The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1839.

MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS OF THE

FOOD TAXES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sts,-The more the people turn their attention to the sub-
jest of our bread taxes, the more do they discover new proofs
of their pernicious effects on the happiness and comforts of the
community, I shall briefly notice one with which I am pretty
conversant, and I am convinced you will think it high time the
country was rid at once of this hateful tax.
The demand for Russian tallow, it is well known, increases
every year; indeed that country can hardly supply our want
of that article. There, is much speculation as to the cause of
this increasing demand, some attributing it to this cause, some
to that. My own opinion is that it is much owing to our dail)
increasing steam power, and I make no doubt but that alone
may consume from twenty to thirty thousand casks annually.
However, let the cause be what it may, our importations of
that article are now sixty thousand tons, and, as may well be
supposed, the Russians, ever keenly alive to their own interests,
are not slack in taking advantage of our wants. Well aware
we can get no supplies worth notice from any country but their
own, they have niade us pay this last season about 15/. per ton
more for it. Now let us see how this tells on the comforts of
the people. Last advices from St. Petersburgh say next
season's supplies are to be short, and prices have advanced to
about 481. per ton free on board ; 60,500 tons at 481. pc,r ton
come to 2,880,000/. ; add to this, duty, freight, and other charges
71. per ton, 420,0001., then it will be found we pay for Russian
tallow alone 3,300,000/. consumed in this country. Now what
I wish to make out is, that all this might be saved, and a great
deal more, were we allowed animal food at somewhat near the
prices of other countries ; and I beg here to remark that I
cannot help thinking this has been too little attended to by the
many able exposures brought to light as to the pernicious ten-
dency of our Corn-laws ; but let us follow out our tallow calcu-
lations, and show what an enormous sum this country pays for
it. Our home supplies have been generally estimated at three
times more than our importation—but to keep within the mark,
call it only double; then it follows our home produce will be
120,000 tons, including our Russian supplies, 180,000 tons.
Now, as the price of our home tallow is entirely regulated by
the foreign, which is now 57b in the London market, it will
appear we are now paying the astounding sum of ten millions
sterling for tallow, and, as the manoeuvring of the Russians
has raised their price 15/. per ton, it throws 1,800,0001.,
nearly two millions, into the pockets of the agriculturists (this
must be very satisfactory to the Marquis of Chandos), which,
I dare say, they were not aware of before.
Were our food taxes removed, we should very soon see beef
and mutton at 3d. the pound (on the Continent it is only
to 2d. per lb.) ; at this rate, or even a little higher, the con-
sumption would double ; but say it only reached the half, then
it foilows we would prouce a half more tallow, say 60,000
tons, thereby rendering us independent of Russia. Did they
take our manufactures in exchange, it might not be so bad for
us ; but in place of that, I suppose our imports from Russia
will exceed our exports three or four to one. Of course, we
must be excellent customers to the Czar. Is he grateful for
it? Why, not content with the immense quantity of tallow
we take from him, he thinks proper to lay duties of one sort
and another upon it to the amount of 4/. per ton, which is
tantamount to a duty of equal amount on all we produce at
home, as I said before, our prices being entirely regulated
by the price of Russian tallow, so the Czar's duty of 4/. puts
480,0001. into the pockets of the farmers. I suspect they never
knew before what a friend he was to them. I have shown that
under our present system, our farmers are pocketing a deal of
money from tallow; but what are the consequences to the
community ? it just obliges them to pay 2d. per lb. more for
their candles, and nearly as much for soap. Were our
animal food assimilated in price more than it is to the rates on
the Continent, we should at once put an end to all this rob-
bery. And, moreover, the working, classes, who seldom or
ever taste butcher treat, would be able to indulge a little in
the use of it, greatly to their comfort; for it is cruel to tied
the hard-wrought and worn-out tradesman, from the extrava-
gant high price of butcher meat, unable to touch it, and even
many of the middle'classes, with moderate incomes, obliged to
put up with a scanty portion of it. Such are a few of the evils
entailed on the people of this country in consequence of the
land- owner's taxes. Were they removed, which, it is to be hoped,
will be soon, our country would assume a different appearance
altogether, our artizans and working classes would find that,
what with cheap bread and meat, soap and candles, they would
enjoy comforts that are now, from the cruelty of our landed
gentry, denied them; our middle classes, with whom butcher
meat and bread forms the principle item in the expense of a
family, would have their expenditure so much lessened, that
they would be enabled to expend more in other comforts, such
as better clothing, and indulge more in the use of articles that
produce largely to the revenue, such as wine, spirits, tea, and
sugar, &c. ; in fact, the whole community would find themselves
in better circumstances, the working classes both better fed and
better clad, and all contributing, according to their different
stations in life, to the general prosperity of the nation, which
would soon show itself by a speedy revival of all our manufac-
tures arising from the increased demand at home for the various
articles our manufacturers produce; and, consequently, fullym-
ployment to all the working classes, and to a certainty a rise
in their wages, for our manufacturers, from the great demand
at home, could well afford to pay better wages, as they well
know a good home trade is better than a foreign one. I have
no doubt whatever, were we clear of these ruinous food taxes,
there would be set afloat amongst our manufacturers and
farmers a suns not short of forty millions, that the people have
been and are now robbed of by these withering and impoverish-
ing taxes. Once remove them, and you will soon see this coun-
try more flourishing, happy, and contented than ever, and if
not, nothing but discontent and ruin staring us in the face. I
will conclude by remarking how beneficial the removal of these
taxes on food would be to our shipping interest-, our merchants
could provision their ships at half it costs them now, and pre-
vent them laying in provision in other countries ; and more-
over, what a saving it would be to Government were they able
to victual our immense Navy at half cost. These are all
considerations worthy the most serious attention of our Minis-
try, and let us hope they will fearlessly and honestly come for-
ward and join the great mass of the people in sweeping from
the Statute-book laws at once hateful to both God and man.
Leith, January 25. A CONSTANT READER.

OXFORD.-WEDNESDSY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sta,—Thinking perhaps that you may wish to know some-
thing of the meeting here to-day of the subscribers to the
Memorial to the Martyrs I send you the following particulars:
First, the meeting was a sad fdlurc. Although every
means have been used to secure a large attendance, among
which I may mention that an extra number of 5,000 copies of
the Oxford Herald was printed, and distributed all over the
country the week before last, expressly for this purpose; and
although it was said we should hive great Lnd illustrious
speakers from various parts of the kingdom, not a single man
of them came. Only a few of the dons of Oxford spoke on
the occasion, and these in such a way as to show that eloquence
forms no part of our University education : no Mechanics In-
stitution, or assemblage of operatives, but would have shamed

them in this respect.
Dr. Macbride was in the Chair, and opened the business by
stating the (abject of the meeting, namely, to decide whether
the memorial should be a simple monument or a church.
The Vice-Chancellor then, in a very flat speech, proposed
that it should be a church ; which proposition was seconded
by the Rev. Vaughan Thomas (the political Parson so cele-
brated for the very active part he took in the persecution of
Dr. Hampden).
The Rev. Mr. Greswcll, of Worcester College, then arose,
and stated at great prosy length various objections to the plan
and object of the meeting. He combatted the motive as not
orthodox ; said the thing had its origin in party feeling, but
was a complete failure ; complained of the word prelate being
used in the inscription instead of Bishop ; contended that
Cranmer could by no means be considered as a willing martyr,
seeing he had changed and changed before to save his life, and
would probably have done so aga►n if that would have availed
him; but his chief objection was to the use of the word Pro-
testant, which he considered as altogether inapplicable to the
Church of England, which was not a Protestant Church, the
word Protestant being no where to be found in any of her
formula ; her true designation, he asserted, was the Catholic
and Apostolic Church. Much applause was here expressed,
but the Rev. Gentleman was interrupted by the Chairman,
who informed him that the business of the meeting was not to
discuss the inscription, which had been settled upon, and could
not be altered, but to determine whether the memorial should
I be a monument or church.
The motion for a church was then put, and carried unani-
mously.
The remainder of the business was mere routine, and
managed in the dullest way possible. There was only one
interruption to its dullness, and that, I fear, reflects much dis-
grace upon the members of the University.
A townsman, I believe a very respectable grocer, attempted
to address the meeting; but as he is known to be a Dissenter,
and moreover a decided Radical, the gentlemen present re-
ceived him with yells and hootings, a►,d noises such as one
would only expect to hear in some drunken assembly of the
ignorant and unwashed. He could not obtain a hearing ; and
although he claimed it as a citizen and freeman of Oxford,
standing in the Town Hall, the exclusive property of the city,
and cried out that the city might be disgraced by their pro-
ceedings, might overcome right, and the religious, the
earned, the adepts in argument, who met there to deliberate

upon erecting a monument to one, whose merit, in their eyes,
was that he suffered martyrdom for the Gospel of Peace, the
Ministers of this Gospel had recourse to brute force, and ab-
solutely ejected him they seemed afraid to hear, from the
room. I was present, and confessed that I felt shocked at this
violence, and deeply pained that a body of gentlemen should
have so demeaned themselves.
Oxford, Jan. 30, 1839.

Wednesday an inquest was held in the Kingsland-
road, on the body of Henry Ayres, aged sixteen years, who,
it was alleged, had died in consequence of a blow he had re-
ceived while an inmate of the workhouse of St. Leonard's,
Shoreditch. From the evidence in appeared that on the fore-
noon of Thursday the 16th instant the deceased was playing,
with a number of other boys, in the yard of the above work-
house, when the master-shoemaker, being annoyed by their
noise, threw among them a dusting-brush, which he happened
at the moment to have in his hand, and said, " Share that
amongst you." The brush struck deceased on the head, but
he did not at the time complain of any pain, nor until the
Saturday following, when he was removed to the boys' infir-
mary. It was only a slight blow, and he played about in the
yard for two days afterwards. He lingered until Saturday
last, when he expired. Mr. Finn, the parochial surgeon,
subsequently made a post mortem examination, and found
some coagulated blood pressing upon the brain, which arose,
in his opinion, from the rupture of a blood-vessel, and not
from the effects of the blow. The jury returned a verdict
accordingly.

(.341-2To-li AND coi:N—A DIALOGUE.

(raom THE MISCELLANEOUS POEMS OF THOMAS MOORE, ESQ.)
Said Cotton to Corn, t'other day,
As they met and exchanged a salute—
('Squire Corn in his cabriolet,
Poor Cotton, half famished, on foot)—'
" Great 'Squire, if it isn't uncivil
To hint at starvation before you,
Look down on a hungry poor devil,
And give him some bread, I implore you I"
Quoth Corn, then, in answer to Cotton,
Perceiving he meant to make free,
" Low fellow, you've surely forgotten
The distance between you and me
" To expect that we, Peers of high birth,
Should waste our illustrious acres
For no other purpose on earth
Than to fatten curs'd calico-makers !
" That Bishops to bobbins should bend,
Should stoop from their bench's sublimity,
Great dealers in lawn, to befriend
Your contemptible dealers in dimity!
" No; vile manufacture I ne'cr harbour
A hope to be fed at our boards:
Base offspring of Arkwright, the barber,
What claim canst thou have upon Lords ?
; thanks to the taxes and debt,
And the triumph of paper o'er guineas,
Our race of Lord Jenunys, as yet.
May defy your whole rabble of Jennys P'
So saying, whip, crack, and away
Went Corn in his cab through the throng,
So madly, I heard them all say,
'Squire Corn would be down before long.