The National Register.
London, England, 1816-10-28 00:00:00

I.aillitrilat Arai

No. 455.—V0L. IX.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

FROM the epitome we have given in several pre-
seding numbers of the most important parts of the
Agricultural Report, our readers are in possession of
sufficient facts to enable them to come to a tolerably
correct though rough estimate of the extent of the
distresses which press upon a portion of the commu-
nity. We promised, in concluding this series of data,
to give some remarks upon the facts it disclosed.
It is by no means our intention, in general, to resign
our own pens to make room for those of our contempo-
raries, however, in many instances, we might make
each a relinquishment with advantage; but, in the
present case, we have found a cotemporary of celebrity
and abilities so exactly illustrating our own views, and
expressing our own sentiments so much better than we
could hope to express them ourselves, that our readers,
we are convinced, will require no apology for our bor-
rowing from him the means of fulfilling our pledge ;
we therefore propose to devote a space in our next two
or three nurabere to Extracts from an article in a pe-
riodical publication of established merit, which treats
this subject in a most luminous and most simple style.
" The solid, substantial, permanent welfare of a na-
tion is nut to be estimated by extent of dominion, or
greatness of population, or amount of revenue, or of
national wealth. This outward prosperity might be,
like the antediluvian earth, as Burnet has imagined
it in his magnificent philosophical dream, a fertile
and beautiful surface,—but only a surface,—only a
crust which envelopes' the waters of the abyss, and
which never appeared more flourishing than at the mo-
ment when, because of the iniquity of the inhabitants,
the abyss was broken up, and all things swept away by
the foredoomed, inevitable, and avenging deluge. Is
this our case? Is Britain cancerous in her vital parts?
They who believe in our political reformers would an-
swer in the affirmative ; and if the common weal were
delivered over into the hands of these practitioners they
would prove the inveteracy of the disease by destmyin.,
the patient. With their kaile of radical reform, az;"
their Irish Catholicon, they would make quick work !
A saner mind, a riper judgment, a sounder philosophy,
would give a different reply. There are diseases in
the body politic ; but none which stand in need of the
knife and the cautery. Diet is more needful than me-
dicine ; and where medicine is required, alteratives,
not drastics, ought to be administered.
" Since man has ceased to exist in the patriarchal
state,—that golden age to which the earliest poets, and
the most widely- liffused traditions refer,—he hes no
where, nor at any period, existed in so favourable a
condition as'in England at this present time. The fine
arts have been carried to higher perfection in Italy and
in Greece ; a far greater population has been supported
in China and in the Netherlands; more magnificent
works of public utility have been executed in the an-
cient republics; greater triumphs over physical circum-
stances have been obtained in the Low Countries, and
in Egypt, which a Dutch traveller beheld with feelings
of natural pleasure, because in many points of art and
nature, it appeared to him the Holland of the Eastern
world ; in industry England lets been rivalled by the
Dutch ; and in bold conune-eial enterprise she has
been equalled, or, rsrhaps, surpassed, by Carthage in
old time, and by Portugal in the age of her glory. But
when every thing is considered which contribUtes to
the moral and intellectual improvement of the indivi-
dual, and the I,,,eneral well being of the community,
certain it is that En,-bind stall& alone, an:l is conspi-
cuously blest above a'l,l counties tither of the ancient
or the modern world. The world, indeed, through all
the evils with which it has been afflicted, has been pro-
gressive in good ; but the itroilar situation of England,
its geographical position, its laws, its institutions, its
history, and the national character which these eircum;
stances have combined to form, have mtule it of all
parts of the woad, the Most prosperous and the most
haPPY-
" But every stagPe of society brings with it its atten-
dant evils ; the hotly politic may be plethoric like the
hotly natural : there is a state of prosperity which, like
overfeeding, disposes the system tin' inflammatory dis-
cuses, or makes it break out in blains uad blotches. As

Our Win, Comfit'*Wien ant 31,abui.

MONDAY, OCTOBER, 28, 1816.

II no political change, whethtr from peace to war, or
from war to peace, can occuriwithout immediate incon-
venience and injury to come branches of the communi-
ty, fiir less can any material alteration of manners take
place without some detrimental consequences, more or
less dangerous in proportion as the class which is affect-
ed is more or less numerous, Now, that the change
of manners which has taken Once in England during
the present reign is greater than was ever produced
during the same ntimber of years, in any known period
of history, will appear manifest upon consideration.
For although no event has occurred of equal inag,ni-
tude to the discovery of America, and no invention
like that of printing, society was not at that age orga-
nized as it is at present : the different classes of men,
as they were then connected, might be compared to
links in a chain, the blow which struck fire from those
at the one end, or broke them in pieces, would pro-
duce no vibration at the other : the state is now more
artificially and intimately combined ; it resembles a
spider's web, in which the slightest impact upon any
one of the threads is felt throughout the whele. Pro-
bably more than a century elapsed before half the peo-
ple in the old world learnt that a new one had been
discovered: there was a time when, in the remoter
parts of the British islands; the subjects knew not un-
der what sovereign they lived, and the same habits and
manners which had prevailed under Queen Elizabeth
existed under Queen Anne. But now the rapid inter-
course which commercial activity has created has given
wings to fashion and fblly, and the politics of Paris
and of London are canvassed in every pot-house where
the English language is spoken.
- -

" Let us then examine what are the classes of
society which have been injuriously affected during the
great moral revolution of the last half century ; this,
inquiry will lead us to consider what -vM evils have
been diminished among us ; what new ones have sprung
up; what has been done towath diminishing the sum
of human misery, and what remains to do in this great
work, which is one of the worthiest employments of
enlightened man.

" The great and rapid increase of national wealth
has always been attended by a correspondent pressure
of distress upon the peasantry. It was thus in Portu-
gal when Joam 111. succeeded his fhther Emanuel, the
most fortunate Prince that ever sate upon a European
throne : he was master of Ormuz, of Goa, and of Ma-
lacca in the east—thus commanding the whole trade
of the Indian seas ; the gold mines of Africa sent in
rich returns to him, and the greater part of Morocco
paid Mai tribute : to these treasures Joam 111. succeed-
ed, and never was there a period of greater national
distress arising from poverty than at the commencement
of his reign. It was thus itt Spain, when ships came
laden with silver and gold Crum Mexico and Peru—the
fact was distinctly seen, and the cause distinctly stated,
by a cotemporary writer ; the influx of specie produced
a diminution in the value of money, and habits of la-
vish expenditure in the rich ; rents were raised ; all
the necessaries of life advanced in price ; the burden
fell upon the poor ; and of the wealth which poured
into the country in full streams, all that reached
them was in the shape of more abundant alms,
which made them more dependent than they were be-
fore, without preventing them from being more misera-
ble. These vases are clear and specific ;an increase of
national wealth produced an increase of poverty among
the great body of the people; and these things were
not accidentally co-existent 0--they were cause and
c%et. The eases are also in point ; Mr. Colipihoun's
book shows that British industry and enterplise have
produced wealth in as great abundance as the mines of
Hispaniola and Peru, the gold of Africa, or the spices
of the east.

" The growing ,demands of government, and the
growing luxury of the hither daises, produced a simi-
lar effect in the first ycari of our Reformation. The
great distress of the peasantry in those tittles, and the
rapid increase of meadieuuts brie been ascribed to the
dissolution of the monastthes, tith;:reby the sources of
charity to whichthe pooadatd been wont to apply were
suddenly dried up. ' I letFsti' !or: Sir William Bar-
low in, his Dialogue; i Cardinal's act in pull-
ing dawn and stippressmg religious plows ; our Lord
imoil Ns soul I will wrestle with no souls ; he know-
eth by this time whether he did well or evil. But this
dare I be bold to say, that the Countries where they
stood tinuol such lack of then), thut they would he had
let them stand. And think you then that there would
be no lack found if the remnant were so served too ?