The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-03 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL REV() R'l' IVOR

JUNE

This season lia.s- C) and most striking
fdaiti
tpinaretotiooftrkshseoofdf
etthacei:lilikb+l.4ttih;iegrio..e:ed cou.sftsiywhich are produced by
these.kill eitffitiecalkwiehattherllowe.tleri:
sons, We imagines rett'fice so protracted a course of
brilliant SPriiig- weather. We say. spring, because, ac-
t raing to calendarial authority, we have scarcely ad-
vanced a week into summer—though, in point of fact,
the three. Summer months should commence with the Ist
of June.
Frost left Us on February 11, since which there has not
been an appearance of it during three successive hours.
Three months of most seasonal alterations—vivifying
showers, and powerful sunshine—had brought vegeta-
tion to such a condition of powerful luxuriance, that
every report from all parts of the United Kingdom was
consentient.
During the last week of May, however, the heat set
in with all the fervour of July—evaporation was intense,
and the crops received a check, for the high temperature
was unseasonable.
The atmosphere was surcharged with electricity, and
this was strikingly revealed • on the 27th ; subsequent to
which, the heat declined, aifft the second week of June
became gloomy, cold as March, with a cutting east wind,
which was productive of a still further check. Had this
cool, parching season occurred in place of the great heat
of May, everything would have been propitious; but con-
trasts and drawbacks have ever existed. ..ihe crops were a
month in advance of 1840, till the drought and conse-
quent
burning nae
itng wheatheat occurredon the Ist; a as it
June ;
the plant has
was, we saw the first
gone on yrOgressing gradually, but without interruption
or injurious casualty that we • have oh-served, but the
flower
cold week of June barred every approach to rapidity.
Hence, we presume that we are now about one fortnight
earlier than in the three or four past years.
In proof of the great degree of cold on the nights of
June 14th and 16th, we were informed that the pota-
toes had been touched by frost, near Hertford ; an?
we certainly saw, in the low valleys close to the Lea, a
field or two, where the summits of the plant, just b3lo w
the first or second joint, were seared to a reddish brown.
During a month, exceedingly dry weather prevailed,,
and the alarm cry was abroad.. Even the dolefill for-
lorn note of a hope that the crops might be saved,
were rain to come in the critical period of a few days,
was: sounded ! •
Haymaking, however, was going on rapidly ; vast
breadths were carried, and ricks thatched in security.
Clover, lucerne, Saintfoin' are in great abundance and fine
condition. Beans, of which there were comparatively few
in 1840, were and are, in prime health. Peas good and
abundant ; and the potatoes were promising—though
doubtful, because of the scarcity of moisture—since much
of their yield depends chiefly upon a due supply of water
in June, or just before the blossoming season. But rain
did come, and with a degree of temperature (minimum
55 deg., maximum 68 deg.) which gave it every advan-
tage. The Barley was coming into ear at a foot to 16
inches above the soil. Oats were scarcely progressing ;
but since these rains of June 24, 25, and 28, the same
fields exhibit a totallyaltered appearance ; everything is
rushing on, growing is a term too. inexpressive. The
Wheat is in many places nearly six feet high, and
breadths which were looking rather weak and stunted,
are now extremely strong.
Turnips (Swedes) have been hoed out, and are now
secured by this most seasonable supply of water, and
the meadows promise an abundant lattermath. During
our late inspection, we observed many fields of wheat
assuming that hoary shade, between green and yellowish
hick indicates a " turning off" prior to ripen-

ing.
This is very early, but it is merely local. -The
crop, however, appears everywhere to be fine, if not pro-
fuse ; for we believe that the plant has received no check
during the stages of flowering.
Potatoes, we have seen, oenefited very sensibly• ' in
fact, it cannot be otherwise, for if, after the plant has
formed the chief of its herbage, the tuber-bearing pro-
cesses meet with a warm and moist bed, this secondary

process goes on most rapidly, and dry weather, after
mid-July, does no injury ; but an arid June throughout
ripens the small half-formed tubers, which then produce
a second progeny at the expense of the first, and thus
both are comparatively worthless.
Final results are still hidden to us, but from personal
inspection and comoarison of data, we hope the very
best ; and if a spirit of harmony equivalent to our other
prospects could but prevail, we should have cause for
more than rejoicing.

WHO PAYS THE TAXES ?

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—English landowners have so frequently asserted
that it is by them the taxation of the country is chiefly
paid, that sonic over-eonildhig persons hare, without in-
quiry, credited that assertion, though the whole tenor
of Tory policy, for the last sixty years, has in fact been
to throw the burden of the State on the shoulders of the
middle and lower orders of the people. Have they (the
Tory landowners) for example, within the period stated,
added one farthing to the amount of the land-tax ? Have
they ever imposed a probate duty on the descent of landed
property similar to that which they have imposed on
personal ? Have they not, in truth, taken every oppor-
tunity of annulling all those taxes which press either on
agriculture or themselves, leaving at the same time every
other burden to be still borne by the middle and lower
classes ? If we examined, furthermore, all those lead-
ing articles of importation from which the revenue of the
country is mainly derived, it will be found that they
are such as are principally consumed by. the inhabitants
of the towns, and perhaps more especially still by the
commercial and manufacturing classes. It is by them,
for example, that the tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, spirits,
and beer, the duties on which form the chief sources of
national revenue, are consumed.
The agricultural classes, on the contrary, live chiefly
on the produce of their own farms, and thus contribute
almost nothing to the public revenue.
It has also been habitual with the advocates of mono-
poly and injustice, while extolling the importance of
the home market to the manufacturing interests, to en-
deavour to make it appear that a chief part of that de-
mand arose from the agricultural population. This hollow
argument has, however, been happily disposed of by one
of the speakers at a late Lancashire meeting, who truly
stated that the only demand for manufactured production
from that large body of people, the agricultural la- '
bourers, is to the extent of one fustian suit, worth about
3/. in the year, with, it might have been added, a Sunday-
going suit, once or twice in a life-time.
Such is the boasted agricultural portion of the demand
from the home market, while, on the other hand, it is
assuredly by the commercial and manufacturing classes
that the agricultural produce of the country is chiefly
consumed.
If we analyse likewise the false and deceitful cry. of
agricultural taxation, we shall find that the complaining
class has, as nearly as it is possible, in a united commu-
nity specially exempted themselves from its
Surely no Tory. landlord will be found Heterodox
enough to call tithes a tax, or to assert that these do not
of right belong to the church—again, few, even of the
Tories, w4ll be found unreasonable enough to deny, that
the burtheit of the poor,rates, as well as all the frightful
beggary arid destitution which flow afiliett the land, is
mainly created, the extravagant price of food, arisitig out
of the landowners' iniquitous monopoly of food. Were
that monopoly to be entirely done away with, none but the
helpless and infirm would require parish relief, for should
that blessed period ever arrive, labour would be abundant,
food would be cheap, and the labouring classes of England
would again be blessed with grateful hearts, and con-
tented minds.
Futher, it is unquestionably the operation of the Corn-
laws, which has driven nearly a hundred thousand British
subjects to reside abroad, seeking cheaper food for their
families in the kingdoms of the Continent ; and proba-
bly ten millions of English money are in consequence
annually carried out of this country. It is well known
that over the Continent generally there exists no laws,
artfully devised to enhance the value of agricultural pro-
duce, as is the case in England, notwithstanding which
the landowners both in France, Germany, and elsewhere,
contribute, in the form of a land-tax, a very large pro-
portion of the public revenue in each of those States.
In unhappy England, on the contrary, which has so
long been governed by an oligarchy of landowners, the
land-tax only amounts to a million and a quarter out of
fifty millions of national revenue.
It might probably be of much use, and tend to the in-
struction of our task-masters, if some great political eco-
nomists would inform the public what proportion
the land-tax bears to the general revenue, in each of the
other principal countries of Europe. In the mean time I
am able to tarnish one striking specimen of this descrip-
tion of information, derived from the Montily Magazine
for May, which, in an article on Sweden, states from au-
thentic documents, that out of 19,465,970 rix dollars,
which formed the total revenue of that kingdom in the
year 1829, no less than 12,622,621, or two-thirds of the
whole, arose from the land-tax.
When the landowners therefore talk of protection, it
should be remembered how they have hitherto evaded
all direct taxation on their property ; that England is
blessed with the best soil in Europe, and that conse-
quently its agriculture stands in need of no legislative
protections and further, as the expense of bringing corn
from abroad amounts Loinos. per quarter, that alone is
an ample protection, bg about 30 per cent. on its
foreign value.
Though unprincipled selfishness may explain the oppo-
sition which has been offered by Tory landholders to the
proposals of her Majesty's Ministers, yet how they
happen to have been joined in this opposition by the
shipping interest, is a fact that seems quite inexplicable.
The Ministerial Budget offers to that interest cheap
timber, with which to build their vessels, cheap pro-
visions, and lower wages for their sailors, with a re-
gular carrying trade in corn, and a geeatly increased
freightage of sugar, as well as of general merchandise ;
yet all these good things they indignantly sacrifice at the
shrine of party politics. I am, Sir, &c.
AN ANTI-MONOPOLIST.
Conduit-street, June 29, 1841.

A GREAT CONVENIENCE.—To my surprise
and pleasure, I find that a usage exists at Paris which I
have nowhere else met with, namely, that of letting out
rich quarter, half, or whole
foryear, even the largest
establishment, and on the shortest notice. We have
ainad
an fine
y furniturequantity
rbeylutihie e d
made an arrangement, that if we decide on remaining in
Paris more than a year, and wish to purchase the furni-
ture, the sum agreed to be paid for the year's hire is to
be allowed in the purchase-money, which is to be named
when the inventory is made out. We saw the house for
the
eYestniho
yesterday
engaged it to-day for a year ;
upholsterer will commence placing the
it ; and to-morrow night we are to sleep in
expeditious, and saves
to-m
furniture firstorr to-morrow,
the
,•
iwt: Phisorldo ftrisousbulreelt) as ' a being s
erorf waiting.—Lady Blesing-
. ton's Idler in France.
The actual number of convents for Monks iP
Bavaria is 30; for Nuns 30 ; and of Hospices 22. • •