The National Register. — London, England, 1819-08-23 00:00:00

R. Volititat Lietrosspect. TIM grant of a pare stun of money at the close oftlie late Session of l'erliament, for the purpose of etietntregieg limigtatioteto t ille Cape of Good Hope, struck us, at the time of its passing the Le gislatitre, as one of these .wretched and mieurahle ex pedients which have so naithrinly marked the policy of our present Rulers, though the press of other matter prevented us from then adverting to it ; and ..IC astonishment was still further excited ut the lit tle opposition made toit, us a more impolitic or un necessary waste of public money and of public strength never was committed. It may now seem Lite to be canvassing a measure decided on more than a month ago, but the visaing events of the day, and the erroneous opinions so generally prevalent upon ehie subject, may still render it not unworthy of at tention. A meeting W:44 the other day held at leeels to take into consideration the propriety of a pricer stdiseriptiun to aid the emigration of about 1 4 , e Anu.cand persons, belonging to that place, and to furnish the means of enabling theta to quit their moire land. Some individual, howeven, had the sci4.lo to suggest that, if timer should mend, these peoele would again be wanted, and the project ac coriLogly Wee &opt. Several of the public Jour mils arc also devoting their pages to the un worthy of of receraniendiue both the general principle of sech a system, end the application by Government of the public Revenue in furtherance of such lepurpose. The Editor of the Times has discovered that " Colonization ought to be regarded its the. fin t ef uil great objects ; for it is in fact en lerging the praluetive surfiwe of the kingdom, leinging into cultivation an immense extent of hi therto barrea territory, and reinftweing the soil of Leg:ead lay smother soil tar more than equal m her tAs a eeteat, and beyond all calculation- excelling Leg',: in fertility ." He has. further dist:even-el that toolaany of our own waste lands at home have been u:rettly rendered productive, and the mu:reeked qeantity of corn brought to the central nawkats has ameply injured the lower classes," and lastly, "that it . dreadful to observe how our peasantry have not only been injured, but erfingeislacc/ by the inexorable doctrine that lathe capitals employed in Agriculture are the most profitable in their application." In.st publication so generally respectable arul enlightened, it was not without regret that we faund such a airing of unwarrantable assumptions, idle nonsense, and erroneous theories. These may be harsh terms, but such reelining deserves no better. We can readily admit that the parent State of our society is wrong, and requires correction ; that the body po -I;tic is sick, and loudly calls for healing. But what is the WiS(10111, or what• the merit of thet treatment, whish, the moment a Ural) becomes disordered, cruelly and inhumanly cuts it off, regardless of eiet.er the blemishes or the invitee:rice whit& may fellow from its his. With respect to Colonization, Ns e know that the great States of antiquity, in their most flourishing periods, often permitted numerous bodies of their subjects to leave their present' coun try, and to form settlements as their own inclina tions led them ; nor would we now be understood ne wishing to prevent the same liberty of will and uctiun, here. But both Greece and Italy were in very different circumstances at thole periods front what we are now placed in ; and there was farther uleo this must important dissimilarity between their policy in this point, and ours—that a band of Greek or Roman adventurers quitted. their country of their men free will, and formed wherever they pleased to settle, establishments and laws, and institutions, totally independent of the parent stuto. Every Aang was there left to find its own level,. and the r. hole interference of the Mother Country was 17,::fill'-`a to a new acts of kindness sad good-will to• wards these whom she still considered as her chil i-nen. NVhat has Great Britain ever gained by all colonies elle has either planted or possessed ? Hew metty wars .has hcr colonial policy led her to eede.r!. in ? How many acts of teranny and Dives. Las it lel her to attempt to exercise, till an Uutli.lr;ty,.tinwisely exercised, has pro % a!,l justif.ol restlin;:e and terminated in nit cue side and disgrace on the other ? V:e may tree..:are upon cultivating the vi.s!cs of Africa, and semi our people , to usurp, and cocroali territories of a peaceful and un ra:e of Tal: es, but let us net at least be sei.l the: it, so duing Ste are pursaing a better p lice than in cultivating that soil to which natural jr-tiee gives us the hest claim, and which on the other Land has surely the strongest etaitus upon our Be-ides which, tire not colonies the usual ; ; . Ises fur eli;:11 all natitms uniforinly contend in ten- ? ‘Var gave us the Cape, and the right of eeequest has ctattittued it in our pussessiou, but - the •su.te cause that gave it may again just as easily take it away, or stone future minister may think a few thousand souls and a barren 'country hardly 'worth contending fur, and recommend its being g :yen up fur some equivalent. And iy i t . upon THE IiATTON'AL circumstances such as these that any wise man would suspend the tontines of Britain, and the chances of supply to her petiple, or speak of culti vating the Cape is identified with the engagetuent of our Home Produce. • The lesson which America read to us on this subject can hardly be so soon forgotten, and-yet the COUIV , which she followed' is lint the soave of nature. The friends of colonise ' t ion, and the advocates of that horrible war talked of the separation of that country, as nothing-less than the filmdom ruin and downthll ofGreat Britain ; but the fact both with regard to America and all our other Colonies is, that they have never contributed 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 derendencies. But with respect to the great bug-hear of not being able to Jed nor Forla at home, and the Use and lying assertion that large capitals employed in Agriculture hate erlingnislwd our pmsantty, the first is a gratu itous assumption which ignorance of the subject can alone lead any one to make, and the latter is plainly dcmonstraLle by era:prison and by facts to be quite groundless. The Report of a statistical survey, nuule about three years ago, stated, that there yet remained in the British Kingdom 22,351,000 acres of waste but improveable land, which; enclosed and cultivated, and let at but 10s. per acre,would produce upwards of 11 millions, to be thrown into the great stream of our circulating metlitun, to augment 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 employmont to a much greater po paition. than this country now contains or would in the natural progress of population, contain for many years to come. But even this is but a small part of this important question.. No man who has •seen what has been done in Norfolk, and is now doing, by Mr. Coke on theone side, and by Lord Albemarle on the other, and by men who have the sense and patriotism to follow these bright examples can doubt that by skill, by capital, and by industry, . and still more, if we can only said to these the due encouragement which the Legislature owes as a•hoon duo to that .great tower of national strength and prosperity, that the agricultural produce of Great. Britain migbt 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 couutry look at the situation and condition of the lower classes wherever the improved system of cultivation has extended. Let bins look. at Holk. ham, where labouring inhabitants,. so far from• ex tinction, have multiplied under its present owner from less than three hundred to more than seven.— Let him enter their cottages, let him converse with those who inhabit them, let him view their furni ture, their ruddy children, their pig-styes and their gardens, and then we may safely leave him to answer to his own heart and conscience what is the justice, where thnianindations of his charge. But if he is still dissatisfied, let him pass to other parts of the country where the whole scene is exactly as he would recommend, where the farms are small, and their occupants as poor as he could wish them, and we would tell him that among , no race of men uprin the face of the earth can he find less to envy and mors.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 hope. Here and there perhaps the niggard yersinsony, which can have. no other name than the basest love of money, may have enabled a l ong u s to scrape together a few hundred pounds; but much oftener the last days of life are devoted to a work house, or to dependence on parochial aid. Is this a state of society to be wished fin. or admired? Can it contribute to public strength or public happiness ? Certainly not. The produce of the land is poor and icanty, the occupier is miserable, the labourer badly supported . and wretchedly paid, and every shift and contrivance teed to throw the whole of upon the paris'o-rates. Besides this the expenditure u who can be so absurd' I% 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 Times like to be told that lie was injuring the community by the profit he derives, and from the immeasurable space of intellectual ground he occupies by the cir eulution. of his paper ? A law to prevent his selling beyond a limited number of copies would he just as wise, and quite as equitable, as any regulation ex to the size of hums. Yes, we have no doubt but half a dozen editors might live very respectably upon what he thus miserably and vor ac i ous ly p u t i nto hi s own pocket. Nor would the small farmer much thank him, if he reflects a little, fur his theory. The hopes of rising is the gr ea t st i mu l us an d so l ace o f exertion. He that now oxiipies twenty acres sees reach to forty, and feels that be may on e d a y rens and he that has mounted to an hundred, can still look to other steps of the ladder which be may Eddy aspire to mount. He can see and feel that be is engaged in :► persui.t where all is not low and mean and grovelling, but that like other professions and employments it has its gralutions anti its ranks, which only confur , respectahility no least, it not the • palm of honor The greatest authority upon the law of nations and the principles of naturcljustice has most wisely and beautifully told its,•that " it is the bounden duty of every Government to give to its agriculture its first and earliest cure, and to • make it, as fir us possible, to be held in honour."-- " For," - ssid he, " witliont this; tradesmen in cities, even the most servile mechanics; grill be.iticlined to consider him that. cultivutes the earth with a dis dainful eye, and dare to despise a profession tha feeds the human race, which is. the natual employ ment of mau, , and was the darling occupation of the first Consuls and. Dictators of ltome." AtTGPST 9.3: FROM SATUADdIY NIGH7"S GAZETTA'7.. CROWN OFFICE, Ara. 21. MEMBER returned to serve iu thiv presont PARMA MT. NT. Borough of Ashbuston.—John Singleion Copley, one of His Mujevty's Serjeants tLaw, and His Majesty's Solicitor General. RANICRUPTCY ENLARGED S. Worrell, A. Popoff and J. Edmonds, Briatol, bankers, from Jtug. 21- to tht. 9. BANKRUPTS. J. G. Flowers, Leadenhall Street, tailor. T. %Vingett, Plymouth. boot and shwa maker. I. Johnaon, Stamford. Lincoln. conch and harness maker. E. I.ittle, I%lealsgate, Cumberland, blacksmith. W. Little. Mealsgate.CumluAlnd. alste-merchratt. A. Little, Meals gate, Coinherlaral, wood.nionger. G. Stanley, Kirkburtoo, York, clutlii.n. E. Prichard, Llanram, Denbigh, shopkeeper. M. Anderson. Southampton, poulterer. J. Annely, Kingulown. near Bris.a, grocer . W. Pratt. Birmingham, druggiss. C. Payne. Bermondsey. dyer. It: S. Deplyn and T. Bermondsey , Lit aehouse, coal merchants W. Hyde. Ilowford Buildings, Ecncharch Sheet, merchant. DIVIDENDS. August 28. I. Palyart, London Street, Fenchureh Street, mer chant—September 4.5 y S. Joseph and W. Hughes. Winchester Street, Broad Street, merchants--14,..1. Ilandlcy. Milwich. Seat= ford, miller-16. R. and W. Salt. Stone, Stafford, dealers —o, T. Jenkins, Judd Street. Brunswick Suare. master mariner-18, R. S. Hall. Bank fluildings, merchant—l t. A. Warner, SI. C 2. thatine Street. Tower. victualler—i J. Howitt, Street, charcoal merchant-13, L. Teather, Nottingham. dealer —l7, W. Breeze, Stoke upon Trent. Staffirrdshiro, potter—l I, F. Collins, New Fishborne. Sussex. mailman—Oct. T.Williats, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, irennxinger-30, E. Dampier, Primrose Street. Bishopsgate, seed crusher. CRRTIFI CATES to be granted Sept. iI. R. and .1. It. Tceenend, Mitre cattt merchant —T. Street. mer chants—S. Hughes. Liverpool. n or erchant—T. Fish, Bridport, Dorset, victualler—T. Chi t. Bristol, broker—W. Bony well, Bath, brandy merchint,—T. Hauncey, Cateaton Street, warebouseatan—.l.•Lewis, junior,. :tittrtley, Worcester, horse dealer—J. II ont,Swirliin's Lane, merchant—J. Strafford, Scrooby, Nottingham, tallier. Write lank 5 nolt pi r C . { , rr ro. Cons. 714 i per Ceut. Blj 4 per lent. 914 5 per Cant. Nays IC4j 1;)IIg Auu. 191 THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Lon Don. MONDAY, AVOUST 23. In another part of our Paper will be found a cor— rect, and, as we think, a sufficiently full account of the proceedings at Manchester, the greater part o£ 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 ooald 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 not illegal; in deportment most peaceable, intending only to descant on their difficulties, their wants, their distresses, and their wrown arc assailed by a corps of Yeomanry Cavalry (who, frcm the brutality of their conduct, one would suppose, had, like the wild beasts that exhibited of old, been kept from food toinerease 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 f If tombs. 011114111 P 44. Imp. 3 per Cent. laths Builds 18s. dhs. • lii.ha viol Exchequer Has 2.. die. Cues. tor Al. ii Limery Tickets