The National Register.
London, England, 1820-06-05 00:00:00

182.

.IGRICCLIVRAL CLAIMS.

•
Itlat

A sort of manifesto has been just put forth by
the Committee of the Agricultural Associations,
purporting to be the Report of Mr. George Webb
Hall. Its assertions arc of the most sweeping cha-
racter : its conclusions are. proclaimed as discoveries;
and a tone of triumph is assumed well calculated to
flatter the interested, and• convert the unreflecting.
This production tiliallearyi inquiry. It has been
sent to every Member of Parliament ; and to every
Editor of a.Newspoper throegbout the kingdom.
Our readers will perceive that the conclusions of
Mr. Hall arefeunded upon the very able and most
laborious work of Dr. C,olqubpn ; that the researches
of this celebrated writer on statistics have slumbered
since' NI 14, as far as they told forittile Agriculturists
—bur that a light has been shed over theta by the
genius of the Secretary to the Agricultural Associ-
ations, which is to put out the eyes of all objectors.
To reduce the statements of Mr.idal; to a narrow
eompass they are intended to prove-
-Ist. That the property created in Great Britain
and Ireland. in the year 1812-13, by Agri
tuts, in all its branches, was 12t6,817.624
By Mines, Minerals, Coals, &c ....... 9.000,050
• Total from the Soil
2d. That of this sum, after deducting all the ex
pends' of labour. working-mak. seed, pours- ,
Yates, taxes. &c. the profit of the
owners and Cultivators. Mks .: 09,510.60
sd. That the introduction since 1514 of Foreign s ,
• Preduce. Ditty-free. has diminivhed the va-
lue of Agticultue Produce eae.thied, or the ,
sum of , i 71.272.551
-4th. That the Surplus Profits of every other
• Branch of Industry—Manufactures. Inland •
Trade. Banks, &c. &c. was, in 1413. 0n1y... t 25.055.461/
TO prevent every possibility of mistake asp to -this
conclusions which Mt. Hall infers from these state-
ments, we think it right to select the' concluding
pirsage of his Report :
The data which Doctor Colquhoun has afforded ins are coo-
roborated and borne out in every instance by the payments to the
prope tax; aced front the statement of profits respectively
which Irty have formed. we have this glorious result. viz. that the
cultivators of the soil of the United Kingdom, did, by their
skill. capital, and industry. employed in agriculture in 1815.
earn fur the land-owners, the Clergy. and themselves, a net clear
profit of 911.1110,605 L ; while in the same period. all die bowed
results of all the commerce and manufactures of the United
Kingdom. both at home and abroad, amounted no to more than a
profit of 25,045,4651.
' If this esseenset will not endow the Legilatnre, hie
poys=7.
B 1 • y's
he imi she British public, of the justice, she
.std the eem* elepid teseemisa lor the skills=
soil sd die ieshese alba mil. with the
sod bet a matinumise of their rm.*
=sr feriltellife tle "s dear es fasts and twee sea
dim iflhe yisitisiems dour ant sell kw=
I
elated ermadded is vales pee einem dam BIM 102 Ow
ties etteeelga predeme erstrimikaissa has Brea wom souses the
third. pen el' higtini.4l9o. et the era d 10.1111416 ti. pm
alt list engp perm 4 wahldeg au essohants and
so esettfient iota, ia.ona.ooeL worth of their
annosedides in foreign markets, whereby a profit d a million
and a half, or at most two million. sterling may be gained, to sot
apias' t the awful depreciation of 72,274,5411.
We might have gone very far with Mr. George
Webb Hall to have agreed that such a depreciation
was indeed alarming ;—and we apprehend that many
have been of the same opinion. But it occurred to
us to examine at what standard Dr. Colquhoun fixed
the prices of Agricultural Produce in 1812-IS ;as
the ratio of estimating its aggregate amount. We
were perfectly astonished to find that in Dr. Col
quhoun's tables, 'the several kinds of grain aregtaken
at fifty per cent. less than the average prices in the
public markets of the 12th of September, 1812.' as
a fair and permanent standard of the price of grain.
The prices upon which Dr. Colquhoun builds the
very table which Mr. Hall thinks so conclusive are
• as follows :

X 225.8171426

s. d.
.70 6 per quarter•

Bailey 37 0
Oats ll9 0
Rye 43 10
Beans and. Peas 3B 10
• To put the argument in the clearest light we
subjoin, from the London Gazette, the aggregate
average prices preceding the 15th of May, 1820,
by which Importation is regulated in Great Britain,
and by which the Ports are closed to the 15th of
August next :

10 per quarter

Barley 33 1
Oats 24 5
Rye 43 1
Beans 42 7
Peas 46 5
And thus, instead of a depreciation of one third
upon the calculations of Dr. Colquhoun, agricultu-
ral produce has not been depreciated one per cent.
from the price this statistical writer set as a perma-
nent standard, predating the estimate of new pro-
perty created annually from the soil as 225,817,6241.
—or in other words, that only one per cent. instead
crone third, is to be deducted from the 99,810,6v8!
which Mr. Hull assigns as the profits of the land-
owners and cultivators of that period ! It Mr.
Hall thinks so highly of these estimated pietas in
11112, he must be perfectly satisfied with their
amount in .820. Or has he not really a conceal.si
longing for those etionhous prices which Dr. Co
quhoun thought admitted a depreciation of 50 pe.
Cent. ? If the actual prices of 181 4 were returned
to, a tax of above One Hundred Millions would be
question between the agriculturists and the