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as I conceive, that his motion failed. It will monster, and can discover no possible means be better for the nation in the end were every of evading his attacks, and preserving the motion, there brought forward, for the re- nation from a revolution of violence, but by lief of agriculture and the producing classes, uniting the whole of its producing and into fail as signally as this. What will be for dustrious classes, agricultural, manufacturits advantage is, that the fact should be ing, and commercial, in one compact and made evident to its landowners, farmers, solid confederation, which shall be headed and working people, both agricultural and by the agricultural body; and to effect this manufacturing, that the House of Commons, is the object of the Association to which we returned as it is at present, does not repre- belong. sent them, but the non-producing, and shopkeeping or distributing classes only; and that so long as it is suffered to remain so constituted, it must be expected to act as their friend, in opposition to producers, and to continue a determined advocate for low prices and low wages, and every scheme tending to lessen the rewards of industry. Changes are required for putting agriculture and production into an efficient state, such as are little imagined even by the agricultural body itself; very easy to be accomplished if the producing classes can be brought acquainted with their real condition, but impossible to be accomplished otherwise.

With the failure of every motion made for the relief of the nation's distress, in the third session of the reformed Parliament, the period seems to be at length arrived when the public ought to be informed of the above design. I send this letter, therefore, to you for publication in the Magazine, if you think proper, accompanied by one recently addressed by me to the farmers of Cambridgeshire, through the secretary to the Agricultural Association for that county, explanatory of the views of our Metropolitan Association, and proposing, for reasons therein assigned, that Cambridgeshire should take the lead, on the present occasion, in organizing an association of the entire agricultural body throughout the kingdom. The petition since sent up from Cambridgeshire for presentation to the House of Commons, and inserted in the last number of the Magazine, is in strict conformity with such views. It shews the farmers of Cambridgeshire to be thoroughly acquainted with the cause of their grievances, not less than the extent; it states the appalling fact, which is unquestionably true, that, throughout that county at least, rent, tithes, and taxes, are now all paid out of a fast diminishing capital, instead of out of the profits which that capital and the farmers' industry ought to return; whilst it states the cause of their losses to be Peel's Bill; and, what is more, it speaks the language of men who not only know their just rights, but who seem determined to obtain them by some other means, if redress be refused them in the proper quarter; so as to fully justify the preference which I have shewn towards the farmers of

Of all the associations now formed, or forming, for political purposes, our's is the only one that can be fairly said to have any sound practical object in view. We seek to create a great national party, unconnected with any of the parties into which the nation is at present divided, but which shall take in all persons who are inclined to sink their party differences in one great national confederation for the general good. We wish to rescue the nation from the fangs of the money monster. We perceive agriculture, the leading branch of our domestic industry, reduced to a state of embarrassment and distress, such as never has been before known or heard of since England was a nation. We find the Government either unwilling or unable to render it the smallest assistance. We see the seeds of revolution scattered about in all directions, and contending factions every where at work to increase the rankness of the crop. We trace all these things to the machinations of the money Cambridgeshire.

But it is not merely agriculture that is threatened with destruction by the moneyowning classes having acquired a preponderance in the House of Commons; every branch of native industry is threatened in the same manner, together with the whole of our social institutions, every one of which is menaced by revolutionary innovations, subversive of the existence, and even of the institution of property.

Of what use then, when this is the case, as must be evident to the commonest apprehension, are such paltry associations for political purposes as those called Conservative, or those advocating Reform? Of what use, too, are Political, or Trades Unions, as certain other associations are called? Not one of these associations can be said to have any national object in view. There is not a member of any who, if applied to, could give an intelligible definition of what he means by either Conservatism or Reform. All are equally ignorant, and equally pushing on towards a convulsive revolution. The real aim of every Whig and Radical Association at present seems to be, to carry out principles of government to their extreme consequences; while they betray an utter indifference to the existing condition of the producing classes. The real aim of every Tory Association, most falsely termed Conservative, seems to be, to adopt the policy of Sir Robert Peel, a policy which is still more destructive, if possible, than that of the Whigs and Radicals; for it is levelled more insidiously at the profits of industry, and strikes, therefore, more dangerously at the root of all our institutions.

Sir R. Peel was the Chairman of that Committee of the House of Commons, which, in 1819, caused the famous Currency Act to be passed which goes by his name. The act in question has already doubled the value of monied property, with the amount of all debts and obligations, once, (reducing that of land in a corresponding proportion), and is now about to repeat the same process over again. It is the sole cause of that widespread ruin which is now absorbing the capital of farmers. When rents undergo

another reduction of 50 per cent., as they soon must, and even more than that, to enable the cultivation of land to be carried on, all debts and monied obligations will be doubled a second time. Hence the nation may be considered as on the eve of an actual convulsion; for assuredly when debts and obligations become doubled a second time, when our national debt of 800 millions becomes suddenly transformed into 1,600, there must be a convulsion:-such debts and obligations can no longer, by any conceivable possibility, be paid, and when that happens, the whole will be swept entirely away, together with all descriptions of property. The very consequences to be apprehended from that destructive legislative proceeding, and which have since actually occurred, were accurately predicted to Sir Robert Peel and to the House of Commons, during its concoction, by many men of knowledge and experience in business, by some practical men within the House, and by the Messrs. Attwood and Mr. Cobbett without. Sir Robert Peel even received the most distinct warning on the subject from his own father; but he wilfully rejected all warning. He, like most of the statesmen in our two Houses of Parliament, who see only one side of a question, saw but one side of this. He saw the evils of the system of paper money, and the necessity there was for returning to a metallic standard of value; but he saw none of the difficulties involved in the change, or, seeing them, he knew not how to encounter them, and so resolved to pass them by altogether. This last suppo sition is the one which is most agreeable to the course he pursued as Chairman of the Committee, in which character he seems to have taken especial care to examine no witnesses but such as were likely to facilitate his views in carrying the measure through Parliament, without reference to the question whether it was right or wrong. Of 24 witnesses examined by the Committee, not one can be mentioned who had not a strong private interest, in opposition to the nation, in recommending the measure to Parliament.

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They were all money-owners, bankers, billbrokers, bullionists, stock-jobbers, and loancontractors, Mr. Ricardo and Mr. Rothschild being included, with about half a dozen general merchants; all men expecting to make large fortunes by the proposed measure, and all men who probably have done So. Not a single person was examined belonging to the agricultural or producing classes, those large classes on whom the whole loss was to fall, and who, as Sir R. Peel and the Committee had full notice, were about to be despoiled of the greater part of their property.

I take the account of these witnesses, and their professions, from the last number of your Magazine, as copied from the Banker's Circular; and it shews at once the very unfair methods that were resorted to by this Committee for carrying the measure through Parliament. It is perfectly clear that the witnesses were all packed, that is, selected for the occasion; the object being to carry a certain measure through Parliament, not to ascertain its justice and propriety. I am far from asserting that a fraud was designed; a fraud however has been practised, either designedly or not; and when this can be proved, and we of the agricultural body, who suffer from the fraud, are charged with dishonest intentions for merely seeking to relieve ourselves from it, it is high time to examine into all the circumstances of the case, to see if fraud may not have been a concomitant of the original transaction.

It is ludicrous to observe the cool assurance with which Sir R. Peel, and the friends of the bill of 1819, are in the habit of telling us that it is too late now for the nation to retrace its steps, there being such a number of fresh contracts entered into since 1819, as form an insuperable obstacle in the way of retrogradation. According to these people, nothing remains for the agricultural body, but to submit with resignation to the fate preparing to overwhelm it. I shall not understate these difficulties, I admit them to be of the most complicated and terrific description, and that they must be all sur

mounted before the nation can be restored to tranquillity and peace. But who created these difficulties? Not we of the agricultural body, but Sir R. Peel and the moneyowners. Let those, then, who were the authors of the whole of the mischief, unravel the plot which they have so artfully contrived with full notice of all the consequences. Let him who tied the knot, untie it if he can; it is no business of ours-we, at all events, can cut it, if we please, and we shall be morally justified in so doing, if those classes who contrived it do not speedily untie it to our hands. I do not mean to say that it is necessary to cut it; I am of opinion, on the contrary, that no such necessity exists, but that it is both possible and easy to untie it. This however is not our business. Let Sir R. Peel go back to his bill-brokers, bullionists, and loan-contractors, and ask them to help him out of his difficulties, for they got him in ;-we will not; he is their friend, not ours ;-and in that light only, as the friend of the Stock Exchange, of money-owners and non-producers, ought we of the agricultural body to consider him. Twenty-four Cambridgeshire farmers are as good witnesses to ground a report of a Parliamentary Committee upon for relieving the nation, as were 24 such men as Messrs. Ricardo and Rothschild, to ground a report upon for grinding it to destruction. Twenty-four Cambridgeshire farmers too would, if I am not greatly mistaken, recommend at once the knot to be cut, without thinking it at all necessary to wait till the money-owning classes can find skill enough to untie it. It will certainly not be untied, or attempted to be untied, by either of the three political parties that are now struggling for ascendancy in the House of Commons. These three parties are all more or less influenced by the moneyowning classes; they are all, for that reason, advocates more or less of the cause of money, in opposition to land, though composed in great measure of land owners, and they are all at present, in a proportional degree, more or less hostile to every kind of native in

dustry.

The Whigs and Radicals openly or disturbance of the public peace, will be found more regularly developed in a pamphlet which I have been preparing to meet the occasion, addressed to the old, staunch, original Tories, inviting their co-operation, which is now ready for publication, and is only kept back till the Tories find out that their present leader, Sir R. Peel, is betraying their cause, with the cause of Conservatism in general. The course he is pursuing of conciliation and compromise, apparently to gain popular applause, is the best that could be devised for gradually delivering up the Monarchy and Aristocracy, with the whole of the nation's producing classes, bound hand and foot, into the possession of a mere money-owning, shop-keeping, and Revolutionary Democracy.

avow plans for lowering agricultural prices to a lower state than they are already, in the hope of lowering the wages of manufacturing labour, for our manufactures to be got up at a cheaper price for the foreign market. The Tories do not openly avow plans for lowering prices, and ruining agriculture, but their policy has that effect. Of all those who call themselves Conservatives, now trying to re-establish the government of Sir R. Peel, there is not a man who is not virtually endeavouring to destroy agriculture, and to root out every vestige of our ancient Constitution, with an animosity not less deadly, and even more dangerous than that of those, who openly avow a determination to establish a Republic, and to force down the price of wheat to 3s. a bushel. In point of fact, every body seems to be a Destructive. It would be difficult to select a single person, belonging to either of the three parties, whose views, when examined, would not be found of an eminently destructive tendency to those very institutions which this same person is in his heart most anxious to uphold. These parties seem to be all equally bent on pushing their respective party-views to the extreme consequences of revolutionary convulsion; and it is time accordingly for the nation, which appears to be scarcely thought of by either, to look to itself. It is so entangled with difficulties, and so deeply advanced on the road to revolution, that nothing, in my opinion, now can save it from a catastrophe subversive of its whole social system, but a general confederation of all its producing classes, in which the land-owners, as being its chief master producers, and high aristocracy of the Kingdom, must take the lead. Little doubt can be entertained but that, if the confederation could be accomplished, the plan would succeed. The scheme for effecting a peaceable and quiet transfer of the Government from the hands of the money-owning, commercial, and shop-keeping classes, to those of producers, without noise

Your readers meantime will readily comprehend that if the different agricultural associations only, such as are now scattered at random throughout the Kingdom, without aim or meaning, were to appoint ours in the metropolis to be their political representative, or organ, through which alone their united opinions were to be conveyed to the Legislature, this consolidation of the agricultural body must give to it a power that would be speedily felt within the walls of Parliament, as well as without, sufficient to put a stop to the revolutionary proceedings of public men, and afford time for the bringing forward of regular plans, such as are now in preparation, for effectually relieving the general distress, and accomplishing all those great changes in the Government, which circumstances and good men imperatively require.

To promote this truly conservative and national design throughout the Kingdom at large, I send you this letter for insertion in the Magazine, accompanied by the one lately addressed by me to the farmers of Cambridgeshire. If men of knowledge and energy do not speedily make their appearance, and a stop be not put to the pressure on agriculture, a storm may be expected to burst over our heads before long, which no

union of knowledge and energy afterwards less at present for want of co-operation, with will be able to controul.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

JAMES B. BERNARD,

Author of the "Theory of the Constitution." [There are a great many useful truths in this letter of Mr. Bernard's; but we shall be excused for saying, that we do not go the whole length of some of his views. We are not jealous of the shopkeepers of the agricultural towns; because we are convinced that most of them now see that

the worst speculation they ever made was, to ruin their best customer-the farmer; and before long, we trust to the shopkeepers' zealons co-operation with us to obtain relief. Still less do we complain of the conduct of the Conservatives generally in Parliament with respect to agriculture. On the contrary, they are among the most faithful friends of the farmer. It is that portion of them only (and this we believe to be Mr. Bernard's meaning) who adhere to Sir R. Peel, to his bill, and to the stockjobbers, of which complaint is made. Mr. Bernard seems dissatisfied with the present constitu

tion of the House of Commons: our notion, on the contrary, is, that if the farmers and other constituents would resolve on sending only such Members to Parliament as would vote for the real remedies for their distress, the present House of Commons is as well adapted as any other assembly to secure them prosperity.-ED.]

(Copy).

TO MR. GEORGE TWISS, SECRETARY TO THE
CAMBRIDGESHire AgricultURAL ASSO-
CIATION, CAMBRIDGE.

Sir,

some central means of communication with the Government, through which they may express their common grievances. I stated these views to you in conversation the other day, and my object now in writing to you on the subject is to invite the particular attention of the Cambridgeshire Association to them through you, and to ask if it is inclined to assist in carrying them into regular execution. I need not advert to the ruinous state of agriculture, and to the total indifference exhibited towards it by the Legislature, as reasons to shew the necessity for all persons connected with the land to unite in some more compact and systematic form than heretofore, in order to obtain substantial relief; for these things must be self-evident to every man of sense and reflection, and they require no observation from me. I shall only remark, that if the plan laid down by the general Association established in London were to be strictly followed up by Associations in the counties, relief must follow as a matter of course. There is no real difficulty in restoring agriculture to a healthy state, nor any in making the working people of the United Kingdom collectively satisfied and happy; but what is entirely ascribable to a want of political power in the nation's producing classes, sufficient to counteract and overthrow the schemes of its money-owners, shopkeepers,

London, May 18, 1835. and non-producers, who are in virtual pos

session of the Government, and who are seeking to reduce prices and wages to the lowest possible amount. A national union of all producers, headed by the agricultural body, is however alone capable of effecting the change. To organize, nevertheless, a party into existence, composed of such widely extended materials as the agricultural body, and afterwards to discipline it into proper form, is a matter of serious difficulty, such as will require a very systematic method of proceeding to surmount. Still it is practicable; if two or three county Asso

THE Agricultural and Industrial Association established in London, and publishing a Magazine once a fortnight, has been formed by a number of gentlemen of the first respectability, mostly members of Parliament, for the purpose of creating a national party of the producing classes, agricultural and manufacturing, to act independently of all other parties, Tory, Whig or Radical, now struggling for pre-eminence in the House of Commons; and for the purpose besides of furnishing the different County Agricultural Associations, scattered at random through- ciations only would begin the business, so as out the kingdom, and rendered entirely use

to set it fairly in motion, others would soon

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