The Statesman. — London, England, 1821-12-21 00:00:00

ft 1 AGRICULTURAL RELIEF. The agricolturWs are lamenting their burthens in the begi»ning of their troubles ; they bear only a tithe , of the evils which will fall upon them, as well as upon the trailing part of the community, if decisive and pm meii;liTh are riot - ptiriiiedliir their relief.-- Their. Commondersin-chief, ..41r. Webb Hall, has kind ly displayed his nostrum,- a countervailioirodety of , 40s: per (patterns the importation of foreign wheat! Bat this panacea is not a catholicon; and •SO far from producing that harvest of benefits, which the poor deluded Gentleman dreams of, it would generate more injury than advantage. When such trash and nonsense are adopted, by so large a portion of the cow munitv, as the dictates of wisdom, it proves, beyond all donbt, that deep knowledge of political economy is not widely extended even in this kingdom. Nothing can be more absurd and ridiculous than the pompous insanity of that Gentleman's speculations; and when we consider that his efforts are directed, as he supposes. to the aid of agriculture. laughter at his ignorance is restrained by disgust of his impudence. History tells us, that some years since, many of the owners of land in Denmark presented themselves before their King, and entreated him, on their knees, to accept their estates, as the taxes were heavier than the rents Would discharge ! To this pass it will come in England, if a remedy be not found for the evil. The other day we were told, by a pretended • philosopher, that the country was in danger from over population ; now we are assured, by the Prime Mi nister, that the agriculturists suffer from over produc tion. If one could laugh on such a serious occasion, the risible mnscles would be distended by such doc trines. The me:Matron* evil of the philosopher, arising from over population, is, in a year or two, devoured by the statesman's opposite evil, over-production. Oar forefatners thought that the increare of the people was an increase of strength—our forefathers believed that plentiful harvests were actual benefits; but, in the pre sent day, if we would follow the opinion of fashion, we most dread the increase of population as a decrease of national welfare, and bountiful harvests as corroders of the farmer's purse ! Some years since, lamentations of the peasant. on the exportation of corn, rang in our ears; now we hear lamentations because corn is not reported. We hear, in the cant of the day, enough about the utility of the farmer, and the necessity of supporting his lalimonrs—we bear a great deal about these things, bet we see no substantial efforts for his his r, lief. One man cries aloud do not touch the Corn laws!—another, lay a tax of a shilling a bushel on corn !—a third, impose such a duty as will prevent importation! a fourth, take off the tax on saddle horses and leather !—a fifth, tax transfers of stock.— llnt all these wild vagaries, if carried into execution, wonld rot enable the farmer to stem the current of necessity; a necessity that will not be restrained is 3. its operation, by barriers built of cards, nor weirs of card paper ! That agriculture is distressed, aide hat Me a ericultniists ought to be relieved, are proposi tions that no one pretends to deny. If they are not assisted, and assisted with effect, they will be involved in ruin, and their ruin will drag adieu the Government. The situation of the country creates alarm ; but still the generality live on the hope that the system will last their day ! This hope is delusive. Some of them will witness its annihilation, if effectual and immedi ate care be not taken to eradicate the seeds of destruc tion. The LegisLitore may enact laws to prevent im portation, and thereby impoverish the nation—it may take oil' the tax upon leather and agricultural horses— and even taz transfers of stock, and yet ruin will fol low, in spite of such a bungling mass of political but tresses, however finely it may be gilded. The fact is, that high priced establishments must be reduced to Me level of low priced corn ; and though the farmer complain of LOWNESS of price, as the evil which pa r alv zes his nerves, it is a grievous error. Takation —taxation is the source of Isis calamity; and if some of its currents are not cut off at the spring, they will I.rto a stream, the torrents of which will sweep away the frill's of the labours of the husbandman, and the pro duce of the ingenuity of the artisan. With an increase of taxation, rents have increased—with the increase of rents, the value of tyilies—as these have risen the poor's rates have swollen—the preternatural im pulse given by the war, has ceased, and those things which were elevated by that impulse beyond their po litical level, are now falling in prices to their proper state. Where is the man who can contemplate with indifference, a great and mighty nation fast declining in wealth and power, from the schemes and follies of its rulers ? Where is the man, with heart so callous, that can, even in anticipation, reflect on the disas trous occurrences which must clothe that nation in sorrow, if l.er progress. towards ruin, be not timely checked? Where is the man, whose heart is alive to the feelings of humanity, who can, with calmness, survey in prospect, the links of subordination br oken asunder ; the harmony of society destroye d ; Govern ment falling from the weight of its eon folly ; and a scene of anarchy, confusion, and disorder, spread ing over the land ? It is the duty, and the bounden duty of every Englishman, to endeavour to avert the calamities which hover over his country ; it is a seer& duty to save it from the horrors of intestine comm• lion, as well as from the terrors of military despotism. To show that the cause of the evil, of which the farmer complains, does not arise from LOWNESS or Pities, it will he accessary to discover what was the price of wheat on the ayes age of seven years before the war ; theu not exceeding 40s. squatter; and for the last seven years, not less than 705.! In 1791, the average price was ss. 10d. a bushel; now about 7s. In that year, all the taxes taken together did not amount to wore than 18,000,000/.; and if all taxation, exceeding that sum, were taken off now, if rents were reduced to the standard of that time, and the poor's rate properly diminished, all timings would fall in a due proportion ; and the far mer, in a year of abundance, would have no pretence for not selling his produce at as cheap a rate as Isis predecessors. We have now • charge upon the public so enormous and inordinate, that had its amount been mentioned by an angel from Heaven, in 1793, as the annual expense which the cursed war would entail upon us, all would hare laughed at the prophecy, and despised the prophet. The evil springs from increased taxation —increased poor's rate—increased payments tittithes— increased rents, anti the effects of a corrected cur rency: it must not be treated tenderly; the Legislature must, or the People will, root it out. The present sys tem of taxation, raised to support the devouring mon- it • ster, partiaPentlojtienSs, slot am hut item Its ine cpinliti•and injustice. ability to pay is absurd; those who are the least able to ear the barflies. eafty'the greatest' Ind, and dreg is not the slighteit'propedion between the Peer • sun the Peasant. It sobs the labourer of more than half. bis earnings, and takes from the manufacturer the greater part of the profits of his industry. Instead of being raised in a ratio, compounded of the difference of conditions and the superfluity of possessions, a fanciful Stand ard isassumed. If the rich man enjoy a capital man sion, with windows ten feet in height. and three feet ten inches in width,. he pays for them as single win dows: but if a man of little fortune should have win dows in his house, of modern date, five feet high and five feet wide, each window is charged to him as two! If the rich man brew his own beer, he pays a duty only on malt ; but if the poor artisan quenches his thirst at the alehouse, he most pay in the price an ad ditional duty on beer ! To the gentleman of 5.0001. a year, salt does not create an annnal expense, in ge neral the thousandth part of leis income ; but on the moderate calculation it costs the peasan t the sixtieth part of his wages. The poor, who ought to pay no thing, are the heaviest taxed according to their means of cantributioa ; *whilst the rich escape by the payment of impositions, which they, comparatively, scarcely feel. It is of no service to remark, that Legislators are not geometricians—they on At to be philosopbels; sod if they are not they undertake a task which they in honour, are bound not to attempt to perform. Fu turity will scarcely believe that the resources of such a country as Great Britain, instead of being drawn from those who have most to spare. are principally ex tracted from those who need that which is eztorted from them. It is high time that such a system should he abolished ; and a new one more rational, more equal, and more just, be adopted in its stead. Til then the great art of Government will be, to devise expedients to keep its bungling machinery together; to counteract the edicts of its friction ; to splice avid nail its disjointed parts ; to bind the heterogeneous pieces; and to dissipate a great part of the exactions from the many, in discharging the wages of the State carpenters, employed in patching an half rotted engine of intolerable oppression ? To suppose that substantial relief can he given to the agriculturist and the manufacturer, without the severest economy in the public expenditure—without a great and effectual re trenchment—without an extensive diminution of rates and taxes—without preserving the currency in an healthy state—is a supposition as wild as ever entered I the human brain. The quackery of Mr. Hall, werefi in operation, would ultimately tend to ruin Ai farmer and starve the poor : supply already exceeds demand, not on account of an actual over production, ' I but, because demand is diminished with a decreasing trade. The labouring classes of all descriptions are worse paid, and less employed, than they were so years since; and. though their wants are the nit* their means are lessened. Such a state of things ca not last long ; it sows the seeds of its own destructiosi There may be men, with nerves so firm as to conteor plate the scene without horror ; but the great balk the people cannot be indifferent—they are interested' averting the evils that streak the political horizon. The present Ministers possess not the capacity.if they hat:ithe inclination. to grapple with danger, and contend suc cessfully with difficulty : their fears and their feelings prompt them to bind rottenness together with paper bands, rather than disturb the system which their prts decessors. of similar political principles, introduced, and which they have assiduously laboured to preserve. With the agriculturist, the manufacturer, as well asthe land owner, should join heart and hand; and, instead of en deavour.ing to bolster agriculture by the imposition of countervailing duties, from one extremity of the king dom to the other, in every village, town, and city, they should prepare petitions, praying the Legislature to begin immediately to lop off all useless expenditure— extinguish all sinecures—reduce all pensions and sala ries to the circumstances of the titues—tefortn the poor laws—and introduce a rigid system of economy and retrenchment, to preserve the Constitution, and PRIViNT REVOLUTION ! it is not merely folly, hut the extreme of wickedness, to maintain an inordinate standing army in time of peace, at an expence of eight or nine millions ! It is a disgrace to a free nation, a disgrace which our noble ancestors would not have borne. Even Lord Chesterfield foresaw the effect of an establishment of soldiery in time of peace. " By degrees," said he, " a free people must be accustomed to a standing army ; by degrees, that army must be made strong enough to hold them in subjection : it is the machine by which the chains of slavery are ri vetted upon them." That the nerve of industry should be paralysed by an enormous weight of taxation. for such a purpose, would exceed credibility, if we did not know the wantonness of power! Sophistry will no longer avail :—the grand panacea for the relief of the agriculturist. must be found ia reducing an high priced establishment to a level with low priced corn ! All po litical animosities should cease : Whig and Tery.Roy alist and Republican. should unite, in the endeavour to 1 save their country from convulsion—from ruin wads d I despair ! • - • A ,:trt Akjk 1)1 i I i 1 T E _STA Eff * tly is its ,stot , ch s. in 1 6-p hibinet . stand st office, the eltief of tl RECENT CHANGE OF MINISTRY. PARIS, Dec. Dec. I7.—The Monitewr this morning was eagerly looked for. It was expected that it would con tain the nomination of the new Directors-General of Police, of the Douanes, of the Pones, and of Registra tion. On the filling up of these subordinate but very important departments, it will a good deal depend wiie ther the Royalist party, which drove out the last Mi nisters, will end their support to those who have suc ceeded them. Baron Mounier, M. Dupleix•de-Mezy, Chabrol Crousol, and M. de Saint Cricgorlio respective ly filled them, have given in their resignations. Among the on-dits current with respect to their successors, we have heard their offices are disposed of to Delalot, Vas blanc, Castelbajac, and Berlin de Vaux, last year mem ber for Versailles, and one of the proprietors of the Journal Des Debate. 111. Bennoit, the Director-General of Indirect Contributions, will alone, of all the directors, remain in his present office. The Prefect of Police of Paris, Count Angles; re tires along with the Directors, to make room for a friend of the new Cabinet. M. Rayneval has likewise retired, and has been offered the embassy to Berlin, as successor to M. tie Chateaubriansi. Reports dispose variously of the latter, but some appointment of int pittance, itis said, will be found for him. Amid these MOH WATER ♦T LONDOE-HRIDOE TO-MORROW. Morning b m. after 12.—Evening 34 m. after 12. tOt btattiOnan. "TES lIIRITIIIN ITATR•NAN " IS INCORPORATSD WITII U TS• STATISMAN." LONDON: FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 1821. Paris papers to the 19th instant have arrived this morning. By the Bulletin of the Chamber of Depu ties of the 17th, we learn that there is not yet any day proposed for a public Sitting. On the same day the new Ministers took possession of their Hotels.— M. Angles, the Prefect of Police, having given in his resignation the preceding evening, the administration of the office is confided in the interior to M. Parisot, the Chief of the first division. _ An article from Trieste, of the 3d of December says, "We have letters from Calamatta, of the date of the 10th of November. The affairs of the Greeks appear to go on a little better. The Senate of Calamatta has transferred its seat to Tripolizza, whence it publishes its orders in the form of a Senalus Consultant. The troops which had been before Tripolista, are gone in a great measure to beseige Patras, while 8,000 men proceed to the Isthmus of Corinth to engage Chourselaid- Pacha, who has been completely beaten by the Greeks and Suliotes. Ali Pacha of Janina has sent consi derable subsidies, amounting, it is said, to two mil lions of sequins, to the Senate of the Morea. Two Albanian Chiefs carried the document of the donation and a letter of congratulation to the Senate. The letter, we are assured, was signed Constantine. The step of Ali proves that he regards the cause of the Greeks as view_ rio us. Odysens carries on an active war against the Turks in Epirus. Ile has taken many convoys destined for the Morea. Some vessels arrived to-day from Corfu have spread a report, that the fortresses of Motion, Coron, and Napoli of Romania had capitulated. The inhabitants of the lonian Islands oppose the disarming ordered by the Governor. There bad been skirmishes against the English, and the peasants have occupied the mountains. Fnencu FUNDS. —Five per Cents. 881. 10c. New York papers arrived this morning to the 25th of November, from which we extract the following [FROM TN% NATIONAL INTELLIOENCER.] TUN SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS. Our readers may have some desire to know how the present House of Representatives is constituted, re latively to the last. An examination has been made with a view to see how many of the present Congress were members of the last Congress; and the following is the result: The whole number of members is 187. There were four vacancies to be filled, two from the States of the Main, one from Vermont anti one from Kentucky. Of the remaining 183, ninety-one were Members of the last Congress. This is an unusually large proportion of new Members. - - FROM THE PENSACOLA FLORIDAN, OCT. 29. HIGHLY IMPORTANT.--In conversation with one of the gentlemen affording the news from Vera Cruz, we learn that Russia and Great Britain are both in treaty with the King and Cortes, for the purchase of the kingdom of New Spain. Great Britain bad \offered fifteen millions sterling!!! There was nothing said of the Russian proposition'. The Deputies of New Spain has protested strongly against the whole proce dure, not consenting to hear any propositions from either power. They had sent advice, giving this in. telligence to Vera Cruz, which must have reached them about the 16th ult. as on that day the steam schooner, Mexican°, sailed for Tampico, and the news s):, P k A the , andlat late promotions m ini str i t n ke t t e n i t Richelieu, seems to be the only person forgotten or ovetiooked. —AgainSt him tlis Whelltiniec*ortitil Oppo, reilino was Create'. which dines himself and his-col leagues from the Cabinet. The . 91.y.0f a Russian lisence, exercised through M. Pozzo di forgo (who was supposed to have a complete control over the late. Governor of Odessa,) and the feeling that Fiance had • not placed any part in the events which happened this! spring at her door, or in those which are . now taking: place in the Rest, were, the real causes of his fall. In this cry all parties (on other subjects the most oppo site) could join—in that feeling every Frenchman participated. The admission of corn from Odessa was a crime, when viewed as an indication of partially towards Russia, which bad deprived France of her just weight in the arrangment of the affairs of Turkey. The Duke's wavering, uncertain, and timid policy, in the direction of domestic affairs. coupled with his fo reign political system, increased the unfavourable im pression of his character and talents. lie yesterday left Paris for his estate of Courteil, without being ac companied with so many regrets as his amiable private character might have been expected to excite. The law of the censorship of the journals will cer tainly not be renewed. It expires on the sth of Fe bruary. and will be superseded, it is said, by a severe repressive measure. Olt the 20th of January, two elections will take place la Paris to supply the place of M. ds Pasqnier and M. Roy, both elevated to the Peerage. The Liberal candidate is Tripier, one of the most celebrated advocates of the Paris Bar ; the Royalist candidates are Cesar de Panonse, a Paris banker, a friend of S illele, and brother-in-law of Lauriston, and M. Ber tin de Waltz. It is thought that Tripier will !fleeted, as he is supported by I,affittr, who has great influence in the arrandissement, and Audiot, one of the richest jew- Ake'. • The Duke de Cases, it is said, has still a party. No meeting of Ministers: impossible to tell how long they will go on. Sr. T11031.01 . $ Dnr.—Holiday at the Stock Exchange. las brought in her. Our informant recieved the's. vfltigraer from Odessa. the owner of the seka ga p,., w ho adds. that it was believed and ptoduced a gnu excitement and alarm, all parties being strag g l y opposed to any transfer of European governments. 'CA PTV filt 'OF ANOTHER PLEAT E.--. The Norfolk Rat alrl states that the United States' scheener Porpoi se . vatted:from St. Thomas on the 25th Oct. in pera l ig d f a Orificel vessel which' bad committed exteasive predations upon the American commerce, and that the Porpoise had succeeded in capturing her, after as gr. Lion of two hours. The Porpoise had two ales killed. The loss of the Pirate were not ascertained. PROM A BOSTON PAPER. Suspicions are entertained at Calcutta that de NI. colar Islands (at the entrance of the Ralph of Rea ga o are inhabited by a gang of pirates, beaded by is En g . lishman, by the name of Wm. Worthington, It •as supposed that a ship had been recently met, and a t, tempts h,td been made to entice others into pi t t. YELLOW FEVER AT JAMAICA. Captain Clarke, who arrived last evening, ea his passage from Trinadad, fell in with two vessels, which left Ji►naica the latter end of October, the crews of which were sick with the yellow fever. They informed Captain C. that it was very sickly at Jamaica, sad that must of the crews on board the vessels there had died. [FROM 211 E JAMAICA PAPERS OF THE 3D OP NOT.) It IS with great regret we learn that a fever °farm malignant nature has appeared in many of the parishes of this !sked, and is making great ravages moo the white. inhabitants. It greatly resembles the yel low fever of St. Domingo; With all the deductions to be made for falsehood and exaggeration in the French accounts of Spain, it must be seen that there is considerable agitation In that part of the Peninsula. How it happens, that while Portugal pursues the work of political regeneration with a steady and successful pace, the people of a neighbouring kingdom, u hose circumstances, character and aims had been so similar, should exhibit such a difference in the progress of their attempt, is a question that must frequestly arise. To what else can it be owing but to the Go• vernment that had previously prevailed in Spain?— Greatly more than Portugal or any other nation is Europe, Spain bad been under the dominion of a rare of Kings who were remarkable for their imbecili'!, a►nd who bad in fact resigned the reins of Government to frivolous favorites and to priests who promoted nothing but superstition and slavery. In possession of one of the finest countries in the world, the bulk of the inhabitants became divested of spirit, tbederenr rated Grandees were made the tools °tether State, end Prance, which under the old regime could at any time direct at will, the Council. of the Monarch on the Throne, thought so little of their energ that, under the Administration of Napoleon, it proceeded witkost any ceremony to dispose of their throne to a source. Whoever recollects the conduct of the leading families of the State will observe the same base want of patri• otism, and the same exclusi►e regard to their own petty personal interests, as have marked their condom through the stages of the Revolution. In conjunction with the Priests, they have proved themselves the 'reit. est enemies to the interests of liberty and their toiletry; and both make common cause against reforms which mi!,elst curtail the influence they have abused. Con• nected as he has been, with such, and nursedin the lap of luxury and despotism. it is no wo:►der the in'• becile FERDINAND becomes the object of sospicios among a regenerated people. In the middle ranks al life, and in the majority of the country, the inhibition have been awakened to their rights DI 1 d their resources; the spirit by which they had been once distinguished' has revived ; and, conscious of the dangers dot threaten their recently acquired liberties from the dn• plicity they have experienced in their KING, they dock around those champions in whom they have reason In confide. It is no wonder that Rheum and MINA should be thus respected, and that the people should be loth to lose those pledges of their security. if the KING be not infatuated, he will open his eyes to the con• dition of his country and himself, and by a timely and sincere concurrence with the people's viewe.tvert fr om both the calamities which must otherwise ensue. The new French Ministers have at last taken a les son from the experience of ages, and found that sow IP a ttention is due to the people , from whom the welit of every country emanates. They see that public 'll terest is of more consequence than roval feeline; 0 divine right and passive obedien ce are the fan otte 4l passwor.!, to slavery ; that despotism is short•lirml, and must fill by the weight of its oppressors. in Po vote life mutual consideration is to be obtaoinede the 061 Y • —il b i by candour, and in public affairs, it should oe basis of all political proceedings. Duplicity and hits'' hood are, however, attributed to courtiers. It Sa Y lag as little for the character o f a statesra te that he appears what he is not, as for a divine to act immorol- ly immediately after quitting the pnl;sit. Consiissieng as essential amongst public as well as private aims' a under such an impression , wr hail the fall of the la e Bourbon Ministers , They aff,.,od iihrrafily they laboured to enslave the nation, and trios to f the people in ignorance of their t uis‘lee.ls , IoY ann ihr lating the Liberty of the Press. This offence al.."' awoke the suspicions of all parties; an:l the at" 11. to oust them, brought brth from the Bourbon hi• r tulant message to the Chamber. clll wou:d out 'll* VI