The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-04-20 00:00:00

I

CITY, WEDNESDAY EVENING.

great Statesman, in his tract entitled Thaughtr and Details
en Scarcity :—" it is a perilous thing to try experiments on
the Farmer." We would impress this concise admonition
constantly on the minds of those who would legislate upon
the corn market. Agriculture, from the very nature and
value of its produce, must ever constitute the solid and
durable basis of national revenue. AB the strength and
power of the state—ill the interests of commerce and of
manufactures--are inseparably bound up with it. As to
the largeness of a farmer's profits, Mr. Boas e has said
enough to disabuse every candid nand of this error, which
many, without any ill intention, have taken so much pains
to propagate.—" It is very rare that the most prosperous
farmer, counting the value of his quick and dead stock.
the interest of the money ha turns, together with his
own wages as a bailiff or overseer, ever does make 12 or 15
per rodent by the year on his capital. I speak of the
prospe •
rous In most of the parts of England which have
Wien within my observation, I have rarely known a farmer,
who to his own trade has not added some other employ-
ment or traffic, that, after a course of the most unremitting
parsimony and labour (such, for the greater part, is theirs),
and persevering in his business for a long course of years,
died worth more than paid his debts ; leaving his posterity
to continue in nearly the same equal conflict between in-
dustry and want, in which the last predecessor, and a
long line of predecessors before him, lived and died,
Observe," he adds, "that I speak of the generality
of farmers, who have not more than from 150 tog and 400
acres. There are few, in this part of the country, within
the former, or much beyond the latter extent. Unques-
tionably in other places there are much larger. But lam
convinced, whatever part of England be the theatre of his
operations, a farmer who cultivates 1,200 acres, which I
consider as a large farm, though I know there are larger,
cannot proceed, with any degree of safety and effect, with
a smaller capital than ten thousand pounds ; and that he
cannot, in the ordinary course of culture, make more upon
that great capital of ten thousand pounds than twelve
hundred a year." (Thanghts and Details, &c. p. 20.)
Brat E wrote thus in 1795; since that period taxes, poor-
rates, and the charges and out-goings of almost every de-
scription, have nearly doubled ; and the diffieulty of legis-
lating on the Corn Laws is infinitely increased, more espe-
cially when we take tnto consideration the unsettled state
of the currency.

The transactions in the Money market to-day have been
of a very monotonous description, but there has still been
an elasticity apparent in British Securities. Consols opened
at last night's quotation, and closed at 79j j, which our
readen will recollect is an improvement. Exchequer
Bills were Bs. 101. premium, and India Bonds 3s. 6s.
premium.

The Foreign market was without interest, and nearly
without business, and there was nit even the shadow of a
foreign report to give temporary life to the Royal Exchange.
the following prices were reported of Foreign Stocks:—
Colombian Bonds, 40.1 II; Mexican Six per Cents. 61! 62 ;
Peruvian Bonds, 21 ; Russian ditto, 76i; Greek, 143
IS ; and Spanish,
The Exchequer Bill market was improved, by reason,
as it was reported, of the Batik Broker buying largely of
these Bills.

The puree Zings in the House of Commons on the Corn
questi .n. had no effect nn the tnarket yesterday. The re-
sult had been fully anticipated. . .

It is stated list Gov.ernroent are a')out to abandon the
settlement of Cape Coast Castle, on the coast of Africa ;
and that transports are about to proceed from this country
to remese the garrison.

Trieste and ';nice papers to the sth of April have been
received in town, but they do not contain a word of in- '
triligence from Greece.
Some extraordinary circumstances are reported respect-
irg Hayti. Mr. Canning. it is said, look the same steps
wah France, regarding Hayti, which he did with Spain
and the South American States—sending a formal despatch
to declare that if France did not recognise the independence
of Hayti, England would. This, it is stated, led to the
acknowledgment of the independence of the Republic. If
the Ilaytian Government had been aware of this circum-
stance, France, perhaps, would not have received any
pecuniary compensation for the gracious act of acknow-
ledzment.

Private letters have recently been received in London,
from the Duke of Wellington, announcing that his Grace
purposes being in England within a fortnight from the
present time. The letters are datrtl from St. Petersburgh.
It is also reported that private accounts were received yes-
terday, statine that Admiral Greig, commander-in-chief of
the Russian Sect at Cronstadt, bad been called to St. Pe-
tersburgh, to receive instructions to put the fleet to sca, and
that since the beginning of the present month various
movements have taken place in the two grand armies of
Generals Wittgenstein and Sacken. It is said also that the
cavalry has Ikea reinforced. With regard to the Russian
fleet, we do not believe that any preparations have been
made for its equipment beyond such as are necessary at
this season of the year, for the squadron usually exercised
in the Baltic during the summer months.
The .ifercare deLondres gives an amusing anecdote of
M. Auger, a Member of the French Academy. This gen-
tleman, who, it seems, has published an edition of Mo-
liere, with his own notes, being accidentally in company
with a Russian Nobleman of the first rank, a great encou-
rager of literature and the arts, availed hi:naelf of the
optortunity to offer to his acceptance a copy of what he'
railed his " humble productions. The promised present
was most graciously accepted, and a splendidly-bound copy
regularly transmitted to his Highness, who in a few days
returned a letter; addressed " To Mons. Molloy," full of
acknowledgments and declarations of the pleasure be had
detivel from reading his " admirable comedies," and only
regretting that he should have thought it necessary to
inenniber them with " those rillanows notes," by M. Auger,
explanatory only of passages in themselves as clear as the
day, and all equally useless and absurd. His Highness
goes on to recommend the publication of a new edition,
Mum, of these abominable excrescences, which he says
he shall have great pleasure in presenting to his imperial
master, who will, doubtless, acknowledge the compliment
by a handsome snuff-hox for the author. The mortified
feelings of the unlucky commentator at this unfortunate
unmake may be better imagined than described.
NkCiCASTLE.-11'e understand that the receipts for
duties at the Custom-house, in the quarter ending atli
111110Untd to nearly 100,000!.
SPIT•LIIELDS. liri;AVEllll.---I'he distress of this in-
dustrious and quiet class has already excited the generous
pity and drawn forth substantiai relief from the benevolent
and humane. Still much remains to be done for them ;
and we rejoice to see that the proprietors of Astley's Am-
phitheatre have kindly set apart Friday next for a benefit
at their popular place of amusement, which we sincerely
hope will be highly productive.
Gs BRA tTAX, MANCH 27.-116 Majeityll surveying ship
Mastiff has been twice off Tarifa, searching for the sap-
posed Thisbe rock, in the middle of the Straits, but dis-
covered none; Itcinier, the author of a Chart of the Straits,
denies the existence of any such rock.
IVe draw the attention of the public, and especially of
Members of Parliament, to the bridge now about to be
thrown over the Serpentine river in Hyde Park, close to
the embankment which retains the piece of water in Ken-
sington-gardens. A bridge alongside of an embankment
is surely an absurdity in itself, at least as great as if a
ferry-boat were to be established at any of the bridges
across the Thames. If a bridge is to be erected there, to
render it even in appearance useful and proper, the em-
bankment ought to be removed, and the two pieces of water
r-duced to the same level. If this is not done, the bridge
will be a reproach upon public taste.