The Sun. — London, England, 1817-10-07 00:00:00

ENGLAND'S PROSPECTS. LEffEit 111. To JOHN BULL, Esq. Lord of the Ocean, Lord of the Isles, Master of Arts, and a good Fettew of all Societies, &c. shall say nothing to you, JOHNNY, of your ►;aval force, except that I was very sorry to cib se:ye a hasty spirit of retrenchment urge you to a diminution of it, too rapid for those who were 'tin own out of employ in consequence of it. I du not believe, that, if a full investigation of roil( and loss were to take place, you have gained sixpence by it ; and 1 fear that you have lost much wore. Had you first discharged all those who were capable of trades on shore, and re tained the real seamen until they could be gradu- ally employed in the merchant service, your dimi nution of expeuce would have been neatly as rapid, and you would have preserved both the hearts and bodies of a gallant, aye and a scientific, race of common seamen—a race extremely difficult to form,. and even more difficult to recover when' once they have fallen into the hands of a quiescent, , but still inveterate enemy. Your army has also cost yon much to create ; much money must be spent, and mach blood must be spilt, before one hundred and fifty thousand veterans can be formed. Nor will present sav ings in Commissariat, or Ordnance, amount in many years to any thing like the ex pence you have been at to bring those complicated services to efficiency. I am indeed aware, that your sons would behave as well in another twenty years star as they have done in the last ; but their education has cost you something, and it %vitt be cheaper to allow the present race to continue their studies in a quiet harmless way, than to be obliged to semi others not only to school, but to set them out in business before they have learned their trade, as you found necessary in the early part of the contest. But .to leave generals, for particulars, excuse me JosiNtar, I am not at a putt, let us take a walk ovWyour farm, then a peep into your workshops and counting •houses, your canals and sect-ports, a glance at your treasury, and finally pay a visit to the good lady in Threadneedle•street—we may per haps find something to arouse an idle hour, and perhaps we shall finish our morning ramble with less alarm than we commence it, and set down to our roast beef and plumb pudding with good ap petites and thankful hearts, that bad as things arc, they might have been much worse, and will soon be much better, if we do not prolong the evil by an injudicious eagerness to avert it. As for your farms, and those of your tenants, really JOHNNY, I think they put on a very handsome appearance. y our enclosures are good, and you have but little waste land, considering all things ; but 1 arts sorry you don't plant a few more oak trees 'in some of your forests, which at present ate nearly as bare of cloathiug as the learned lexicographer found seven parts of your Sister l'EG's farm forth of the TY-TAWs „ i Y i teg 61,11fre in im lade; -- bur 1 am afraid, JOHNNY, that your workhouses have increased as your farm-houses have dimi nished : and, though the riches of your farmers proceed from improved agriculture,. I atn doubt ful whether the real wealth of all your children, or even their individual comfort, has increased much from that peculiar circumstance. That Britain is a rich country, nobody will deny, notwith standing present distress ; yet there is an ob servation of ADAM SMITH'S which is Of sonic im portance on this subject. He - says, that " in agriculture, the labour of the rich country is nut always much more productive thao that of the poor; or, at least, is never so much moreproduc- . tive, as it commonly is in manufactures. The corn of the rich country, therefore, will not al ways, in the same degree of goodness, come cheaper to mat ket than that of the poor." Now, if there is any truth in this general principle, and we find that the corn of a rich country; after a dead "season, shall come down to an unprecedent ed cheapness, it follows, either that the country is declining in its wealth, or that some extraor dinary change has taken' place in the relative si tuation of society with respect to demand and supply, and even in the comparative value of the circulating medium. But general principles too often lead to -preju diced hypotheses; let us therefore examine the facts of the case, and perhaps the truth may be found where a systematizing philosopher would never think of looking for it. IE4 SOP tells us that a cock found a diamond whilst scratching a dunghill; but though he despised the diamond, in comparison with a grain of corn, we may per haps turn it to a better purpose. We know, that from the commencement of the last century, until the close of the Spanish war, England was annually all exporting country ; but it has been clearly anewn that this arose from the lowness of our population, and conseqaent home demand, in conjunction with agricultural exer tion. A country, whose population is little more t h an agricultural, can always raise much more than. its home demand requires, Without any ex ertion beyond the natural cultivation of the soil ; whereas an arttficial populatio n will always re quire artyicial cultivation. During the period we speak of, popu l a ti o n proceeded very s l owly to in crease, although there was an evident superabun dance of food e for, manufactures being then i n their infancy, those who were not agriculturists had nothing to offer to the farmer iu lien o f hi s corn,. with the exception of a few landholders mid merchants, so that the surplus population not having means of livelihood, they had --oat in tim:v*4-gs to marry. • We are told, indeed, that there wades's. pover ty at that period—if it means less apParent po verty, I will concede the point; because where the rich are few, the comparative poverty is less evident ; to say nothing of there being fewer poor, Alecause there were fewer people. But after time American war was dosed, manufactures began to flourish ; corn came more into demand; instead of sending it abroad, for foreign produce or manufactures, we sent abroad our own manu factures to pay for that which eve could not produce at home, and eat the corn omselves. Thus popula, lion soon increased, and it is an absolute fact, as adduced by a tvell-known accurate economist, that although from 1796 to 1811, the prices of corn rose to an enormous height, yet the popula tion augmented more than in 63 years of plenty, even ollott.ing for the chain of the army and navy, as weli as of the Co lunics—to say nothing of the extensive emigration front Scotland and treland to the United Sates. It is to our - -borne demotic] then that we must look for agricultural support, instead of foreign consumptioa ; particularly as the relent reduced prices, low as they are, do not enable us to meet the foreign farmer in the foreign market. If fur ther proof were necessary, it would be in the fact, as stated in the Hous'e of Commons, that even during the cessation ,of torn Export, this country had become the greatest agricultural nation in the,; world : so that within the last 20 years, not only had two blades of grass been made to grow where only one had grown before ; but, more correctly, might it be said . that four had been now pro duced where one only could formerly be found.— Here then is an illustration of one of Mr. M Ttl US'S , doubts, which so much alarmed you, JoussY, it few years ago. That Gent'enlist) very ingeniously spewed that mankind might double their numbers every 50 years in any particular country. America, in fact, had doneso•in five and twenty--but still it was impossible that cul tivation.could go on doubling its produce every half century in a Coon try of circumscribed limits like England, though America might tsor many periods of increase extend her cultivation iu an equal proportion. - But there can be no cause of alarm for us at present, that we shall very shortly be unable to feed our population, it in 20 years we have increased our produce four fold. it is true that in time there must be an end of increased cultivation here ; but before that period arrives many heaths, commons, and forests, must be brought under -the ploaglr. Besides our popula lino has not increased' in proportion to llcreased cultivation, otherwise the extra demands of the war could not have been answered. Now, in deed, those extra demands are extinct ; and su perabundance has produced cheapness : bat cheap ness will encourage population, and thus we shall have an extra market for our surplus supply. A calculation laid before the House of Com mons proves the superabundant increase of sup ply ; for it was assumed that if we now bad only two millions of acres of new land in tillsge, these, at the rate of three quarters per acre, would yield six millions of quarters of grain : but if the popu lation of Great Britain, from 1800 to 1811, had only increased to the extent of two millions, then, as the annual consumption of each individual might be taken at one quarter, it fallowed that there were four millions of (pouters for which no market could be found at home. A surplus there must then be in the 'market ;. but when trade in creases a little, so as to allow all of your children to have a bellyfull, and when the number of farming families is increased by the reduction of farms, and when every little cottage can afford to brew its'own beer, more loaves and more. malt will -be tv al! ted, w citadtlitAcrdl. Out %Vest India Islands need not depend upon the United States - for Indian Corn or Wheat flour, whilst there is so mach at home that cannot find a purchaser. Let the ships in the West India Trade, which now go out light, be loaded with the surplus of our own markets. The merchant can afford thus to scud it tree of freight, which will of itself be a very handsome bounty ; for the West India price is always above the London markets, and as ships must go out for lull cargoes, though only in ballast, as often happens, the saving in freight will be equal to a bounty to be added to the other profits that will accrue. A recent observation of Lord CASTLEREAGH is worthy of notice, even though coming from a Cabinet Minister, tut these folks sometimes deal in home truths, whilst others of your advisers are exhausting all their ingenuity to make you un derstand something upon abstract principles, which they do not ,very cleat ly comprehend them selves. His Lordship said that it was not un likely that during the high prices, some lands, and those of the best quality, were cultivated to such a pitch, that they could no longer he farmed with profit under the same system ; that others w e re absolutely exhausted with a view to tempo rary gaiti ; hut still lie thought these were only exceptions to the general system, and that prices must find their level now they were freed from the competition of foreign importation. If so, - there were, he conceived, no other circumstances that indicated decay of national prosperity, although a pressure for a season might exist. He added a most important fact, that he had watched the re venue every week with the greatest anxiety, and no week hitherto had produced any failure. Fi nally, his Lordship shoved there could be no reason for despair, as there is even now a general tendency in prices to rise. Even in Stottand','the price had got up to 725., and therefore - it 'Hight soon be expected to reach that in England. further acknowledged, that certainly we have a greater burthen to endure than in 1792 - ; but this would not prevent prices from finding their level ; and if corn should rise to 80s, or 903., lie asked, where would be the distress ? . • Now, JOHNNY', is it not a mol t extraordinary fact, that in the commencement of the nineteenth century, a Minister, of State shall be obliged to comfort the Representatives of the People with hopes of a rise in price of the necessaries of life ? Would you, a century ago, have believed it pos sible ? Nay, only ten years ago, would you not have bought a strait-jacket for any of your chil dren that might have told you ;such a story ? Has not the constant cry of your children been for cheap bread—have ,Whey not often wished also-'for cheap beef and mutton, in order 05 indulge your grand-children with something like a Sunday-din— ner ? Must you not therefore begin to suspect, that those who are so clamorous for high prices have sonic unexplained motive for opinions in direct opposition to. the common feelings of mankind dini„4 a course of centuries ? The doctrine is new, and therefore it requires a little investigation, before you permit speculative innovators to meddle with your corner cupboard ! Perhaps the best mode will be to re trace some of the leading features of our agricul tural policy and practice. Simple facts are less likely to mislead than abstract theories. Von must recollect, my old friend, that before the French Revolution, your agriculture was flourish lug ; at least you had few complaints , e xce p t of - the dearness of provisions, with many sly hints about the advantages telt in other countries,where corn was cheap and plentiful. At that period, hard times always meant high', prices ! Now, Jonx NY, at that period I took many a ualk over your farm, and over those of your pleasant nants. I was pleased to find a simple and ,regular mode of industry. I found your wheat lands laid down in ‘s heat ; on soils fitted by nature for oats and barley, Oats and barley were grown ; and your grass lands and meadows, unbroken by the plough, were occupied by lowing herds, and full of the sweet smelling odour of new-mown hay. At that period you had experienced no feverish demand for any one species of grain, nor had. your farmers been tempted to apply their land to any other purpose than that for which nature seemed to have intended it. . The supply was therefore judiciously varied, and was also as co pious as the demand required, thus prompting to consumption, and at the same time encoaragiug a natural increase of the Market. At that period also ; farms in general were of a moderate size, tenanted by a greater number of occupant agri cultural families, affording great facilities, alto indeed prompting necessarily* to the raising 'of small stock, through which sufficient and suitable employment %vas given to your farmers' wives and daughters. Besides these, you had a sufficient number of large farms for all the purposes of agricultorat experiment and improvement. Tur nips and other productive fallows were extending themselves, thereby rendering every year in seven productive, instead of two idle years for rest and recovery of the .soil. Your waste lands were gradually enclosing ; not front the hurried avarice of monied speculators, but by means of the laud able industry and manual labour of the neighbour log yeomanry. Such was the situation of your estate at the commencement of the French Re volution ; butt the year 1792 opened upon a new era. Small landholders, tempted by increasing .agricultural profits, took a number of small farms into their own hands, and agriculture becOnta - Cu fashionable, that the distance front the dun; -yard to the drawing-room was shortened, whilst oyer grown Commoners, sporting Baronets; and blind box Lords, all adopted a rural life'. Sheep shearings, cattle-shows, and splendid dinners, soon associated amateurs, connoisseurs, graziers, butchers, and gentlemen drovers. In short, the pastoral crook becathe the universal symbol, and the days of Arcadia seemed nearly realized amidst the show of gilt cups and horned cattle. In this happy state of rustic enjoyment, you were checked a little by a short harvest in the second year of the present century and though the deficiency was only equal to one fourth of an average crop,; yet so great became the alarm, and consequently the temptation to speculation, that prices actually trebled those before the war commenced, not only affording unexpected profits to the farmer, but also inducing the landlord to raise his rents in nromitioo. filt . attoation at t o aanet iou, mew large capitals out of trade, and constantly alThoit of riewadventurers,whose money . was more than equal to their wit, invested all their dormant capital in agricultural speculations. This new calling was not only justified, for a time, by the increasing demand for wheat, but also tempt ed many to apply lands to an expensive cultiva-. tion of that species of grain, which in their mon, ral state were totally unfit for the purpose. You are aware, JOHNNY, that money can almost do every thing. The consequence was, that manure of all kinds was laid on the land, until the most and heaths were first covered with guineas, and then with waving crops of grain. In short, if this agricultural mania had been stimulated a few years longer by high prices, it would not have been matter of surprise to The to see the bowpots of Threadneedle-street and Change-alley,. toge ther with the Royal Exchange and St. Paul's Church-yard, converted into green fields and farm yards. The Capitalists now cried out, , " 'Give us butt land, or footing any where, and, we will find you cr o p s ;" j us t as A R CHIMEDES exclaimed to the Svracusan Monarch, " Bite me a .fulcrum for my lever, and .1 will move the world !" Indeed our farming speculators seem ed determined to move both Heaven and Earth, regardless of consequences, and totally inattentive to the misery they were rapidly producing. — Though they certainly raised more wheat than before ; yet, with the exception of new inclosures; they did not raise a much greater supply from the land in cultivation, for the very mode of proceed ing caused a greater waste, whilst the raising of. small stock diminished in a greater proportion.— Besides, the small 'faiths were swallowed up in this inundation of capital; which rendered labour only a secondary, instead' of a primary article in our - agriculture. .Unr Illieertt,. and even substant•ial y i o were, • therefore, driven from their iomnenstlitry , those w ho Could work had no resonrce e bat to become labourers on the farms once tilled by their ancestors ; the aged, who could not work, soon became the inmates of parish svotkhonses ; whilst the population, being now become too nu merons for the improved system, the young men enlisted for soldiers, and the young women com ing to London tor places, soon filled our streets with prostitutes. Such was the state of your farm, JOHNNY, (when I sat down to address this letter to you) some months ago ; but circumstances having postponed that communication, little is now left to me, but to congratulate you on the extraordinary change that has taken ',lace in the affairs of your fatally. On your farm you have now gathered in an ex cellent harvest, and your state of agriculteral so, ciety is assuming its proper.level, in the division of farms, the arrangement of rents, and the re duction of poor rates ; your workshops again re sound with the voice of industry, and the cheer ful noise of honest toil ; yonr counting-houses are filled with busy faces, and busy pens ; your ca nals are covered with loaded boats ; your sea - ports are once more a scene of hustle ; your trea sury has reduced its unnecessary expellees under the sanction of the legislature, and has also re- , duced its demands for taxes, whilst its credit is sc good that Exchequer Bills are at a low interest and a high premium ; and the Good Lady 0 Threadneedle-street offers her guineas to whoeve chuses to ask for them What then, JOHNNY, is lefc for you to wish ?or) True ! You say right, JOH NNY ' You ought to have a cheaper loaf ; and you ougl't to have cheaper and better beer—for it is y true that although Ministers have taken off the %via malt duty, you have neither had a consequent re' &union in the price, nor improvement in the of your favourite beverage. But ° l ig . will be the case, my honest friend, until you loon a little better into your awn aff4,4s—until yod leave off petitioning for rights which you never did,. and never can , possess ; a n d c ry unto the Lords and Commons with a loud voice—'. upon every Brewer Who purchases a public-house; upon every Magisirate Who cences a public-house -belonging or mdrigaged to a Brewer ; and upon every publican who shall pc' tition for a licence to ci house zbhldi he knows to be a Brewe r ' s pro p e rtyl ! Obtain . a reforto first in that point, and you will do moi'e good tot your children, than if you were to realtie all the theories of all the reformers, and all the planS of a Sr&NCE, an OWEN, or a CARTWRIGHT IGNOTUS. The admirable character of the first two Letters i/f IGYOTUS will naturally induce our - Readers to look wii . b eagerness for the third, which we have inserted this day. We repeat, that the Author is one of the most sagaciousr• intelligent, and patriotic, Political Writers in this Country. It was his intention to publish these Letters in the form of a Pamphlet, but motives of kindness towards the Proprietoi of Tits: SUN, and, still more, the laudable impulse of pnl,P , spirit, induced him to prefer this Paper, that the fact' which he details, and the printiples which he inculcates, might luve a general circulation throughout the Empire.--' We are grateful for the preference, not merelyon our owo account, but from the same impulse,of public spirit which animated the Author. We should be glad to hear from L. as often as he pleases, the oftener the better, for ourselves and the Country. For the LrronAttY REVIEW, see the First Page. - THEATRICAL REGISTER. • .. .. . . Performed Last Night. • TrirArnr ROYAL, DRU lcr-LANE.—King Richard the Third 4 Puke of Glocester, Mr. Kean ; Lady Aun, Miss Boyce. After w hich, No Sung No Supper. THl:Ailir: ROYAL, CovENT-GARMN.—AsYou Like It : Jaques, Mr. Young; Rosalind, Miss Brktntog. After which, Mr 'Youthful Days of Frederick the Great, MAIL?. Annsvcri,-1 Frince, 1 Hamburgli, 1 Dublin. DUE—I LiV bun, 2 Gottenburgb, 1 Guernsey and Jersey, 1 Dublint Waterford,; •P RICE 0 STOCKS THIS PAY AT TWELVE O'CLOCK. Bank Stock, %shut 3 per Cent. Red. shut 3 per Cent. Cum..... 81 g 82i 4 per Cents. shut 5 per Cent. Nary Ann. 1071-4 13ab1 L. Ann.— shit! India 80nd5,...1105. 1119. Ferl Each. Bills,— ...eos.32s. pr• Cons. for Aecourit........ IF/IGII=WATER AT LONDON riiii6GF. To-mpitnow. 4.. I ening, 33 minutes alter O . • c• • - • - THE SUN. St:!..EM `IRIS DICEHE FALSONI ADDEAT LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1817. Last night and this morning we received the Paris Papers of Friday. and Saturday last. The Moniteur of the former day contains a Royal OP. donnance, directing the Chambers to assemble on the sth of November next. The trial of the per" sons charged with being implicated in the con spiracy of CEpingle Noire, continued on Thursday ••-• and-Fritlay. Those two day's we ' re occupied it: bearing the advocates for the. prisoners ; the case was again adjourned till Saturday.—lt is statea that the army of the South in Itussia, ttndier command of General BENNINGSEN, which was to have been dispersed in cantonments, is; .accord'" ing'to new orders, to remain in its present state until further directions are given. If so, this measure is probably' intended to support the de mands of Russia at Constantinople, for satisfactioP respecting the execution of CZERNY GEOROIIS.-"' The following are Extracts from the Saturday's Papers ; the chief contents of Friday's Journao will be found in another COlurnii " PARIS, OCT. 4.—The Count de Lezay Mar" nesia, Prefect of La Somme, is appointed Pre.' feet of the department of Rhone, in the room of the Count de Chabrol ; and in the room of the former, .the Count d'Allonville, Prefect of Me eS Vilaine, is appointed Prefect of La Somme. " The Count de Chabrol, appointed Under-Se' cretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior, arrived at Paris to enter upon his newfunctions. It is said that the Allied Monarchs will meet is the course of next year, for the purpose of corn' ing to a determination respecting the Army of Oe' tupation in France. Frankfort and Aix-la-Cho pelle have been successively assigned for tl►i 9 Meeting, but it now appears that it will take place at Manheim. After the interview, the Emperor of Russia will proceed to Warsaw, and from thence, to Petersburg)). " A Belgian Journal states, that M. Bory do Saint Vincent, a French Refugee, inclu►led in the Ordonuance of 24th July, has been compelled &O Tilt A seine Calm( IS app (6 fortni trous jukile ahavic gin tc Sens since the b 'uf the this • to Be of Bu 46 1 tinpe the The t thous, Itatii) ' , airy, Can no To lc litibSli taken , ducats Illiillll to the ttrlan tere i ilmnd Dire. 1 1le to )Liiti ou .. ,j Aey is ttign Drogr luau 4 Please t eas a 'Pcti e pr /tut b ')f ab Nine Freres RhicF tr a ‘atate an 1t t , 14: 1; 4 a if f ( Zier. Who ' SS I If %; 'hem 1 401 I _ ll Se qt, : 4 ati 4) Ou ‘l l4 I*o ‘1, 1: 1,11(1, tit l Ntier itsl ale, t4t '' Ci t, , t 4 tit t ° „'DPi