The National Register. — London, England, 1820-01-23 00:00:00

WWI! ~~/ - - • . , c7tfry P /6 . 9fZ4-e-pi if ,;„ ~, az,- nat Atoitittr• 4 Our Sing, Cordititutton anD N airO• No. I,S4.—VoL. XIII.] political itttrooprct. Anatctrurune is the great foundation of all stational strength and national prosperity. Its end is the supply of the first necessaries of life, and in proportion to their scarcity or abundance in any sountry, even moderately well governed, will be the population, the wealth, the labour, and all the stattina which constitute sound vigour and real tread:less. ats existence marks the boundary be meson-savage and civilised life, and by the degrees . of its progress and encouragement the scale of re finement is exactly graduated. It is further of, incalculable value, as connected with public Wig, from the peculiar character of its exercise and cm- , ployment. All its concerns arc peaceful, healthy, and favourable to innocence and virtue. By the labourers in agriculture being distributed in smell ' parties, by their wages; being► liable to but little :fluctuation, and by their employment being more regular than in almost any other branch of human industri, many of those evils as well as vices are unknown, which so perpetually infcct and pollute the messes cangregated in the various branches of •commerce and manufactures. You have, therefore in agriculturei no combinations, or turnings out, as they are called, for int cease of wages amongst work men ; you have no political meetings, or commotion which can furnish either cause for alarm, or pretext for the abridgement of our liberties. The character of the fumy is aka equally distinguished by a love of peace and tranquillity public as well as private ; his skill, hissapital, and his industry, are all em. played for purposes of national good, as well as private,gain. Is it not then wonderful that there should exist any instances of as enlightened state of society, or any Government which is not either stupidly blind, or desperately , wicked, where the promotion of a science so essential to human happiness, and fa -vouraWe to public prosperity, should not be made she very first objeci, of concern I And is it not still more wonderful, that (heat Britain should furnish that ingenue. But, alas! there is no part /whatever of her policy, either foreign or domestic, which furnishes so deplorable a picture of mis government. lactead of cherishing, even as the apple of her cyg ; avhat she must know and feel to be the great alum to which sheifinst look for her strength, the universal system has been not only to withhold encouragernent, but to inflict on it the heaviest scourges. The burdens by which the seri eulture of this country is now oppressed are too numerous to be reckoned, and too obvious to need that we should 'state them. They are also to, keenly felt to need that we should strive to excite a greater sensibility by our picture. In fact * , al most fur the first time, an active and even acute impatience scents tole alive throughout the country on this subject.. The farmer is at last roused to a Mom and $ conviction that something must be /wrong; and meetings are now being held, and resolutions of various kinds passed, and petitions to the Legislature framed, in almost every consider able town throughout the kingdom. These resolu hpwevere are some o 1 them of so extraordinary a descriptioo, as airmen taanke us laugh at their absurdity and inconsist s Not a few of these strings , set got by prof , of loyalty and con `dance in the wisdom of at very Government F-. - • .1 SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1820. which has produced the miseries under which they groan. and are petitioning for an alleviation of.— Others again arc so absurd as to profess that their petitions are in no way connected with party objects, and have nothing of a political character about them. Now really the only sewer to these professions of confidence in His Majesty's Ministers, which those Ministers can or ought to give is, i• pray, continue it ;" it is our wisdoms which has placed you in the condition you are in, and if -wisdom half been manifested in your ruin, it would be arrant fully to do any thing to help or save you ; you have like good and faithful subjects supported our measures. a.el all those who follow in our train ; you have most properly returned representatives to Parliament. who, like yourselves, have reposed in our wisdom, have voted fur wars and taxes, and whitever could contribute to promote our continu ance in power and the Glory of a Great Nation; you have to :recollect that it was under your express unction that an enormous debt has been contracted, and it would now be not only disloyal but shabby and inconsistent to shrink from paying its interest; you have for live and twenty years supported that very system of policy which we are now pursuing. and man to sentinuc; we are glad it has met your approval, and glad to hear that your confidence is not diminished; your Petition shall lie upon the table." Such is really the only answer which such documents as we have mentioned can either expect or deserve. Nor are their sentiments very different who would pretend that their petitions Lave nothing to do who polities. The fact is, that the whole question is, and must be, purely polilkat But what these gentlemen want is to get the aid and assistance of those, who have uniformly and consistently labonred to ward off from their poor county the calamities under which she groaned, for this express object, and then return to kiss the rod that has afflicted us, and fawn and cringe like spaniels with encreased I affection for those who have scourged and whipt them. They have year after year pursued with unmeasured obloquy that opposition to a wasteful and profligate expenditure, which fur a single point of direct self-interest they would now gladly them selves join, and if that end could only be carried, cast them off again, and return to wallow in their former sink,—unntanly dependence and corruption. But this is not all—for supposing this unnatural coalition once funned, we do not see how the opposite parties could proceed one single inch together. These can be no doubt that the whole , evil is the sole and natural fruit of our enormous taxation. You must either pray for relief from this or you pray for nothing, and are those who profess this anxiety to combine all parties prepared to admit their own past errors, and to join in reminding his Majesty's Ministers of the miseries they have caused and the ruin they arc spreading round us ? We fear not. On the other hand, the only plan to which Ministers mould listen would be for a duty on importation. This tax, from their known propensity, they might probably be easily led to impose. But would thou who have seen and felt, and exclaimed day after day .against the wanton waste of public money, be inclined to vote for a measure which would place still more at their disposal. Would those who have for years been struggling against fresh imposts being laid upon the peer, pow lend their sanction, to tax even the bread they eat ? Would they lend a hand to aug ment that wretchedness which is already so elect,- . . 14 , • ; , [Pews 941• sive, as to threaten the most serious and as a cure for which our liberties are gone, and the proud name of a free Englishman suffered to exist no more ? Is it a crisis that can admit of inch a palliation ? If trade were prosperous, if our finances were sound, if our Rulers were really to be trusted, there are many consideration" which would induce us to believe that a duty upon im ported corn, and the trade then lett free and other wise unfettered, might not be unreasonable. But with starving manufacturers and universal poverty, with no disposition to public economy, no wisdom, no symp-.thy, no system but that of direct tyranny and positive subjection of all to their sovereign will, at the helm of State, who can wisely or prudently lend a hand to support such policy, and that at the expence of the poor and indigent ? No, we fear, seriously fear, that nothing short of a great crisis is destined to set us right. We have been proceeding with most rapid strides, of late, in that course which generally precedes, because it can hardly fail to produce Revolution. The only mode of actual relief to agriculture, in our present state, is to enable it to contend with success .against foreign grower 4, but this can never occur whilst a much larger sans is actually paid to Government upon the production of corn in this country, than the whole price of the corn itself upon the Continent. That his Majesty's Ministers arc fully responsible for our situation is true, that they should be loudly and earnestly reminded that they are so is true likewise. But as long as they can.go -on without interruption in their eareer, it is worse than madness to hope that they will seriously set About any plan of reformation.— Let the friends and supporters of Ministers then have the whole subject in their own exclusive hands. They can plead their claims to gra titude and attention, and indeed the supporters of our present Rulers do deserve something for the for the services they perform. The present Corn Laws are infinitely worse than none. The zaischief they occasion is qualified by no good whatever.— Their repeal would be a work of wisdom, but what is to he substituted in their stead, Ministers and their friends had best consult together. LEEDS. Jan. 1 a.—.l committee has been formed here and measures are taking tio make out a strong case, to induce Mi nisters to consentro a repeal nfthe woolsluty, immediately on the re-assembling df Prrhsanent. It having been industriously circulated here, and published in some of our newspapers. that Lord Milton, one of the county members, supported the bill in the last session of Parliament, for laying a tax on foreign wool imported, his Lordship has written a letter to a respectable gentleman in this town, denying the charge, and appealing to the debates in the house at the time, for a retutationef the calumny. The noble Lord further says-•-•. I not only opposed to the utmost of my ability, the obnoxious measure passing into a law, but I will likewise support any motion that may be made for its repeal ; and your Committee may rely on any best exe,tions on behalf of themselves. and the manufacturing intt rest generally." The business in our clotit•halts to-day was rather brisk, as compared with last week: bet there is a shocking deficiency et cash t all is done on the credit or kite system and aasignmtnts and compoundings are daily taking place. The body as females whose name is at present unknown. was found this mot cling in a pit at Whitley, near this town, into which she is supposed to Lye been thrown by two villains, who were seen to follaw her out of a public house list night, where she had tatted tor refresh. meat. Intelliv, , ence from the Cape of Good Hope state/ that the news had just reached the Cape of the in tention of Government to form a settlement on the Fish River, and produced, as might be expected, • very pieasant impression, as the importance of the cokmy would be increased by this new arrange.. went. Letters have been received from Gibraltar of the 28th of last month. The commuoieation between that place and Spain waa opened on the 23d by a Proclamation from his Excellency the Governor, it having been closed for several months to prevent infection from the yyllow fever, which had been raging at Cadiz, the Isle tie Leon, &c. Trade a 1 the British fortress, which had, for a lung time, been in the most deplorable condition, owing to those restrictions, scented to be imp-ming. ) 'fl 0 711 •m_q 13