The National Register.
London, England, 1816-10-07 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE.

I.—Actual Stale Agricufture.
ESSEX.

MONTACI E BUROOYNF.—I 11.1 Ye heard that some of the
iiistreFacrt fiiritierit Lave declared, that if not relieved, they
shall pay their Lany•day rime, andhetween harvest and Mi-
chaelmas sell off everything, and quit their farms. I sun told,
that, in one or two instances, this trick was practised last year
in the county of Herts. Unpaid rentand taxes, undischarged
tradesmen's hills, and capital rapidly melting assay. The
state of the labouring poor is truly miserable. Such is the
want of employment, that stoat active, young men are em-
ployed by the Overseers, at Ss. or 41. a week, merely to pre-
vent them from starting.
ISAAC ROGERS.—Many have come to my knowledge, where
industry and application could not save them. So great and
so numerous the distresses are, that a volume must be large
to contain them. Where an abatement of rent has been made,
only procrastinates (and not prevents) ruin. The capital
of the country seems to have sunk, and no one knows how to
a count for so great and so sudden a downfall. I have been
i t business only 2S years t but, from some of our old standards
I learn, that although the distress at the close of the Amori-
C n war was great, yet it bore no proportion to the present.
REV. J. Tment.ow.—'llle produce does not cover the ex-
pellees, independent of rent. I should think that three-
fourths of the paperlately in circulation is withdrawn. Trades-
men complain of their not being able to get their bills paid.
In the villages of this neighbourhood, the rates for the poor
are decreased about onesfifth in the last year, compared with
those of Itlll and iBl2. Hut, in the large towns of Halsted,
Boetiag, Braintree, and Coggeshall, the last quarter's rate is
considerably greater than usual; at Halsted, the quarter's
rate, to Lady-day is ss. lid. in the pound, at a fifth below the
reek-rent. am told, at Coggeshall it is much higher.
Joni( VAIZEY.—.The circumstances that from private know-
ledge and observation, denote the general distress of farmers,
are too varied and numerous to relate here. Any provincial
newspaper is a record of public evidences to au extent pro-
bably, unexampled. I have no hesitation iu expressing my
sincere belief, that one-third of the occupiers of land in num-
ber (having no other source of property) so far as my know-
ledge of the country extends, are insolvent at this day. The
labouring poor, in husbandry (including disbanded men from
the army and navy) are not tour-fifths employed.

HZRI7OIIDSHIRE.
Rev. J. Harr.—A very general complaint amongst the
former of their inability to pay their rents, taxes, kc. on ac-
count of the great depression in the price of agricultural pro-
duce.
J. CassssaJoe.—Their inability to pay their rents, and
the difficulty of collecting the taxes.
W. ..theataus.—A general complaint with tradesmen, that
the farmers have nut paid their last year's bills as well as
issue].

KENT.
R. WALTER Fonsits.—About 12 months ago, a farmer ot-
ettpying a farm of between 500 and floe acres in this parish,
Rolvenden, under an unexpired term of about nine years
(from circumstance's having no connection with his tenantry
of that farm), became a bankrupt. The beneficial interest
in the lease was sold at public auction in December last ;
there were several bidders (men of undoubted judgment),
and unprepared for it, brought the new tenant's actual rent
within one-eighth of what I conceive to be the average rate of
letting the like description of land taken by tenants four or
five years ago; and, in nay opinion, if our farms then let, were
now to be re-let, they might be so on a reduction of one-eighth
of the existing rents; of course, some a little more and scone
a little less. The present times of calamity do not affect us
equally with other places, and this from various causes. Ist,
(and I think principally) from the circumstance of our most
considerable landowners being Gentlemen who have inherit'
ed, and continually reside on the estates of their ancestors :
they and their tenantry have grown up together, and the
Landlord's rentik been Animal on a moderate estimate of what
both parties deemed to be the fair value of the land, instead of
being fixed by land-agents, sometimes deficient in all know-
ledge; still more frequently in local information; and al-
most aloays without feeling for the tenants, or having
any other object than creating an enormous rent-toll,
however ruinous to the tenant, or in the long run pre•
judicial to the real interest of the landlord. Secondly,
We have many substantial yeomen farming their own lands,
capable of bearing a very considerable degree of pressure.
!Idly, We almost universally arc mole or lass hop-planters,
far which culture the three last years have been extremely
favourable, in point of prices; and they have served us In
two ways—in not only haring put a good deal of money into
the pockets of One farmers, but afforded the poor (men,
women, and children) much beneficial employ. Many of us
graze as well as farm, and if' sheep have sold badly, wool as
sold well; our wood-lands also have turned to good account.
4th, Modoses exempt its from match of the vexation of tithes;
and, to the extent in which tithe is payable, the composition
has in general been on terms not to be complained of. All
these are co-operating circ ttttt stances in our favour; but I
repeat it, to the first we are principally indebted; as, accord-
ing to the best information I am able to procure, parishes
within a few milts distance, and on a par with us in all
other respects, ate its a situation very different from what
we experience. We are pressed, bait keep our feet, while
they are daily falling; and this opinion I give without any
interest or bias; i rent no land ; our with reference to what
land 1 possess, whether occupied by me, or let sad), have
not the least pretence to rank myself with the considerable
land-holders to whom I allude. Our farmers, instead of
having mom y to expend in improvements, or lay by, are
short of cash; still, however, they are able to pay the land-
lord, and live; bet if times don't mend, and One hop-planting
should ge wroug, our future prospects are far from pleasant.