The Sun. — London, England, 1815-01-14 00:00:00

Tilt CORN LAWS. The Tonal:kaiak assertion ascribed to a Mr. .BENErri*, a Laud-owner worth ten thousand pounds a-yen, in Wiltshire, extortid from us on Tuesday a brief groan at the miterhs of human ; and we cannot ab far overcome the shack onr - tillderstandings received upon -that occasion, a s to refrain from a few supplementary sighs. Mr. BENETT, it seems, 611dS it impossible to live upon 'his small income in this Country, - arid unless the Legislature will, put a prohibitive duty on the importation of Foreign Corn, so that his yenta' may become more adequate to his wants, he has absolutely threatened to trans port himself and family to some other country, where the necessaries of life are cheaper, and more within the compass of his moderate means. Now, though we are extremely unwilling to lose Mr. BusETT„ - and really sorry to think that the severe pressure of the times upon his scanty for time should banish his family from their native latvd, we must confess that we think the reasons against indulging him in the wish which would render his remaining among us practicable, are so. very strong, that grievous as war affliction may, be, we must advise the Legislature rather to let him and his family depart, than lay any duty on grain to raise its price above the rate at which the, labours of the..poor can enable them to purchase it. but this is a great and serious question ; and . not to be treated tightly, even in compliment to the exaggerated distress of any Land-owner, whe ther of 10,0001. or 5001. a-year. It iQ a nuestion npon,the, right decision of which, not only the greatness, but, in our souls we believe, the ex istence of this Nation depends ; and its vital and universal importance, - as well as its excessive in trieacy and difficulty, mark it as one which ought to be approached with the most guarded caution, and investigated with the most tenacious Modera tion. Aware, as we are, that much study, extensive information, and deep research are necessary to fit any man to enter into all the merits ot, and pronounce judgment on this case, we venture to hazard our bare opinion upon it with that diffi dence which claims indulgence ; and yet With that 6rmess which arises from a perfect conviction that our views are solely directed to the general wel fare. It occurs to ns to be an unhappy thing that on this great point the Agricultural Interests should take up a ground as if separate from the com Mon interests of the other claises in the,Empire. surely requires no . argument to spew that this i s a miserably short-sighted policy. Who that desires a good market for his produce would set about to ruin those to whom he must look as , the purchasers ; yet this would the advocates for exorbitant corn prices do ; they would destroy the grand mart for their commodity by charging it, at the very outset, at a price inconsistent with the prosperity of our ma nufacturing community,-and therefore destructive of the market ;---they would thus annihilate in its source the home consumption, which alone can repay their toils—for where out of Britain, or to whom else but Britisk_consumers, could they sell their produce Not in Europe ; for there is 1, We recommend to Mr. BENnrr, and all those who agree With him in principle, to peruse our first extract from ," Smnons;" in ".The Sun Review" of the same date, in which we recotded sentiments. They will there see the Christian and proper ditties of Land-owners beautifully paint ed.—Tt will also serve to illustrate the subject if they atten tively consider the following observations made by a Spedher in reply to Mr. BENErr, at the Meeting where he spcke'of the distressful necessity for his emigration "-In fact, this was a:petition especially to benefit the lama bolder : even the farmer was of secondary consideration, and it was decidedly hostile to the interest of every other class of society; and if acted upon, would prove ruinous to the little -tradesman, the mechanic,' and the labourer. The landlord pad met with no reverse since the commencement of the war: Ms rents had progressively increased, in proportion as the rest of the community had suffered privations; the nearer the mechanic and-the labourer had approached_tastarvation and beggary, the higher were the profits, and the snore effi cient the means; of the landholder. This seas no theoretical proposition, hastily introduced; it was a practical truism, the result of careful and recent enquiry. He would read to thOleeting an account of the population of the parish of Enford, a large parish in-the ventre of the county of Wilts, with the con, parative statement of the rise in the price of labour, the price of bread, and the price of land, within the last SO years. The number of houses was' 143, inhabitants as; ; of which number 250 were farmers, tradesmen, an d their families,- 201 labourers, and 2ski labourers not pau i,sre., About 30 years back, the labourers in this parish received as. per week; at this time they received Bs. per week-80 years back, the quartern loaf averaged about sd. ; al this time it is 'op.—sop:ars back, the labourer could pur chase with his wee 's pr 4, Os. fourteen quartern loaves; now h e can only purchase with his week's pay, Bs, trine quartern los ves—afrout 30 years . back the principal farm i t thi s p ar i s h , o wl b s iorrr:ing to the lute Mr. Benett, of Pyt-house, in this county, was let for 4001. it-year; at the pr e s en t ti me , thi s farts, the property ofslir. ltcnett, of Pyt-house, is let for 16801. a-year. Thus, it clearly appears, in this parish, within the last so years, labour has risen from Os. to Bs. per week, 38 per cent.; the qmartern-loat from sd. to 10Xd. tea par rent.; the rent of land from an/. to Icfriol. 2.12 per cent. 'his proves that bread has risen Within this period mare than and land more th an t w i ce as to ICC times as ranch as labour, much as Mead, 'and more than six times as much as labour. At the present price of land, corn, bread, and lab Our, the , :usilord is benefited three times as much as the farm e r, an d siztiurss as much as the labourer." • than half the price it is already in England—The reign of agricultural grandeur would therefore be short, and a very few years would see the Laud owner mingled with the Illanufacrurer in the wreck of what was once the mighty Nation of Great Britain. We are fully sensible of the magnitude and im portance of the Agricultural Interests, not only 'in this but in every country. Nothing, consistent with the general welfare, ought to -be omitted to promote them to the highest prosperity. But there is a• medium in all things ; and valuable as Agriculture is, it ought not to be exalted above its rank in political economy, at the expellee of all the other membeisof the social compact, and ultimately to its own detriment. The arguments for the PARNELL system appear to us to carry the question to this length, c‘ Are the Land-owners, a small numerical proporticfn of the population, to revert to a state approaching that which exist ed previous to the late war, or are the mass of the people to be plunged in everlasting wretchedness, in order that they may retain the anomalous sta tion. to. which extraordinary circumstances have raised them ? In short, was Agriculture meant to support the country, or the cotintrY to be sacri ficed to support the Agriculturists ?" A very curious appearance is presented at this -moment. One day a multitude "of persons meet to petition against. the 'Property Tax, and the next day they meet .to petition against : bread be ing cheap ! In both, they seem to us to h i e in error; for till the finance of the- coun:sy t b , - ; itself from the inxr.rnbrances of an_ unexampled war, the Property, or some equally productive Tam ; must be levied ; but there is no such neces sity for Cut staple commodity of life being at a price which the wages of industry (the only stan dard by which it can, or ought to be regdaied),' oan not reach. Besides, and this is a grand consi deratiowwith thisreal patriot and philanthropist, nineteen out of twenty of the people are in that grade of society, that the repeal of the Property Tax would be of no benefit to them, while the price of bread comes home as a blessing or a curse to every citizen iu the Empire. 'lshe entire - mass of human happiness is affected by the one measure, and only the pallid comforts of a particular class by the other. - This subject is so copious, that we arc aware it cannot be fully discussed within the limits of a Newspaper, and we state this as our apology for rambling to the strongest points without attempt ing the connexion of a systematic treatise. The Advocates for high priCcS endeavont to scare us into their toils, by predicting that fa mine will be the infallible result of withholding the enco”ragement they demand for the Cultiva tors of the Soil. To this we answer, that there • is no fear of scarcity so long as the Continent is open, and there is not the slightest danger of such a combination of events as to lead to our exclusion from every foreign Corn Market. And even were tha danger real, we would ask if that, is a suffi cient.reason for our anticipating the horrors of want, and prematurely afflicting the mijority of.the nation with starvation, for fear they might here after be starved ? The ruin of our manufactures, and the emigration of our population, would be the result •of such an attempt ; and we will tell these Logician, that the best encouragement that can be procured for augmented cultivation is not to diminish but to increase the demand for - home consumption, and that the prospe r ity o f tra d e and commerce, and the general diffusion of comfort. among -the lower orders, will produce the most, permanent and ef f ectual reward for the labours of cultivation. Many topics still present themselves to us, but we arc under the necessity of postponing their consideration for the present. We have lately noticed the voluntary reduction of their rents by many Land-owners, and we will venture to say that their example must be followed by ALL wllo have recently let farms at the unnatural rents to which land rose in the course of the war.— Bread must be brought within the compass of honest labour, or as that able Writer Sir JAMES STEUART has expressed it, " the price of subsistence must not be raised higher than is compatible with the gains of the lowest class of Manufacturers." —Our Work-houses prove, that this incontrovertible axiom has not been attended to of late years, but we must return to it, o r be ruined—for the Country can neither go on in the course into which the war forced it, nor stop at the disordered political paroxysm at which it has arrived. The rents must be reduced, and this will reduce the price bf every thing, so that the Landlord will be no loser, our inferior classes will -he able to live, our manufactures and commerce to contend with advantage against the commerce and manufactures of all The World, and oar national greatness be sustained at the glorious dom and firmness of our Government, an the gefseverance and devotion of our people. NEXT WEDNESDAY THE LOTTERY BEGINS.—TI-11'.. MINT TICKET DRAWN A PRIZE. ABOVE' L. 25 WILL RECEIV.E L. to.ooo IN ADDmoN t , AND MAY PROVE A. PAIZE OF MAILS. ArtnivEu-- , 2 France, I Dublin. Dv c—l Lisbon, 2 Haw burgh, I liollund, I Guernsey and Jersey, 2 Waterford. PRICE OF STOCKS •rltis DAY Al Twci 1 italik 1,. Ann. 16 5 I6ths ludil Bonds, 19s. pr. Exclull. Bills, 3s. 4s. ss. pr. Oionium, 11 dis. Cons. fur Account, 664 i Bank Stock, 3 perCeot. Red. Ofi 3 per Cent. Cons. 64i Gii 641 4 per G ent. Cons. 811 per Cer4.tiary 41111. 9s 94 - HIGH wATE It AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-NIORROW. Morning, 7 minutes affer 5. Evening, 32 Iningtes after 5 THE SUN. VILEM QUIM DICPRE FAL9Uat AtIDEAT ? LONDON, S47'URD-11; .1,1N1 7 ..1.11Y 14, 1815, 'THE BONDING SYSTEM , We hope to be favoured with a Copy et the Minute of the Board of Treasury on ';'oe subject Of the Extension of the Warehue:slug System, al- Wed to in a Morning Paper of to-day ;in the mean time %ye can state, for the information of our Readers ; that it has no - reference whatever to those Goods . which have already been ware _ housed beyond the . limited time, but ii de clares, that in future, goods shall remain in the Warehouses two years from the date of their tr 7t - ` 2 "t r y) Witliottt payment of duty (instead of the time now allowed by the Warehousing Acts), and it also declares, that all Mant,factured Goods imported, shall be entitled to this indalgence. We have ascertained that the Lords of the Council met whin on Thursday last, upon the case of Baron D'IMBEIIT, and after a short con . - sultation, decided against the reasons he had ae signed for not obeying the PRINCE REGENT'S order for his departure from this kingdom.—The Baron has been, accordingly taken into custody (as we stated yesterday) by a Government Mes senger, and, it is said, has applied for his wtit - of Habeas Corpus, in order to be brought tip before one of the Judges.. This, of course, will be granted, and an ultiuulte decision cannot therefore be long delayed. We have received Halifax Pap,ers to the lith of December ; but they bring us no intelrkgence ex cept a few naval paragraplis.—P:irty spirit J eents,, to run - very high in our North American Colonies. Four days Paris Parrs, namely of the Stb, 9th, 10th, and llth, arrived this morning:and furnish the folloWing extracts : • ." VIENNA, Dac. 3U.—We are assured, that the last Note sent by Prussia to the Ministers of the Great Powers,' has not been relished by any one of them.. Prussia in this document (it is , said) declares, that Saxony alone, and the whole of Saxony, can be her indemnity for her Polish pro vinces which she cedes to Russia; she regards the the Duchy of Berg as nothing more than a com pensation for Anspach ; and the territories. si: -tuated between the Rhine and Moselle, the Meuse and France, as indemnities for all her other Josses. In vain has it been represented, that these countries do not lie conveniently for her, .being too far removed from the centre of her monarchy, requiring „numerous and strong garrisons, and bringing Prussia into contact with France ; these - reasons have produced no effect. The Emperor of RusstA and the King of PRUSSIA perfectly agree in their plans, and act with ,the utmost concord. The one treats Poland as the other, a little after, treats Saxony, and both lay claim to their property. The Austrian Minister, on h 4 side, has declared that his Go vernment was far from refusing Prussia the in demnities due to her for her generous efforts, and for the sacrifices she had made for the general good ; but he added, that this same Government could not consent to the dethronement of a respectable Prince, who bad devoted his whole life to - the happi ness of his subjects. Under whatever, aspect we view this affair, said the Minister, we must acknowledge, that by dethroning the King of Saxony, - and depriving that Country of its inde pendence, the Congress would absolutely abandon the object for which it met ; namely, to guar rantee to Europe a peace which should last for many years, and. instead of this, would excite new and interminable wars. The first principle to'be consulted for the establishment of a, durable peace, is to avoid exasperating 'the minds of men, and to eradicate every germ of discontent. . " Austria, and the . otlier Powers which reclaim against the independence ofSaxony, have presented a calculation to the Congress, to prove that Prus sia may be amply indemnified for all that she has with her States*. " But the great difficulty is, that Prussia de mands such an arondissement as will raise her po pulation to 12 millions. Austria has, it is said, consented that the fortresses 'of the Empire, which ought to bei long to Germany, shall not be occupied exclusirell by Austrian troops, but have mixed garrisons, and that in ever y one there shall be a certain number of Prussians. This arrangement will not be an easy one. " The .Ministers have fenewed the leases of their hotels to the 15th February.- 7 (Gazette de France.) " VIENNA, Ds - c. 30.—1 t is . ascertained that there has as ',yet • been no arrangement respecting the. future fate of Saxony and Poland. Never theless, according to every appearance, the sr , rangement concerning Poland will - not he at tended with many difficulties. A new attempt has just been made promptly to terminate the buiincss as to Saxony. A Corrsnittee has been nominated, and it was to have conimensed sittings yesterday. The .Committee is compoled of Prince METTEIZNICII, President, Count Itrksou nowsxl, Messrs. HARDENBERG and HUMBOLDT, and Lord CASTLEREAQH. The Austrian itlint.sters make great efforts to -conciliate all Cie points which are still under discussion.— (Journal de Paris.) " RoME, DEC. 22.—ft appears to be the: in tention of his Holiness to annul the sales of the property of the Church in all countriQc. " Yesterday a number of strangers were ar rested in this city. " Many Spaniards have been placed undcr s7r veillance, and a General Officer has been . arrested. King CnAimus IV. has reclaimed against time acts. " The POPE has protested against the erection of Ravenna into a Sovereignty, under the title of a Duchy for Prince Louis of Etruria. " VENicE, DEC. 21. Reports from Corfu mention the continuance of distractions in that Island. They are dissatisfied with 'the English yoke. The troops and the inhabitants are i l l a state of perpetual warfare. , " Our Commerce is at a staud. The neces saries of life at a low price.- " Dcc. 22:—A courier from Vienna to Venice has been stopped and deprived of iois dis patches by the brignmis of Verona. " STUTGARD, JAN' 2.—Our Kingartiv?.4l.bere at five o'clock yesterday erening. - I'he Queen, Royal Family, and all the Court assembled .to receive his AlRjesty, and -great rejoicings afterwards to o l;, place. " PARIS, JAN. 11.—The "King has presented to the Duchess of Wellington a most magnificent service of Sevres porcelain China: - " ANCONA, Dec. 22.—There has just been published here, a Letter from his Majesty the King of NAPLES to the General-in Chief cow- mantling his troops in our prcviuce--•wc remark in it this passage : " The uniting the Marches to the Kingdom d Naples is no longer a mystery to Congress. Aus•- tria positively required that the last treaty I con cluded with her should be executed in every.par.• titular. She left me the care of explaining the matter with the Holy Father, who has lon;•knotvts that these provinces formed no part of his States." " 'f he Court of Rome does not, however, ap pear to have consented, as King Minim- had an nounced, to the cession of this ancient part of its Dominions. Its rights appear to be sacred and imprescriptiblc, and she wilt maintain theri- On the contrary, therefore, she insists ttpoa the restitution of this country, and many per- sons, who have the best mean; of deciding upoP political events, pretend that ,MURAT affects certainty for which there is no foundation, and that, in truth, the military occupation of.our,pro-: vinces depends upon circumstances which it is not his interest to divulge. " In the mean time, the Court of Rome does not neglect sending here Agents instructed to en- FRANKE:oar, JAN. 3.—According to a Prussian Journal, the Powers which have protested against the junction of Sax" ony, have offered the following to compensate her losses since 1805, when her population was 9,884,600, of which number she lost 4,679,600 by the Treaty of Tilsit. She has Tecoa quered a population of 1,163,600 making in all 6,898,600.- -# To these they will add the population of the late French Pro' vinces between the Moselle, the Meuse, and the The whole • Department of Forets, 245,810 inhabitantt --- Four-fiftbs of that of the Sambre and Meuse, 142,852—Three' fourths of . the Department of the Muse, 966,586-4 - Ul f the }Wee, 312,614—The Department cf the Rhine and Mo. selle, 167,104—That of the Sarre, 90,191—1 n all, 1,232,1 6 / inhabitants. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw, viz. the Departments of Po• sen, Bromberg, and Kalish, 1,223,000 inhabitants. The Grand Duchy of Berg, 295,000. • General Total, 4,750,157 of Population, which would raise Prussia to 9,648,600, only 450,000 less than she was in 143 03 " To these Proposals Prussia objects. •