wish. As she was taking a walk in the wood the Fox contrived to encounter her. You may be sure that he made her his best bow; and he flattered the poor maid with so courtly an air that she saw nothing surprising in the love of the Lioness.

"Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the Dog.

U. Kingd.

Madras
Bombay
Ceylon
Penang, &c.
New Holland
V.Dieman's Land
Mauritius
Cape Good Hope
Western Africa
Canada (Lower)
Canada (Upper)
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Cape Breton
P. Edward's Isle
Newfoundland
Hudson Bay Set.
Jamaica
Trinidad
Barbadoes
Grenada
Antigua
Montserrat
Dominica
St. Vincent's
Nevis
St. Kitt's
St. Lucia
Tobago
Tortola, &c.
Bahamas
Bermudas

50,520
7,409

Divisions.

Area in
Square Miles.

British Subjects.

13,086,675

803,000

29,605
26,798

2,365,930

7,839,469

306,012

72,000,000

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Demerara, &c.
Berbice

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"Ah, the poor creature! said Nymphalin; it is easy to guess that he need not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress. "Wait till the end, answered Fayzenheim. When the Dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for lost. In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone, he only succeeded in bruising his paws, and at length he was forced to lie down, with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted. 'However,' said he, after he had taken breath, 'it won't do to be starved here, without doing my best to escape; and if I can't get out one way, let me see if there is not a hole at the other end; thus saying, his courage, which stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on the same straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At Honduras first the path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his, sides very much against the rough stones that projected from the earth. But by degrees the way became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself, till he arrived in a large cavern,

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COMMERCE.

What then has raised England, a small island
in the Atlantic to the lofty station she now
holds? The industry, skill and moral in- ARTICLE-SUGAR.-To extend the com.
tegrity of her sons scattered over the earth,
forming Colonies in every clime and on
every shore from the Arctic to the Ant-
arctic Circle, from the Equator to the Poles,
embracing an area of upwards of two million
and a half square miles, (or 1,620,000,000
acres) with a population of more than one
hundred million mouths, yielding an annual
revenue of nearly £30,000,000 sterling!

When we contemplate this wondrous Empire on which the solar orb never sets, truly may be it said that the transmarine dominions of this insular Kingdom offer to the agriculturist measureless fields for pasture and tillage; to the manufacturer an incalculable extension of the home market for the disposal of his wares;-to the merchant and mariner, vast marts for profitable traffic in every product with which nature has bounteously enriched the earth;-to the capitalist an almost interminable site for the profitable investment of his funds; and to the industrious, skilful, and intelligent emigrant, an area of upwards of two million square miles, where every species of mental ingenuity and manual labour may be developed and nurtured into action, with advantage to the whole family of man. England has no need to manufacture beetroot sugar (as France)-her West and East India possessions yield an inexhaustible profusion of the cane;-grain (whether wheat, barley, oats, maize or rice) every where abounds;-her Asiatic, American, Australasian and African possessions contain boundless supplies of timber, corn, coal, iron, copper, gold, hemp, wax, tar, tallow, &c. ;the finest wools are grown in her South Asian regions;-cotton, opium, silk, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, saltpetre, spices, spirits, wines and fruits, are procurable of every variety and to any extent in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South of the Empire;-on the icy coast of Labrador as well as at the opposite pole, her adventurous hunters and fishers pursue their gigantic game almost within sight of their protecting flag ;-and on every soil and under every habitable clime, Britons desirous of change, or who cannot find occupation at home, may be found implanting or extending the language, laws and liberties of their

Father land.

To the most remote as well as to the nearest sections of the vast Empire thus depicted, it is our intention to direct public attention, being convinced that the Colonies of England were raised up for her by Providence, for the purpose of promoting and extending civilization and Christianity to the remotest ends of the earth.

Δ.

merce of England, especially in regard to such articles as she cannot produce herself is one of the main objects of this work. There is no article deserving of more attention either in a commercial, financial or social point of view than sugar, which while it yields upwards of £4,000,000. annually in revenue to the state, gives employment to a great amount of shipping, and a large extent of capital. Of its advantages in a social point of view it may be observed that not only do the inhabitants of every part of the globe delight in sugar, when obtainable, but all animated beings; the beasts of the field-the fowls of the air, insects, reptiles, and even fish have an exquisite enjoyment in the consumption of sweets, and a distaste to the contrary; in fact sugar is the alimentary ingredient of every vegetable substance encumbered with greater or less proportion of bulky innutricious matter. A small quantity of sugar will sustain life, and enable the animal frame to undergo corporeal and mental fatigue better than any other substance.

During crop time in the West Indies the negroes, although then hard worked, become fat, healthy, and cheerful, and the horses, mules, cattle, &c. on the estate partaking of the refuse of the sugar-house, renew their plumpness and strength. In Cochin-China, not only are the horses, buffaloes, elephants, &c. all fattened with sugar, but the body guard of the King are allowed a sum of money daily with which they must buy sugar-canes, and eat a certain quantity thereof in order to preserve their good looks and embonpoint; there are about 500 of these household troops, and their handsome appearance does honour to their food and to their royal master. Indeed, in Cochin-China, rice and sugar is the ordinary breakfast of people of all ages and stations; and the people not only preserve all their fruits in sugar, but even the greater part of their leguminous vegetables, gourds, cucumbers, radishes, artichokes, the grain of the lotus, and the thick fleshy leaves of the aloe. Mutton killed in Leadenhall market, preserved in a cask of sugar, has been eaten in India after a six month's voyage, as fresh as the day it was placed on the shambles. In the curing of meat a portion of sugar is mixed with salt and saltpetre. The Kandyans of Ceylon preserve their venison in earthen pots of honey, and after being thus kept two or three years its flavour would delight the daintiest palate.

In tropical climes the fresh juice of the cane is the most efficient remedy for various diseases, while its healing virtues are felt when applied to ulcers and sores. Sir John Pringle says, the plague was never known

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Supply. Rev.

West India Colonies, Sugar cut. 4,000,000 £
Tax at 208. (now 248.) per cwt.
Mauritius...

4,000,000

600,000

600,000

.5,000,000

5,000,000 4,800,000

Tax at 208, (now 248.)..
East India possessions...
Tax 20s. (now 328.)....
China, Siam, Brazil, Cuba, &c... 2,400,000
Tax at 46s. (now 63s.)............................

Totals....cwt. 12,000,000 14,400,000

to visit any country where sugar composes the Chancellor of the Exchequer would a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. be extended from £4,000,000 sterling to Drs. Rush, Cullen, and other eminent phy- £14,000,000 sterling, as thus shewn :sicians, are of opinion that the frequency of malignant fevers of all kinds is lessened by the use of sugar; in disorders of the breast it forms an excellent demulcient, as also in weaknesses and acrid defluxions in other parts of the body. The celebrated Dr. Franklin found great relief from the sickening pain of the stone, by drinking half-apint of syrup of coarse brown sugar before bed time, which he declared gave as much, if not more relief, than a dose of opium. That dreadful malady, once so prevalent on shipboard, scurvey-has been completely and instantaneously stopped, by putting the afflicted on a sugar diet. The diseases arising from worms, to which children are subject, are prevented by the use of sugar, the love of which seems implanted by nature in them; as to the unfounded assertion of its injuring the teeth, let those who make it visit the sugar plantations and look at the negroes and their children, whose teeth are daily employed in the mastication of sugar, and they will be convinced of the absurdity of the statement. The most savage and vicious horses have been tamed with sugar, and the most ferocious animals domesticated by means of feeding them with an article which our baneful fiscal restrictions and erroneous commercial policy have checked the use of in England where millions pine, sicken, and perish for want of nutriment.

The impolicy of the past system has been a heavy tax on importation, and the granting to the West India Colonies (to the exclusion of the East India Colonies) a virtual monopoly of the home market; the result has been a diminished consumption, and the average annual use of sugar per head throughout the United Kingdom, of not more than 5 oz. per week or 18 lbs. a year to each individual, which is an allowance barely adequate for a new born infant. Now when we consider that the workhouse allowance is from 10 to 12 oz. a week, and that the meanest household servant has 16oz. a week or 52 lbs. a year; we see how greatly our commerce would be benefitted by a change in the present erroneous system:i. e. by diminishing the taxation on importation and extending the market of supply thus the consumption of sugar would be increased from less than 4,000,000 cwts. to 12,000,000 cwts. (giving 16 oz. a week for each individual). While the revenue of

Price. Tax.

By means of the change proposed maritime commerce would be benefitted by the employment of half a million tons of additional shipping; Colonial trade would be benefitted, and domestic manufactures find a market among those whose inability to take our goods arises not from disinclination but from our mischievous policy of refusing to take from others (and our own fellow subjects) what they are ready to give in exchange for the produce of our looms, smithies and potteries. The advantage to every interest of adopting the altered system, or rather the removal of (comparatively) recent restrictions, and an absurd and baneful monopoly will be more fully developed on another occasion,-for the present we have given our readers materials for thinking.

Mercator.

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS. IN 1749, the population of England and Wales was within a fraction of six millions and a half; the poor rate was £689,971. In 1832, the population was nearly fourteen millions, the poor rate £8,622,920. Thus, while the population had little more than doubled, the poor rate had much more than a tenfold ratio of increase. Let us take a nearer period, and illustrate the sad change by a different method. In 1812, the amount of taxation was nearly 65 millions-the amount in quarters of wheat at the then average of 1258. 5d., was 10,351,560 quarters.-In 1832, the taxation was about 40 millions-or, at the present average of 54s., about 14,814,000 quarters of wheat. 1812, the poor rate for England and Wales, was £6,656,105.-or, at the average price of 1258. 5d. 1,061,438 quarters of wheat. In 1832, the poor rate was £8,622,920.

In

the amount, at 54s. per quarter, being 5,196,574 quarters of wheat. Thus, in 1812, 60 million of taxes could be paid with about ten million quarters of wheat to pay one

1792 to 1796, 558. 1d. 15s. per Cwt., i.e. 274 pr. Ct. third less taxes!-So, also, with the poor

1797. 1798, 678. 3d.

17s. 6d.

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38
584..

80..

23s. 3jd. 278.

.......... 110

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rate, in 1812, little more than a million quarters of wheat would pay all the poor rates of England and Wales, while in 1832, with an increase in the poor rates of one fourth, it would take upwards of three million

(quarters or more than one half) to defray them. In other words, the increased burden of the poor rate, and the increased burden of taxation since 1812, amounts to nearly 18 millions sterling,-which, with the increased local expenditure, amounts to 20 millions, being the direct burden which this country has to bear, over and above the burden of 1812. When we remember how much of this must fall upon the agricultural classes, can we wonder at the great depreciation of that most noble but declining interest? One example of the present state of things has met our eye while penning these remarks. An intelligent writer mentions that "The poor rate for the county of Norfolk for 1832, was £352,132., which is more than half the sum paid by England and Wales 84 years since, and Norfolk now contains but 390,000 souls, and is but the 27th part of England aud Wales!! The city of Norwich contains but 60,000 people, and £60,000. sterling are annually disbursed to the poor within its walls!!"-While such things are, well may the poor laws be complained of. But to our illustration :-In 1812, there were 6,675 commitments for crime-there were twenty thousand in 1832! -The results, then of these facts are-that while population (from 1749 to 1832) has been barely doubled, pauperism has had a twelvefold increase,-that the burden of pauperism has trebled within the last twenty years, that taxation has been nominally reduced, but virtually increased, to the amount of 4,456,254 quarters of wheat in value, at the present low prices, to £12,031,835. sterling, that the increased burden of pauperism, valued in wheat, is 3,132,236 quar ters, or in coin £5,757,037. sterling-and that within the short space of twenty years, crime has had more than a threefold in

crease.

EFFECT OF TAXATION IN ENHANCING THE PRICE OF FOOD.
LONDON YEARLY AVERAGE PRICES OF GRAIN IN 1792, 1797, 1811, 1830,

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Hand-loom Weavers.-In our next we expect to be able to give some of the EviPetitions of the Hand-loom Weavers for dence of the Committee which sat upon the local boards of trade. At present it is not entirely printed. We purport from time to time to extract such parts of the Evidence as are best worthy of attention. It is understood to be throughout remarkable for

In Scotland there are 13,000,000 acres its clearness and intelligence, and no part

of land-uncultivated.

England-waste

Ireland-ditto

more so, than that given by the operative
10,000,000 weavers.
3,500,000
Reports of Committees.-Pains will be
13,500,000 taken in ensuing Numbers, to furnish ample
extracts from the Evidence before Com-
mittees of the two Houses of Parliament-
which are of the most general interest to
the public. Among the most important of
£8,733,400 late, perhaps are those which sat on the
1,458,427 distress of Agriculture and Trade in the
Session of 1833; on the petitions of the
£10,191,827 hand-loom weavers in 1834, and on bank-
ing in 1832.

Banker's Notes-and Joint Stock Bank's Notes in Circulation, from December 1833 to March 1834.

Private Banks
Joint Stock Banks

Silk and Glove Trades.-Our attention will be specially directed to these important branches of domestic industry, and we invite communications on the subject from those more immediately interested therein.

An article on Shipping in our next.

PRINTED BY W. NICOL, 51, PALL MALL.

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AN ASSOCIATION has been formed, seen. But it is a prevailing opinion having purely for its object, Relief that it is too late to go back.

from that long continued Distress which has affected (with scarcely any exception) every species of labour, and of capital vested in real property.

In a great commercial country, temporary alternations of prosperity and adversity are to be expected; but an alternation of twenty years' adversity is such an anomaly in the history of commerce, that it is worth while not only to ascertain, but to proclaim, to all whom it mav concern, the causes of it. Without a knowledge of the causes, it is vain to think of removing the effects.

It is too late to go the whole way back; but it is not too late to go a part of the way back; and now, perhaps, a quarter of the way, or less, might do. If, however, we should go this quarter of the way back ;-although we shall relieve about 20,000,000 of the population, -we shall offend some grand principle of political economy. And the country, some appear to think, ought to be the second consideration only in a case like this.

Others, without any disrespect to the principles of political economy when they are prudently adapted to Nothing could have proved the existing circumstances, venture to futility of such an attempt, more differ from this opinion; and to than the reduction after reduction think, when the principles of poliof taxation since the peace, appa- tical economy, and the interests of rently without avail. The industry the people clash-that the people of this country is in a worse condi- should have the preference; and that, tion than in 1814, when we were in such a case, such principles are nominally paying £40,000,000 more much more profitable in the breach taxation than at present. It is be- than in the observance. The procause the taxation of the war was prietors of the Agricultural Magaonly nominal in its amount, while zine are of the latter opinion. now it is real. One bushel of wheat, one yard of cloth, and one day's labour would have paid somewhere about double the taxation, debts and engagements, that they will pay now. The one was a paper taxa. tion, the other is a gold one. The one was a high amount out of high means, the other is a high amount out of low means.

But it is not the altered currency alone of which there is cause to complain. The following, among other causes, will be found to have aggravated the distress: the reciprocity system, so called; unequal taxation; withholding the necessary protection from vested capital, and labour; incautious and unseasonable regulations in commercial matThis state of things has been ters. These subjects, therefore, will brought about, mainly, by the likewise command and receive must changes in the currency. Scarcely anxious consideration. any one denies the evils that have

It was said by a witness before

been occasioned by these changes; the Agricultural Committee of 1833, for no one denies that the prices of things depend on the quantity of currency circulating in the country: and it is agreed that these violent changes would not have been made if their consequences had been fore

alluding to the ruin which was going on: that "half the forest had been felled, and that we must patiently await the felling of the other half." Let those who are content with this, submit to it. Let others who are

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