The National Register.
London, England, 1819-04-26 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTERS

thing more than has appeared in the public journals.—
But as far as we can gather from them, their whole scope
and prospect has been simply to recommend and pray
fur " open ports and protecting duties." It does nut
ern appear to be their of to make any alteration in
the importation prices already fixed, but that those pro-
tections and securities, which the Legislature by its late
enactments certainly intended to afford, but which are
now proved
to be ineffectual, should be realized and
confirmed. How it Caine to be overlooked iu the last
Corn Bill, that die moment the ports were opened, or
likely to be so, speculation would be busily employed,
and that even a short interval Would he sufficient to set
at tonight every previous restriction, to fill the country
with foreign grain when no supply was wanted, and to
place the English farmer upon a level will the cheapest
countries in Europe, excepting the expence only of im-
portation, it is now too late to argue. That such,
hoverer, is the fact, and the present conclit'uo of our
Corn Laws, is clear and undisputed, and but two points
seem now to remain worth contending about. The
first is, whether it be adviseable to sweep away at once
a,l our legislative restrictions on the foreign supplies of
corn, as being of more disadvantage than good to the
geoeral interests of agriculture, and the other, what is
the best and surest mode of giving them the etkci
intended.

With respect to the first of these, no theory cook' be
more delightful than that which would present to us
the whole world united in the bonds of ennui peace,
benevolence, and love, each part or region supplyieg to
the other in free and unlettered commerce whatever it
' could spare, and receiving back in return whatever the
produce of other climes could furnish in the same way ;
banishing at once front the code and practice of nations
every obstruction to the free admission of every article of
barter amongst mankind: but, however, mall a vision
may delight the philanthropist, it may perhaps he fairly
questioned whether it would, as far as respects its com-
mercial features be productive of any considerable acces-
sion to the stuck of human happiness and positive enjoy-
ment, and certainly tile vices and imperfections of man-
kind, the jarring interests of nations, and the peculiar
circumstances and interests of particular countries must
for ever totally excluda all hope of its being realized. Su
Icing as any one country in the world shall find, or thieh
it conducive to its interests either to confine any part of
its productions to its own limits, or, what is the more
usual line of policy, to impose such a duty upon its
exportation as may both check the freedom of its egress,
and be subservient to the purposes of revenue, other
countries will naturally be driven to adopt as a counter-
poise similar measures with regard to their own commo-
dities, and thus the general policy of the whole will he
as ii always has been, in cis ilized countries, to subject
their trade and commerce to fiscal regulations. Nor is
this general practice without many advantages. Articles
of import and export are always the fittest objects of tax-
ation, because the simple fact of your being disposed to
sell for exportation pre-supposes that your demand at
nouns is answered, and the fact, on the other hand, of
foreigners becoming your customers pre-supposes that
they both want, and can at bed to pay for the articles so
sold ; besides thia, as a net entie must be rai.•ed, and
taxes or imports levied, even in the very cheapest go-
vernments, whatever can be collected from such ditties
as have been just alluded to, is so touch sired front the
pockets of the subject at home, and foreign powers are
thus to a given extent made tributary to the maintenance
of your own social and poll institutions. This prin.
civic beitig mice established the only qtaystiott, which
can naturally come next, is, what are those particidar
ofjects of production and barter which mast demand
protection and are most deserting of care. We shook!
think it could hardly be dilimed that the order wroil6
stand thus; first subsistence, second raiment, thirdly the
conveniences, and fourthly the luxuries of life. Agricul-
tore, as the means of furnishing subsistence, has there-
fore, by curry enlightened community been admitted to
be an object of the-first and hi, heat concerti. The P;ti•
losoplier has considered its prosperity as inseparably con-
nected with public good, the wise Statesman has looked
to it as the firmest sinew of national strength, the Patriot
has viewed it as the surest I roof of freedom and the
guardian•of
•country's iutleuerulJuce, and die Moralist
has dwelt with satisfaction u;,on the universal benevo-
lence of its tendency, and the peaceful and innocent
chataoter of its pursuits. Again. it can as little be ques-
tioned, that the prosperty of agriculture, and, what is

APRIL 26.

the same thing, the quantity of its produce, will be en-
tirely dependent upon the sum of the labour and capital
employed in it, and that these again will be not less
accurately proportioned to the stability of the pursuit in
which :hey arc employed, and the prospect they hold cut
of a lair remuneration. A country with mil:ions of
acres still waste, and millions of acres more of laud Lot
miserably cultivated, and producing not more than one
half or perhaps one third of what might by the employ-
intuit of additional labour and capital be raised front
them, and yet, both complaining of %am of employmenr,
and every year, having recourse to foreign markets for
its food, can never be said to have yet reached that pitch
of encouragement winch its Agriculture justly demands.
'Else advi,catus of free importation argue thus, '• if dm
sail and climate of one country be inure favourable for
rite production of any particular commodity than another,
if it can ever be produced at a cheaper rate than at home,
hy not avail yourselves of such adramages and torts
your own industry arid capital into a better chan-
nel ; that is, in plainer winds, " send your hat-
handmen to weave bombazines and muslins, and rt:r
farmers to erect cotton mills and steam engines at Man-
chester, or to manuNcture knives and buttons at Ba-
iningham and Sheffield.-

To the first part of this argument it is surely ohs loos
to reply, that tio country in the yew Id is better calcida-
ted for the growth of corn than our own, nor on it•
richer and well cultivated soils, yields a inure abundant
produce. Corn and Wool are as naturally the staple
commodities of Great Britain, as Nine and al are of
Italy, or Sugar and Coffee of our West India Islands.
Upon the very principle then on which such ieasoitera
advocate our dependence on foreigners for supply, ate
we prepared to contend fur the encouragement and pro-
tection of our own growth and culture and with re-
spect to the price at which corn may he raised amongst
us, it is true that a competidon with foreign markets is,
in the present state of things, quite iniposs.ble. But
then this very impossibility ought to operate in a quite
contrary direction from what it now appears to do, upon
the public mind and councils. Instead of inclining us
to set at nought the wisdom and experience of all past
ages to Ilinlai4Jll Agriculture to irs fate, and our fields to
desolation, every effort should be employed to remove
the weight which oppresses it, and to revere it to Its doe
and natural rank. Nor shoadd there efforts cease until
it has reached such a pitch of prosperity as to draw bark
again' tutu its own channel some portion both of the la-
bour and capital which are now devoted to trade and
merchandise. The plain truth is, we are become too
commercial, and though a paper currency and an enor-
mous taxation are amongst our greatest evils, vet iteitlier
the one no( the other would ever hate exis ed in then.
present extent, if they had not been pushed on by MM.
tuerce. Mr, Pitt and his adherents well knew thi-, and
the protection of commerce, to the total disregard of the
landed interest, was the guest fastness of that Nlinister's
financial policy. IL was to the merchant he looked for
his loans, to the merchant for the circulation of his
paper, and he repaid the obligation both to commerce
and to his country by a Batik Restriction, of wh.cft we
have nev‘ r since been able to get rid. We may ask the
boldest advocate of the claims of ceminteice whether i.e
does not think that enough, and more than enough of
both capital and Uinta are now employed in it ? Whe-
ther every market the world is not glutted with British
manufactures ? Whether if some means could he de-
vised of lessening the quantity of goods wrought, and
diminishing, time competition he has now to struggle
with, stick an issue would not result both in the im-
provement of his •wit condition, and in the addittonal
steadiness and prosperity of commerce itself ; and lastly,
whether he must not admit that the fluctuations to
which trade, upon its present scale and footing, is ever
liable, do not render it unfit ourable to the morals, and
oltimately to the liberties of the no.wtry ? Even these.
questions sue are persuaded must, if fairly answered, be
answered its the affirmative, and if so, then mu,' the
real friend of commerce and of his country, be the
friend of agriculture likewise, which can alone l'i,rnisit
the remedy desired. But another argoineot is fl;II ready,
" Though you may pay a considerable sum for corn
every year to foreign markets, and though it should be
granted that you might grow it at ;tome, yet the money
so laid out again returns in die general stream of com-
merce,
the pressure
up under
national weahh,
and ctel:creelnt;reetat as iblgi ugtl7ol itroctbi on

APRIL 26.

the !tonneau you complain of." Fortuuately, or un—
fortimately, tins argument never admitted of a snore easy
or decisive answer than at the present intintent. By the
accounts just presented to Parliament of the amounts of
the exports and imports of the last year, it appears that
the while balance of trade in our favour is but about
eight millions. Now in this s ery same year we have paid
fU+mlhonisand a half for foreign corn, and consequently
so much capital and expenditure has Lieu carried from
home to impoverish us, and to enrich foreigners ; and
all this ton Miring a period when wheat has but just
risen above t'se unpin tatiois prices, and when the barley
has home, dating part of the year, a high price, yet
Bever tome than me deficiency of the crop, arising from
an unfavourable season most (oily justified as a fair remu-
neration. If this coorse of things is suffered to go on,
farewell to National Prosperity, farewell alike to Agri-
culture and to Comics:ice, tor they can only lire amid
sittist die to ether.
The conclusions then to which these premises emulnet
us are briefly these—Mat the Interests of our own Agri-
Loh sire cannot citl-r prudently or safely be neglected
that the regiteat wade for protecting ditties not only im-
plies nothing More than what it teas the intention of
PParliament to have before granted, but that by the adop-
tion of such a nieaytlre the Revenue might be aided to
the relic: from other Taxes, the kome-sisarkei, Fy IM-the
most Hoarfrost, be improved for every article of Cons.
melee, the deinantkfor labour and the rate of wages he
a.igmeoted to the _poor, a state of mucb less fluctuation
anti uncertainty of trade be scoured to the Ausan _and
Manufacturer, and, in short, that we shook; then let
Prosperity, like Charity, begin, where it alwaysshould
do, ut horse.

The following arc extracts from the French
rapers :
I'.vetw. Are, r. ?O.— It appears that the works wit" ire
to be executed at the Castle of St. t tool oiii nut be wren-
•l:Lte4l before the YOtl of June. lit r•otsequeoees tt is sot
-,itohaltle that his Majesty %buil 'vise the Tuileries before
:hat rrold.
114 e Ambanador left Paris this wonting fur
Liadoo. _ _

A shucking event necarceil recently in the town of Rouen,
which is thus related in one of thejournals of that place :
individuals, animated each against the other by an
inveterate hatred, repaired to the boulevard it. Ililaire,
near the barrier de L'Octriii. 'l'hey were, it is said, nit h-
out it itnesses : (could they have found any I) Their swards
ate crossed —both are already wounded—one of them o ishcd
to stop the cointsit —the other refuses—the sword. are again
cius,cd. Ile ;who displayed this brutal obstinacy fails dead
11111 the spot. We are unwilling to mention the name of these
iaaliridauas ; oe eau hardly add that—they were brothers."
Mt LA R. Arai'. I joaroals and letters from Rome
speak of iiiithim; but the magnificent recep if his Ma-
jesty the Emperor of Austria in the capitol of the Christian
win Id. lam enabled to add to these accouitta some para.
tutor cit.' umstances which you might he pleased to learn.
The Pope did not permit the Emperor to kit./ his hand, but
embraced hint the momei.t this Monarch was preparing to
•now ham this mark of respect. Ile then (adducted his
Majesty to the apart'''. nts pleiarecl for him, and remained
with this Prince half an hour. There is rim political object
knight:AA under this tour of his Majesty. It is natural that,
being hunt in lase:my, he should wish to see the ;dare of his
ea' ivity. The religious homage which tie Emperor and Em-
press are resolved to show to the fled of the Church: o ill
prose to Italy the respect wile' tamed by this great Sore-
reiso for the 7sce or Rome.

The members of the Iluonaparte study now iu Reale
have not bceta resettled to the unipeso:.

The Prince Regent continues to improve in
health ; and his gout seems to subside most favour.
ably. . .

the carriages and some of the luggage belonging
to the Duke and Duchess of Kent arrived at Len.
singtou-palace on Thursday.
BasaturoN, April 20.—Lord and Lady Frances
Stewart have paid a bride's visit to the Prince Re-
gent. The noble pair took their leave of his Royal
I fighness ycstetday, previous to their departure for
a northern tour, and afterwards to Vienna. Lord
and Lady Castlereagh left the Pavilion this morn-
ing fir their seat at North Cray. Prince listerhazy,
and the Marquis and Marchioness of Hertfori, ar-
rived here oa S.tturday, and still continue as visiters
at the Pavilion.

As soon as her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Clarence's health is re-estai,lished, the family will
leave Ilanuver for Wiirtemberg, on a visit to the
Queen Dowager (ci-decant Princess Royal of Eng-
land ) From Ivhence they will visit the Prince au.l
Princess of Hesse Hombourg, and thence set out tier
England, whence they are expected in about three
months.

The late Harvey Chiistian Combe, Esq. left a
widow and ten children, four sons and six daugh-
ters. To Mrs. Combe he left 30001. a-year for her
life, issuing out of his landed estates, and to revert
on her decease to his eldest son : to the other sons,
20,0001. each ; and to the six daughters, 10,0001.
each.

I'IMESTRIANISM —Old Barn..t, notwithstanding
is in his year, has been hacked to walk 1600 quar-
ters of rinks, in Won sitccessive quarters of hours.—
The stakes are five to three against his performing the
match. The veteran commences this most arduous un-
t;ci taking on 'he 21st day of at lints ich, ut Sutio/k