The Statesman. — London, England, 1815-11-14 00:00:00

• ih au Pr co se th so ha au bll TI rg fo to et un pa cil nn be: re' by la! Fp in Fp. ti 0.; 10 bil I. at. 1•. di a tl ml he th Si) to fl th to ra pp an P( pi! im th de ni fn 1 2 1 fe I MP b) As at nt gI fis 11 131 L ail I) ira EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN. poring the continuance of 22 years war the „.. of Great I3ritain, placing an overweening • Sit!once in the virtue and integrity of their rot ,lireetors, contentedly endured every variety e r pl i ca tion, constantly indulging the fond hope, that thy establishment of peace would at once relieve their o pringc, amt open to their view such an unclouded p r esect of future prosperity and repose, as would co „, rb sate them for every , sacrifice. It was repre v„,,.l by some, end expected by others; that upon o w termination of hostilities trade would revive, tales odd decrease, plenty would abound, and the triur- I ns of discontent be overpowered by the jocund vociferations of merriment and festivity. How woful has been the disappointment, the present langour and sullenness of the country too fatally explain ! There I:, indeed, an apparent cessation from hostile acts ; Lit % here are the anticipated blessings of peace?— The tradesman can neither sell his wares, nor the agriculturist his produce ; extents for taxes, distresses f or r ents, n lid executions for debts, are the prevailing top i c s of discussion in every parish ; and the sympathy excited amongst numbers by their reciprocal com. mub ications of distress, seems alone to preserve the unhappy sufferers from silent desperation. Our par i s hes are burthened with millions of poor ; our cities aid towns are crowded with misses of nottruployed men and women, urged by necessity to heroine bogctrs, thieves, or prostitutes ; the lands remain unfilled for want of capital already exhausted by taxes, poor rates, excessive rents, or expensive labour ; bankruptcy, with all its concomitant evils, Treads its contagion, like the plague, from house to Yos , e, and misery and complaint follow each other is unremitting succession. I was reflecting with des ommlesicy on this consummation of national afflic t; •;!, when my gloomy meditations were agreeably i, te,rupted by your Paper of Saturday evening, con. hining Mr. Cooper-It's very entertaining epistle to tlt ( . :lANCRLLOR of the ExcitEotrEa, who will hare I.lohab'y so much to do in answering the memorials of the farmers on the subject of their grievances, as to require the united aid of all the talents in the Ca. and though I am utterly at a loss to conjec. !lire what Ministers may, in their wisdom, attempt , relieve the country, I fully agree with Mr. Cox strT in thinking, that " something must be done," aatlas Macbeth says, " If it be done (to the pur p.,se). when 'xis done, it were well 'twere done rick(y." The country is now in the condition of one en f,ebled and emaciated by long continued quackery; um prospective schemes and si.eculative remedies of I, , ,!itical adventurers, will no longer inspire confi 4..tore, or repress impatience. Oar hopes of relief 1•. ce been so long deferred, and at last so completely that . few can have the audacity to re tpc re faith in the successful operation of fut thvr es -I,eHments. In this discouraging state of thing , , it is it rr ti b t presumptuous to suggest any expedient, how rs-r beta-ticial and practicable; for if the sagacity of wia in power, who have been so liberally rewaided ht the country, for attempting every thing and doing molting, at last is ineffective, hew can it be expected that the suggestions of vulgar and obscure individuals should be regarded ? If we look back to what we might have done, we regret the past—if we contem plate %hat is to be done, we despair of the future.— I tit projects generate ideas only of new taxes and fte , h exercises of arbitrary oppression. Instead, then, of expecting any thing from visionary projec lms, absorbed in luxury and contaminated with cor ruption, who have already led a facile and generous ;smile into the labyrinths of insolvency, there to re main amidst inextricable difficulties, let us just ex am:ste what has formerly been performed by other Powers with advantageous effect, and if it be pos. sihle, let us avail ourselves of their measures, and imitate their example. The ;midi,: Fisheries and the uncultivated lands of this kingdom, though thought undeserving of consi (ligation, whilst the parer bubble was expanding, nil now, perhaps, when it is preparitig to burst, be found of some importance to the nation, and may, prove to be its only resources. The im portance of our fisheries, especially the Herring 121 `her, may be best discovered and illustrated by re ferring to the history of our neighbours, the Dutch, a people who, without either lands or mines, became, by means of our fisheries, the most wealthy, as well its the most powerful nation in Europe,and are, again at this moment, proceeding to pursue the same methods of acquiring political wealth and power. It will give us some idea of the vast advantages of the public fishery, if we consider that in the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch employed on our coasts above Ii(X) vessels of various descriptions; and in the Her ring Fishery, round the coast, from Scotland to the bowns, they employed above a hundred thousand mariners. The profits arising from this traffic were incalculable. Dr. BENJAMIN WOILSLEY, in a valua- lion of the Dutch imports of fish, made in the reign Of CHARLES 11., who was a zer.lous promoter of the fisheries, stated the the fishing aleve of Holland produced a greater sum than either the manufactures and commodities of EttglAnd or France, or the pro duce of Old and New Spain. In fact, about the time of the Revolution, the Dutch agreed to pay the English Government an annual tribute of 100.0001. Only for lenve to fish on our shores; but as King WILLIAM soon afterwards was called to the Throne, it was never required ; on the centrary, we were Persuaded to purchase our fish of than ) instead of THE S'l'A sMAk catching it ourselves, whereby they ran away with millions of our money, whilst we began to boirosi on the national account to supply them. It would overrun the boundaries of your Paper, Were we to introduce historical records to move the immense be nefits derivable from our fisheries ; but without Show ing how far the revenue may be benefited, it is enough at this alarming crisis, if we show how fir the p o pulation of the country may be employed, and especially the idle poor, and disbanded army and navy, who if they have not employment, must necessarily contem plate mischief. Supposing ourselves to have (as Sir WALTLIT RALEIGH, in the time of J AhlEti 1., has de- Scribed the Dutch to have) twenty thousand different fishing ships, these ships averaging a crew of ten per sons each, would gite employment en board to two hundred thousand mariners. But if we only make a calculation upon the number of ships in his time employed on our own coasts, that is to say, the eight thousand above alluded to, the netting alone of that fleet would employ, according to his estimate, du ring one-third of the year, more than all the present aggregated number of poor in England and Wales, who now receive parochial relief. With respect to the waste lands of the kingdom, which might be so usefully employed, why should not the principle of the Roman Agrarian Law be adopted by our Ministers, and the poor be made use ful members of the State, instead of existing as they do now, a most intolerable burden to it ? In truth, attention must be paid to the unexampled perplexity of the people in all classes, and particularly to the situation of the farmers and agriculturalists, who, if they are not relieved, must discontinue tillage, and want of bread, as well as want of money, may be the next universal cry of the country. Wen I reflect upon the condition of this nation previous to the war of 1793, and consider the vari ous artifices that have been since adopted, and the ingenuity that has been displayed, to swell the Na tional Dabt to nine or ten hundred millions, and at the same time to obscure the understandings of a cre dulous people, and deceive them with expectations of beholding future prosperity, aggrandisement, and wealth, it reminds me of an old story, which I shall relate by was of conclusion to this letter. A physi cian once undertook the Cure of a woman who had sore eyes, upon the terms of " no cure no pay ;" accordingly, every time he attended his patient, he closed her eyes up w:th unguents, and while she was in that condition used to march off with a silver spoon, cream jog, or whatever article of value he could lay his hands on. The woman's eyes, however, got better, and still, as she recovered her vision, there was every day less and less to be seen in the house; at length the doctor came to 'her and said, " Madam, I have discharged my part, your eyes are perfectly well again, pray, therefore, let me be paid my recomitence according to our agreement."--" Alas, Sir," said she, " I am a great deal worse than I was the first minute you undertook my case, for I could see plate, money, furniture, and other effects of va lue about my house, till you had the ordering of me, but I am now brought to such a pass, that I really can see nothing at all." Berks, Nov. 9. BIKER, THE ROCHESTER PEDESTRIAN. FOURTEENTH DAY. • About Midnight on Sunday it blew a tremendous gale, accompanied, at intervals, by torrents of rain. At four o'clock mt Monday morning Biker went on the ground, foil commenced his day's journey, but from the wind and rain, ■nd the slippery state of the ground, which Was a complete sheet of mud, he was unable to proceed. After churning and slippiug over the course till he hod rompleted about four miles, he was compelled to relinquials his task fdr some time. till the ground should he itievied with coal vibes, &c. to dry up some of the mud and wet that lay on its surface : but from the contindatiee of wind and rain, however, he had only been enabled at noon to cont. plete about eight miles; after dinner he commenced again, sad although ashes had been spread up and down the pathway, he only accomplished 17 miles by five o'clock. A number of persons were employed in shovelling the loose mud from the course, and to. wards evening Baker proceeded on Isis journey with his usual gaiety, and ise excellent spirits. About nine o'clock in the morning, a sudden gust of wind, from W. S. W. accompanied by the heaviest shower of rain we ever witnessed, which lasted nearly 10 minutes, knocked down the temporary booth erected round a caravan with an elephant, &c. and also forced a marquee from its faste gs ; and a temporary booth for the accommodation of the spec tators, &c. nearly 100 feet in length, was also totally destroyed. The ground presented a wretched appear ance doming the greatest part of the day, but to wards evening the tempest abated, and presented a serene evening, with a brilliant moots, accompanied by rather a frosty air. The following is a correct statement of Baker's last seven days' journey : Total numker of utiles the first seven days, 961} 55 rods. Tit , viay, Nov. 7, 50 miles, 192 rods. Wednesday, ---- h 0 16$ Thursday, -- b 0 --- 16$ Friday, 6-- 216 Saturday, —so 216 -- Sunday, --- 50 144 Monday, (5 o'clock) 171 Died, on Sunday, the sth instant, in Dublin, after a short illness, ROCK, the comedian. Some eight or len years ago, he belonged to Covent-gar den and the Haymarket Theatres, at which he per formed with great credit, the low Irish characters. His Ilagmaker, in Rosina, will long be remembered for its excellence. On quitting the London stage, he took the management of that of Edinhorgh.— On the late Mr. limn' , Stortoss taking the house, he went to Dublin, and became Deputy-manager of the Crow.street Theatre. He has left one daughter, who promises to prove an ornament to the drams. In private life, ; rosy ROCK was much respected, and his company courted for his pleasantry. MELANCHOLY EV EXT.—A melancholy event oc curred on Saturday, the 11th instant, in the neigh. bourhood of Truro. About eight o'clock in the morning, one of the sons of Mr. Bassett, of St. Enoder, a fine young man, but who has for a con siderable time laboured under a temporary derange- Surcloe.—Friday morning, Thos. Watson, a ser leant in the West Middlesex militia, put a period to his existence by hanging himself in the stable of the Ship public-house, Earl-street, Bristol. Saturday a desperate act of suicide was attempted to be committed by a respectable Clergyman loglg. ing its Great Suff ., *lk-street, Charing-cross, by cut. ting his throat wish a razor. Derangement is sup. posed to be the cause. Through timely surgical as sistance, hopes are entertained of his recovery. Friday night, or early on Saturday morning, the shop of Mr. L. Elias, tailor and slop-seller, in Dock-street, Deptford, was broke open and robbed of 14 suits of clothes, several pair of shoes and boots, several silk handkerchiefs, a silver watch, plated candlesticks, &c. Sunday night the counting-house of Mr. James Jones, New Gravel-lane, Shark..ll, ace broken open, and robbed of three pounds its copper. The depredators exerted themselves greatly to open an iron chest, in which property to a great amount was deposited, but without effect. BRIGHTON, Nov. 13.—Last night the Toomns packet strived from Dieppe. Owing to a heavy gale of wind from the south-west, the boats could not put off to land her passengers, nor the packet put in for Newhaven harbour. She was therefore obliged to ride out in the roadstead. Early this morning it blew a roost tremendous hurricane, accompanied by torrents of rain, which has elicited the most painful apprehensions of every one for her safety. At ten o'clock, the packet was not in sight. Auother sloop is now in the roadstead, and tier situation is seen ith the utmost distress. The dreadful swell of the sea, with a lee-shore wind, excludes all possibility of rendering her any assistance from the shore. Twelve o'clock.--The vessel has just run ashore, at ebb tide, on the West Cliff, opposite Bedford-square. In stantaneous assistance was afforded to the crew, by hundreds of persons flocking to the spot. We are happy to say, the crew were all saved, and every humane attention paid to their distressing situation. She proves to be the Julia, of Elsinore, Captain Tuomeson, bound from Bourdeaus to Copenhagen, laden with wines. The Captain, finding that all his efforts to get out to sea were useless, resolved to cut his cables, and the vessel run on the Clif f , without being dashed to pieces. On Friday morning, about five o'clock, a fire broke out in the issuer quadrangle of Winchester College. NVe are happy to say that no life was lost, and 'that no material accident occurred. COAL M A RKET, Nov. 13. Shia. at Market. Ship Bold. Price. 56* Newt Ale .... 444. ge. to 59 , . M. 5 Sonderluod ... I . . 46.. 641. to Mk. OIL • To the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. LE . TTER W. REAL REM l'.1)! ES. Ste,—Before we come to Oral( of these, 1 . must notice a little more of the Quackery that is now going fornard. That instrument of knaves, mot oracle of fools, the Times Ne A apaper, has found out, that " the declension in the priCes of and °diet grain; tHreatens to prediice great national di.tress." It tell' us, that t all over the country; " numerous faults are•abanilonetl by the lo11:111ts hi an uncultivated slate; add that it is (h@ foreign enra, now lying in the warehouses, that keeps flown the price of our owhi eons." It is very true, fleet the dot:lei:4nd of price l pro.. ducing the cffoct that is here ascribed to it. No im: prosements of the land are going oti. Fierners are drawing in their eiperiditure in 01 directions. net are leSsenimi the number of their horses and of their labourers. Every sort of work that n:11 admit of delay is delayed, or given up. The land is either badly tilled, or is left Wholly unfilled, in numerous cases. And, thousands upon thousands of farms, fire thrown hack into the lutiiik of the osCners. The cultivatora. of the soil are fleeilig like Lot, witlieut the need et any injunction not to look heliiiid them. But, that, which this swop man points out as the sole cause of this great natillgel esil, really makes no part of the cause. The Corn Bill did not make wheat dearer than it was berme; and yet he ascribes the low price to that B;11 not having gone far enough. He ascribes this low price to tiie largd store of foreign wheat now in England, though the law does not permit that wheat to be sold here, anti does permit it to be carried litany to other This is a cause quite of the sort to be discovered by one, whose optics are of a kind to enable him to see nothing that is of less bulk than a sack of wheat. The C' rte Bill forbade the importation and sale of foreign wheat, unless the price iif wheat in England was 10s. the Winchester WI:Owl. Foreign wheat might be brought here and warehoused, but it could not be sold here, until wheat was LOS. ti bushel. Thus stands the law. Now, if all the wheat in the whole world were warehoused in Eng land, why should that induce me to sell thy wheat at 6s. 6d. a bushel, as I now do? If, indeed, mt wheat brought nearly 10s. a bushel, I might be tempted to hasten my sales a little on account of this store of foreign wheat ; but, surely, my present price is such as not to be at all affected by that store any more than it would be by a store of stones or of wool. But, if this were the case; if this state of foreign corn caused our con► to sell cheep, the owners of it must be fools indeed to keep it here, and must hart been fools to bring it here. They, at any rate, mast have thought that its being stored here would not produce doy such effect ; and yet, they are full es likely to understand this matter as the stupid, though prostituted writer of the Times Newspaper. I, too, opposed the Corn Bill, but upon very dif. ment, and was formerly an inmate of the berms Lu- ferent grouuds. I opposed it, Ist, because it tended static Asylum, at Exeter, from which place he came to keep food at a high Oise, and, thereby, to drive out apparently restored to sanity, having been re- people out of the country, and, amongst others, ma proved by his mother, for some impropriety of con- nufacturers, to the injury of England ; because duct, flew into a violent passion, and threatened to it tended telteep srsalwolfrorthe rest of the world; beat her with a stick which he held its his hand, but but, principally, because its object was to enable the being prevented from accomplishing his intention by land to pay the present taxes, which the good of the the interference of two of his brothers, he, unper- country required to be diminished, by the reduction ceived by any of tha party, snatched up a butcher's of the army and of the pay, salaries, and pensions of knife which was lying near him, and in an instant those, whose pay had been fixed at a high rate, or stabbed the whole three. The knife entered Mrs. raised, on account of the high prices. But this sneak. Bassett's stomach, which it is feared will prove fatal ; frog caviller appealed merely to the bellies of the mob one of the brothers received the weapon between the and to the purses of the annuitants. Not a word did fifth and sixth left ribs, and is likewise in a very dan- he say about the taxes; not a word about the ex gerous state; the other, though struck twice on the pences of Government; not a word about the pay of breast with considerable violence, has sustained the the army and navy ; not a word about the pensions least severe injury, and it is hoped may speedily re. and salaries and allowances and grants, all fixed, or ' cover. Immediately after the commission of these raised, in deer-corn times. dreadful acts, the unhappy perpetrator fled, but was But, Sir, as lam now about to talk of real reme pursued, and has since been taken and placed in strict dies, we must take all these matters into view ; for, confinement. is it just, that the people who have to pay the teen MAGEE v. O'Gonat aar.—This trial, which has should have no consideration bestowed on them, been fixed for Thursday nest, has been postponed while so much consideration has been bestowed on by the Right lion. the LORD CHIEF Jeseice, until every body else? Let us see how this question stands. the sittings of Nisi Prins after the present Term ; and Prices are now much about the same as they were his Lordship has been pleased to express his deter- before the Anti-Jacobin War. But, is this the case mintier' that such trial shall be called on first on with the pay of the army, navy, Judges, Police that day. s Justices, clerks, &c. &c.i You know very well that Paovisroes.—ln Wexford, we hear, prime beef it is not. You know very well, that, on the express is sold for twopence per pound, and potatoes for ground of the rise in picot, millions have been paid one penny per stone. In Sligo and Donegal prime to the Royal Family ; that their ellowances have all beef is two pence halfpenny per pound, and potatoes been augmented on that ground. Ynu know also, three half-pence per stone. A Paper of (his morn- that the salaries of the Judges, that the pay of the sag observes, that the Farmers declare they cannot soldiers and sailors, that the salaries of the police obtain, in Smithfield, more than three halfpence per justices, that the pensions and allowances to Ambits pound for their beef, and that they would willingly seders; in short, that all exp•suces have been raised, sell it by the carcase, sinking the offal, for two for many years past, and that some of them have had pence per pound, while the butchers in our markets augmentation upon augmentation, on the express charge from four pence to five pence per pound by ground of the rise in the prices of the necessaries of the quarter.—(Dublin Evening Pen, Nov. II ) life. Well, then; now that the necessaries of life The following curious circumstance we have from have fillets in price a full half, 041st not the pay, a Gentleman just arrived from Waterford. It salaries, &c. to fall 5140, at least, hack to the old shows the anxiety of the farmer to he relieved from mark ? What pretest can there be for now paying the high war tax :— is A steady Q taker, in the these persons at the rate of dear corn prices ? County of Waterford, had been so unlucky as to Some few years ego the average price of wheat take a fpm, a few years hack, from a Gentleman was fifteen shillings a bushel, or, let us come to of large fortune, who, it appears, has a greater re- the loaf; for that is nearer to the teeth of a judge or gird for his cash than his tenantry. 'flue Quaker a soldier as well as of a labouring man. The average lately applied to his landlord for either a reduction price, for years, of the waster's loaf, in Lomb's', of his rent or a surrender of the lease, both of was 18d. The average price is now, and has been which were refused.--. 4 Wilt thou, then,' said the for a long while, t Id. Green Bacon was 17s. a. Quaker, give me a longer lease, that I may en- score. It is now Ws. Malt was les. a bushel. It deliverer, by improvement, to render the land some- is now 9s. Bread, meat, and beer, are the things eta what near the value ?'—The Landlord replied that elects the people live, or ought to live, and may live he would, and, on consideration, would reduce the %ell; and though the Lord does not live upon thrm, rent half.a.guinea per acre.—A lease for three lives his servants do. Upon this comparison of prices, was agreed on; three names were insetted in the we have lowered the pay of our labourers, smiths, lease, the Quaker requesting to omit Isis own, as wheel.. right+, etc. The men to whore we used to he considered himself a bad life. The new lease give 3tel. a day, we now give 2011. I used to pay a was duly executed, and the old one cancelled. In shilling for job-work where I now pay eight-pence. about a fortnight, the Quaker returned to his Laud- 'Lime is as yet slime irregularity ; a good deal of lord, and, handing him the lease, said, Friend, I disputation ; the men are loath to come down; many hate done with thee and thy land ; may thee have all change masters; but, when they come to a new mas the success with it thou deservest. The three lives ter, they lower their price. Wisrk, however, stands thou gayest me are all gone—they are no more—fare still in the meanwhile, and much diminution of culti thee well: appears that the three men w hose ration takes place. Many, running about to 'seek names had been inserted in the lease, were, et the the old prices, at last, get no employ at all. They time, under sentence of death in the' nest county go to the "sottish; hut, what takes place then? Why, gaol, anti executed according to their :entente."— the Justices compel the parish to feed them; but the (Dublin Evening Post) palish compel them to work; so that, after all ; they 1 ncl 1