which it must be paid, or we shall pay the courage in his subjects the love of agriculpenalty of our turpitude and folly. In a late report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons, it is acknowledged as a truth, that "THE AGRICULTURE OF THE KINGDOM IS THE FIRST OF ALL ITS CON

ture, his Minister Pitt, in his prosperity speech of 1791-2, entirely overlooked it, though the greatest and most important source of our national power, as not worthy of being mentioned. Lord Auckland, who CERNS, THE FOUNDATION OF ALL ITS PROSwas held to be one of the most eminent PERITY IN EVERY OTHER MATTER BY WHICH practical statesmen of his time, followed the THAT PROSPERITY IS PRODUCED;" but with example, and in a speech on the state of the it is conjoined the neutralizing falsehood, nation, in which he proposed to enumerate "THAT HOPES OF MELIORATION IN THE the causes to which our national prosperity CONDITION OF THE LANDED INTEREST, REST was to be ascribed, never stated a single RATHER ON THE CAUTIOUS FORBEARANCE, word on the importance of agriculture, but THAN ON THE ACTIVE INTERFERENCE OF seemed to consider England as exclusively PARLIAMENT !" Yes! this latter declara- a commercial and manufacturing nation. tion embodies the damning do-nothing prin- Nay, in 1796, even a Committee of the ciple by which the internal prosperity of the Privy Council, appointed to consider the country IN EVERY MATTER is strangled. laws regarding the exportation and imporAnd when was it otherwise? We have had tation of grain, were so completely ignorant statesmen in every age who have acknow- of the agricultural resources of the country, ledged the maxim that, "ON EVERY COUN- and indeed of the other nations of Europe, as TRY THE FIRST CREDITOR IS THE PLOUGH," to state it as their opinion, that we must deand that "THIS ORIGINAL INDEFEASIBLE pend for a part of our consumption, not on CLAIM SUPERSEDES EVERY OTHER DEMAND," increased cultivation at home, nor even on but what has the admission done for Agri- the produce of Europe, but on the harvests culture? Let the remark of the writer of of America! And what, during the course a review of the present state of Agriculture, of the present enlightened century—in which which appeared in a late number of the the sword has been converted into a ploughEdinburgh Review, answer the question. share, and the schoolmaster is said to be "It would be useless at this time of day to everywhere abroad-has been done to reenter into any lengthened argument to shew move this stigma? National institutions of the paramount importance of an improved all kinds abound. We have our Royal Sosystem of agriculture in countries like Great cieties of literature, our scientific associaBritain and Ireland. Every one is ready to tions, our mechanics' institutes; we have admit its superior claims on the public at- our lecture halls, our re-unions of the learntention. Nevertheless the progress of agri- ed, our collections of useful inventions; we cultural improvement is peculiarly slow,— have our horticultural, botanic, and zooloLITTLE DIFFERENCE EXISTS IN THIS RE- logical gardens,-but where is our national SPECT BETWEEN THE REIGNS OF WILLIAM Institution of Agriculture-our repository of III. AND WILLIAM IV. In Wales agricul. rural implements, our experimental farms? ture is still most backward, the country does We have our BOARD OF TRADE: where is not produce half of what it is capable. This our BOARD of Agriculture?* We have remark is not much less applicable to England in fact were all England as well cultivated as Northumberland and Lincoln, it would produce more than double the quantity that is obtained from it." Although his late Majesty King George III., wrote, with his own hand, a little work to en- with his government.

• The apartments in Somerset House about to be vacated by the Royal Academy, would answer this purpose very well: and it is fit that the most numerous and peaceable class of his Majesty's subjects should have a fair proportion of influence in his councils, and a ready channel of communication

erected, or are erecting, our London Univer- and which in the course of twenty years has sities, our School of Arts, our British Mu- doubled her wealth, her productiveness, and seum, our National Gallery of Paintings her social comforts, should we have been where is our Public Building for the pro- paying for years past eight millions of poor tection, direction, and advancement of that rates? should we, in addition to the most branch of industry by which learning and oppressive and injurious restraints on our art and taste flourish, and without the pros- domestic intercourse, have had eight millions perity of which they must all decay? Whilst of road debts, with an annual income of 731. innumerable Societies abound for objects of per mile, and an expenditure of 851.? should infinitely minor importance, what is there to we, with a beneficial climate and fertile soil, shew in the metropolis of the Empire, in the and millions of unemployed hands, have seat of Government, the centre of kowledge, been paying to the labourers of foreign states of wealth, of activity, and power, that Agri- about 15,000,000l. yearly for flax, hemp, culture as a science, though the acknow- corn, tobacco, &c. which might have been ledged source of our national greatness, grown at home? Would the currency jug"the foundation of our prosperity in every gle, which has cut off one half of the resourmatter by which that prosperity is produc- ces of productive and rural industry, have ed," has ever been domiciled amongst us? been permitted? Would the tithe question Nothing! and is it then surprising that have been still unsettled? Would the malt agriculture is in a state of decay and ruin, tax, limiting consumption to the extent of and that through agriculture all our other 50,000,000l. yearly have been unrepealed? interests, whether of the sail, the loom, Would nearly one half of the surface of the or the spade, are unprosperous? No, kingdom have changed landlords? Would the hackneyed wish "Speed the plough," two thirds of our tenantry have been insolhas been sufficiently on the lips, but never vent? Would farms every where be going has warmed the hearts of the ministers, out of tillage? Would our fellow country. and law-makers of England. For years we men be expatriated in tens of thousands have been toasting 'Liberal landlords and yearly? Would our labourers be losing in enterprising tenants,' whilst the doctrine of the recklessness of the pauper the sobriety, the Jew has been practically illustrated in the industry, and the contentment of the every district of the kingdom, viz. that a husbandman? decreasing fertility in soil is a grand law of How full of projects is England, from the nature, (!) from whose all pervading influ- senate to the humblest of her village assemence the utmost efforts of human ingenuity blages: how redundantly philanthropic in cannot enable man to escape!" Even now schemes for amending the condition, physiwhat is there that stands between the Utili- cal or moral, of distant nations-how neglitarian's wish, 'that the hour should come in gent of her own children! To be the deniwhich not a blade of corn shall be grown in zen of remote latitudes, to be coloured by England,' and its accomplishment, except other climates, seems the one sole postulate the complicated state of society, luckily so which she insists upon as an argument for tenacious in its texture? Successful agricul- her benevolence. 20,000,000l. has been ture, with truth it may be said, has at no given to break the chain of that slavery time been considered the basis of our national which bound so many thousands of our substrength and greatness. Never has it re- jects abroad; but what has been done to ceived the support due to its utility and im- break the chain of that pauperism by which portance. Had a society existed in Eng- many millions of our countrymen at home land similar to that great superintending, have been demoralized, unchristianized, all directing, and fostering association which but revolutionized? During the year endpresides over the rural economy of Scotland, ing March 31, 1835, the sum of 125,7211.

148. Id., has been collected by the "BIBLE transmitting to other nations above fiftyseven millions sterling to procure food for our inhabitants!

We have declined far into the sear and yellow leaf of national decadence. Nevertheless it is still possible to retrieve our steps: whilst there is life there is hope, and where the will is not wanting there is a way. The only effectual means of retrieving our condition is by unanimity and

SOCIETY," to spread the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, amidst the regions lying in darkness upon the out-skirts of the British Empire; what has been subscribed to remove the British people themselves, the bulwark of Christianity, and of the Protestant faith-out of the shadow of death in which they now sit? We have our AntiSlavery Society; where is our Anti-Pauperism Society? We have our associations union. If a Central Society of all the profor moral objects, for educational objects, ducing classes interested in the protection for scientific objects, where is our association of domestic industry, had the confidence of for SOCIAL OBJECTS? "I have striven," all the local societies, our social economy says a faithful monitor, " by sea and by land would shortly cease to be a system of mutual where British power has asserted British impoverishment, strangulation, and hostiomnipotence; and I have walked through lity. Society would no longer labour under those factories where British labour asserts the withering dominion of a Plutocracy the supremacy of British industry-the battening upon the ruin of all the indusagonies of the wounded, the sight of the trious classes. A Jew would cease to have dying and of the dead, I can bear, but the more sway over the money-market than sight of the emaciated beings—of the men, King, Lords, or Commons. A handful of the women, and the children, who people meal monopolists would not be permitted these lazar-houses-I cannot contemplate." to impose a heavier and more objectionable Yes! if England is swept with the besom of tax (124 per cent.) than any laid on our destruction-if a Robespierre arises to drown necessities by Government. Then the anher in blood, or a Napoleon to consume her nual accumulation of capital, amounting in with fire, let no one presume to call it revo- the City of London alone to 12,000,000l., lution, it will be RETRIBUTION. For years which the owners do not know how to lay past we have pursued a system of social eco- out, and of which in late years 70,000,000l. nomy which has converted the human breast has been sent out of the country in foreign into a lair of stormy and discordant passions; loans, would (according to the suggestion and superinduced a state in which man finds of the celebrated Watson, bishop of Llanno longer in man a brother, or a dwelling daff, who, considering that "the country place of rest and of comfort on the plains of cannot be brought to that perfection of his inheritance. Frederick the Great, in cultivation of which it is capable, unless comparatively a barbarous age, and in a poor individual efforts are aided and accelerated and barren state, laid out yearly about by public wisdom and munificence." said, 300,000l. sterling in the encouragement of that agricultural improvement, which he considered as manure spread upon the ground" to secure an abundant harvest; and, instead of being impoverished by such liberal grants, he was thereby enabled to leave a treasure behind him amounting to upwards of 12,000,000. The Government of this country for a few years gave 500l. to encourage agriculture, and in the space of 20 years we were under the fatal necessity of

without boasting of any particular patriotism, he would willingly pay his share of twenty or thirty millions of public money to be appropriated by the legislature to the agricultural improvement of Great Britain and Ireland,") be expended for objects of far nearer concern to our independence and happiness as a nation than any extension of commerce, or any acquisition of distant territory, ever can be. Even in providing that every essential road in this

country shall be completed, every railway Agricultural Petitions have been hitherto or tramway that may be beneficial formed, every canal cut where necessary, every embankment made, every tract of waste land cultivated, every required harbour erected, and, in a word, every cause removed which now renders labour unremunerative, and industry unblest.

treated by the Legislature, and to urge their conviction, that nothing is so likely to ensure such universal and vigorous co-operation as shall compel the attention of Parliament to our distressed condition, as the formation of a general Central Association in London; to the proceedings of which, all parts of the kingdom may have the opportunity of contributing their support."

Association.

February 1834. "The East Kent Agricultural Association, is established with a view to promote the prosperity of Agriculture, by the mutual cooperation of the proprietors and occupiers of land.

Let then the various Agricultural Associations scattered throughout the country, and which are so powerless for want of union, connect themselves with some one Central Declaration of the East Kent Agricultural Association which will be a nucleus for their efforts, and through which they may act with effect on the legislature, and let other Associations of the producing classes which desire the protection of domestic industry, join the same central body; for they may rest assured that whatever superficial differences may appear in their views, their real interests are one and the same. The Society conducting this Magazine seems well fitted for the nucleus which is so desirable; it should be extended and made more general; it is gratifying however to see that so many Associations have already sent in their adhesion to it.

We shall conclude this article with the following communications from the East Kent Agricultural Association, which bear on the subject of it.

(Copy.)

It is far from the wish or design of this Society, by the powerful influence of combination and union, to acquire any partial benefit, to the public prejudice; or to encroach on those duties and privileges which attach exclusively to the King's government and to the wisdom and discretion of Parliament.

The prosperity of Agriculture is necessarily dependent upon the flourishing condition of the nation at large. Our fellow subjects are our principal customers; and as their collective wealth is the measure of their ability to pay, so must that ability be the measure of remuneration to the Agri

Committee Monthly and Special Meeting, culturist for the outlay of his capital, and

25th July 1835.

Proposed by F. Bradley, Esq., Seconded by W. O. Hammond, Esq., and—

Resolved, "That the Secretary is requested to express to the Marquis of Chandos, the cordial thanks of this Committee, for his zealous exertions in behalf of the Agriculture of the kingdom; and to assure his Lordship of their readiness to co-operate with the gentlemen who attended the meeting on Wednesday last, in preparing Petitions, as suggested by the resolution adopted on that day; they cannot, however, forbear to express their regret at the neglect with which

for the exercise of his skill.

Should our manufactures, our foreign commerce, and our general trade unfortunately decline, the cultivators of the soil cannot fail to experience a corresponding depression.

As Agriculturists, therefore, we have no separate interests. We acknowledge ourselves to be intimately united in prosperity or adversity with our fellow countrymen of every description; with them we must flourish, or with them we must fall.

We utterly disclaim any party object, or any political purpose direct or indirect. A

restless interference in public affairs is in- incumbrances are increasing, and their means diminishing, do not seek to discover the real cause of the evil and unite to obtain the proper remedy."

consistent with the nature of our occupations, and foreign to our inclinations and pursuits. We have on all occasions evinced that quiet and uncbtrusive obedience to the laws, and that patience under protracted difficulties, which constitute the surest test of confidence in the Government and of faithful allegiance to the King. We presume not to arrogate to ourselves any superior discernment, in reference to those complicated relations which connect the general interests of the nation. We are aware that these difficult and important considerations require a kind of knowledge and an extent of sagacity to which our habits, occupations, and experience can give us no pretensions. We are willing, therefore, with entire submission, to leave all measures of legal enactment to the wisdom of the Legislature.

But we feel that it will be within the limit of our just and reasonable exertions, and scarcely less our duty than our interest, to aid the deliberations of Parliament by the assertion of such facts, and by such statements relative to our condition, as may tend to render that condition well-known and understood.

"

A Right Honourable Baronet, who holds a distinguished office in his Majesty's Cabinet, has stated in a publication referring to the landed interest, that they have a disposition both by prejudice and habit, to await the course of events, and to place implicit reliance on the wisdom of Government, rather than by the exercise of their controling power to avert the evils which they foresee, and to provide the defences which their safety may require."

"The other productive classes," he observes, "guard their respective interests in a far different manner. If measures threaten to affect the manufacturing or commercial body, all minor differences are merged in the unanimous opposition which at once is organised. But the Agriculturists, while their property is melting away, while their station in society is in danger, while their

It will be the object of this Association, to vindicate themselves from whatever just reproach may be contained in these remarks. The time is arrived, when endurance without exertion, would be apathy and supineness. We will, therefore, diligently apply ourselves to the examination of the evils which oppress us, and endeavour to trace them to their cause: but we will leave the remedy to those whose duty it is to consider every question of legislation, not in reference to one class alone, but to the general interests of the commonwealth.

We are induced, at the present time to associate for mutual counsel and support, under circumstances which are calculated to excite the most serious alarm in the minds of all men who are capable of reflection.

It is not under the influence of disappointment at the disappearance of former exaggerated profits, that we are induced thus to unite: but under a certain conviction that continued returns, inadequate to the outlay of our capital, must occasion ultimate and speedy ruin, and by involving the Peasantry in our distress, give rise throughout the kingdom to a frightful state of suffering, anarchy and demoralization.

In adverting to the Reports of the Parliamentary Committee on the state of Agriculture; and to the statements which have been published by the Poor Law Commissioners, we perceive with dismay, the destructive operation of those circumstances which are hurrying the country forward to a most appalling crisis.

How dreadful would be the consummation, if districts now fertile and abounding in an industrious population, should be converted into sterile wastes, and the Peasantry abandoned to the effects of want and despair, by the insidious but certain absorption of that capital on which their subsistence depends.

If, however, we are not wanting to our