The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-08 00:00:00

) 4

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1841.

English landlords are renowned all over the
world, according to their flatterers, for their
cleverness and generosity, and English farmers
are, on the same authority, equally renowned for
theft skill. An English clergyman, however,
the Rev. C. CLARK, speaking at the Ilarleston
Farmers' Club, on the 2Gth ult., and speaking
apparently with knowli:dge on the subject, asserts
that the agricultural " improvements are, beyond
comparison
, greater in Scotland than in this
country," and'
he assigns as a reason that in
Scotland long leases
are, given on corn rents.
" The farmer there, for the first ten years,,,
as he pleases, and during
says, " cultivates
()Ines under the rotation
the last four years he c
system prescribed by the lease." " He is bound
by his covenants," says a Mr. HARVEY, the Se-
cretary to the Club,
" to leave, the laud in as
good a condition as he found it." The Scotch
farmers are, by this testimony, superior to the
•
English ; and now the English farmers shall, in
their turn, testify to the .eleverncss and genero-
sity of our English landowners.
According to the Harleston Farmers' Club the
" COMPULSORY PLOUGHING are
by which tenants
bound hi their leases is injudicious and unneces-
sary." Compfilsory ploughing ! Whati are
farmers bound to plough their ground when it is
injudicious and unnecessary? Yes, says the
Secretary to that Club, speaking of Norfolk,
one of the best cultivated parts of England ;
" the leases are constructed on pretty much
the same form as those of two centuries
ago, and what were considered good covenants in
those days are not so considered (by the farmers)
"'v." A JOHN GEDNEY, Esq., at the same
meeting, bore similar testimony. "It was the
cyst-mil," he said, " of his part of the country,
that farmers were compelled to ploughs four times
a yeur." lie was ready to prove that it would
he advantageous to both farmer and landlord
that the latter " should not be compelled to
plough up hid land." The farmers of England,
then, are compelled, at this day, by their clever
and generous landlords, to cultivate the soil
under certain covenants in their leases, according
to the custom of the couutv, as it was cultivated,
according to Mr. HarivEy, two centuries ago.
Well might the Rev. C. CLARK say—
Why should a farmer be told whether he shall grow
wheat or whether he shall grow turnips ; where he shall

lay his manure, or when he shall lay it on, whether the
land requires it or not ? I believe there is no other body
in England, manufacturers or others, who are dictated to
in that manner. Manufacturers, like every other class but
farmers, are left to the exercise of their own judgment.

This, however, is mot quite all. According to
the same Reverend anthority, farmers, lest they
should frighten the game, are "restricted from
cutting their fences
.under a certain number of
years," and, " when the fences are allowed to
grow, a considerable quantity of land is lost, and
the farmer loses one-third of his crop." The
farmers of England, therefore, are at this time
the slaves of an antiquated and ignorant system,
and 'arg Fompelled, in many respects, to cultivate
the soil'as it was cultivated two centuries ago.
At present this is a very serious consideration
for the community, which is obliged, by a bread-
tax, to pay the expense of the cultivation. In
what condition would our manufactures be were
they conducted according to the knowledge- of
tne year 1640? They would be nearly the last
instead of the first of the world. Our agriculture
is not the last, because the improvements which
our manufactures have introduced—(and it will
be recollected that those improvements have
mainly sprung up in the cotton manufacture,
which owed no allegiance *to the ancient
guilds and apprentice lawt of Europe)—
have extended their beneficial effects to
agriculture. Nevertheless, though not the
last, owing to such restrictions our agriculture is
much behind. Money and labour, according to
the testimony of the Harleston Club, are wasted
on injudicious and unnecessary, but compulsory
ploughing. Money and laud are wasted, ac-
cording to the Rev. Mr. CLARK, by compelling
the farmers to allow their hedges to grow for a
certain number of years. Money and labour,
therefore, are wasted in providing the neces-
sary supply of food fur the community. The
cost of the production of corn in England is
much }creased; we cannot grow it—how should
we with such management?—as cheap as
other countries; and Corn-laws are maintained,
because the farmers must preserve game, and
lose a third of their crops, and because they are
compelled to plough, injudiciously and unneces-
sarily, four times a year, according to tire custom
two centuries ago. So the people are plundered
and starved, because the stupid or wilful land-
owners are unwilling to promote, or desirous to
prevent, improvements in agriculture.
We are bound, on this occasion, to tell the
public emphatically, that such conduct on the
part of the landowners of England is nothing
new. We learn from the celebrated work,
"Political Arithmetic," written about 1670, by Sir
WILLIAM PETTY, the founder of the LANSDOWNE
family, and first published by the first Lord
SHELBURNE, that the landowners of his time were
afflicted at the great abundance of provisions
which then prevailed, and complained of
the cultivation of clovers and other green
crops, and sought to check ft.*, In truth,
the landlords, as such, have never been
the actual cultivators of the soil, and they
have always looked with as much envy on the
fbrtunes made by their serf or middle class
tg'nauts," as on the fortunes made by citizens or
manufacturers. Every farthin6r gained from cul-
tivating the soil they have regarded as their
property, and they have always tried, by binding
down the farmers, to prevent them from making
improvements and gaining all that they possibly
could from the soil.

We rejoice to see the Norfolk farmers are be-
coming sensible of the vile slavery to which
their landlords subject them. The Harleston
Farmers' Club unanimously agreed to two resolu-
tions, declaring in substance that
Many of the clauses in the existing system of leases
compelling a fixed mode of cultivation, are unnecessary
and injudicious; they tend to render skill and science of
less value, because any deviation from the lease is effected
at the risk of a heavy penalty; and that these compulsory
directions, given at the commencement of a lease, and
ex tending through a term of years, over a variety of
soils, and still greater variety of seasons, cannot be so
efficacious in promoting the best system of husbandry,
as leaving the details of each operation to the skill any
judgment of the occupier.

We believe not, indeed; and as the farmers
are becoming somewhat enamoured, and justly,
of the principle of freedom in cultivating the
soil, we hope they will extend their liking to
other branches of industry, and adopt the opi-
nion that compulsory directions, extending
through a long term of years over an immense
variety of occupations, prohibiting buying here,
and selling there, cannot be so efficacious in pro.
moting the public welfare as leaving every man
at full liberty to buy and sell where he likes
according to his own skill and judgment. Our
extracts, we must state in conclusion, are made
from the Norwich Mercury.
* The passage alluded to occurs in Chapter IV. of
"Political Arithmetic," and is as follows :—" Now, if we
consider that England, having but three acres to a head
as aforesaid, doth so abound in victuals as that it maketh
law.? against the importation of cattle,fle.sh, and fish from
abroad ; and that the draining of fens, improving of
forests, enclosing of commons, sowing of St. Foyno and
clover grass be grumbled against by landlords, as the way
to depress the price of victuals : then it plainly follows,"
&c.

Our readers will find, in another part of The
Sun, an article from our Correspondent in Paris,
to which we particularly direct their attention.
The writer has access to the best sources of in-
formation, as to the state of public opinion and
public feeling in France, and quite confirms all
that has been so often said of both in the lead-
ing columns of this Journal.

The Madrid papers received are of the 20th
ult. French agents there were busily spreading
rumours to the effect that England had demanded
the liberation of all slaves imported into Cuba
since 1820, and that this demand was but the
prelude to the seizure of Cuba by Great
Britain. These rumours excited general alarm,
and of course operated very mischievously
against this country. We are rather surprised
that the Spanish Government does not promptly
contradict such falsehoods through the columns
of the Madrid Gazette.

The Madrid Papers announce the death of the
Duke DEL INFANTADO. The Duke of OSSUNA
will inherit his immense estates.

Madrid Bourte of the 29th-331 for cash ; 341
at 60 days.

The French Liberal Papers of Monday are
filled with comments upon the examination of
M. DUPOTY, Editor of the Journal du Potpie,
for being an accomplice in the conspiracy of
QUENISSET and his associates. Never was a
charge more disgracefully preferred against a
prisoner, or more triumphantly rebutted. The
examination of the accused by Baron PASQIIIRR,
President of the Court of Peers, would have
ror ousting
dis-
graced the notorious Judge JEFFItIES himself.
Some twenty Members of the Left Centre met
at M. rr
...ittErts' Friday M. o
Gn
ulzol,. . nightT toHi
ERs organizehas apl
madeati
Overtures
to Count MOI.E, offering to vote with
any Ministry
of which he -shall be the head, pro-
vided M. Gun° be excluded. For himself he
affects to despise office,
for life, if the Couratina
contented to rem •
and the
any appointment
and declares he will be
pass a similar sentence 117ini his successful and
tithe Chambers will only
thosejealousies of public
more competent ';,rival.
bye
astage,
of rival beau-
men are hardly surpassed
all
hands
for tile two
tics at a ball, or actresses 01
A Toulon letter states that the works on the vessels
Montebello, Algesiras,
esotithat
buildinc, in that port are suspended, er 8
boardlarge T:hr aenss aet:taonrt, i ec
o iisteamers,ron
ne and
asnadre sent on
the' repairs of which are ordered to be forwarde;
they may be ready early in the Spring for any
lion required. I s ha.
The Univers states that the Prince of Monaco has for-
bidden the admission of the Gazette de France within
his States.
It is rumoured that Government is about to reduce
two companies in each regiment of infantry. It is also said
that a new experimental battalion is forming at Vincennes.
According to the Vienna correspondence of the Ga-
zette of Upper Germany, some parties have been de-
tected in that capital carrying on contraband operations
upon a large scale. They are said to be connected with
respectable houses of commerce, and securities to the
amount of 40,000 f. have been demanded of the persons
most implicated in the affair.
The Dusseldorf] Gazette says that the Prussian Mi-
nister of War has just given orders for disbanding part
of the army.
The Cassel Gazette says that more than half of the
elections for the Second Chamber of the Hanoverian
States are already known, and that the Governmant
hitherto has get a large majority. On the other hand,