The National Register.
London, England, 1819-05-17 00:00:00

credit. The :3 per Cents. are actually 12 per cent.
lower than they were 18 mood's aim, -and let us
not forget how confidently these funds were then
appealed to Ly Ministers-es a clear end unirestioned
criterion of public prosperity, and of public wealth.
We owe 4300 millions of public debt, and let the
lsildest speculator tell its how soon, even if Peace
should be eternal, this debt at tLe present rite tan
be possibly discharged. ,Our army, which is the
modern isentniment cf asteliating allegiance, and
promoting tranquillity, costs within 2 millions and. a
half of the charge of the -whole• Peace Establishment,
Army, I7avy. Ordnance, Civil List, &c. &e. in
the time of Mr. Pitt. Commerce is every where
stagnant .and depressed. Petitions are day by
day crowding the tables of the Ilouse of Com-
mons, stating that the persons employe Thoth in our
cotton and woollen manufactories cannot by their
tamest exertions earn above five shillings a week,
whibt paupers, as a necessary consequence, arc
multiplied Ly hundreds and thousands throughout
the laud. -Agriculture, which can never prosper
but in union .with Commerce, any •more than Com-
eter:c witheut Agriculture, is fist ikiking under
the civil policy of the thric4, from the weight sof
taxation, • from the depreciarion of inoney,4ll-om the
gross abuses slid defects which signalize our system
of parochial relief, and. above nil by the glaring
mischief ;Arising from the crude and- absurd enact-
ments of our precut Corn Laws--. Laws, which
instead of affiirdiag any 'steady and permanent
support to agriculture, arc only found to encourage
a spirit of gambling and speculation, 'to throw the
make's into eternal and violent fluctuations, and to
produce to landlords, do tenants, and to 'the ',nix, a
total derangement of those first priocildes upon
which their respective connections can-alone prosper.
How, for instance, -in a year like this, is any fair
average o; ilia virlue of land to be &an n from the
value of its produce? Iloty is the landlord to fix
an equitable rent ? How is the occupier even to
guess what he can afford to pay ? How is the poor
man to value his labour, or to Lox;.: that his wages
will keep pace with the perpetually varying price
of that upon production 'of which his labour
is employed? How, again, does this horrible
state of uncertainty in the first necessaries of
• life, operate upon their price to tirm general
consium r, even beyond the actual variation of
of the market ? Great profits rust necessarilY be
imposed by the merchant, or dealer, as the- only
means of enabtirg I.:in to guard against the sntbim
reverses.: to which he.knows and feels himself expneed.
That such a state -of things is wrong, that if left
without investigation, and without remedy, its
consequences must coon be drerdful, no one, surely,
reeds be to!d. Time last Corn Bill was a measure of
his Majesty's Ministers; and ithas all the character
nr.d.fruits of their common policy. Now With these
and a thonsand miler:aggravations which we have
not time to enter upon, what •is there on the other
hand to soften the harshness of this picture ? Alas !
nothing. What has been dune to conei:iate attach-
ment, to protect morality, to relieve the pressure of
cur burdens? Alas! nothing. Nay, as if their
seats should endure for ever, nril their very names
were above .-reprrrtrh, -the:- have, in the compass •ef