The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-06 00:00:00

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BUCKS

AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

(Abridged from the County Herald.)

It having been generally stated that the Annual Meet-
ing of the Buckinghamshire Agricultural Association
would take place on Wednesday last, a most respectable
and numerous party assembled at the George Inn, Ayles-
;airy, amongst whom we noticed—
The Marquis of Chandos, M. P., President of the
Association ; Colonel Hamner, M. P., Vice-President;
Sir Thomas Fremantle, Bart. M.P. ; Sir Harry Verney,
M.P. ; J. R. Barker, Esq. ; Grenville Pigott, Esq. ; R
Sutton, Esq. ; B. Fuller, Esq. ; W. Lowndes, Esq. ; J.
Grey, Esq. ; Captain Lovell, Captain Smith, Ciptain
Jervoise ; Rev. Messrs. Sutton, Owen, Shepherd, Chet-
wode, Young, Fremantle, &c. &c.
A little after one o'clock the Noble Marquis took the
Chair, and read the declaration of the Committee, after
which he addressed the meeting as follows
Gentlemen—As President of this Society, I most fully
concurred in the necessity of summoning a meeting of
members of this association at this particular juncture.
When I looked around me and saw the present condition of
agriculture, when I saw it daily falling off in prosperity,
and surrounded by increasing difficulties, I thought it my
duty to afford the farmer an opportunity of delivering his
opinions on the slate of the agricultural interest, and that
we should consult together as to what is best to be done in
such an emergency. There are at this moment two classes
, distressed and struggling. The one, as you see by the
newspapers, uniting and urging its claim to relief, and
even proceeding to an open resistance to the laws; and
the other, the agricultural body, to which you and I belong,
who are also distressed; and should combine to represent
our grievances and ask for redress. But let us do so in
an honourable, a lair, and straightforward manner. It is
only from a want of unanimity that we shall he refused ;
then let us join in a fit and loyal manner to lay our griev-
ances before Parliament. Now is the time for us to
arrange our plans. Look for a moment at the local taxa-
tion under which the farmer is suffering, how heavy and
oppressive it is ; and we must therefore find out some sure
mode for relief. It is by a petition to Parliament for redress
from those burdens thrown always exclusively upon the
land—l mean the county rates, the poor rates, the high-
way-rates, &c. The petitions which we drew up last
year ate still in existence; they are most numerously
signed, and I must counsel you to present them to Parlia-
ment immediately on its next re-assembling. It wan with
bitter regret and disappointment that I saw during the
last session, when the question of relief to the agriculturist
was brought forward, that men who had promised so
much flew from their word. Do you, therefore, depend
on yourselves, and by every means in your power forward
your petitions to Parliament. The farmers suffer deeply
from the pressure of local taxation. The Poor Laws are
a heavy burden, and we all agree that the labourer must
be supported; but we should endeavour so to plan it that
the poor man shall have an inducement to keep himself in-
dependent of the parish. He should have a proper sti-
mulus set before him, which would urge him on to main-
tain himself and his family without parochial aid. Such
an inducement and such a stimulus is to be created in prof-
fering to him a pecuniary reward at the end of the year;
and I would therefore suggest that such premiums and
rewards should be held out by this Association to men
who keep the best cultivated garden, who have lived
longest in their places, who have reared the largest fa-
milies without t parish aid, and various other ways which
may be determined on. I have the pleasure to say
that to effect this, I have had placed in my hands a
small sum of money for that purpose. One or two per-
sons have placed in my hands sums amounting to 1001.
which I am desired to present to the Association for this pur-
pose. I have another topic of great importance to men-
tion to you. Whatever may be the assurance to the con.
trary, and however you may be lulled into a false security
front believing that the question of the repeal of the
corn laws was set at rest last session, yet it is my duty to
tell you that I know most certainly, whatever may be the
views and intentions of the Government, that the question
of the repeal will be brought forward at the next session,and
supported by all the strength of its advocates. There is a
spirit abroad in the manufacturing districts which will find
its vent in their Representatives in Parliament, and if
you would successfully resist their thriving efforts you
must be awake and stirring; you must not allow your-
selves to be deluded by any reports to the contrary. The
newspapers which support the Government will fully
convince you of this. They will try by every means to
alter the existing corn laws ; and I ask you wbether we
are to look tamely on and be despoiled of our only
chance of protection and our only safeguard from
ruin? We are assailed by a cry intended to excite
the people against us. It is that of cheap bread.'
I say at once, and avow, in the name of the farmers,
that we seek not to live on the spoils of others, but only
to obtain that fair and equitable remuneration which shall
support us and enable us to pay our labourers. Let me
again assure this meeting of my anxiety to forward the
wishes and resolutions of this Association by every means
in my power, my only object being to obtain redress and
relief for the agricultural interest, and the thousands and
millions dependant on them for support. We must, let
me again say, support the laws of the land we live in with
all due loyalty, and we must aid our Government in
putting down those who would resist it ; but if we are
unanimous and active, we shall obtain constitutionally
what other classes are attempting illegally. To avoid dif-
ficulties still greater, and ruin that will else stare us in
the face, we must, I repeat, use every legal exertion
to obtain relief. Let us, then, cast aside all political
feelings on the question, and, looking to the real truth of
our position, stand up manfully for the soil that supports
us, and, by every mode and in every way that is honest
and consistent, ask the due protection of our rig!, and
the proper redress of our interests."
His Lordship's speech was attended throughout with
great cheering, which lasted for a considerable time after
he had concluded.

R. SUTTON, Esq., then proposed the following reso-
lution :--

" it is resolved—That the experience of the last year,
supported by the Report of the Select Committees of the
House of Commons on the state of agriculture, confirms
the opinion recorded at a public meeting of this Asso-
ciation, on the 23d of January, 1833, that the present
system of the Corn Laws ought not to be altered."
Carried unanimously.
Colonel HANMER then proposed that a Committee be
appointed.
Lord CHANDOS having informed the meeting that he
had received 1001. to be appropriated to the agricultural
labourers, it was

" Resolved—That the Association having taken into
consideration the proposition moved by T. R. Barker,
Esq., on the 20th of February, 1833, for the institution
of rewards for the encouragement of the industrious la-
bourer, are of opinion that such an institution would be
highly desirable."
Carried unanimously.

Mr. SurroN hoped that the Committee would suggest
some means of increasing the fund presented by Lord
Chandos, by which the rewards and encouragements
should be carried on annually. The wool fair at A)les-
bury had been productive of great benefit, and he hoped
that next year the article of bark would be added to it.
At present in Hertfordshire (and the custom prevails all
over the kingdom) the tanners, in May, received the oak
bark when the timber was felled, and then in August next
determined on the price to be given. The mode required
alteration, and he thought it might be effected with ad-
vantage to the farmer.

Lord CHANOOO wished to hear the opinions of the
farmers as to the proposed rewards for labourers.
Mr. BRIKWELL, of Leckhamstead, was decidedly of
opinion that it was a veiy beneficial plan, and would stimu •
late the labourers to industry and sobriety.
Lord CHANDOS—The great object is to keep men off
the parish, and I think these rewards should be con-
fined to those parishes in which a member of the asso-
ciation resides. I mention this, not to limit the extent of
the encouragement, but to induce farmers of all parishes
to join us.

T. RAYMOND BARKER, Esq., thought if the sum so
kindly given for these excellent purposes were well ad-
judged it would be a great inducement with many to make
the prices annual and permanent.
The opinion in favour of this distribution was unani-
mous, many present speaking in approval of the propo-
sition.

Other resolutions were then passed to further the
objects of the Association, as also votes of thanks to the
Marquis of Chandos, Sir Harry Verney, Sir Thomas Fre-
mantle, Colonel Clayton, Members of this Association,
and the other Members of the House of Commons who
supported the measures introduced to the Legislature
(luring the last session of Parliament fur relieving agricul-
tural distress.

The N,,ble Marquis and the other Members returned
thanks for the compliment paid them in short and appro-
priate speeches; after which the meeting adjourned until
four o'clock, when upwards of sixty of the moat respectable
persons in the county sat down to dinner, the Marquis of
CIiANDOX in the Chair.

/-"e"--
SPIRIT OF Tris'PUBLIC JOURNALS.
We were considerably surprised on looking
g\i
over the proceedin iit the justice-room in the
Mansion-house in" ert!ay' li.s eity'yhen the
case of the journeyerilatt f-before the
Court, to observe that tliPt.Or ayor allowed
the friends of the defendants to clap their hands
and cheer, not only when evidence was given.
favourable to the defendants, but even when
their solicitor made statements in their behalf,

though unsupported by evidence ; and in the
same spirit, that evidence or statements hostile
to the plaintiff (the master hatter) were received,
and allowed to be received, with hisses. Now,

that it is not always possible to prevent sudden
and almost instinctive bursts of feeling, eve►► in
our gravest Courts, we know full well, though
the Judges always menace, and sometimes
punish, those by whom the decorum of justice

is thus violated ; but this is the first time, we
believe, that such scenes were tolerated or allowed

to pass unrepressed by presiding magistrates, and
we cannot suffer such a disregard of the dignity
of the Bench to pa's into practice without re-
monstrance. The police report states—" The
hall and justice-room beim:, crowded with jour-
neymen hatters, who testified their feeling un-
constrainedly, as the case went on, by applaud-
ing what pleased, and hissing what displeased,
them, the Lord Mayor thought it advisable not
to check the impulse, and certainly the matter
came to a speedier conclusion on that account."
We do not believe this corollary of the police
reporter about the speediness of the conclusion.
However, were the fact so, all that we can say is,
that it may be a transatlantic, but is certainly not
an English, method of administering justice.
It must be observed that it was not a popular
impulse or a popular feeling that remained un-
checked, such as might have been passed over
on some great question of public right, but they
were " cheers and hisses" proceeding from those
who had a personal interest, detached from that
of their countrymen at large, in the issue of the
investigation : the " cheers and hisses" were
from men bound together by the same illegal
conspiracy as that which was charged upon the
defendant then before the Court. What would
be said if, when a horse stealer were upon his
trial, the rest of the gang were suffered to hiss
and cheer as the evidence appeared to convict or
absolve the accused ? Certainly, if a court of

justice is to be thus conducted, we should be
consistent to the end ; and those who are allowed
to hiss and cheer the proceedings as they go on,
should also be permitted to pelt the Judge if
he decides against them, and to cheer him
if his judgment be favourable to their cause. On
combinations of all kinds among manufacturing
journeymen, we have spoken so earnestly on
many previous occasions, that we shall not now
add much. Every man, if he please, is at
liberty to desist from working when he thinks
his wages inadequate ; but he has no right to
menace or drag others from their work. V This
combination among journeymen hatters tends
to make every poor man's hat dearer to him ;
and what is the consequence ? That we see so
many boys and men without hats, but instead
thereof wearing caps and calques, and all kinds
of scaramouch covering to the head ; whereas,
if every man wore a hat, as the cheapest and best
covering for the head, the supply would be so
much the greater, and the wages of the journey-
men would rise of themselves. The workmen
who engage in these combinations to raise by
voluntary strikes, or by ruffian intimidation,
the rate of wages, proceed on the erroneous
supposition, either that the master manufac-
turers are realizing enormous profits at their
expense, or that, by demanding higher wages,
they can compel the public, foreign or domestic,
to purchase the productions of their labour at
a higher price. On either hypothesis they are
completely wrong, and their leaders, who preach
such doctrines, are only doing all they can to
render them the victims of a mischievous de-
lusion. Where there is no monopoly, capital
cannot long continue to yield higher profits
in one branch of business than another,
for this obvious reason--that the more pro-
fitable business would immediately attract to itself
more stock from trades less profitable, till com-
petition reduced them all to the same level. If

the woollen trade, for instance, in which the
combinations at present chiefly prevail, afforded
an excessive return to the capital of the manu-
facturer, his profits would soon be reduced in
two ways-Ist, by the competition of individual
manufacturers among themselves for a larger
share of the business, by tempting the market at
lower prices; and, 2dly, by the influx of new
money and enterprise into so enticing a field.
These are nearly self-evident truths, the application
of which would not be difficult, if the workmen
did not allow their own cupidity or the deceitful
rhetoric of their leaders to overpower their re-
flection and better reason. Let a number of

them club together to form a joint-stock purse
for the purpose of purchasing a factory, and
entering into competition with their former em-
ployers, instead of interrupting their works, and
they will then see, by the result of their experi-
ment, that they could not obtain for themselves,
or afford to their fellow workmen, better terms

than their masters are now disposed to allow
them. If, then, the master-manufacturers arc
not making these excessive profits, out of which
they can afford to pay the demanded rise of
wages, the only other source whence the rise
of wages could come would be a forced
rise of prices on the goods produced, out
of which both profits and wages must
ultimately be obtained : but here again
the experiment would certainly issue in a com-
plete failure. The workmen might, indeed,
by refusing to work, render manufactures scarce,
and consequently dear, but they themselvescould
derive no benefit from a rise in price created by
a deficiency of employment. If it were not
almost a contradiction in terms to combine a
great abundance of an article with high prices,
and if by obtaining higher wages the journeymen
actually raised the price of goods in this country,
what would happen in the foreign markets which
we now supply ? By the hypothesis of the
workmen, they might compel a rise in price by
demanding a rise in wages, but could they
likewise compel a customer to purchase a high-
priced commodity when he could obtain an
article as good at a lower rate ? The absurdity
of the supposition is apparent to the meanest
understanding ; and, as about two-thirds of
several of our staple manufactures are exported
for foreign use, the workmen, in attempting to
raise their price, are only labouring to deprive
themselves of those wages which they now enjoy,
and throwing the trade into the hands of their
foreign rivals. No branch of trade or manufac-
tureuid-
such
da the
Nneoscpre
tochotasfri;
saapusnocdthshs
oitbsh
el
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onbbd essetthcholoiterili.
pni,d,ttaluit
A,o:eeirt:aetdcddhgele.osci
ruNn7encsuttlodliaoleinlurlibltmoyt ilitolsoe,efu.asogdrf:
re-
spectable
whose l
et t
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ro correspondent

that tiTe tyranny of one portion of the journey.
112 'of the capital is equally hist:ppm table.—

Mr. Poulett Scrope has addressed a letter to
the agriculturists of the West of England, which
we have transferred to our columns. The sub-
ject of it is the continued and increasing de-
pression of the markets, while the outgoings of
the farmer have scarcely fallen at all. The market
has been kept down by the continually increasing
importation of Irish produce, raised under pecu-
liar circumstances. The Irish grower, for in-
stance, is enabled to undersell the English
grower through the unjust and unwarrantable
difference of the laws under which he eniri,
vates his land and the Englishman his. "In
England (says Mr. P. Scrope), the Poor Laws
have kept up the standard of living among our
agricultural labourers, in spite of their redundant
number; and have prevented wages from fallinrr
below an average of Is. 6]. per clay. In Ireland,
wages are from 4d. to 10d. per day, because
Mere is no poor law ! How can an English
farmer, paying Is. 6d. a day to his labourers,
compete in the market with the Irish farmer,
who pays an average of 7d. a day to his la-
bourers ? In England, a farmer is forced by
law to pay from three to ten shillings an acre
poor rate; while the Irish farmer pays no poor
rate at all ! Is it wonderful, then, that the latter
can beat the former out of his own markets
But this is not all. To make the difference
still more galling and unjust, a very large pro-
portion of our heavy poor rates is paid to main-
tain in idleness the surplus labourers of our
parishes, who are deprived of the employment
they would otherwise obtain in London and all
the large towns of the kingdom, by the hordes
of starving Irish that are driven over here from
the want of a poor law in their own country.
indirectly, we thus pay for the support of the
Irish poor as well as our own ; while the Irish
landowner, paying no tax of the kind at all, and
hiring his half-famished labourers for one-third of
the wages the law compels us to give,sends over to
our markets his corn and cattle,his butter and bacon
raised at half the cost of our produce, which has to
meet it there, and pockets the difference in the
shape of an exorbitant rent." Mr. Scrope
affirms that the farmers of Ireland are worse off
than the serfs of Russia—that the whole pro-
duce of' the soil of Ireland goes to the land-
holders, except the dry potatoes on which the
peasantry support a miserable existence. And
he contends, that it' the Irish cultivators are not
raised to the level of the English, the English
must sink to the level of theirs. In noticing
the evidence before the Agricultural Committee,
we drew attention to the sensible observations of
Mr. Oliver on this subject. Mr. Oliver showed
that the English Poor Laws prevented the
English farmer from availing himself of the low
price labour of the Irish ; for, were he to employ
Irishmen, he would have to maintain his own
labourers in idleness. But neither Mr. Scrope
nor Mr. Oliver states the whole amount of the
injustice caused by the relations between Eng-
land and Ireland. At a first glance it is quite
obvious, that the effect of the difference of the
circumstances under which food is raised in the
two countries, is to allow land to pay rent in
Ireland which can afford to pay none in Eng-
land. The poor rates keep tip the price of
labour in England, so that food cannot be brought
to markenti 11 a ranch higher expenditure is replaced
to the farmer than the Irish expenditure. The
English market, however, determines prices, and
the Irish landholders pocket all the difference be-
tweenthe cost of producing food in England and
in Ireland. Where there is a glut, the Irish
landowner and his peasant representative can al-
ways afford to sell, because the necessary expen-
diture is merely dry potatoes, whereas the moment
the English farmer does not replace his heavy ex-
penditure he is ruined, and goes to the workhouse.
But this is not the worst of it. Every man of any
discernment knows that the great, we may almost
say the sole cause of the disturbed state of Ire-
land, is the relation between the owners of the
soil and the cultivators. Religion is a mere pre-
text. Men never fight about their inheritance
in another world, but they varnish over their
quarrels for a share of the goods of this world,
with pretexts borrowed from another. The land-
holders of Ireland could not maintain the unna-
tural state of things which prevails in that coun-
try a single day, without the aid of a heavy esta-
blishment of soldiers and police, paid for by
England. The English people support their own
poor in idleness to enable Irish landowners to
raise food by potatoe fed labourers, and, be-
sides, are at the expense of collecting rents from
these half famished wretches, who are kept in
order by the bayonet alone. The Russian land-
owner is responsible for the maintenance of his
serfs ; the Polish landowner is in like manner
responsible for the maintenance of his serfs ; and
they are obliged to see that their human stock
does not exceed the wants of their estates. The
aged and the infirm are thrown upon their hands.
But the Irish landlord avails himself of the com-
petition of half famished savages to the very ut-
most, knowing that when the excessive num-
bers, that periodical famines leave become tur-
bulent and unruly the English people are bound
to preserve order among them, and he can drive
them to the hedges and ditches whenever
he pleases. It is so usual for a landowner
to turn out two or three hundred wretches
to starve, that the matter is hardly deemed worth
mentioning. In the very last Dublin Morning
Register received, the number for November
Ist, there is an account of an ejectment of nearly
300 tenants at one time, by a Lady Ross, and
it would be no very difficult matter to predict
the fate of these poor wretches. The poor Irish
serf has all the disadvantages of slavery, without
its corresponding advantages; he is fed and
treated worse than a slave, while he has all the
uneasiness, with respect to the future, of a free
man. The clever author of " England and
America" says that " the Irish, as a people, seem
deficient in courage ;" but though (as he says)
" they have often submitted to a handful of
English soldiers," they could not but be aware
that the whole force of England was at the dis-
posal of their task-masters. Had Ireland been
removed by a wide space from England, the
handful of English soldiers would soon have
been disposed or, and the Irish landholders into
the bargain. But in truth, the state of things
in Ireland would never have existed, but for the
proximity of England to Ireland. By what
magic could one individual have prevailed on
three hundred labourers to cultivate an estate
for him, on the condition of their being fed
good years, and starved when
the potatoe crop
on potatoes in fails, the whole produce
being taken by the individual in question ?
The very idea is absurd. Interest or force must
have been the motives influencing the cultivators.
Interest, of course, could not determine }them
nd force
to such an oppressive contract.
supposes a part of the population sufficient to
coerce the peasants, and having a sufficient

motive for doing so. Long before the popu-
lation of Ireland could have attained its present
amount, the Irish peasants must have been made
serfs, or they must have obtained the mastery.
But the landlords have been left free to carry
oppression and extortion to the uttermost, be-
cause they well knew that England had a force
more than sufficient to coerce the discontented
peasantry, and that the -ekpense of that coercion
would always be thrown on England. It would
he but a just punishment on the agriculturists
whom Mr. Poulett Scrope addresses, for their
blindness to consequences, were they to suffer
still more than they now suffer from the im-
portation of food raised by potatoe fed serfs,
while they cannot rid themselves of a population
who must be fed, work or not work. It is the
duty of those who are placed above the necessity
of labouring for their subsistence, to attend to
the interests of the community. Unfortu-
nately agriculturists are not the only sufferers
by the state of things in Ireland. Mr. H.
Houldsworth, an English manufacturer, who
has been long settled in the vicinity of
Glasgow, states, in his evidence before the
Committee on Manufactures, &c., that " our
mills are almost full of Irish—the greater pro-
portion of the hands in the mills of Glasgow
are either Irish themselves, or of Irish parents
born in Scotland." The wretched Irish must
accept of work on any terms ; but while crowds
of Irish are constantly entering the mills, Mr.
Houldsworth admits that there is a continual
emigration from the mills of Scotchmen. " They
are aware," he says, " that a great excess of
hands would have the effect of reducing wages ;
the combination, therefore, prefer the pecuniary
sacrifice of sending as many of such excess
away as is necessary to enable them to keep up
the wages of those remaining." Mr. William
Graham, jun., extensively concerned in the
cotton spinning and power loom weaving, Glas-
gow, notwithstanding the interest he has, as a
master, to put down all combinations, and to
represent the working people as in a good con-
dition, states, " We have had an importation of
a great many Irish, which has lowered the gene-
ral appearance of the people in that respect, be-
cause the Irish do not appear so well as the
Scotch, and the weavers have been degraded in
a considerable measure by the excess of Irish
hands brought over, which has tended very much
to depress the wages in the weaving trade, and,
of course, the weavers are not dressed so well as
they formerly were. Has the importation of
Irish had a greater effect upon the condition of
the hand loom weavers than it has had upon
any other class of operatives ? No ; when I
mentioned the Irish, I referred to the general
appearance of the work people going along the
streets, that we have a lower class of work people
in the streets than we used to have." Mr.
Ewart, of Liverpool, stated that " the number
of Irish coming to Liverpool is greatly com-
plained of—that they look very miserable, are
badly clothed, and of a sallow complexion."
This constant influx of men in the lowest state
of wretchedness, must necessarily have a per-
nicious effect on the habits of the population ;
and we can easily account for the filth and abo-
minations of all kinds, said by Dr. Kay to exist
in Manchester, from knowing the life to which
the Irish have been previously accustomed.
"If (says the author of England and America')
the English markets of labour were confined to
Englishmen, and if, above all, pains were
taken to raise still higher the English la-
bourer's estimate of what is necessary, the
minimum of wages in England would pro-
bably become sufficient to support all la-
bourers in a state of decency and comfort.
But the English markets of labour, and especially
those of manufacturing labour, are not confined
to Englishmen ; they are full of Irish labourers,
‘v ho fly from Ireland to escape death by famine.
Those whose estimate ofnecessary wages is a hovel,
rags, and potatoes, by underselling the English
workman, by consenting to work for the lowest
wages that will support life, compel the English
labourer to adopt the same course, and thus re-
duce the general minimum of wages to a wretched
pittance. The Irish workman is content with
his wretchedness, the English workman is not.
Here lies the only difference between them. The
discontent of the English, if properly encou-
raged, might soon lead to a higher minimum of
wages, were it not for the competition of the
Irish. It is the competition of Irish labour
which ruins the manufacturing population of
England. In some difficult manufactures, truly,
where the labour of the barbarous and easily-
satisfied Irishman would not be worth having at
any price, we find a rate of wages high, when
compared with that which always attends Irish
competition. But improvements in the use of
steam power, rendering the work performed by
man's labour more simple and easy, have
lately diminished, and will still further dimi-
nish, the number of these difficult manufactures,
which already must be considered as exceptions
to the general rule. In English manufactures, the
general rule is Irish wages." We believe there is
in this some exaggeration. The general average
of the wages of our manufacturers is higher con-
siderably than Irish wages. But it is impossible
to doubt that Irish competition has a strong
tendency to lower the minimum in many manu-
factures. Are we to be astonished when we hear

it stated that in many trades combinations have
been successful in preventing reductions of wages,
that the workmen should be led to the desperate
expedient of securing themselves by Trade
Unions ? These Unions are, unquestionably,
highly mischievous ; but they are the offspring
of a notion among the working people, that
without such a despotism they would be sacrificed
to Irish landowners, who would breed legions of
paupers, and inundate the markets of labour with
them. We ought not to afford any justification
to the workmen for adopting these desperate
courses. In the meantime, we are glad to see
Mr. P. Scrope addressing himself to the ally
most to be depended on—namely, selfishness.
Humanity is never so active as when we are
driven to it by a regard for our own safety.—
Morning Chronicle.

We last week entered upon an examination
of the statements made by the Edinburgh Re-
view of the general state of all the commercial
interests of the country, purporting to be founded
on the evidence taken before the Committee
appointed to inquire into that subject. In doing
this it was our object to bring fully and clearly
forward the assertions and representations of the
Reviewer, with the view of preventing any
misconception of the tendency of the arguments
and the character of the testimony by which
those assertions and representations are profes-
sedly supported. Having directed attention to
this specimen of the attempts which have been
and which will continue to be, made to conceal
as much as possible from observation the truly
alarming condition of the large mass of the
population of the country, we now purpose to
proceed to lay before our readers some extracts

from the evidence printed by the Committee,
which will sufficiently prove the true state of the
large and important interests boldly asserted to
be in a satisfactory and flourishing state. We
insert to-day some extracts from the evidence
laid before the Committee on Manufactures,
Commerce, and Shipping, as to the present
interests
of and future prospects of the shipping
of this country. These and future extracts will
be found to contain the substance of the state-
ments received and published by the Committee
upon this branch of their inquiry. We have
taken the evidence affecting the shipping in-
terest, in the first place, because, in a national
point of view, that interest must be regarded as
of superior importance. It was on this ground
that Adam Smith admitted that the system of
general freedom and commerce ought not to be
applied in the case of the shipping interest, the
paramount object of British policy being to
promote and support in every possible manner
the exclusive employment, and thereby to secure,
as far as might be practicable, the permanent
prosperity of the commercial marine of this
country. The evidence which we insert to-day
will Flfficiently show the manner in which this
principle has been attended to by the statesmen
of the present day. The witnesses, Mr. Innis,
Mr. Woolcombe, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Powles,
Mr. Nickols, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Barry, are
gentlemen whose authority is indisputable, and
we commend their statements to the attention
of our readers. With respect to the ge-
neral condition of the people at large, we take
the present opportunity of referring to two facts,
which are in themselves sufficiently strong pre-
sumptive evidence of what that condition must
really be. Those facts are the increase in the
sums annually expended for the relief of the
poor, and the corresponding increase in the
number of the criminals annually committed for
trial. The accounts are as follow :

Amount expended Criminals
for Relief of commited
the l'oor. for Trial.
1826. £5,676,000 15,986
1827 6,179,800 17,654
1828 6,031,000 16,307
1 829 .6,068,000 18,432
1830 6,553,000 17,759
1831 6 509,000 19,269
1832 6,731,000 20,486

Some assurance and no small degree of inge-
nuity must be requisite to establish, or even to
attempt to establish, in the face of these state-
ments, the assertion that all the great branches
of industry are, in no ordinary degree, pros-
perous. The increase in the amount of the
poor rates is one-fifth, and has taken place not-
withstanding the increasing difficulties which
have been objected to the applicants to this
source of relief. Daily experience of the gene-
ral proceedings of parishes throughout the
country has shown that every claim for assistance
which could feasibly be ref Used has been resisted,
until the required pittance has been literally
extorted from the parish officers, themselves
obliged to extort, in like manner, the funds
applicable for this purpose from rate payers,
many of whom are indeed scarcely above the
condition of the paupers whose wants they are
called upon to relieve. Under these circum-
stances the sum expended for the maintenance
of the poor has, as we have before stated,
increased one-fifth. The number of criminals
has increased during the same time very
nearly to the extent of one-third. To deny
that this melancholy augmentation in the
amount of crime is attributable to the
diminution of comforts, and the more severe
privations to which the people at large arc
subjected, would be to maintain that they have
become wantonly depraved and viciously de-
graded in their character. Those who deny any
falling off in the material comforts of the people
must maintain that there has been a progressive
abasement in their moral condition. Those
who withhold their credence from the plea of
necessity, urged in extenuation of the offenders,
must not forget that the absence of that neces-
sity would be a fearful aggravation of the crime,
and a melancholy and alarming symptom of a
national degeneration from virtue, and a cor-
rupted appetite for vice. It would, indeed, be a
gloomy prospect for their country if we could
believe for a moment that the people, enjoying,
it is assumed, the comforts befitting their sta-
tion, and possessing therefore everything they
were accustomed to require, or entitled to ex-
pect, were becoming discontented with the po-
sition allotted to them in this world without a
cause to justify their murmurs—if we could be-
lieve that there was some monstrous decline in
the standard of popular morality, some prodigious
growth of depraved propensities among the great
body of the people of England, without the
shadow of a cause to account for or justify the
prodigy. If this were the case it would afford se-
rious reason ofapprehension for the future destinies
of the nation. Where the cause of a disease
can be detected the physician may hope, by
applying the resources of science and experience,
to providea remedy ; but where the disease is ma-
nifest, but the cause is concealed—where the
ravages of a dangerous disorder are displayed,
but there are no symptoms to indicate the pre-
sence of the evil which has given rise to the
malady, there is then but small hope of effecting
any cure. Such are the conclusions which must
inevitably follow from the statements of those
' who persist in maintaining that the condition
of the people generally is one of progressive
comfort. Those who are prepared to place any
reliance on such assertions must be prepared at
once to admit a correspondently progressive
tendency to wanton crime, which ought to re-
ceive, if it be supposed possible, the immediate
and most serious attention of the Legislature.
The plain fact is, as we have before stated, that
the increase of crimes is occasioned by the
greater destitution of the industrious classes,
who are thereby driven to endeavour to obtain,
by unlawful means, the subsistence which their
utmost honest exertions are incompetent to se-
cure.—Morning Herald.

We have for some time past been attracted
by an advertisement in all the papers, and by a
placard on most of the walls of the metropolis,
and elsewhere, commencing " Official,' and
" By the authority of Parliament," relating to
the Glasgow Lottery. We have been labouring
under au erroneous impression, we conclude,
that such speculations had ceased to exist " by
authority of Parliament," for we can scarcely
imagine that it would be attempted to advance
any private speculation by this announcement.
The vigilance of the Government would surely
have discovered such an attempt to impose on
the public, and the law officers of the Crown,
would at once have proceeded against
the offending parties. We have, neverthe-
less, the impression strongly on our mind,
that, no later than the last Session of Par-
liamentbse ans Lord
on A
tlitlheorp ,
in reply to some
ti
subject, declared that,
though there
observations
might possibly be a flaw in the
Act, which, for the present, might seem to to-
lerate this particular case, nevertheless, even

should this be so, it should be his care to prevent
the possibility of any second attempt to renew
those nuisances, and that his immediate attention
should be given to the subject for this purpose.
Our present observations have been called forth
by seeing the second drawing of this same lottery,
headed by the words which we have quoted
above. The disgraceful negligence, however,
which such an oversight on the part of the Go-
vernment would evince, leads us to pause, and
to seek from our Ministerial contemporaries
some information on the subject before we lay
so heavy an accusation to the charge of the
Government.—Morning Post.
The termagant tenant of Derrynane Abbey
has again sounded the civil war note of repeal—
he is now, he says, a " bitter repealer," and he
has been made so, according to his statement—
which, by the bye, we take the liberty of disbe-
lieving—" by the Reform Ministry, and the
Reformed Parliament." How either the one
or the other could have effected such a change,
seeing that, on all possible grounds of compari-
son, the Reform Ministry and the Reformed
Parliament have proved, with all their faults
and failings, better than their unreformed
predecessors, it would have been difficult
to have discovered, but for the kind assis-
tance of the person who has undergone
the process of conversion, and who has un-
wittingly let the cat out of the bag, to the great
edification, we doubt not, of all the true friends
of Ireland. It was the Coercion Bill that did
it, says he—that Bill which " he who forgets
or forgives must be a miscreant Irishman, on
whom harsh words are thrown away"—but
which has, nevertheless, restored more tran-
quillity to Ireland than it has enjoyed during
any one year for the last half century. This is
unquestionably a powerful reason for the renewal
of agitation, and we accordingly find the hero of
the " riot"—which, by the bye, is said to have
been lately rather unprofitable—breaking forth
in a strain of eloquence so truly Irish, that
nothing but a powerful Irish motive could have
prompted it.

" This is my first act of renewed agitation," says
" I raise the peaceful, the canstitutional, the ever un-
stained and bloodless standard of Repeal—l nail the
colours to the mast. Repeal, nothing short of Repeal--
Repeal, undisfigured and undisguised by any one partisan
or sectarian feeling. Repeal, not for sectarian or party
ascendancy, but for all the people, of every class, grade,
sect, and persuasion. Repeal—to secure the possessions
of the rich, and to reward the industry of the poor. Re-
peal—to establish the equality of the civil rights of all
Christians, and to promote the genuine spirit of Christian
charity amongst them—a spirit which cannot exist in
genuine purity wherever one sect is placed in superiority
over another. Repeal—to enable us, as a nation, to ex
press our scorn and detestation of the coercionists, and to
render it impossible again to deprive us by Act of Par-
liament of the protection of a civil constitution."

This truly Irish rhodomontade has met, most
unexpectedly and without the slightest concert,
with an equally strong, and equally true English
answer, which will be found elsewhere. It is
from the pen of Mr. Poulett Scrope, and al-
though it only embraces one view of the ques-
tion, must, we think, startle the conviction of
the most " hitter repealers" respecting the pa-
triotism and infallibility of Mr. O'Connell, and
the soundness of his views regarding the future
improvement of Ireland. Mr. Scrope proves to
demonstration that the English landlord—the
English tenant—and the English labourer—
are in a gradual, but certain and rapid state of
decay, in consequence of causes wholly Irish,
which have only to be stated in order to con-
vince every one of their baleful influence—first,
the increased import of Irish produce into
England—secondly, the increase of Irish labour
in the English market—thirdly, the exemption
of the people of Ireland from the payment of
many of those taxes to which the people of this
country are subject—fourthly, the enjoyment in
Ireland of a species of currency, the employ-
ment of which is forbidden here, but which
greatly tends, wherever it is permitted, to aug-
ment production, and to facilitate exchange—
and lastly, to the absence of poor laws in Ireland,
and the consequent maintenance of the Irish
poor by the people of England. With Mr.
Scrope's notions upon these points we profess
to have nothing to do, but what he has stated
is neither more nor less than the fact ; and we
commend a due consideration of his letter to
that unthinking class of our fellow countrymen
who pin their faith upon the assertions of
the Agitator, and are inclined to follow
in his path, wherever it may lead. Let
ikir. O'Connell answer it, if he can—let
his partisans answer it, if they can—let them
have repeal, if they desire it, and the support
of their own poor, and of an exclusive govern-
ment—and of a shutting out of their produce
from the British market—but, in Heaven's
name, let us have no more nonsense about the
repeal of the Union. It is a mere bugbear—a
net for the collection of the " O'Connell rent"
—and nothing more—a cheat upon the igno-
rant—an intended fright to Englishmen, who
cbalenssmingansatge to which
liveh‘ without
veha ve any
alluded, of the
amid
of
which
the repeal would mercifully deprive us.—Morn-
ing Advertiser.

A MELANCHOLY AccunNT.---Yesterday
morning, between eleven and twelve o'clock, a melan-
choly accident occurred to Anne Turner, a remarkably
fine young woman, between 19 and 20 years of age,
a servant in the employ of Mrs. Furmidge, a lady residing
in Sloane-street, Chelsea. The poor unfortunate young
woman had Inert brewing, and was conveying some of
the boiling wort, with hops in it, from out of the copper,
to be strained into a large cooler, when, by some acci-
dent, her foot sliped, and she was precipitated, with a pail
full of the boiling liquor, into the cooler. In this dread-
ful situation the poor sufferer extricated herself, and pro•
ceeded into the house—her neck, arms, and hands pre-
senting a dreadful spectacle, being scalded in a shocking
manner. From the glutinous nature of the liquid, on
removing her clothes from off her neck, the whole of the
skin came off with them, the poor creature enduring the
most excruciating sufferings. Surgical assistance was
promptly procured, and the usual remedies applied to her
in such distres.ing cases.

Wednesday a fish woman named Bartlett, who
had undertaken to drink seven half pints of gin for a
wager, died front the effects of her abominable frolic.
Her husband has been in a deplorable state of mind ever
since. This wretched woman had a child burnt to death,
not long since, through her misconduct.—Exeter Times.
A cave is said to have been discovered
within the Nash Rocks, near Presteign, in Radnorshire,
on the estate of the Earl of Oxford, and at an elevation of
some hundreds of feet from the plain. The descent from
the entrance is 20 feet ; the roof, full 30. The dimen-
sions may be 300 feet in circumference, but the immense
size and number of pillars render it impossible to the eye
to ascertain the exact admeasurements. This natural
curiosity consists in the petrified pillars, which appear to
have been formed by dripping from the ce ling or roof.
From the length of time nature has been performing her
work many of them at least are six feet round at the top.—
They reach to the floor, and have become perfect pillars of
stone, appearing like inverted cones ; others are like
icicles, or, in common terms, caves droppings. The
rocks are situated between the Hill Garraway mountains
near the river Enwell, where the remains of the ever-
memorable Sir Samuel Romilly are deposited in the
family vault of his late relative, Colonel Foley. It was
there in the midst of cataracts and wildest picturesque
scenery, that this great lawyer and legislator rested from
the fatigues of his profession.—Shrewsbury Chronicle.