from causes, over which the farmers had no controul, that is to say, in part, at least, from the war. It is not true, (though it has nothing to do with the point at issue) that the farmers were wholly innocent here; for, they were notoriously amongst the foremost to uphold PITT in making war and in carrying on war, against the Republicans of France. That has been accomplished, which they tendered their lives and fortunes to accomplish. The republic of France has been destroyed; the Bourbons have been restored; liberty has been nearly put out

66

"10 per cent. upon his capital. The "present average price, according to Saturday's Gazette, is 7s. 11d. the "bushel. We have thus fulfilled our "intention of collecting a few facts, "which we have endeavoured to place "in a prominent point of view, offering "such reasons as they are suggested to "our minds. We are quite sure that "we speak without partiality or prejudice ourselves; We are neither farmers nor "merchants, neither growers of home nor importers of foreign corn. Our chief anxiety is to remove, if possible, some "prejudices, knowing that he best pro-in that country; and, really, if our far"motes the interests of the poorer classes and of British agriculture, who encourages and promotes the interests of the British farmer. "If the price of the "corn," says an eminent writer, should "not compensate the price of growing it, "the most serious evil, the very destruc"tion of agriculture itself, is to be appre"hended." Now, though this article is written with great ability, and with even greater craft than ability, it will require, I trust, not a great deal to be said, to shew that its tendency is to deceive the people, and to entice them, by a fallacious statement, into an acquiescence in a measure for making corn dear; that being the undisguised object of the writer.Before I proceed to the main points, let me notice the insinuation, that objections to a Corn Bill have been owing to the industry of faction." What then, is OLD GEORGE ROSE become the leader of faction? He, who wrote a pamphlet to convince the people of England, that, if they did not quietly pay the war-taxes, the French Republicans would deprive them of the blessed comforts of religion? He has, indeed, been very industrious upon this occasion; but has his been the industry of faction?" Have the petitions of the loyal" of Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, and hundreds of other cities and towns, proceeded from "the industry of faction?" Oh, no! this will never do. The promoters of the measure cannot now raise a cry against the Jacobins. That humbug is over for ever.--Who told this writer, that any body ever. said, that revenge against the farmer was the object of the opposers of the measure? This is pure invention. It is an invented fact, whereon to build a fallacious argument.--But, we are told here, that the high prices arose

mers were to suffer in consequence of what has taken place, they certainly would come in for their full share of meriting that suffering.Now we come to the subject:-The argument is this: that, unless corn is dear, the English farmer cannot grow it, because it would not bring him enough to enable him to pay wages of labour, keep of horses, repair of waggons, cost of seed, and rent to the lundlord.-Now, how fallacious is this! Is not the corn which the horses eat, and which is sown for seed cheap, if corn be cheap at market? Are not the wages of labourers, the prices of wheelwrights, and the rent of land cheap, if the corn be cheap at market? Why, then, should not the English farmer be as able to grow cheap corn as dear corn? And what becomes of all the terrific statement about dependence upon foreign nations, about the extortioning of the foreign farmer, about scarcity, about the ruin of the labourer, and the like? Is it not notorious, that wheat used to be 5s. a bushel in England? Nay, is it not notorious, that it used to be 2s. a bushel? How did the farmer live in those days? Was the labourer starved in those days? On the contrary, is it not notorious, that the paupers have increased with the high prices? Will any man have the confidence to deny this? And if this cannot be denied, what reason is there to be alarmed at the prospect of continued cheapness? What reason is there to suppose, that the farmer will be unable to raise cheap corn, seeing that his labourers, his smith, his wheelwright, 'his collar-maker, his seed, his rent, will all keep pace with the price of his corn? If these items amount to a hundred pounds a year when wheat is 40s, a quarter, and to two hundred pounds a year when wheat is 80s. a quarter, is not

65

"

you are laudably enthusiastic. But the real tendency of your exertions is to protect and promote the taxing system, and thereby to enable the Government to keep. up, during peace, a standing army and all those means of patronage, heretofore unknown in England, and the keeping up of which tends to the total extinguishment of even the great country gentlemen, the little ones having all been swallowed up long ago.--Stand here, I pray you, and reflect before you proceed another inch.

110

the farmer as able to raise the forty shilling wheat as the eighty shilling wheat? How came this writer to be so indiscreet as to mention horse feed and seed amongst the outgoings of the farmer? These must be at a low price, if his market corn is at a low price. They consist of the same sort of corn that he has to sell. How, in the name of common sense, then, should he have to complain of the amount of these outgoings, and, at the same time, complain of the cheapness of his com? But, the truth is, that the absurdity of these positions arises from a very material omission in the enumeration of the farmer's outgoings; to wit; the TAXES ! which, direct and indirect, amount to more, aye, to double as much, as his labour, horse feed, seed, implements, and rent, all put together. The direct taxes are upon his land, his property, his horses, his house, his windows, his gig, his dogs, his man servant, and to these must be added his poor rates. He pays about 17s. a bushel tax out of every 20s. which he lays out in salt; and, in a large farm house, the salt tax amounts to about 107. a year. He pays more in tax upon malt than his barley, of which the malt is made, amounts to. He pays a tax upon the soap and candles, and tea and sugar and wine and spirits used in his house. He pays a tax on the leather and iron used in his implements and his harness. And, be it observed and remembered, that he pays a tax upon the beer, the gin, the tea, the sugar, the salt, the soap, the candles, the shoes, the tobacco, used by his labourers. For every quart of beer drank by the ploughman, at a public house, the farmer pays about 4d in tax. The brewer and malster first pay it; the publican pays it to them; the labourer pays it to the publican; the farmer pays it to the labourer; and, as the farmer must be repaid, he must, of course, charge it in the price of the next corn that he sells. -Here, then, is the real cause of the necessity of high prices. It is the GO-as the food of the manufacturer in France, VERNMENT, and not the FARMER, America, and elsewhere, and who will who stands in need of high priced corn. purchase the dear manufactures ?—-But, -Oh! ye Cakes and Westerns, be not; take away the taxes that support the be not, I pray and supplicate you, made army, the ordnance, a great part of the the tools of the taxing system! I know navy; abolish the new military schools well that neither of you wish for high and all their enormous expences; return prices in order to increase, or keep up again to cheap and peaceful government; your own incomes. Your wish is to pro- lay aside the bayonet and the broadtect, to secure the well-being of, a de- sword, and be content with the oldscription of persons, as to whose pursuits fashioned sheriff's wand and constable's

You perceive clearly, that the writer, whom I have quoted, under pretence of protecting the farmer and promoting agriculture, aims at keeping up the taxes, that is to say, an immense military establishment and patronage, which it is your interest, and the farmer's interest, and the country's interest, to see reduced to nothing, seeing, that we now want standing army any more than our forefathers did.I have read a long letter of Mr, WESTERN to shew, that it is just and necessary to pass a Bill to protect the farmer. The reasonings of that very able letter are unanswerable, if we admit, that the taxing system must remain in full vigour, which the author seems to admit, and which I wonder that he should have admitted. It is clearly shewn, that the English farmer will not grow corn, unless he is put upon as good a footing, at least, as the French farmer. But, then, it is not shewn, that this cannot be accomplished without a Corn Bill; and yet, this ought to be shewn, and clearly shewn, by those, who, in open hostility to the common feeling of mankind, propose such a measure. The farmer, and the prosperity of agriculture, do not depend upon the price of corn alone: there are the hides, the skins, the wool, and the flax. All very great articles of produce. These are, in great part, wrought into articles of dress by our manufacturers, and thus they are exported. Make the corn dear; make the food of the manufacturer twice as dear

that man.

staff. Do this, and there will be quite the constitution. It is for those who proenough left to discharge the just debts of pose such a measure to shew, that it the country and to support the Crown cannot be done without; and this they with sufficient splendour, though Wheat must shew before any just man will give should again fall (as I hope it will) to the his consent to it. The measure would old 5 shillings a bushel of JETHRO TULL; be no protection to the farmer; it would and agriculture will flourish and hers do him no good; it would do the landwill thrive as much as they have done for owner no good: what it gave in prohithe last twenty years; and, what is still bition, it would take away in tax, and of more importance, pauperism will al- give it to the military, naval, and official most disappear, hospitality will revive, and part of the community, the tendency of honesty, the constant companion of com- which must inevitably be to give these a petence, will curtail the long and dismal predominance over all the peaceful arts ists of crimes, commitments, convic- and professions, and to produce all the tions, banishments, and executions, which lamentable consequences which I have now fill the mind with horror and dismay. above described.-For these reasons, I, "Here" say the writers, "we take our who am a farmer by taste as well stand. The English farmer cannot grow as in fact, and who am deeply interested corn, unless," by an importation duty, in the prosperity of agriculture, detest and "the foreign farmer be made to bear part abhor, from the bottom of my soul, the "of the English farmer's taxes".-But, he idea of any measure tending to raise, or will not bear part then; for, he will not keep up, the price of corn; and, if there bring his corn, and it is meant that he be but one man in all England found to should not. Here I take my stand. Re-petition against such a measure, I will be duce the taxes of the English farmer, and then he will grow corn enough without the aid of foreign supply; and the manufacturers, eating cheap food, will be able to sell cheaper than the manufacturers of other nations; and, thus, all will thrive together; make corn dear, by continued heavy taxation, and all will decline together, except the military and naval official part of the community, who will, in the end, obtain a predominance, such as they possess in the Austrian, Prussian, Russian and German dominions, and English freedom and English manners and English morals and English tastes and English learning and eloquence will take their flight for ever to the other side of the Atlantic. I hardly think it possi-vived.. The dawn of liberty having openble, that such men as Mr. Coke and Mr.ed on that delightful country, its inhabiWestern should be the partizans of a tants cannot without difficulty return unmeasure having such a tendency. They der the yoke of slavery. We find the may doubt, whether it be practicable, court of Vienna in the most feverish without injury to the fund-holders, to re- alarm on the subject. Long accustomed duce the taxes so as to enable the farmer as the Austrian monarchy has been to to sell wheat at 5s. a bushel. For my look with anxiety to the entire possession part, I have no doubt at all upon the sub- of the Adriatic Gulf, from the possession ject; but, before I give myself the trou- of the ports of which, she might indulge ble of proving, and my readers the trou- a prospective hope of possessing" ships, ble of reading what I have to say upon the subject, let the advocates of a new and odious measure give us their arguments to prove, that the measure is indispensably necessary to the discharge of the just debts of the country and to the support of our government agreeably to

"

colonies, and commerce," it cannot be, but with the utmost apprehension, that she finds the voice of public opinion decidedly against her views. Little doubt can be entertained by the most commonplace politician, that a great motive which influenced Austria to join the Allies, af

COTINENTAL AFFAIRS.It is impossible to peruse the information which now daily arrives from the Continent, without experiencing the most aweful sen sations as to the critical state of affairs in that quarter. It is true, appearances are very often deceitful, and lowering clouds frequently subside; but there never was a period known, in universal history when the "din of preparation" seemed so great, Let us turn our eyes from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, peace and tranquility is no where to be found. In Italy, all the convulsions of the thirteenth century appear to have re

the present system, and his very name so seldom oceurs, except when he himself introduces it, that there is every appearance of his sinking fast, as I fervently hope he will, into his old denomination of Bishop of Rome; when Pope, conclave, and cardinals would soon forgotten, was it not for the perse cutions which religion, from time immemorial, has brought upon mankind.

be

8

the critical period when by Francis's unnatural desertion of his son-in-law-a de sertion so totally unlooked for, that it produced, as it could not fail to do, the most decisive consequences.-I say, the Emperor Francis must have been greatly stimulated to this act, by the jealousy with which he viewed the Iron Crown on the head of Napoleon; shutting out, as it did for ever, all his Italian prospects. The information from Italy is rather bar--In Spain, the beloved Ferdinand has outraged every feeling, which the laws of policy and humanity ought to have dictated. His friends and his foes have fallen in one universal conscription. Neither age nor sex is spared. The reign of priesthood is revived, in all its horrors. That bloody tribunal the Inis proceeding with gigantic strides. Horror and desolation mark its progress, and universal destruction is the only trace it leaves behind. In France, little of tranquillity appears to have been established. Louis XVIII, when all pasties agree to be a mild, benificent, and good man, appears to be too much under the influence of the priests to be as popular as he might be, if he would shake off their odious yoke. Th revolution in that country, unexampled as it has been in extent, both of moral and political influence, has so completely opened the eyes

ren; but no doubt can be entertained that Austria, finding Murat necessary to her views, has entered into a secret alliance with him to secure his throne, on condition that the upper part of Italy shall become Austrian Insurmountable difficulties have been thrown in the way of this project. Among others, the sudden re-quisition, vival of the King of Sardinia, who, if the present rage for the resuscitation of legitimate monarchs, has, of course, asserted his claim to his "lawful possessions." But great part of the former kingdom of Sardinia had so often changed owners, that it was impossible almost to recollect its dispersed masters. Austria has there·fore been contented to secure at present what she could lay hold of, leaving to time and fortune the completion of her ultimate views. The sacrifice of the free state of Genoa to the Sardinian throne has been a part of this system. This of all mankind, that the delusions of measure is, said, in almost all our news-religion now excite little else than ridipapers, to be tyrannical and oppressive; cule. If I am to believe the Times to be in palpable contradiction to every newspaper which, to use an approprideclaration of the allied powers; and ate phrase on this subject, is always apoviolatory of every profession they made cryphal, a most serious convulsion was as to the liberating of Europe. True, or on the point of lately breaking forth false, as these accusations may be, I have in Paris, in consequence of a fanatic · little doubt the poor Genoese must submit monk, wishing, and endeavouring, to . to “existing circumstances." I have also revive one of those monstrous absurdities my fears that Murat himself will ultimate- which disgraced the dark and barbarous iy fall. Alone as he stands among the periods of ignorance and superstition. legitimate monarchs, can it be supposed Nor was it prevented until the king had that his existence will be endured, re- been twice sent to, and, from its increasing minding them of the great man by whom violence, the most alarming consequences they were set up, and put down at plea- were to be apprehended; and all this sure? Constant reports and hints are because a wretched priest thought procirculated in all the continental papers, of per to deny the rights of sepulere to a the advantageous exchanges offered to respectable woman, who had for sixty him for his present kingdom; and if, like years been an artist in a profession cerBeauharnois, he should not choose to go tainly more harmless, if not more ratione I with a good grace, he has every reason than his own. From every thing which to dread the result. It may not happen I can perceive in that country, her affairs immediately; but if the new organization are in a most unsettled state. Soult, of Europe remain, his eventual fate may who wishes to out Herod-fierod, has be considered as already sealed. As to excited a flame in the matter of General the Pope, he is so little thought of under Excelmans, which will require more skill

*

the monstrous aggression which all Europe, and, I lament to say, Great Britain also, have committed against the brave Norwegiaus. The historian will blush, when he indites the page in which he records the detestable fact, that a British Fleet blockaded the Norwegian ports, to starve that wretched country into submission to their new masters, by preventing the entry of all the common articles of necessity, even to food; and this in violation of the general wish of the whole country, expressed in the strongest manner almost by acclamation. The mind revolts at a picture like this; and yet this is the state of peace and hap

and ability than he possesses, to extinguish.---Proceeding northward, the affairs of Holland next meet the eye. Here, we find the most unnatural union between the Dutchman and the Brabanter: men as opposite in their pursuits, composition, and constitution as two animals of the same species can possible be. An army of 75,000 troops, in the pay of England, one half our own countrymen, is in garrison in that country. Where the people are satisfied, such an army is unnecessary, and if they are not satisfied, twice the number will not make them so.-It is ufterly impossible to describe the state of Germany, for here calculation is perfectly lost. Report contradicts report, in end-piness which the allied Sovereigns have so pompously sounded throughout Europe they were about to confer upon mankind. It remains to say a few words as to our own favoured country. In the year 1792, when the heaven-born minister involved us in twenty-two years war, had any man ventured to assert, that in the year 1815, we should have incurred a debt of nearly a THOUSAND MILLIONS, and that the boasted "free Englishman," should be subject to a tax by which his most secret concerns were laid open to investigation, he would have been treated either as a fool, or a madman. Yet so it is, and so it will continue, unless something like the public spirit of former times is revived.

less variety. One thing alone is clear, that the allied sovereigns, who established the late crusade, in the most solemn professions of the most pure disinterestedness are now adopting the very system of Napoleon, even to the expressions he made use of in that system. The ear is fatigued with the word "In"demnity," and I was in hopes that, in common decency, it would have been left out of the vocabulary of the Allies. On the contrary, it appears that the Vienna Congress is occupied, day and night, in carding out fresh "indemnities" for the conquerors of their great prototype, the fallen Napoleon. Russia and Prussia are said to be determined on seizing their | The operation of corruption has been so 'defenceless prey, and to possess them-general, that it has extended its baneful selves by force of what is denied to them influence, more or less, in every quarter. by reason, justice, and common honesty. The vile hireling press has had its full Was there a single act in the whole life of share of the mischief. Men's minds, durthe French Emperor so base and atrociousing the continuance of the late war, were too much occupied with foreign politics, to devote sufficient of their time and attention to what was passing at home. The evil, therefore, has taken deep root, and it will require all our energies to root it up. It is a sacred duty every one owes to the country, and I cordially hope that duty may be fulfilled.

*

as the attempt attributed to these monarchs to root out the whole family of the King of Saxony? The deposition of Ferdinand of Spain, was but child's play to this. He signed his abdication, and Joseph had a pretence at least to his throne, not only by this act of Ferdinand, but by the will of at least one half of the population of the country. But, in Saxony, the whole nation, to a man, concur in abhorring this tartar-like usurpation; and it never can be carried but by the loss of much human blood. The same argument precisely applies toPoland. That ill-fated country has been ever the prey to lawless violence and ambition; and the magnanimous Alexander is accused of foliowing, | with undeviating accuracy, the blood- careful manner, and am of opinion, from stained steps of his ancestor, the immor-its interual evidence, that this must be a tol Catherine. But how shall I describe garbled statement, and that Mr. Perry

FINANCE.

Mr. COBBETT.-I have read with peculiar attention an account in the Morning Chronicle, purporting to be a detail of the proceedings of the late Winchester Meeting on the subject of the Property Tax.-1 have looked this over in the most