The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-06 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.

Mr. Grantley F. Berkeley has addressed the following
letter

"To THE BRITISH AGRICULTURISTS AT HOME AND IN

THE COLONIES, AND TO ALL THE-INDUSTRIAL CLASSES.
" Gentlemen,— The motion of Mr. Villiers having been
thoroughly discussed in the Commons, and happily dis-
posed of, I hasten to avail myself of the accommodation
of the press in offering you a few observations.
"It is an error to assert that the prosperity at present
enjoyed by the industrial classes arises solely 'from re-
cent legislation ' or the abrogation of the corn laws.
Had we as many labourers in the United Kingdom now
as there were in 1846—1 allude more particularly to the
rural districts—the rate of wages at present paid must
and would have been infinitely lower, or half the hands
been without occupation.
" Expatriation, to the extent in which it has gone on
since the abrogation of the corn laws, throughout the
United Kingdom, is not a proof of prosperity,—far from
it ; while, at the same time, it accounts for the rate of
wages paid to those who cling to their native land. On
every side it is admitted that the West India colonies
are gone ; that British Guiana' is below English resus-
citation, and I have therefore a right to maintain that
there is no source of well-founded or safe congratulation.
in the assertion that the labouring classes at home are
legislatively better off than they were, if their benefit
arises from the ruin of their colonial brethren and from
the emigration of their relations and friends.
" I assert that the attempt of Messrs. Villiers, Cobden,
and Co., to wrest from the house a refusal to consider
the state of the land, and to deny that that particular
interest deserves any further legislative attention, is one
tyrannical and oppressive in its inclination and griev-
ously unjust, while at the same time it militates against
that unrestricted competition,' for the extended in-
terests of which they profess themselves so sedulous.
Let the land be as free to the farmer as the loom and
steam to the manufacturer, the exigencies of the state,
of course, considered ; let the produce of the slave be
refused, the British market be accessible only to the
labour of the free ; let the colonies of the mother country
once more lift their eyes above the sea of destruction
with which the policy of Lord Grey so obstinately
overwhelmed them ; let emigration decrease, and I
will then join in an approval unqualified of ' recent
legislation.' True, the gold mania may account for
much absenteeism among the labouring classes, but that
again is answered by the fact of its causing
in the wes of those left behind ; while, at the
same timeag the importation of the precioolls e tal 0
e una
•
not without its effect on the resources tn
try. I do not regret the motion
bmm
vre bylier
ingn:h r in
the last Parliament, as alluded Wn
the first night of the debate
considerationsioiortaultdiutidkeoenflionostthooarmonulhavAovcbeeo noni
tion That the house
y
the acts relating to the inlP .
nagedtoretifilefe
ethideelinratpioons:tioson
oofbatadiunteyd; netctehssaittatuilte.
erewhthiceh
abrogation of the corn laws, to meet its altered position
contented with an ackinmmoNaveleddigmateeanntatahnat,exotweiil.
the land deservedan
beentakenburdens—burdensoff I
foreignerhave everkaci
permitted to come in. These Manche
zter
beenhe l d
poli-
ticians, as it was likely they would do when setting their
from
its peculiar
hands to rural interests, put the cart before the horse,
and instituted what they called free trade' before the
farmer was in a fair way to grapple with it, and by so
doing their rashness risked eventual success. All I have
ever asked is, 'justice for the land,' and I have invariably
stated that justice was due, either by a protective duty
or by the remission of peculiar burdens,—l cared not
which. Lord J. Russell, when tested by me, refused to
grant relief either way. and the present abortive attempt
of Mr. Villiers to withhold any consideration to the land
—for it amounts to that—savours of a factious design to
cover what in my humble opinion was a remarkable
error in his Lordship's policy. The conclusion to which
the House of Commons has come confirms me in my
position. The free-trade majority' returned to Parlia-
ment as a national decision declares that which I most
conscientiously believe to be true,—that, as an unre-
stricted trade is to be the future policy of Great Britain,
it is wiser to intrust its details to Lord Derby and the
present Administration, as the most combined and
strongest working party in the Legislature, than to Lord
John Russell and the incongruous aid he might solicit—.
not command—for that especial purpose.
" I have the honour to be, your most obedient humble
servant,

"GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY.
" Beacon Lodge, Nov. 27."

MARYLEBONE VESTRY.—The Marylebone vestry
agreed on Saturday to assemble the rate-payers in the
Vestry-hall for the purpose of opposing the increase on the
House Tax, and a committee was appointed to WIT out
the armugomouts of the meeting%