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led away into attacks on each other, and clamour for exclusive advantages, whereas they are fellows in affliction, and have one common interest.

And, one party shall put their faith in corn laws, unmindful that the corn laws utterly failed to procure a remunerating price.

And, another shall cry out lustily for cheap bread, not recollecting that it is not so much the price of bread, as the facility of obtaining that price, that concerns them; inasmuch as it would be far better for a working man, that bread should be two shillings the loaf when he had six of those shillings in his pocket, than that it should be sold at sixpence, if he could not command more than three such pence.

And, the hardy cultivators of the soil having been declared a superfluity and a nuisance in their native land, and that it is just and proper that human stock should be permitted to multiply only in such proportion as would afford a sufficient supply of labour for the wants of monied men, it shall be sagely proposed to send off a great part of the distressed population to perish in distant wildernesses, or to swell the ranks of an already formidable rival.

And, at length, the Philosophers shall be graciously pleased to admit the existence of distress; but at the same time they shall announce that the worst is over, and that the glorious and salutary result of their wonderful wisdom is about to appear :-nevertheless, Bankruptcy, want, destruction of property, a rapid deterioration of national character, and decrease of national resources shall continue to attend a system founded on the worst principles and vilest passions, -on (a) materialism, inhumanity, selfishness, and avarice.

And, during all this time, Loan Mongers and Money Changers and old Clothesmen shall shout louder than ever in praise of stern good faith, and refined notions of Honour!

Then, shall be felt the applicableness of the saying of a great King, that "If he had to punish a province, he would deliver it up to the rule of Political Philosophers."

the people shall be opened; they shall grow weary of suffering in hopeless silence. And other rulers shall arise who will revert to the maxims of common sense confirmed by experience.

And they will act on the principle that it is the duty of Government to regulate and uphold public credit, instead of courting its destruction, by subjecting its operations at all times to an absurd, impracticable and ruinous test,-something like placing a Pyramid on its apex, by way of giving it a secure foundation.

And, they will decide that it is preferable to have the people, content, occupied and thriving under the old system, to starvation, idleness and outrage under the new fangled Philosophy.

And, upon this, the "sound and wholesome" shall be made even as a bye word, a jest and a mockery.

A plenteous harvest shall be permitted to resume its rank among the blessings of Divine Providence; a numerous family shall once more gladden the parents' hearts.

The Nation shall rejoice in its renovated strength, and there shall be no mourning except among the money jobbers and Philosophers, who shall howl and gnash their teeth, bitterly bewailing their lost occupation, and the overthrow of their "sound general principles."

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Review of the Report of the Agricultural
Committee, appointed by the House of
Commons, in 1833.

The Committee sat from the 3rd of May to the second of August, three days a week, and four hours a day. They examined fiftyone witnesses.

These witnesses, according to the Report, were "with very few exceptions immediately connected with the cultivation of the soil; few of them not practically experienced in the detail of the matters to which they have

But after some time longer, the eyes of deposed; and it is impossible not to remark

(a) To any one who takes the trouble to investigate closely the doctrines of the modern political Economists, it will be evident how deeply they are tinged with materialism of the darkest and most desolating kind. They consider human beings as mere machines for utility and profit; without reference to an immortal soul, or to those feelings of generosity, of kindness and of compassion, which, emanating from the Supreme Being, elevate the human mind, and as it were, connect this existence with another and a better state. They affect to trample on the best impulses of our nature, and appear to have taken on themselves to

correct what they presumptuously consider the

blunders of Providence!

a rare concurrence both of statement and opinion on the part of witnesses brought from the most distant quarters. It is due to them to state," (the Report continues), "that they generally gave the fullest information in the most open manner; and the frankness of the exposition of their views is no less remarkable than the ability with which they made and supported their statements."

Whatever therefore our opinion of the Report may prove to be, the witnesses are, on the best testimony, viz., the hearers of

it, entitled to our fullest confidence. It was fortunate that the leaning on the part of the Committee was, to call before them practical men, rather than men who hold speculative opinions on the condition of farmers, and the state of farming: we say fortunate, because we are so far of the old school as to think (we venture the opinion with great deference) that the man who has from his egg-shell been busied all day long in growing corn, seeds, and turnips, and rearing and feeding cattle, sheep, and swine, is on the whole a better judge of the possibilities or impossibilities of making a profit by his occupation-is a better judge we repeat, than a gentleman, who occasionally grows mignionette, and mustard and cress in an oblong box out of a garret window in the metropolis.

Of the latter kind there were not perhaps more than two or three. The great majority of the witnesses summoned before the Committee appear to have been what they should have been; farmers and yeomen who had become eminent in their respective neighbourhoods. They were men who from the single occupation of farming had raised themselves to be valuers of land, of crops, of stock, &c. in the districts around them. Now, farmers cannot arrive at an eminence of this kind without being at the same time skilful in all the details of agriculture, and who, combining with good judgment a character for integrity and general intelligence, thus obtain the confidence of their neighbours. It was therefore that they were fit men to depose to the state of agriculture.

The vast extent of the subject, and the varied nature of the enquiry prevented the Committee from attempting to give even a summary of the evidence." For the facts, then, we are referred to the evidence itself; and it is our intention hereafter to present our readers with copious extracts from it.

Reverting to the Report; it proceeds, "Your Committee remember that the Agriculture of the kingdom is the first of all its concerns, the foundation of all its prosperity in every other matter by which that prosperity is produced; and they cannot forget what Mr. Burke has so truly stated, "that it is a perilous thing to try experiments on the farmer; on the farmer whose capital is far more feeble than commonly is imagined, whose trade is a very poor one, for it is subject to great risks and losses; the capital such as it is, is turned but once in the year; in some branches it requires even three years before the money is repaid;" and "although it is in the power of the Legislature to do much evil, yet it can do little positive good by frequent interference with Agricultural Industry."

Against these sentiments in the abstract,

no quarrel is to be had, although the last seems to require some observation. With the authorities quoted we entirely concur, and were more wanting, we think we could bring them from apparently the most contradictory sources. We will content ourselves with a few. "Trade, indeed-meaning foreign trade-(says perhaps the greatest statesman England ever produced, the great Lord Chatham) increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land in their simplicity of life is found the simpleness of virtue, the integrity and courage of freedom. These genuine sons of the earth are invincible; and they surround and hem in the mercantile bodies, even if these bodies, which supposition I totally disclaim, could be supposed disaffected to the cause of liberty."

Before certain "new lights" had broken in upon us, the Edinburgh Review, even, witheld not its tribute to the importance of our agriculture as a national concern. "The commerce and manufactures of this island (it said in one of its early numbers) conceal, in some measure its agricultural grandeur: of which, we may not perhaps, obtain a full view, unless this splendid superstructure of present prosperity, mouldering away, from the fragility of the materials, or shattered by external violence, shall expose the strength and extent of the base on which it is rested." (vol. 5, 204.) A change having come over "the spirit of their dream ;" this opinion we presume is now to go for nothing; and yet it was written in the heyday of the war, with wheat more than double its present price; nevertheless, with wheat at this high price, such was the "splendid prosperity" of commerce and manufactures, that it was thought by the liberal minded of that day to conceal the grandeur of our agriculture, which was their real, solid, substantial support, their imperishable base.

The old light having died away, or flickering in the socket, seems to be replaced by this new "ignis fatuus:" (whether a spark from the flames of Hell, or a flash lighted at the pure lamp of Truth, the sequel will shew). For the birth and parentage of this Will o' the Wisp, we think it best to refer to the explanation given by old Matthew Bramble of the call received by his servant Humphrey Clinker. Our readers will remember that Humphrey came one day to his master, and besought his permission to go and preach in some neighbouring chapel, affirming at the same time that he had had a new light broken in upon him, which impelled him to hold forth: "Humphrey Clinker," (says old Matthew) I am resolved to have no lights in my house but what pay the king's taxes: moreover, I am of opinion that the supernatural light you speak of, proceeds from no

other place than from a chink in your upper story." Now old Matthew's solution of new lights, that they are the offspring of a cracked or crazy brain is really the most liberal construction we can put upon the words, motives, and actions of the inhabitants of the new political planetary system which sheds such a flood of light upon us at the present day, as to dazzle and bewilder us.

How different was the universal conviction when prices were really remunerating to all, and when a well oiled rail road, as it were, existed for the interchange of produce. In those days Mr. Horne Tooke, no large landed proprietor, but an ultra radical of his day, stated it as his opinion in the House of Commons, "that if the price of wheat could be doubled, (it was then 70s. per quarter), it would have the same, and equally beneficial effect, as the paying off half the national debt; and it would be also attended with the further advantage of encouraging the English farmer to raise such a sufficiency of corn in our own country as would prevent the necessity of our depending for bread upon foreign nations."

If other testimony be required, we have the names of the three greatest statesmen of the present century. Napoleon, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Fox. Napoleon declared, that "the prosperity of agriculture is the basis of the prosperity of a Nation." Under this impression, and the circumstances in which he found the country situated at the period of his gaining the ascendancy in it, it appeared desirable to him to place France in such a state as would put it out of the power of her enemies to limit the quantity of bread which Frenchmen should eat: (a scheme attempted by the English about the time of the convention.) He, consequently, prohibited the importation of foreign corn, which inspired the French farmers with such confidence, that they improved the soil of France until its produce has become fully equal to the sustenance of all its inhabitants, though they have considerably increased since this regulation was made. About thirty years ago, Mr. Pitt observed in the House of Commons," that one certain proof of the nation being in a prosperous condition was, that agriculture was flourishing, and rapidly improving." And Mr. Fox, in his panegyric on the late Duke of Bedford, goes on to say, "I am not qualified to speak of some particulars which do the highest honour to his memory: but some who know how much the welfare of the country depends upon agricultural improvement, and how he, more than any other man, has been instrumental in promoting it, could shew that in this respect he conferred the most solid obligations on his country."

These testimonies from eminent authorities we have quoted, our readers will believe

out of no disrespect or disparagement of the other productive classes; but rather, after shewing the opinion of some of the highest intellects of our kind as to what constituted the real stability of our prosperity and happiness; to expose to public view, not merely the attacks of interested and designing men on this most precious breastwork of the citadel of our national wealth, but to expose-alas, that to us and to our time the painful duty should devolve-the creaking timbers, the shattered walls, the threatened ruin of this venerable pile.

Mr. Pitt was right: "it was a certain proof of the nation being in a prosperous condition that agriculture was flourishing and rapidly improving." And shall we be deemed wrong when we as confidently affirm, that a certain proof (even if no other existed) of the nation being in an unprosperous condition, is that agriculture languishes, and is rapidly on the decline.

Is not the conviction of this great truth intuitive in the minds of all, not led astray by the mazes of an ingenious though false philosophy? Are formal arguments required to prove that the agriculture of this country is the first step in the process of its accumulating wealth? For the mode in which manufacturers and shopkeepers branch off from the great parent stem of agriculture, we refer to our first Number.

Let us look back as far as history will carry us. Take any state and examine its infancy-an almost unpeopled soil; the scanty few, rude in manners, knowledge and wants; hunters and fishers, and babies in husbandry. The antiquity of this art (says Cowley in his Essay on Agriculture) is certainly not to be contested by any other. The three first men in the world were a gardener, a ploughman, and a grazier; and if any man object that the second was a murderer, I desire he would consider; that as soon as he was so, he quitted our profession!"

In the primary stages of barbarism, the manufacturing, as a separate interest, is and must always have been as a cypher to the whole community. Manufactures, commonly so called, produce the conveniences and luxuries, rather than the necessaries of life. The necessaries, as the word itself implies, are the first object with all. Men must eat and drink, or die. We thus find that the conveniences of clothes, &c., (if they exist at all) are at first of the rudest and most uncouth description; certainly not produced by artists, or what we should call manufacturers; but each man was his own manufacturer.

That limited number of conveniences then known, were the produce of time spared from the hunting or agricultural labours of the day; and until experience had instilled

the first dawning of the benefit of a division of labour, (i. e. that, in order to save time, one man should confine his labour to one branch, and another man should confine himself to another branch of work) a distinct race of manufacturers was a thing unknown. The original source of demand for manufactures was from the first cultivators of the land; the original manufacturers were such of the first cultivators as remained over and above the labourers required for tilling the soil. The two interests have grown up and depended on each other ever since; for the surplus manufactures, beyond the wants of him who produced them, were consumed by the agriculturists; and the surplus produce of the earth, over and above the cultivator's own consumption, were purchased by the manufacturers. These interests have not only been original, but growing sources of wealth to each other. The characters of their prosperity are indelibly pictured on the same canvas. So long as the supplies of each are nicely balanced to their respective markets of demand, cheerfulness is spread around; the equality of the scales is the Utopia of commerce.

But there seems to be a preponderating tendency towards a production of manufactures greater than the powers of the original consumers, the owners and cultivators of the soil are equal to purchase. Then arises the necessity of finding other markets; or of stimulating the means of the consumers at home. The desire for a larger than the home market gave rise to the foreign or export trade; this was a legitimate opening for the discharge of surplus commodities; but profitable only so long as its consequences were innocuous to the interest of the home market, whose demand has been in this country at least, always far more certain and extensive for our manufactures than has ever yet been found in the whole world beside.

And why is the home market the surest and largest? Not merely because of the accumulated wealth of this country as a whole; but because, also, we have no American, Prussian, or French commercial legislation to contend against. We are confident, on the average of years, that our own laws intend the best for us. We cannot say as much always of the laws of other nations. It is the best policy therefore to place our main reliance on a market over which we possess the controul, rather than on one liable to all the caprices of a foreign population,-upon all the dire uncertainties of

war.

These arguments, drawn from general reasoning, for agriculture being the essential foundation of all our prosperity, is substantiated by indisputable data, taken from the last census, and which proves that six

sevenths of the population of Great Britain and Ireland are immediately interested in the welfare and prosperity of the home market.

Truly then might Mr. Burke affirm, that "it is a perilous thing to try experiments on the Farmer;" but whether it could be as truly inferred by the Agricultural Committee, that it is as perilous to remedy the experiment as it is to make it, we reserve for a future number.

TAXATION, NO. III.

It is assumed to be necessary for the Finance Minister of Great Britain to abstract annually from 25,000,000 mouths, £50,000,000 sterling. Three different modes present themselves, adapted to the purpose of levying the sum of money required.— First. By a graduated direct tax upon property or income.

Second. By taxing the luxuries of life. Third. By taxing articles of general consumption.

As to the first, no person would be insane enough to attempt raising £50,000,000 a year on the property of the country; the attempt even could only be made through revolution; and if partially successful it would be an entire confiscation of property.

It is the prevailing system in Turkey and other despotic countries, to impose a sort of graduated property-tax; there, it is proverbial, that labour losing its certain reward, no certain employment exists for it except in a state of slavery. As an exclusive source of finance therefore, the first mentioned is totally impracticable; not less so, however, is the second, for an endeavour to raise £50,000,000 per annum on the luxuries of life would be found immediately and altogether to be inoperative?

Even as it is, luxuries are too highly taxed; and many people in consequence proceed to the Continent, because they can enjoy the pleasures of life at a cheaper rate than in England. While foreigners accustomed to their wine &c., daily, are absolutely prohibited from sojourning among us. It is clearly therefore a sound principle in finance that the taxation on luxuries (more especially those of domestic production) requires the most nice and delicate discrimination of all others: so that a country be not taxed out of the taste for them, and thus lose a legitimate and profitable source of revenue, and a profitable occupation for its labour.

We arrive now at the third source of revenue, namely, taxation on articles of general consumption, which is evidently the least objectionable mode of taxation; and, if aided in a fair proportion by the two preceding sources, we may consider it the soundest system of finance. In order, however, to

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These trifling and absurd duties, together with the tax on shepherd's dogs have been repealed or modified as a boon to the people.

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