The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-17 00:00:00

f\J

►U110.310

PRICE SEVENPENCE 6

that protection to which it is equally, nay better,
'entitled than any other manufacture whatever,
and indeed to all other manufactures united. If,
however, you will not absolutely close the ports
against all imported grain, another measure, to
me apparently of the greatest consequence, I
shall beg leave to suggest. Let your importa-
tions, whether subjected to duties or otherwise,
be limited by Measure and not by Time, that is,
not for so many weeks or months, but for such a
specific and definite quantity, so that if 2 or
300,000 quarters of grain are thought necessary
either to the subsistence of the kingdom, or the
keeping down, in some measure, its prices, let a
licence be limited, to that simple quantity, and
not left open indiscriminately to any quantity
that might be thrown in, otljerwise, instead of
two or 300,000 you might have two, or three, or
four millions introduced at once, to the utter
deirtruction of your own agriculture for years
to come. A nation burthened with a debt
of eight hundred millions is necessarily in
an artificial state, and can only be supported
by artificial means.--Open your trade to all
the world, upon what is termed a great
statesman-like view of general commerce, in all
its branches, and your country is at once ruined.
Till all other nations are equally burthened with
our own, they cannot be considered as upon any
footing of equality. If they do not join in the,pay-
ment of the interest of our debt, their views and
interests should not interfere to prevent our own
payment of it.—To threaten us with the loss of
their comparatively paltry trade, if we do 'not
give them advantages incompatible with our owu
interests, is mere nonsense, calculated to frighten
us, as children with bugbears. The whole of
their commerce is a mere nullity compared to our
home-market, which, once exclusively secured,
enables us to set all the world at defiance. With
a monopoly of our own products, our country
would soon become a perfect garden : Landlords
would have their rents—tenants their reasonable
profits—and labourers their easy and comfortable
subsistence. These, my Lord, are the remedies
I hinted at, and these I propose, with all due sub-
mission, to the more enlightened; but with a per-
fect conviction in my own mind, that, by the early
and manly adoption of them, every distress would
very shortly vanish and give way to peace, plenty,
and full satisfaction to every rational and well
principled individual in the country."—This, or to
this effect, had been my answer to the Noble
Marquess, and I greatly doubt whether his Lord-
ship's enlightened mind, and repeatedly pro-
fessed good wishes for the general prosperity of
the country, had not induced him to adopt the
proposed measures ; and thereby so far as was in
his power substantiated the happiness of a king-
drm, at this moment labouring under the severest
distress, and attributing that distress in a great
measure to the system which he and his col-
leagues have adopted, certainly with the best
intentions, but as certainly with the most per-
nicious effects ; for, restrict the currency of the
country to the plain letter of Mr. Peel's Bill, as
it now stands, and instead of shutting your ports
against imported grain, subject the importation
to such duties as shall render them a matter of
finance, and rather turn the scale against, the
British Agriculturist in his own markets, and the
country is at once consigned to inevitable destruc.,
tion. J. S.