The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-15 00:00:00

the amount of woollens at 25,000,000, of which
6,000,000 are exported and 19,000,000 left for
home consumption ; of your cotton 2,000,000
exported and 28,000,000 oonsumed at home; of
your linen and silk 3,000,000 exported and
7,000,000 left for home consumption. Of hard-
ware and cutlery it would be difficult to form
any correct statement from the same documents,
but the value of the whole manufacture being set
at 5,000,000, considerably more than a moiety is
consumed at home and the remainder exported.
Now, from all those undisputed and indisputable
documents, does it not clearly appear that the
home greatly exceeds the foreign market ; and if
once the sources of such market are almost dried
up, what becomes of the manufacturer or the
shopkeeper, and all the different classes depend-
ing on them ? Vain will it be, when you have
destroyed the best and surest foundations of all
your prosperity—the agriculture of your country,
to expect that all the external commerce you can
maintain with every quarter of the globe, will in
any degree compensate for what you have lost.
It cannot have escaped observation, that in all
the Parliamentary debates on the subject of the
present distressful state of the country, it has
been insisted on the one part, that if every nook'
and corner of the present establishment were
thoroughly searched into and investigated, sa-
vings might be made to meet every difficulty, and
equalize the revenue to the numerous demands
made upon it; whilst the Ministerial party pro-
ceeds to the other extremity of insisting that
nothing depends on taxation,—and that even
were all the present imposts done away, no be-
nefit would accrue to the community at large,
but every article, and every price at market,
would remain precisely as they are at present.
Now, to the writer of this article, both par-
ties appear equally remote from the truth, as
well as from the just line of expediency. For to
suppose that any savings could be effected, that
would not be as a mere drop of water in the
ocean, when set in the scale against nearly
60,000,000 of annual demand, appears perfectly
absurd ; whilst, on the other hand, to state that
were all taxation done away, agriculture, manu-
factures, and commerce, would not be materially
benefitted, and every most pressing difficulty
surmounted, appears to the writer as a general
proposition, equally teeming with absurdity. To
the one party he would say, practice all the eco-
nomy in your power consistent with justice to
your creditors, and a due regard to the necessary
establishments of a great empire ; but do not
look for any material relief thence derivable to
present embarrassments. To the other he would
say, do away what may be in your power of
present taxation, but do not expect from all
your sacrifices of revenue to meet all, or even
the greater portion, of national embarrass-
ments in your way. Your error lies in the pre-
mature change of currency, by which every con-
tract in the kingdom has been materially altered,
and every principle of good faith violated with
every public and private creditor in the kingdom.
Relieve the Nation from the effects of that dele-
terious bill, and you will then have done what
immediately lies in your power for the re-esta-
blishment of things to the state in which the
kingdom stood before it was passed. Some say
it will raise prices 5, others 10, others again 20
or 30 per cent.; but whatever the rise may he,
agriculturists, as well as every other class of the
kingdom, must rest satisfied with the burthens
imposed upon them by the immense debt in-
curred by the late war, and endeavour to lighten
that burthen by all practical economy, whilst
every rank, order, and class of the Nation sus-
tains it in equal proportions without the sacrifice
of the interests of the one to those of the other,
which palpable injustice cannot but occasion the
best founded dissatisfaction in the class thus sacri-
ficed. If, as is reported, and seems probable from
what Ministers have dropt in Parliament, that no
demand for cash payments is to take place for an
indefinite period, but at the shortest during the
Bank Charter, which is to be prolonged for ten
years from the expiration of the present one ;
and if at the same time a more general circulation
is to be promoted by facilities given to private
Bankers, all the worst and most dreaded effects
of Mr. Peel's Bill will be substantially, and to
all necessary purposes, done away, without that
plain and direct confession of error which Mini-
sters might be ashamed to avow, as likely to
expose them to the taunts and derision of their
opponents. The writer of this asks for no more,
persuaded, as he is, that material relief will be
thereby administered to the far greater portion
of the country, and justice done to every one. If
by any funding or other financial process a consi-
derable portion of the annual revenue can be saved,
proportionate taxes may be taken off, and espe-
cial care should be taken that they are such as
weigh most heavily on the best and most essential
interests of the country. As it has not seemed
eligible to the Ministry that the ports should be
wholly closed against all importation, although,
to do complete justice to the agriculture of this
country, the writer's opinion is directly contrary;
for, as all manufactures are effectually protected,
either by direct prohibitions ot,equivalent duties,
why our agriculture, the greatest and by far, the
most substantial manufacture of your country,
should remain alone unprotected, is more than be
can conjecture ; not seeing what mischievous con-
sequences can with justice be apprehended. By
that measure, he thinks, a monopoly of the home
market being obtained, your whole country might
be converted into a garden, and every produc-
tive acre of it cultivated to the highest degree of
perfection. Become at once a self-subsisting na-
tion, it would have nothing to demand of, or
apprehend from, other countries ; not a nation
of shopkeepers, as your arch-enemy termed
you, but one of hardy and opulent cultiva-
tors, ready at all times to support their
national rights in the field, against all usurping
powers, and wholly independent for its happi-
ness, its comforts, and every enjoyment of which
the condition of our common nature is susceptible,
of every other power on earth. Your bread and
other provisions, it is true, would be raised, but
assisted by a proper circulating medium you
would, through the energies of an active and in-
dustrious population, have wherewithal to pur-
chase them ; and surely high prices with people