The Sun.
London, England, 1822-04-02 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

AGRICULTURAL LOAN.

MR. EDITOR—No plain man can be surprised
at the late RIOTS in two Eastern Counties who
has heard or read the inflammatory speeches cooked
up at those County meetings.—Yet it is to the
County of Suffolk, and to the Suffolk Land-
holders in particular, that I appeal for the truth
of the important fact, that the small Farmers have
paid their rents punctually, whilst the great occu-
pants have been suffering distress, or rather the
deprivation of some of those luxuries in which
they wallowed during high prices.
This fact I adduce, Sir, in support of a plan
which I proposed, through your columns, upwards
of two years ago ; and I now bring it forward
again, because the A cI•RICULTURAL LOAN OF
FOUR MILLIONS, which nobody seems to know
what to do with, may thus be expended for the
benefit not only of the Agricultural Interest, but
of the country at large.
The cry is to return to the standard of 1792, and
I join in the cry—not as to expenditure and tax-
ation, but to agricultural regulation. After 1792,
high prices led to high rents, to consolidation of
farms, forcing thousands of small farming fami-
lies into the workhouses; and to unexampled
luxury in the mansions and manners of the re-
maining Farmers, or rather farming speculators,
—but High Prices are gone—what then is left
but to return to the rents and to the sizes offarms,
and to ,the frugal simplicity of farming families
in 1792? But wherever Ten farms were thrown
into one, nine farmhouses and homesteadings
were pulled down to save repairs and taxes,
and from not being wanted. Now, however, the
reduced prices do not permit the occupancy of
the large farms created or consolidated under
high prices; and though the Landlord might find
tenants for smaller holdings, yet without farm-
houses and homesteads what farmer can occupy

the reduced holdings ? But the Landlords have
no money to rebuild them—then let the Loan be
applied to the rebuilding offarmhouses,--let itbe
lent upon a judicious principle to those who wish
to restore their Estates to the standard of 1792.

If the possibility of getting small farms once
becomes generally known, tenants will offer—
then let us calculate the benefit that will result

from an expenditure of Four Millions in stone
and brick, and timber, and cartage, and masons'
and carpenters' labour, &c. &c.—Why, Sir, half
the money would come back to the Treasury in
less than six months of its being expended, and
the Opposition would have nothing else to to,
but perhaps to grumble that from their own ob-
stinacy and pertinacity, they had not derived so
much benefit from the Loa❑ as they might have
done. Your's,

IGNOTUS.

FIRES IN SUFFOLK.—The alarm which the fre
quency of these distressing occurrences, in more
distant parts of our district, has occasioned, is
naturally increased in this town by one of them
happening at home. On Thursday night, at so
early an hour as a few minutes after seven, a re-
markably fine barn, about' 80 feet in length, and
tiled, containing 20 or 30 coombs of unthrashed
barley, at Mr. Byles's (the Upper Hill House),
St. Clement's, was in an instant apparently wholly
enveloped in a tremendous sheet of blaze. A
wheat stack of seventy or eighty coombs, an
old waggon, and some pigs, were also destroyed.
Providentially, another wheat-stack and the
stable, &c. contiguous were preserved. This
fresh instance of malicious depravity—for there
is no doubt of its being the act of an incendiary
—upon the property of a gentleman who is held
in esteem by all classes in his neighbourhood, is
another proof, we think, that this, like some
other similar occurrences, was the .act of a
stranger. From all we can see and hear, and
from every source of information that reaches us,
we are led to believe that the great body of the
labouring classes in this country are not under
those diabolical influences ; at any rate, there
are but very few of them indeed so lost and de-
praved as to destroy, in this way, the property of
others, in the foolish belief that they can thereby
better their own condition. In this case, it is
remarkable how short was the interval between
the time when the barn was left secure and that of
complete conflagration. The thrasher,who had been
employed all the day in the barn, left it at
half-past six ; twenty minutes afterwards, the
farming bailiff was there after a ladder, and again
left it secure ; and within another quarter of an
hour—day-light scarcely gone—it was covered on
every side with flame. This instantaneous bursting
forth of the devouring element in all parts of the
building strengthens the conjecture that some
phosphoric, or other inflammable composition, is
made use of by the incendiaries for these purposes.
The premises, but not the stock, were insured ;
and a reward of 2001. is offered. We understand,
also, that a society of gentlemen, in and near this
town, have agreed to subscribe from 5001.
to 1,0001., to be paid on conviction, as a re-
ward to the discoverer of any such perpetrator
in this neighbourhood. On Tuesday night,
at eight o'clock, another fire at Mendlesham,
terrified that neighbourhood. A barn, con-
taining 40 bush faggots, and a new waggon,
loaded with stiaw, were destroyed on the
premises of Mr. Wright. Yesterday se'nnight,
about seven o'clock in the evening, a fire broke
out at the back of the Lion Inn, Lavenham, ad-
joining to Mr. East's garden, which providen-
tially was extinguished before the damage ex-
ceeded 501. This is also supposed to be the
malicious act of some inhuman wretch. In that
town patrols are appointed every night. On
Tuesday, Mr. Owen Roe, of Ipswich, discovered
a firebrand (a burnt piece of wood, about two
feet long), with a bunch of matches under it,
placed in a straw-stack, standing in the centre
of his stack-yard, and surrounded by many others
of corn and clover. He has consequently had
his premises well watched and guarded ever
since.—(Suffolk Chronicle.)

Three new kinds of indigo have recently been
discovered in South America. These plants are
of a superior quality to those of the Caraccas,
Brazil, Mexico, and the East Indies.