The National Register.
London, England, 1816-08-11 00:00:00

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No. 444.—V0L. IX.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

ON THE PRESENT PUBLIC DISTRESS.
Benevolence the greatest luxury ; and the:unlit man, after
is the genuine epicure." Bishop HORNS.

WE have not hitherto been over anxious to advert to the
distressed situation of the coun:ry, in the hope that, 'ere
this time, we should have realized that opinion which
affirmed that the distress was temporary ; and that
our sufferings would now be mentioned only as a talc
of past times ; but we find ourselves, after a year's
tranquillity, still embarrassed, and suffering in a mea-
elr ! exceeding the fears of our warmest friends, and the
hopes of the bitterest of our enemies.
That after a war of protracted duration, in which our
armaments and exertions have been unexampled, we should
at first find it difficult to recover ourselves, is not sur-
prizing ; but no one could have foreseen that our corn-
taerce would have been envied, and our ntanufactures
excluded, by our Allies. We were told, that Russia had
en'-rcti into the war against the late 17surper of France,
because she was disgusted at his enmity to our trade, in
what was termed the continental system ; because she
woul.l not consent to so hostile a measure, even though
A' •rar with us: but the Oppressor has disappeared, and
his c ,roinental system is no longer heard of ; anti yet
the policye it's adored spontaneously by Russia ; and the
system is revived under another name, by an Emperor
whom nr,- retarded as the calm: of its ruin. We are in-
formed, that by the late Tariff our trade with Russia is
almost annihilated.

The American tra.le ton, fa- some reason, perhaps dis-
similar in its nature, but equally operative, is almost ru-
ined. Ships are continually sailing to the United
States from our ports ; but they carry nothing hence but
our emigrating countrymen.
Repeated failures have now damped the ardour of spe-
celation, and utterly extinguished the daring spirit of
commercial enterprise which employed the wealth of the
rich, and the labour of the poor. By the filling-off of
our trade with the Continent, our Sheffield manufacturers
no longer require the usual quantity of Trop, or the ac-
customed supply of cc als. To this we trace the suspen-
sion of the iron--.yrrls at Bilston, &c. and the severe dis-
tresses of our colliers. There is no one branch of trade
which has not, either in a lesser or greater degree, par-
taken of the general suffering.
Such, then, being the state of our trade, our labourers
are without employment, and consequently without
means of support. By those heart-rending. but by no
means exaggerated accounts which we published in our
last, it appears, that the humane and just provision of the
English laws, by which the indigent are to he relieved in
their necessities from the estates of the rich, is'finind in
many places inefficient ; it appears, that the distress is so
general, and so severe, that it is impossible to carry into
effect measures which (whatever may be said of their
policy) have been always sufficient to supply the poor
with bread. In the accounts to which we have alluded,
it is said, the parishes can neither find employment nor
food for their poor.

This state of tliing:s certainly calls loudly upon the Le-
gislature for some permanent redress, and upon the pub-
lic individually for some present relief. The Legislature
will enter iato some regulations, beyond all doubt, by
which the expenditure may be retrenched, and the
taxes materially lessened; by the slowly-working effects
of these the distress may be gradually alleviated. But
the benevolence of individuals is calculated, on many ac-
counts, to give a more speedy relief than any enactments
of the Legislature can possibly afford. It is this, there-
fore, to which, as an inexhaustible fund, the poor look up,
claiming for Englishmen that liberality whose benefac-
tions have gladdened at different periods above half the
nations of Europe. The only purpose to which the pro-
ceeds of private munificence should be applied, is imme-
diate relief. There was never any time, perhaps, when
this and was so easily attainable as it is at the present.—.