The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-30 00:00:00

of these prices, and whatever embarrassments may
Lave been produced by former changes, and however
grievous the weight of existing burdens, fresh expe-
riments in the value of money, which must affect
the price of agricultural produce, which might shake
public confidence, and which must lead to the de-
rangement of all settled contracts, ought, after past
experience, to be viewed by the Legislature with
peculiar caution.
Your Committee are of opinion that the present
reluctance to purchase land, or to take it on lease, is
to be ascribed to losses recently sustained in agricul-
ture, and to the uncertainty supposed to exist with
regard to the present corn laws; and uncertainty on
a subject of such vital importance, where stability
and confidence are essential, produces effects hardly
less disastrous than change itself.
The price of wheat for the last five years, not-
withstanding several deficient crops, has not on the
average exceeded 61s. Bd. per quarter; the highest
price within tile same period was 765. 7d., the lowest
51s. 3d.

Before the year 1790 there are no official returns
of the prices of corn in England. The prices at '
Eton G diege have generally been quoted as affording
the surest data antecedent to that period ; but they
afford no just criterion of the average price through-
out England.
In ancient times, when roads were few, the site
of Eton on a navigable river gave it a local ad-
vantage in the purchase of corn, and the wheat is
always stated to be of " middling quality"—a term
too indefinite very safely to be relied on. The Eton
College prices are by no means the average prices
even of that market ; and the variations between
the Eton and the Oxford tables prove the great in-
equality, and demonstrate a degree of uncertainty at-
taching to both which baffles all accuracy of induc-
tion or of safe calculation.
It was not until 1797 that any approximation
was made to accurate official returns of the average
price of corn throughout England, yet quantities
did not even then enter into the account, except in
the maritime districts, and it was reserved for the
new system of taking the averages, which was in-
troduced in 1821, to supply that more accurate
information on which reliance may now be placed.
The Committee of 1821 declared, " That they
were not insensible to the importance of securing
this country from a state of dependence on other
and possibly hostile countries for the subsistence of
its population." At that time the annual growth of
wheat was by them considered equal to the annual con-
sumption. Your Committee have come to an opposite
conclusion with respect to the present time, and find
that a diminished supply of home grown corn, with
an increasing demand, has rendered this nation now
annually dependent for a portion of its supply on
importations from abroad.
The political considerations which weighed with
the Committee of 1821 remain unchanged ; and if
it be not prudent to run the risk of rendering the
dense population of these islands in a great degree
dependant on the supply of bread-corn from abroad,
the protection now given to corn the growth of the
United Kingdom may be justly regarded as an in-
surance against famine, and against the danger of
that reliance on foreign countries for the staff of life,
which might be found inconsistent with the safety
and permanent interests of the people, and ulti-
mately fatal to our national indepence.
In the century prior to 1793, according to the
returns which it is admitted are imperfect, 50s. a
quarter was the average price of wheat, and Eng-
land for a great part of that century was an export-
ing country. At this moment the average price does
not exceed 545. a quarter; and in the last five years
ending on the Ist of January, 1833, the importa-
tion of wheat from abroad annually averages
1,14.5,000 quarters.
The present price of meat as compared with corn
is high; but this has been in a great measure attri-
buted to an extensive loss in the flocks of sheep, oc-
casioned by rot, which recently prevailed among
them for two or three years consecutively.
On the whole, it must be admitted that the dif-
ficulties are great and the burdens heavy which op-
press the landed interests; but contracts, prices, and
labour, have a strong natural tendency to adjust
themselves to the value of money, once established,
and it is hoped that the balance may be restored
which will give to farming capital its fair return.
Your Committee has endeavoured to trace the in-
jurious effects of past legislation ; and, to prove the
caution necessary in future measures, it may be
urged that they have stated many evils but have
failed to suggest remedies ; it should, however, be
remembered, that legislative measures once taken
and long established, can rarely be abandoned with-
out danger, and that to retreat is occasionally more
dangerous than to advance.
In conclusion, your Committee avow their opi-
nion, that hopes of melioration in the condition of
the landed interest, rest rather on the cautious for-
bearance, than on the active interposition of Par-
liament.
Aug. 2, 1833.

CONSTANTINOPLE, SEPT. 4.

(From the Times.)

The alarms of fire, so prevalent here last month, have
changed into results. A dreadful conflagration has con-
sumed about one-fourth of this city. On Friday last, about
one o'clock in tie afternoon, smoke was observed to arise
from the large wooden building, called the gun-manufac-
tory, situate on the water edge of the Golden Horn in the
bay, and opposite the arsenal of Galata. The wind was
blowing rather fresh from the north. It being the hour
when the good Mussulmans were busy at their weekly
prayers, no attention was at first paid, but the flames soon
spread, so that the devastation was extended over a circle
of three miles. It was painful in the extreme to see
thousands of human creatures forced from their homes to
seek shelter i❑ the mosque's, er in the tents placed in the
squares, taking with them the remnant of their property ;
the old, the young, the sick, men, women, and children,
flying from destruction, or huddled together on the shore.
As the night approached, the blaze illumined the horizon
for miles around, so that persons who were in an island
twelve miles distant assured me it appeared like day. From
the small Turkish burial-ground near Pera the spectacle
was grand in the extreme. Abstraction made of the cal-
culation of human misery procured on the occasion, the
panorama of a fiery circle of more than a mile in breadth,
was most imposing. To a painter it would form a superb
subject. Imagine an amphitheatre of gently sloping hills,
over a river of three-quarters of a mile in width, and in
the midst houses and mosques with their beautiful mint--
rots; and the tall:cypress trees, the whole glowing in fire
which cast a fearful glare over the high [mosques called
royal ones, as large as the greatest churches in London,
and for which great apprehension was entertained. The
moan was full, and shone in eastern splendour.
At midnight, on the side of the bazars, there was one
line of fire of at least a mile in length, moving again at the
breeze from one wooden building to the other. Amidst
the smokey ruins the windows of some lofty buildings were
occasionally reddened by the glare from within. The
minarets, built of stone, resisted the fire, until the lead on
the round roofs melted and emitted a white blaze, looking
like lofty tapers with which, in other countries, the dead
are conducted to the grave. When the devastating element
had gained the top of the ridge of the seven hills on which
Constantir.ople is built, it seemed to crown the whole, for
it had passed through its very centre, from the Bay of
Galata to the Sea of Marmora, and the old Roman aque-
duct, formerly concealed by the houses, has been visible i❑
bold relief.

The principal destructionweal was caused among the town
wealthy
residences of the yfamilies, who had beautified and
prnam great
ented them with taste.o Several hundred such
Lenses, and some thousandsat f poorer classes, have
mu,. The Turks are proverbial fortheir patience, yet
aome victims have been sacrificed to the rage of the
multitude. The dissatisfaction of the
Governtnent io believed to have produced the people with the
b eeconflagra-
tion, for the intention of the incendiaries
of before. Two inhabitants of the Greek islands,
spoken
as Franks, were caught with bundles of clothes for which
they could not account satisfactorily ; the accusation was
made that the Franks had set the city on fire, the unfor.
);unate prisoners could not explain themselves to the mob,
the,:r hands were tied behind their backs, and they were
thrown into the flames..
At 4 o:Cl,ock in the morning the destruction had e
ex-
tended &can n:ar the mosque of Sultan illahomet, in e
west, to tbat of ''oleynaan, in the east, and from the Bay
of Galata to the place flevastated four weeks before by a
k. ...e4)
11'6