The Sun.
London, England, 1822-04-11 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

MR. EDITOR—You will very much oblige me
by informing me of the address of your admira-
ble Correspondent J. S., who has writen on the
Agricultural Distless in your Papers of Feb. 26,
and the 14th and 27th inst, and by forwarding
this Letter to him. As the principle and view of
the Petition, which I drew up some time since,
are so strikingly co-incident with J. S.'s senti-
ments, I hope you may find room for it in one
of•y our columns. Unless the supineness and despair
of the country can be got over, we are lost. Your
attention to my request. will oblige, Sir,

Your obedient humble servant,

lir. M.

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain in Parliament assembled.

The Humble Petition of the Owners and Occupiers of Land,
Tradesmen, and Others, in the Parish of in the

County of

They most respectfully assure your Honourable House, that
they are on the brink of ruin from three conjoint causes :-
Ist. Excessive Taxation. 2dly, The immense importations of
foreign produce, with the want of protection for all our own
landed produce duiing only such taxation. And lastly, The
premature alteration, of the value of the currency, with the con-
traction of its amount far heloW all estimate whatever.

They are surprized at the assertions of those, who for a mo-
ment prosper by their ruin, that excessive production at home is
the cause of the low prices; when it is distress by the above
causes forcing the Farmer to sell at any price, and when more
than twenty-two millions have been spent in bringing food into
our markets. _ . .

The altered value of the currency, and its contraction, having
increased the national and every private debt one third, to the
ruin of every debtor, public and private, they believe it to be an
'impossibility for the Nation to repay, in a real currency, the debt
contracted in a fictitious one.

_Your Petitioners admit the power of the Legislature by the
alteration of the value and amount of the currency, thus to in-
crease the National Debt one-third, but operating as an cx
post facto law, this increases every private debt one-third, alters
old contracts between man and man, and, without illegality or
crime alleged, ruins one contracting party for the benefit of the
other. -

Your Petitioners, regarding all retrenchment hitherto as to-
tally inefficient, in the desperate state of the country, humbly
express theh conviction, that national bankruptcy must follow,
if the present scale of expenditure be maintained, and the mea-
sures respecting the currency be prematurely persisted in, by
which every private debtor must inevitably be ruined.
That as the Nation, from the high state of public credit, has
evinced an indifference for a gold currency, and as your Peti-
tioners regard the premature resumption of cash payments as
one great cause of their distress, they humbly conceive that suf-
ficient security and stability were given to the paper currency,
when the Bang of England was compelled, from May 1, 1821,
to give bullion at £3 17s. 100. per ounce, for all notes to the
value of 60 ounces of gold ; and this bullion was convertible in-
to coin at the Mint. And they are humbly of opinion that no
measure, more prudent, can be adopted in the present dis-
tress, than to go back to this point, and rest the paper currency
on this solid security.
Your Petitioners derive from experience their conviction,
that their approaching bankruptcy is occasioned by these causes
jointly. Ist. Excessive Taxation. 2dly. As thence arising
the want of a full protection of all our landed produce, the im-
policy of which protection excessive Taxation alone can warrant.
And 'idly, the premature alteration of the value of the currency.
and the contraction of it far below all estimate ; the effects of
which measure to every debtor is, in these respects, totally in-
consistent with the good faith of the nation ; and makes also a
difference of 661. per cent. between the grower of produce, who
loses 331. per cent., and the consumer who gains 331. per cent.
thereby.
Your Petitioners therefore, refraining from all political opi-
nions, most respectfully repeat their full conviction, that as
these causes act conjointly to their ruin, so ought they to be
conjointly corrected; that the ridress of any one or other of
them, singly, cannot avail them, and that no relief whatever
can save them, however right in its kind and degree, unless it
be prompt and decisive.
The power rests with your Honourable House, for which
your Petitioners do ever pray.
To be signed in the Vestry by the Minister, Churchwardens,
and some principal Inhabitants in behalf of the Parish.

The Proposition of the Marquis of Londonderry in the Select
Committee. . _

" Open ports for Wheat at 675. per quarter, with a duty of
15s. per quarter certain, and a floating duty, in addition, of ss.
per quarter for the first three months, if the price does not
rise above 725. per quarter,
" From 725. per quarter to 80s. a duty of 10s. per quarter.
cc Ms.
" Above 85s ls. per quarter."
Thus on an average of years, as wheat can be delivered in
London at
. The duty of 15s.

Makes 50s.

And thus Foreign Wheat can be always brought to market at
50s. per quarter by the importer.
If the price rises to 80s. here, with a duty of only 10s. per qr.
it will be worse : for Wheat delivered in London at 355. per qr.
With the duty of 10s.

M akes —4ss. per qr.!
This must complete the ruin of English Agriculture !