The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-03 00:00:00

ANSWERS.

(Continued from The Sun of Monday.)
83. —Now, Sir, the deduction from your postulates is ne-
cessarily this—that the landed body has interests apart from,
and prejudicial to, the rest:of the community;—Letter of AN
AGRICULTURIST, BUT NO ROBBER, in the Morning Chronicle of
Oct. 1, 1838.
ANSWER.-If it did not think it had, why did it enset
that no man should sit in the House of Commons who
could not prove he belonged to the class ?

84.—that it is a body so exclusively selfish in its purposes,
that even the class which was formerly supposed to be most
closely connected with it, namely, the farmers, can have no
object in common ; —ld.
A.—The farmers are coming to the knowledge that they
have no substantial interest in the continuance of the
Corn-laws, but only in their being removed by certain de-
grees. There have been reasons given to them by philo-
sophers scantily informed in their trade, which they were
probably too wise to care for ; but here are the true ones
for their meditation.
When the Corn-laws were imposed, there is no doubt
that it made a flush of employment for farmers, and there
was room made, say for four farmers where there would
only have been for three. It was a flush of the same kind
as would have taken place in the employment for the
printers' foremen in London, if the printers had got a law
that all the printing for the country should be done in the
metropolis. And as it would have been useless to go about
to tell the printers' foremen that they would be brought to
a stand-still by the increased price of printer's work when
they wanted to have a little printing for themselves, so it
would be useless to try to persuade the farmers that their
gains would be brought to an end by the increased price of
the food to be consumed by themselves or by their
labourers. The farmers know well enough that on this
point, though they may be losing by the shilling, they are
gaining by the pound ; and therefore it is very unlikely
they should heed such representations, any more than the
printers' foremen in the circumstances supposed. But
though this is not the reason why they are brought to loss,
there may be another; and there is one, arising out of the
fact that all men live by food and all men do not live by
printing, which is quite competent to make the difference.
A flush of employment was given to the farmers when
the Corn-laws were imposed. But what is become of it
now ? and is the final consequence to the farmers anything,
but that they are four where they ought to have been
three, and that the four are worse off than the three ?
They are worse off, because farmers, like other men, will have
children,—nay, they are rather more given than most other
people to the practice. But the means of supporting children
are cut off. Jack, and Tom, and Harry, naturally each want
a farm a-piece, if they could get it. But are they likely, or is
it possible that they should get it ? It is clear that nothing
can be done for them, but wait for the old man's death, and
then either two of the three must shift for themselves, or
theymust subdivide the farm, which in no long time will bring
them or their posterity to be day-labourers. Now, before
the Corn-laws, the world (when fighters would let it) was
open for mcn to advance their fortunes in. The myriads
who raised themselves by manufactures and foreign com-
merce, though they did not go abroad themselves, were
examples of this truth. The country was a growing country ;
no man had said to it, " Hitherto shalt thou grow, and no
farther." But all this is altered now ; and the farmers,
like other people,. are sufferers in the end for the
great injustice. But which way are they to get back
again ? If the Corn-laws are removed, the demand
for farmers must decrease ; and it does not appear how
that can serve their purpose. Their condition, then,
is this. They are driven into a corner between two e%ils ;
and they must use their wits to see which is the greater
and which the less ; which is the permanent and perpetual
one if let alone, and which is the temporary evil,' ike a
spendthrift's pinching himself to escape a gaol, but followed
by the greater ultimate good of curing the other. They
must aim at removing the impedim.nt to the country's ad-
vancement, by such steps as shall allow their interest in
the increased openings for supporting children, to keep
some pace with the diminution of demand for farmers which
may arise from time to time out of the gradual removal of
the monopoly. Nobody wants to hurt them, if they will
only like sensible men set their shoulders to the wheel,
before somebody else is obliged to do it for them. The
farmers, too, have the best of means of knowing how much
exaggeration there is in the representations made of the
quantity of land that would be thrown out of cultivation, by
ceasing to rob other people in the price of bread. Some lands
would he changed from wheat to food for cattle ; because

the man who gets plenty of bread, is exceedingly apt to want
a beef-steak along with it. Some would be changed to gardens ;
because when more can buy bread, more can buy asparagus.
These changes might be vexatious to some, and good for others.
But whether good for all or not, they do not amount to a
reason why the farmers are to hold out for a wrong that
harms themselves, ti l the rest of the community come
down upon them and put a stop to it with the strong hand.
What is true of the farmers is true also of their la-
bourers ; and true, with some variations, of the landlords
too, when they shall have the grace to know it ;—with
the exception always of that portion who can make an
eldest son, and quarter the rest of their posterity, male
and female, on the public purse. It is small comfort to a
sensible landlord that he has raised his rents from 8001.
a-year to 1,000/., if six children are thrown on his hands for
whom he has no means on earth to make provision except
by subdividing his estate.

85. —and, in furtherance of the concluiion at which you
arrive, proceed to &flounce the landed proprietors, in
language more
worthy of Danton than of a Liberal journalist,
you
as absolute, unqualified robbers.—ld.-
A.---It does not signify whether it is worthy of Danton,
but whether it is true. The first act of the lauded pro-
prietors was to exclude all others from the Legislature ;
and their last, to refuse to let foreign corn be ground in
bond, because they said some of the bran might find its
way into the stomachs of the people. Read all the epi-
thets applied to the landed proprietors ; and " one cheer
n-mre" fir every one of them.

86.—From that unf,,rtut,ate but inevitable imperfection in
human ssst.-ms, which renders it almost impossible to combine
abstract right with artificial institutions, many principles of
unexceptonsble tendency in themselves, must be administered
with discretion, and applied with caution to the exigencies of
peculiar communities.—ld.
A.—We wait to get rid of the " artificial institutions."
If you want to know what they are, ask at the Old Bai-
ley. The " peculiar communities" that sell pocket hand-
kerchiefs in Field-lane, will be among the first to cry out
for "caution "in applying abstract right to their "exigencies."

87.—Your first assertion is " that the industrious classes
are sacrificed to the landlords." This would lead a person,
previously unacquainted with the subject, to suppose that the
particular body so designated, had contrived to escape their
share of the general bur dens, to the necessary inconvenience
of their neighbours. Now, what say Messrs. &c. on this
very point ? The former gentleman in his " Stati,tical Sur-
vey of the British Empire," Vol. 11. p. 154, says " it is im-
possible to defend the duties on the importation of corn, ex-
cept on the ground, that they are imposed to balance the
excess of duties laid on the agricultural classes, over those laid
on the other classes."—ld.

,A.—Could nobody hinder the agriculturists, when they
had got the law-making into their own hands, from im-
posing this excess of duties upon themselves, and then im-
posing a loss to fifty times the amount on the rest of the
community, by way of repaying themselves the difference ?
It mud have happened by accident, and the political econo-
mists must in some way have missed getting possession of
the facts afterwards ; for the political economist " must
have a most uncommon skull," who with his eyes open,
could attach his name to such a monstrosity as this.
But such being the state of facts, if there is a govern-
ment in the country for any of the purposes of a govern-
ment, why does not it make a change ? Why does it not
take away the fifty-fold mischief first, and leave the land-
owners to plead before the country for a remission of taxa-
tion? Simply because the landowners are stronger where
they are. Because they know that they should have no
chance of making out a case for the remission of taxes
imposed for their own purposes ; and therefore they will
bold fast the wrong, till the people break the teeth that
hold it.

88.—Now let me ask what contribution to the public ne-
cessities the fundholder, the annuitant of various grades, slid
a host of persons similarly situated, furnish is their respective
qualities of fundholder, annuitant, &c. ?—ld.
A.—Why did not the landlords continue the Property-
tax, which touched these classes ? They took it off be-
cause it touched the rich ; and threw the taxes, sometimes
in a seven-told proportion, on the poor.

89.--And what class contributes beyond all due proportion,
to the support of the Church ?—ld.
A.—Some thousand years ago, the ancestors of tae pre-
sent landlords gave away their land to save their souls ;
and theirsuccessorscharge us foritin the Ways and Means.
Upon the same principle, every man of them might bring
us in his bill, for all he could prove his ancestor to have
ever paid for masses.

90.—A correspondent, who subscribes himself " An Agri-
culturist, but no Robber," must have read The Chronicle very
irregularly to attribute to us a wish to allow a free trade in
corn, without imposing such a protecting duty as might be an
equivalent for the taxes exclusively borne by agriculture.
Why, the very passage our correspondent has quoted from the
" Statistical Survey," was quoted by ourselves in a leading
article within the last month. —2lforniny Chronicle, Oct. 1,
1838.

_
A.—lf the Chronicle said this in sober sadness, he has
only one thing more to do ; which is, to begin making his
own shoes, as the Tories would advise him,
(TO isE CONTINUED.)