The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIG JOURNALS.

The following piece of provincial history has
come to our knowledge. Some time in the
month of December a few Magistrates, who
meet in petty sessions in the town of Derby,
.determined to rouse the landowners of that
county to a sense of their agricultural wrongs.
With this vie.v they wrote to a select number of
their brethren, requesting them to attend a meet-
ing at the County Hall, on the 31st December.
We say a select number, because they wholly
omitted to make any application to several active
Magistrates in their immediate vicinity, who are
also extensive landowners. The result of the
meeting of the 31st December is set forth in
the following extract from the Derby Mercury:
At a meeting held on the 31st of December,
1529, at the County-ball, ha Derby, present—E. S.
Chandos-Pole, Esq. Chairman ; Sir Roger Gresley,
Bart.; Sir Henry Fitz-Herbert, Bart.; John Cave, •
Esq.; Henry Wilmot, Esq.; Francis Mundy, Esq.
M.P.; Edward Miller Mundy, Esq. ; Francis Hurt. '
Esq.; Robert Holden, Esq. ; Godfrey Meynell,
Esq.; John Wright, Esq.
" The Chairman having read the letters which
he had received from some of the most considerable
landed proprietors of the county, expressive of their
general sentiments on the present depressed state
of the agricultural interests—lt was resolved,
" 1. That a memorial be presented to the First
Lord of the Treasury, representing the extreme de-
pression of the agricultural interest.
" 2. That a Committee be formed to draw up
the memorial, previous to the quarter sessions.
" 3. That the memorial be sent to the ensuing
quarter sessions, for the signature of Magistrates,
and be afterwards forwarded to the different hun-
dreds of the county of Derby, for the signature of
freeholders and farmers.
" 4. That the memorial be advertised in the
Derbyshire papers.
" 5. That the above resolutions also be published
in the Derbyshire papers, and printed copies be
sent to the Chairman of the different quarter ses-
sions throughout England.
(Signed) "E. S. CHANDOS POLE, Chairman.
" s TO HIS GRACE ARTHUR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G.,

&C., FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY.

" SIR,—We, the undersigned Magistrates,
Clergy, freeholders, arid farmers, of the county of
Derby, anxious at this alarming period to manifest
the same confidence in the wisdom of his Majesty's
Government which we have always reposed in it,
are induced to approach your Grace with this me-
morial, declaratory of our sense of the great injuries
which we have already sustained, and are still sus-
taining, and of the yet greater ones which we have
reason to apprehend, from the increasing depression
of the price of all agricultural produce.
" In expressing these sentiments, we hope dis-
tinctly to be understood, as not desiring to make
any complaints which are groundless, or to speak of
any grievances which are unreal : and we trust that
we shall be acquitted of any intention to embarrass
or interfere with the designs of his Majesty's Go-
vernment; since, although we do not consider
it as essential to the course which we are pur-
suing, to allude to any past measures as the
source of our misfortunes, or to suggest any future
care as the means of relieving them, we hold it to be
our bounde►► duty, as men desirous of enjoying and of
transmitting our possessions unimpaired to our pos-
terity, to state without disguise or delay, to those
authorities to which we necessarily look for relief,
our painful sense of our present sufferings, and our
reasonable apprehensions of being driven by a con-
tinuance of them, from that sphere which we occupy
amongst the loyal subjects of this empire.
" Sincerely impressed with these constitutional
and respectful sentiments, which we hope cannot be
otherwise than satisfactory to his Majesty's Govern-
ment, we beg to intimate to your Grace, with me-
lancholy reluctance, our personal knowledge of rents
greatly reduced and still in arrear,—of tenants
ruined,—of labourers unemployed,—of farms thrown
out of cultivation, and of sales forcibly effected,—of
produce at a price infinitrly below the cost of produc-
tion; and to express our conviction, under the dura-
tion of the present severe distress, of our inability to
keep up our usual demand fur articles of manufac-
ture, and to contribute our accustomed share, which
we have always borne, arid are still ready to bear,
willingly, in proportion to our means, in the collec-
tion of the revenue.

" Having thus solemnly invited your Grace's
attention to the ruin in which many of us are, and
all of us fear to be involved, we rely with confidence
on the justice, the humanity, and the united wisdom
of his Majesty's Government, for affording us that
measure of relief, without which we shall soon cease
to exist together as a loyal, useful, and influential
body, whose best services have always been'ren-
dered with alacrity, when called for by the exigen-
cies and interests of the State.'

" Magistrates desirous of signing the Memorial
are requested to be at Derby by eleven o'clock on
Tuusday, January 12."
It will, we think, at once occur to our rea-
ders, on a perusal of the above memorial, that
these country justices must have taken their es-
timate of the Duke of Wellington's character
from the letter addressed to him by the Duke of
Cumberland's Chaplain, or from the representa-
tions of some of our contemporaries, who dis-
play him to their readers as a proud domineering
bashaw, who exacts from his serfs more than
eastern servility. The memorialists are evidently
persuaded that they shall be able to propitiate his
Grace by the abject manner in which they bring
their sufferings to his feet, and throw themselves
on his humanity. It is indeed hard that they
should suffer—they who have always reposed
" the same confidence in his !Majesty's Govern-
meut," of whatever members it might be com-
posed,—who are anxious " at this alarming pe-
riod to manifest the same confidence ;" still, they
who " anxiously hope that their constitutional
and respectful sentiments cannot be otherwise
than satisfactory to his Majesty's Government,"
which they trust will acquit them " of any in-
tention " to embarrass or interfere with its der
signs,"—they who necessarily look to those au,
thorities for relief,—they who would still willingly
contribute " their accustomed share in the col-
lection" (Qu.—towards the amount ?) of the
revenue ;" and harder still would it be, if, having
humbly brought these their manifold merits to his
Grace's recollection, they might not with confi-
dence rely on his humanity. Now, if the griev-
ances spoken of by these justices do indeed
exist, they affect every owner and every occupier
of land in their county. They form a most
appropriate ground for an expression of county
feeling. But the truth is, that in Derb3shire a
county meeting is not to be hazarded. This
same batch of Justices is not to be haw:l4
This same batch of Justices, or nearly so, have
tried the experiment, which has led to a fatal
result. Perhaps these Justices may have heard
that there has existed, at certain periods of our
history, a custom—which has, moreover, been

considered as very constitutional—of petitnp.,,ng
Parliament for a redress of grievances. The
custom we apprehend to have -been founded on
the
t: following :—that the body represented
tothe6ody representing,—that the
casecg theoryonsiders the same, and bw..ring found
latter
lbiltosod winy
(in the language of the Derbyshire Justices)
that the complaints aro not groundless, nor the
grievance unreal, proceeds, if the matter depends
on legislative provisions, by its own direct act to
remedy the evil ; or, if it arises out
duct of the Executive, 'lOO-c:ise the ample
powers which p..re 04ced in it 4 hands for the con-

troul of that body, and thereby reflectivArpt6
produce the remedy. But these Justici4Fairo`
aware that a fresh state of affairs—to which, in=` '-`.
deed, " in proportion to their means," they have
fully contributed—has sprung up in Great Bri-
tain, and that now, instead of Parliament con-

troulling the Executive, the Executive controuls
Parliament ; and therefore, passing by the body
whom they have themselves concurred in appoint-
ing for the care of their interests in the Govezn-
ment of the country, they go at once, in a course
too straightforward to be misunderstood, and

supplicate the Prime Minister, who ;.as been al).
pointec.: by the King. So much for the manner

of the memorial : we will now look a little into
its matter. The memorialists tell his Grace of

" the great injuries they have sustained, and are
sustaining ; and of the yet greater ones which
they apprehend from the increasing depression of
the price of agricultural produce." But they
have omitted to tell him that they are dairying
and breeding agriculturalists ;—that the staple
productions of their estates are cheese and cattle ;
—that last year, a year 9f great produce, the
former article bore more than an extravagant—
even almost a famine—price ;—that it gave
them 70s. per cwt.;—that this year (a produc-
tive year also), it gives them 455., yielding an
average, on two years of great production, of
60s. per cwt. ;—that this price of 60s. will enable
Derbyshire landlords to let their lands within
10 per cent., or even less, of the high war rents.
They have omitted to tell his Grace that during
the whole of the year 1828 cattle fetched a high
price ;—that for the first four months of 1829
their price was higher than ever since the
war ;—and that only for the four months
preceding the date of their complaint has it
experienced a material, though certainly a very
severe, depression. They do not inform his

Grace that they have, one with another, re-
duced their rents twenty nor even 10 per
cent., and we doubt whether they could lay
claim even to the lower per tentage. But if they
have reached the higher, still are they in no

respect aggrieved. Have they borrowed money
at five per cent.? Their mortgagees will now
thankfully receive four. Here they save the 20
per cent. They will hardly deny that they pay
20 per cent. less in taxes than at the period
when their rents were raised to the highest ;
and as to their butchers' and bakers' bills, the
very nature of their complaint excludes them
from the calculation. But, say they, we must
" express our conviction of our inability to keep
up our usual demand for articles of manufacture."
Why really, gentlemen, you must suppose the
Duke of Wellington to be possessed by more
than common ignorance of the civil transactions

of the country I: ho you suppose that he is not
aware that while your rents have fallen 20 per
cent. all manufactured articles have fallen more

than 50? Do you think he does not know, in
the mass if not in detail, that the furniture

prints which did cost you 4s. a yard, you now
buy at ls. Gd. ;—that your cotton hose are reduced
from 3s. 6d. a pair to is. Bd.; and your silk from
18s. to Os. ; that Gros de Naples, fbr your ladies'
dresses, from 10s. a yard has fallen to 4s. ;—and
their lace from 16s. a yard to 7s. ? Do you im-
agine that he has utterly forgotten what depots-
tons from Spitalfields have told him as to the
ruinous fall in the prices of silks, or the same

story from Coventry respecting ribands, from
Leeds and Nlelksham respecting woollen cloths,
and from Bolton and Blackburn respecting cali-
coes? That individuals among you are in die-
tress, we have no doubt. Some '2O years ago it
pleased Lord Bexley to establish by a vote of
the House of Commons, that a pound note and
a shilling were equivalent to a guinea,—heavy
guineas being at the moment saleable to any
Jew for a pound note and eight shillings, and
light guineas being openly saleable by law for a
pound note and six or more shillings, according
to their weight. Some of your fathers, reposing
then the same confidence in his MajesLyss Go-
vernment which you are now anxious to exhibit.
and finding themselves annually in the receipt of
more pound notes and shillings than the number
of guineas which their rents, when paid in that
coin, were wont to produce, took oceasion to
imagine that they had suddenly increased in per-
manent wealth, and charged their estates for the
benefit of their wives and younger children to
the full extent which their nominal wealth ‘v0u1,2,,
hail it been permanent, have justified. -Lord
Bexley's pound turned out to be worth, alas !
but 145.: and no man can be suaprised that you
groan, when you pay, in pounds of 20s. each,
the tale which your fatheis charged in pounds of
14s. The Duke of Wellington, no doubt, corn-
passionates your case, but it is little less than
puerile in yourselves to expect that he can allay
the effects of such egregious folly in your ances-
tors. With the exception of persons so cir-
cumstanced, the land-owners of England, and
more especially of the county of Derby, now
stand in as high a position of pecuniary prospe-
rity, relatively to every class of their fellow-
countrymen but one, as they ever sustained in
the days of their nominal wealth. That one
class consists of persons who received fixe,!. in-
comes. But let not the land-owners 'oe unjust
or ungenerous. Let them remember how that
class was ground down when for many years
they were compelled to accept in payment for
pounds sterling which were named in their
bond, pounds of 14s. each. One of your
statements, Gentletnen Justices, we cannot pass
by. You "beg to intimate to his Grace," inter
alias «your personal knowledge of farms thrown
out of cultivation." This might pass in a novel
founded on facts, but in a memorial pure fiction
is a figure of speech which ought to be excluded.
Farms thrown out of cultivation ! Why, your
whole county does not adbrd such an instance.
Each successive sgssiou of Parliament has pro-
duced one or tnore acts for the enclosure and
eultivatiop of your wastes and commons, even in
the vicinity of your wildest moorlands. But
though not exceedingly voracious, you are, in-
deed, of all memorialists the most unassuming.
You do not consider it necessary " to allude to
any past measures as the source of your misfor-
tunes, cap to suggest any future ones as the means
a relieving them." You leave the discovery to
his Grace's sagacity;—the remedy to his hu-
manity. Not a word of retrenchment,—not a
word of taking off of taxes. No ; you are not
the class to make such a recommendation. If
there be fewer taxes, there must he less army,
on your
nhiaalyldtsl7nalblde illtdditecebdo,y;and thrown bats;
less iaavy, less establishment Henry, the bold
mid-
shipman, may wait forever for his Droinotion.
You are willing to contribute Yo,Pr accustomed
share in the collection of 'le revenue, and of
course you wish to ret:,,n your accustomed share
in its dissipation, Some of you now riot in the
luxury of r,njoyment,—others live in the sweet-
of expectation. All classes pay to the re-
-.ontie, but one only receives from it to any ma-
terial amount. If a less sum be collected in the.
Shape of taxes., all classes will pay less, but one
class only will receive less, That class of counti,