The National Register. — London, England, 1819-08-22 00:00:00

. ; w'.:: Votitiral Ilettozperr. THE grant of a lerge sum of money at the dose of the late Session of Parliament, for the purpose of encoureg'mg Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope, fercibly stra.k us, at the time of its passing the Le gislature, ai one of those wretched and miserable ex pedients which have 60 *111,01)1.11;11y marked the policy of our present Rulers, though the press of other matter prevented us from then adverting to it ; and our astonishment was still further excited at the lit tle opposition made to it, as a more impolitic or un neeessery waste of public money and of public strength never was committed. It may now seem late to be canvassing a measure decided on more than a month ago, but the passing events of the day, and Vie erroneous opinions so generally prevalent upon siikject, may still render it not unworthy of at tent'on. A meeting was the other day held at lese's to ta'ee Into consideration the pimple v of a private subset-in:ion to aid the emigration of about pee fiecntrand persone, belonging to that place. and to flomish the stews of enabling them to quit their native hind. Some, individual, however, had the wielom to suggest that, it' times should mend, these pmele would again be wanted, and the pniject ac cordingly was dropt. Several of the public Jour eels are also devoting their pages to the un worthy object of recommending both the general principle te' suet' a system, and the application by Government of the public Revenue in furtherance of such a purrese. The Editor of the Times has discovered that .e Colonization might to be regarded as the feet cf all great objects ; for it is . in Clio en- Inrging, the productive surface of the kingdom, bringing into cultivatiou an immense extent of hi tl•.ertii barren territory, and reinforcing the soil of 3 neimel by another soil far more than equal to her tee it extent, and beyond all calculation excelling I ft. is fertility ." He has further discovered that •.. too mat.y of our own waste lands at home 'have ix en :c=reaky rendered productive, and the encreased emetity acorn brought to the central markets has ceeply injured the lower classes," and lastly, "that it 1 dreadful to observe h ow our p easantry h ave not troy been kjured, but est/nu/shed by the inc.rorabk dxti.ine that large capitals employed in Agriculture ere the most profitable in their application." In a publication so generally respectable and enlightened, is was not without regret renit we found such a .'ring of unwarrantable assumptions, idle nonsense, and erroneous theories. These may be harsh terms, but such reasoning deserves no better. We can readily admit that the parent State of our society is wrong, and requires correction; that the body po litic is sick, and loudly calls for heeling, But what is the wisdom, or what the merit of that treatment, whish, the moment a limb becomes disordered, cruelly and inhumanly cuts it off, regardless of either the blemishes or the impotence which may follow foam its loss. With respect to Colonization, we know that the great States of antiquity, in their most flourishing periods, often permitted numerous bodies of their subjects to leave their present coon try, and to form settlements as their own inclina tions led them ; nor wculd we now be understood as whiting to prevent the same liberty of will and octiole, here. But both Greece and Italy were in very different circumstances at there periods from what we are now placed in ; and there was farther also this most itnportunt dissimilarity between their policy in this point, and ours—that a band ofGreek ur Itosnau adventurers quitted their country of their own free will, and formed wherever they !leased to settle, erealdidiments and laws, and institutions, to ally iiidepeudent of the parent state: Every thine was there left to find its own level, and the whole interference of the Mother Country was confined to a few acts of kindness and good-will to- A rds those whom she still emnsidered as her chil dam What has Great Britain ever gained by all the colouies she has either planted or possessed ? I low many wars has her colonial policy led her to ceeberk in ? How many acts of tyranny and oppress sun has it led her to attempt to exercise, t.ll an antheirity, ituwisdy exercl:ed, has pro and justified resistance and tsrtninated in eleaticipatimi on one side and dby,race on the other ? We may lavish our treasure upon cultivating the wastes of Afiicn, and semi oar people to usurp and eucreacli upon the territories of a peaceful and un o l'en.liog race of natives, bet let us nut at least be t •hl that in so doing we are perseing a better po "ice then in cultivating drat soil to which !lateral jr.sti,:.: gives us the best glider, and whieh on the ether hand has surely the strongest claims epon our care Bieiles which, are it it colonies the usuel ;ryas tor which all natiens ualtbrntly contend in eor ? War give as the Capra, and the of t eneeect has et:mine:el it in cur possession, bat the alive that gave it ieay again just al; t Os:: it away, or same ]'arum ToliiiiSter tray think a fe%V thousand souls aml a batten country hardly worth coatendin; for, ant 1 recommend its being Eject: tei for ViZe tviv4;at. And is it item TITT NATIONAL REGISTER. circumstances such as these that any wise man woull susnend the fortunes of Britain, and the chances of supply to her people, or speak of cult seeing the Cape is identified with the engagement of our Home Pet:duce. The lesson which America read to U 3 on this subject can hardly be so soon forgotten, and yet the course which she followed is but the course of nature. The friends of colonize don, and the advocates of that horrible war talked of the separation of that country, ea nothing less than the absolute ruin and downfill of Great Britain ; but the fact both with regard to America and all.our other Colonies is, that they have never aontribnted any thing towards the defence of the mother country, or to the support of its civil Government, and that their utility as independent States is quite as great as in the character of colonial dependencies, But with respect to the great bug-bear of not being nble to red our people at home, and the false and lying assertion that large capitals employed in Aviculture have extinguished ear peasantry ; the first is a.geatn itous assumption which ignorance of the subject can alone lead any one to make, and the latter is plainly demonstrable by comparison and by facts to be quite groundless. The Report of a statistical survey, made about three yews ago, stated, that there yet remained in the British Kiteedom 22,351;000 acres of waste but irnproveable laud, which, enclosed and cultivated, and let at but 10s. per acve,would produce upwards of 111 millions, to be thrown into the great stream of our circulating medium, to alignment the sum total of private wealth, and to promote by its expenditure, the Interests of *Commerce, and of the public Revenue ; but above all to furnish subsistence and employment to a much greater po pulation than this country now contains or would in the natural progress of population, contain for many years to some: But even this is but a small part of this impoi tent question. No man who has seen what hen been done in Norfolk, and i s now doing, by Mr. Coke on the one side, and by Lord Albemarle on the other, and by men who have the sense and patriotism to follow those bright examplet can doubt that by skill, by capital, and by industry, and still more, if we can only add to these the due encouragement which the Legislature owes as a boon due to that great tower of national strength and prosperity, that the agricultural produce of Great Britain might at least be doubled and that the employment it now furnishes might be doubled likewise. Let the man who has the hardihood or the folly to tell the world that large capitals have extinguished the peasantry of the contery look ut the situation and condition of the lower classes wherever the improsed system of cultivation has extended. Let him look at Holk ham, where labouring inhabitants, so far from es- j tinction, have multiplied tinder its present owner from less than three hundred to inure than seven.— Let him enter their cottages, let him converse with those who inhabit them, let him view their furni- ture, their rutty children, their pi l l-styes and their gardens, anti then we may safely leave him to answer to Isis own heart anti conscience what is the justice, where the foundations of his charge. But if' he is still dissatisfied, let him paneto other parts of the conntry where the whale scene is exactly as he would recommend, where the farms are small, and their occupants as poor us he could wish them, and we would tell him that among no race of men upon the face. of the earth can he find less to envy and more to pity. Labouring and toiling infinitely harder than the common peasantry, he will find them, generation after generation, passing on with. out spirit, without comfort, and almost even with out bepe. Here and there perhaps the niggard ear4mony, which can have no other name than the basest love of money, may have enabled a long life to scrape together a kw hundred pounds ; but much oftener the last days of life are devoted to a work home, or to dependence on parochial aid. Is this a state ef society to he wished for or admired? Can it coot ribete to public strength or public happiness? Certainly not. The produce of the land is poor and scanty, the cccupier is miserable, the labourer badly supported and wretchedly paid, and every shift and contrivance used to throw the whole of tite expenditure upon the parish-rates. Besides this who can be so absurd as to maintain that Agricul ture is not as fair and open a channel for the em ployment of capital, where it is possessed, as any other ? How would the Editor of the 'Dines like to be told that he was injuring the community by the profit he derives, and from the immeasurable space of intellectual ground he occupies by the cir culation of his paper? A law to prevent his selling beyond a limited number of copies would be just as wise, tied quite as equitable, as any regulation as to time size of farms. Yee, we have no doubt but halls 11 ...1.11 editors might live very respectably upon what he thus miserably and voraciously put into his own pt.clet. Nor would the small farmer much thank bins, if he reflects a little, fur his theory. The hopes of rising is the great stimulus and solace of exertion. He that now occupies twenty acres WO !fl fitls deg he may mu ( by Filar sea h to forty, AVGUST N. and he that has mounted to an hundred, can still look to other steps of the ladder which he may fairly aspire to mount. He can see and feel that he is engaged in a pursuit where all is not low and mean ,gel grovelling, but that like other profesiions and employments it has its gradations and its ranks,. which may confer respectability at least, it nevem pint of honor The greatest authority orm the law of nat;ons and the principles of uaturel justice has most wisely and beautifidly told its, that." it is the bounden duty of every Government to give to its agriculture its , first nod carlic.:4 care, and to make it, as far as possible, to be held in honour."— " For," said he, " without tl:is, fAidesmen in tides, even the most servile mechawics, will be inclined to consider bin' , that cultivates , the earth with a dis. dainful eye, and dare to despise a profession that feeds the human race, which is the natual employ. men of man, and was the darling occupation ef the first Consuls and - Dictators of Rome." FROM LAST mcnrs GAZETTE. CROWN OFFICE. Aria. ei. EMIIIM rammed to carve in this proient PAULI kM r NT. Borou g h Aoliburton.—John Singleton Copley, orc Majestys Sajearm at Law. atul 114 Majciity's Solicitor CLacral. BANKRUPTCY ENLA !WED S. Wortsll, A. l'upc, and J. Edmonds, Hutto!, barkm. crow. Aug. 21 to Oct. 9. BANKRUPTS. J. G. Flowers, I.cadenhull Suect, T. Wiagett. Plymo ith, boot and shoe maker. 1. Johnson. Sta ',ford. Lincoln. coach and him?.ss in: Jr F. Litt:e, Mealag.de, Cumberland. blacksmith. W. Litde. Meabsgate. Cumberland, slate.rnerchart. A. Little, 51talagate, Cumberland, rood-mougt:. G. Stanley, Kirkburton, York. clothier. F. Prichard, I.lanrivrt. Denbigh, shopkeeper. M Anderson, Eouth Ani pt on . poulterer. J. Annely, Kingealowr., neer Bria.ol. grocer. %V. Pratt, Itinuing'utra, druggist. C. Fame. Bentarrolsey. dyer. R. S. Diplyn and 'l'. Swayne, Lireehouse, cell merchants W. Hyde, Howford Buildings, F. irchurch Street. merchant. DI V I D I: NOS. August 28. 1. Palyart, London Stets. Fenchurch Street. mer chant—September 25, S. Joseph and %V. Hughes. Wincheuer Street, Broad Street, merchants—ti. J. Handley. 31ilwieh. Staf ford, miller—M, IL and W. Salt, Stenc, Staff od, datitt6-4, T. Jmkins, Judd Street; Brunswick Square, nia.trr wanner—l n, R. S. Hall, Bank Bu3dings, mere:JAW-li, A. Warner, St. Ca therhe Street, Tarry, victualler-1 J. Ili:mitt. Whimero,-. Street. charcoal merchant-13, 1.. Teather, Nottingham. dealer —l7. W. Breeze, Stoke upon Trent, Statibrilshire.potutr--11, F. Gotham. New Ftillborne. Sussex. meal:ran-11kt. 23. T. W Watts, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, ironmonger -30, E. Dampier, Primrose Street. Bishopegate, seed ertuther. %TE.I to he granted Sept. R. and J. R. Townend. Mitre Couit, Fen , :!limb Street, mer chants—S. Hughes, Liverpool, liquor mere! ant-I'. Fish, Bridport. Dorset, victualler—T. Chaco:A. Biisiol, broker—W. Honyaell, Bath, brandy merchant—T. Daunrey, Cate:arm Street, warehouseman—J. Leaiit, junior, Manley, Worcesier, horse dealer—J. Hunt, Saithin's Lane, merchant—J. Strafford, Serooby, Nottingham, miller. Pact 0$ %locks. 3aok S•oek (1 sssss into 41. per Ceoi. 721 1111:1. 3 per leo*. t per Cella. Cons. 71a lowa Rood: )6s. di,. I 1 per Ceti,. fill t India Stork 2201, 4 per Ceto. 911 I t r.srhewier Hills 2s. di... per Celli/. Navy 1051 Cons. for Ar. 11i 1,,,r Aua. l 9 L Tickets THE NATIONAL REGISTER. onDon. SVSDAY, AVC.UST In another part ef our Paper will he found a cor rect, and, as we think, a sufficiently full accoant of the proceedings at Manchester, the greater part of which we have extracted from what are commonly called " Government Papers," in order that all advantages that were possible might be afforded by the most favourable statement of occurrences more disgraceful to that part of the British magistracy than any thing that we conceived could have been related with truth, and certainly more disgraceful, if true, than any thing that ever.stained the pages of Eng lish History in the worst of times. A meeting of 60,000 persons admittedly net illegal; in deportment most peaceable, intending only to descant on their difficulties, their wants, their distresses, and their wrongs. are assailed by a corps of Yeomanry Csvalry (who, from the brutality of their conduct, one would suppose, had, like the wild beasts that exhibited of old, been kept from food to increase their natural sa vageness), and unarmed, incapable of resistance, and flying in all directions from well-founded fear of their brutal assailants, sabred in cold-blooded co• wardice. We have racked our brains for any thing like an excuse, exculpation, or palliation of such an outrage. The meeting in Smithfield was numerous —the ardent wish of the Lord Mayor for a Baro netcy was equal, to prompt him to the adoption of Ir 7 6