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ing over any statement or argument which carried with it an impression that the productive interests or working classes were better off than they really are; for nothing can more operate against their obtaining that relief which we are confident they require. We thought it the openest, honestest, and the best way, to take the bull by the horns, which we think we have done. And we feel that we may hold out to our readers a hope that the next article will put a termination to T's existence.

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'Cambridge, July 6th, 1835. "The members of the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Farmers' Association, most heartily approving of the political sentiments of Mr. Bernard, as they are explained in the following letter addressed by him to the Editor of the Agricultural and Industrial Magazine, conceive that they cannot render a greater service to their country, at the present moment, than by giving to that letter every possible publicity, whilst so many persons are assembled from different parts of the kingdom to witness the festivities of the Commencement at Cambridge. They have, therefore, ordered 2,000 copies to be printed for general circulation throughout the county; and have agreed that the same deputation from their body which escorted the Duke of Wellington into Cambridge shall wait upon his Grace again for the express purpose of presenting one to him, and asking for his powerful assistance in support of Mr. Bernard, and the other gentlemen who are associated with him, in an endeavour to preserve agriculture and the industrious classes from ruin."

Our agricultural readers may not all be aware of what the Commencement at Cambridge is. It is of no consequence to enter into its origin. It will be sufficient to say, that it is an annual scene of festivity there, where the first nobility and gentry of the land assemble; certainly a most opportune occasion for the purpose of disseminating opinions of any kind extensively. This meeting was fuller than usual, on account of its being the first since the election of the Marquis Camden as the Chancellor of the University. The importance of the meeting may be judged of by the names, which we copy from a newspaper, of some of the parties who attended:

H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland, H. R.H. Prince George of Cambridge, His Excellency Prince Pozzo di Borgo, His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Noble Marquis Camden (Chancellor of the University), Duke of Northumberland (High Steward).

Dukes-Grafton, Wellington.

Marquises - Londonderry, Bute, Downshire, Douro, Exeter, Northampton.

Earls-Hardwicke, Burlington, Brownlow, Amherst, Devon, Radnor, Brecknock, Aberdeen, De Grey, De la Warr, Kerry, Bathurst, Compton.

Viscounts Alford, Melgund, Duncan, Castlereagh, Sidney, Mahon, Holmesdale, Cantalupe, Canterbury.

Bishops London, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Llandaff, Carlisle, Lincoln, and Gloucester.

Lords-Fitzmaurice, Barrington, Teignmouth, Bayning, Lyndhurst, J. Stuart, C. Hamilton, C. Hervey, Abinger, De Lisle, A. Fitzclarence, Henniker, Farnborough, Elenho, Haddo, Lyttleton, Nezmi Bey, Achmet Effendi.

Duchess-Northumberland.

Ladies-Downshire, Amherst, Hardwicke, De la Warr, Holmesdale, Mahon, De Lisle, Kerrison, Farnborough, M. Hill, G. Hill, Graham, Legge, S. Amherst, C. Neville Grenville, Hardinge, Lyttleton, G. Pratt, A. Cust, Wodehouse, Harwood.

Honourables-Wellesley, Hood, C. Linch,

P. Linch, Cust, Maj. Henniker, Law, Towns- mission, will direct our Secretary to read
ends, Lyttleton, Fitzroy, Knox, Gordon, our Address.'
Liddell, W. Henniker, Bouverie, Neville
Grenville, Ellis, Herbert, Lovett, H. Sutton,
West, Elliott.

Sirs-Maj.-Gen. E. Kerrison, H. Hardinge, E. Sugden, C. Wetherell, J. Graham, P. Malcolm, C. Clarke, R. Graham, G. Watson, J. Wyatville, S. Glynne, R. Inglis, F. Mortlock.

Deans of Ely, Lincoln, and Peterborough. Chief-Justice Tindal, Baron Parke, Justice Patteson. Besides hundreds of commoners and many Members of Parliament.

The following is the account of the proceedings which took place in reference to Mr. Bernard's letter, and of the deputation which waited on the Duke of Wellington, extracted from the Cambridge Chronicle :

" ADDRESS TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. "An anxiety having been expressed by a considerable number of the farmers of this county to present an address to the Duke of Wellington, a deputation waited upon him for the purpose on Wednesday. The procession, which left the Red Lion inn about eleven o'clock, had a very imposing appearance, it extending the whole length of the Great Court at Trinity College, at the lodge of which they were received by his Grace.

"Mr. Thurnall, the President of the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Farmers' Association, addressed the Duke to the following effect: My Lord Duke,-The Farmers of Cambridgeshire have felt it impossible to allow your Grace to enter their county town, without expressing the gratification they feel at seeing your Grace, for that purpose it is that we now wait upon you. In the address which has been prepared to present to your Grace upon this occasion, we have been unable to avoid alluding to our dis. tressed condition as farmers; it is indeed deplorable; but we are assured that in your Grace we have a friend who can feel for our situation, and would willingly relieve it. I will not detain your Grace with any further observations, but, with your Grace's per

"The Address was then read by the Secretary (Mr. Twiss), of which the following is a copy :

'To his Grace the Duke of Wellington.

'We, a deputation from the Members of the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Farmers' Association, and others who had the gratification of escorting your Grace into Cambridge on Monday, now seek the permission to offer to your Grace our hearty congratulations on your Grace's arrival in this town -to say how proud we feel in seeing your Grace here-and to express our most sincere hope that your Grace's life may be prolonged many years to excite the admiration and gratitude of every Englishman.

'Whilst we thus avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded us of paying our unanimous respects to your Grace, we hope that we may be permitted to allude for a moment to our condition as Farmers: the whole of our rent, tithes, and taxes are now paid out of our fast diminishing capitals, instead of out of the profits which such capitals and our own industry ought to return: the Government takes no notice of our petitions, and unless the Conservative Aristocracy of the kingdom, of which we look upon your Grace as the leader, espouse our cause, we shall be irretrievably ruined.

'With a view to explain our situation, we humbly take the liberty to present to your Grace a copy of a letter from Mr. Bernard, of King's College, addressed to the Editor of the Agricultural Magazine, which appears to us of the utmost importance: that letter, we firmly believe, clearly shows the true cause of the distress in which we are involved.

'We do not now venture to ask your Grace's opinion of that letter: we wish you to enjoy the festivities of the University undisturbed so long as you remain amongst us, but we do entertain a hope that, when your Grace shall have returned to London, Mr. Bernard's letter will have the honour of your Grace's perusal, and that we may have

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"To which, as nearly as we could catch, on the occasion. his Grace replied:

"It being understood that Mr. Bernard was in Cambridge, it was resolved to invite him to meet a party of the deputation to dine at the Red Lion. That gentleman ac cepted the invitation, and about 70 assembled to meet him; Mr. Thurnall in the chair. The afternoon passed off altogether in the most satisfactory manner."

This letter of Mr. Bernard's to the Editor of this Magazine, alluded to in the address

'Gentlemen-When on my entrance into the town, I was so unexpectedly met by a numerous body of the farmers and yeomanry of the county, I was much gratified indeed by the display of friendly disposition towards myself, but this additional manifestation of your good wishes does indeed surprise and gratify me. With regard to the distress existing among those concerned in agriculture, and prevalent indeed amongst others to the Duke, it will be recollected, traced of similar professions in his Majesty's dominions, I sincerely deplore it. The interest of agriculture, however, is that upon which not the happiness of this country, but that of every other mainly depends; and you may rely, that if Mr. Bernard's letter alluded to in your address, and to which I will pay every attention, suggests anything, or anything occurs to myself which I think will promote its prosperity, be assured it will be undertaken to the utmost of my ability, Gentlemen, I again repeat to you the sense I have of the cordial good feeling manifested towards me by your escorting me into Cambridge, and not the less so for the address which you have now presented to me, and for which I offer you my very sincere acknowledgments.'

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"The deputation consisted of Mr. Wm.
Thurnall, Messrs. H. and C. Giblin, P. Grain,
J. Teverson, R. Rodwell, G. H. Harris, P.
Howard, R. Emsom, Lawrence (Ely),
Messrs. King,
King, (Camois Hall), G.
Bullen, W. Beaumont, J. Witt, Messrs. Col-
lyer, S. Jonas, J. Fyson, Messrs. Webb, H.
Claydon, E. Gardner, Messrs. Kent, Messrs.
Maris, T. Newman, W. S. Wiles, Messrs.
Holben, T. Banyard, W. Hurrell, J. and T.
Lyles, E. Frost, W. Linton, W. Hall, W.
Whitechurch, &c. &c. &c., altogether about

the present and long-continued distress of the country, and of the farmers in particular, to Mr. Peel's currency bill of 1819. It shewed how that bill was passed, as it were, in the dark; how little sensible the country was of the effects it was about to produce; how dogged our rulers had been in resisting all enquiry into its effects; and how impossible it was to relieve the distress without going to the cause of it, which was this currency bill. Mr. Bernard is perfectly right here: farmers may whimper and whine as long as they please about Guernsey, Jersey, and Irish importations-about the malt tax, and so forth: but if they really expect to be relieved; if they really wish even to appear to desire to be emancipated from their difficulties, they must follow the example of these honest Cambridgeshire farmers; they must be up and doing; this is no time for sluggishness and apathy. Let every county follow the example of Cambridgeshire. We all now know the bottom of our distress, that is, the cause of it; and with a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether, let us shew our determination to have that cause removed, or, at least, enquired into.

LETTER OF AN OPERATIVE.

TO THE EDITOR.

medicinable eye

Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil

then frights-FIRES-and horrors
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture.

Sir, I have devoted three letters, principally to unfold and illustrate the important fact, that the agricultural and manufactur- If we view the conduct and measures ing interests exist in proportions incompa- adopted and pursued by the leading charactible with the well being of society. It is ters in the two great interests of this counnow several years since I arrived at this con- try, we shall find a striking parallelism of clusion. It was from our overgrown manu- design, but a widely different result; for factures, as indicated by stagnations in trade, these respective interests have something glutted markets, &c. which led me to infer contrary and antagonising in their immeconversely that agriculture must be in a diate economy, and of course the parties state of decay, or at least greatly wanting in subject to mutual jealousies, and even recrirelative improvement. The first document, minations; few seeing the general law which however, which I happened to see, bearing binds altogether; and fewer still, perhaps, out the above conclusion, was a letter which being willing to submit to that law, when it appeared in the Leeds Mercury of Jan. 29, acts as a barrier to their own schemes of 1831, signed "A Farmer;" stating "that it aggrandizement. Indeed the artifical elevawas universally acknowledged that agricul- tion of prices in England have placed every ture was on the decline." Evidence to this class in a novel situation; scarcely any one effect is now so abundant that he "who knowing what course to take; some without runs may read," some of which I shall in- compass-or with needles unmagnetized, cidentally notice in this communication. are "lost in shallows and uncertainties;" Strict method, perhaps, would have pointed while others profiting even by such a state of out the propriety of here following up what things, have opened to them a straightforI consider to be the real cause of the above ward course to opulence. But of all classes derangement, as I treated in my last of the the land-owners seem to be the most beof the proximate cause: but I wish to make wildered. They are directed by a political a practical digression, because I may be in economy which has "knotted and gendererror on that point; or may not be able to ed" in the hot beds of manufacturing towns; render my views of it more than problema- imagining that what is deemed expedient in tical; besides, if fully proved, it may be dif- the one interest, under a forced and unnaficult to get all parties willing that the real tural system, is the same in the other, which cause should be removed, and if we cannot always ought to be a corrective of the evil. do what we ought, we ought to do what we Look at their servile policy. The landlord, in can. In the workings of a complex system order to keep up his rents, throws together it is curious to trace both the phenomena the small farms and makes large farms: and the attempted solutions. The various the millocrat seeks to destroy the little mamotions and motives, thwart and intervolved nufacturer, and erect factories. The land-the contrariety of means and ends-this interest predominant and then the other now all in utmost harmony "working well," anon in opposition trine and quartile" with aspects evil-this body exorbitating, then that acquiring an undue momentum and velocity, disturbing forces being thus introduced; and if no master-mind be at hand to over-rule; if no

lord drives away the population, and clears his estates of the cottages :-the cotton and woollen Lords surround their factories with cottages for their work-people, thus adding rents to profits; both have one end in view. By and bye the millocrats strive to supersede manual labour by machinery; but in stead of the owners of the soil being ready and prepared to welcome back this surplus

population, they indeed view it as a "nuis- now seem rather queer for a landlord to

adopt, when the principle of consanguinity is nearly destroyed, and capital almost annihilated! Such is the vortex into which people are driven who abandon rectitude and justice! As in the physical, so in the moral world, the equilibrium may be destroyed, but reaction-is inevitable: yes, of all expedients the land-owners could have adopted the worst is the "engrossing of large farms," and the consequent expulsion of the peasant from the soil. These almost solitudes, with which they have surrounded themselves may seem to promise security-like the ostrich who thrusts her head into the thicket and imagines she is safe; it will not be so. If the population be not in the country, it must be in the town-if it be not agricultural it will be manufacturing, and the excess of the one will not be thrown back gratuitously into the lap of the other:

ance," and promote emigration schemes!— The millocrat, we see, lays out his profits, as they accumulate, in rental property; but the land-owner spends his rent in the metropolis or on the continent, instead of laying out a good portion thereof in the reproduction of rent, it is flung in the lap of the subaristocracy, redoubling their wealth and power at the expense of the land-owner, who thus burns his candle at both ends; -"dying daily of the most favourable symptoms." There are two grand errors in this conduct of the land-owners, and several minor ones; first, it will be ultimate ruin, and that at no distant period; second, that it is accelerative of that result, whereas prudence would have suggested a counteractive process, even though that catastrophe seemed inevitable itself. It will be ultimate ruin :-for as labour is the source of wealth, so is population the source of labour, and there is no imaginable succedaneum ; a process of depopulation will and must necessarily end in poverty. The increase and distribution of the population of England and Wales, during the last century, is thus exhibited :-Agricultural counties have increased 84 per cent. Manufacturing counties, 295 do. Metropolitan, 147 do. which must be regarded as of a manufacturing a quotation from the then forthcoming complexion; and be it remembered that whatever is thus specifically bad, is naturally aggravated by the condition of Ireland. Again; had the landlords used their rents in the reproduction of rent, by meeting the demands of a growing population, they would have placed the 'governor' upon the manufacturing interest-not by 'corn laws', but by a just policy. Food and raiment agricultural and manufacturing produce would have maintained a closer equivalency who amass princely fortunes by overworking -competition would not have grown so intense-workmen not such absolute slaves -poor rates not, as they are said to be, gaping to "swallow up the estates"-less toil would have been exacted, and enjoyment more universal. This course indeed may

heard you not that cry-"No corn laws?" In truth, it is in the proper distribution of the people that gives the "unity and married calm of states," or if either predominate, the lesser evil is, when the agricultural interest is in the ascendant, not by high rents and dear corn, but by seeking to "live closer and cultivate better." I had intended to have introduced and commented upon

Westminster Review, which I saw in the True Sun of March 27, 1835, headed “Turn of the Tables;" but this letter is perhaps already over long, so I conclude at present: only I would observe, that though I have no very strong predilections for a land aristocracy, yet I do not wish to see them ousted from their possessions, by an order of millocrats who grind the faces of the poor, who effect everlasting reductions of wages, and

little children, even so as to denominate their system a system of infanticide! Not I indeed. Much, however, depends upon themselves.

Huddersfield.

J. H.

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