The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-08 00:00:00

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N°.18,422.] LONDON, W ILEDN ESDA
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14, 4,4 • -
• t• t 1. •
• • OCTOBER 8, 1851.
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ALL S 0 P P'S EAST INDIA PALE and
other BURTON ALES.
The public is respectfully informed that these favourite Ales may
be had Genuine, in Casks of 18 Gallons and auwards, at their respec-
tive Stores as under, where also a List of the Bottlers may be ob-
tained:— _ .

' at the conclusion that the principles on which
our commercial system is founded are incorrect
and injurious. Now, I cannot flatter myself that all
classes of the country will arrive at that conclusion,
although it may be just and right, in a hurry. It is
quite clear to me, after the change that has occurred,
that if this country arrive, after experience, at the
conclusion that the change was erroneous, it will not
arrive at that conclusion in haste or a hurry. Then
what is the course for the agricultural interest to take,
which is the interest that is suffering from these
changes, while all other interests almost are announc-
ing to us that they are profiting by it? It is for the
agricultural interest to discover the cause, or at least
.one of the cause, which occasion it to suffer by that
change of legislation which many other classes think
so beneficial. That is the only point that I have im-
pressed upon the attention of the farmers when I have
met them. I shall not enter into any details now.
Bat in my opinion the reason why we find such diffi-
culty in entering into competition with the agricul-
tural producers of other countries is, that we are suf-
fering under a heavy weight of taxation. (Cries
of "Bravo.") And I am quite convinced that you
must bring the mind of the farmers generally to con-
sider that subject, if they wish anything practical to
be done at once which may alleviate the suffering
which they now every day more experience.—(A
Voice—" Remuneration of price is of much more con-
sequence.") Remuneration of price must depend in
a great degree upon the cost of production. If you
diminish the cost of production, which you do if
you reduce taxation, you increase the remuneration
of price. Remuneration of price is what every man
wants, but we are to find the different means by
which remuneration of price may be obtained, and
then every one must admit that one of the sources of
the remuneration of price is the reduction of the
cost of production.—(Cheers, and a Voice "That
won't do it.") If my Hon. Friend can get laws in
this country that will at once give him that remune-
rative price which he requires—if he finds the vast
majority of the country in favour of such laws, no
one will be more glad than myself. No one fought
more ardently, no one I hope fought more sincerely
than I did. My sabre was notched from top to
bottom before I ceased to struggle ; but if you think
that you cannot immediately and at once return to
that system which bas been abrogated, but which
you have found beneficial, then I _ wish to know

men, as it were, who are unable to carry on their
trade without the assistance of the Legislature, when,
in fact, all they have got to do is to say that you
are raising a sum of 12,000,0001. or 13,000,000/
from the land, which you ought not, according to the
principles of financial justice, to raise. You would
then, I believe, have terms offered to you, and, by be-
ing united, propably you'd have very good terms.
Now, this is the view I take of the position of the
farmers of this country. With regard to the princi-
ple of the protective system, if that system is restored
it must be by the whole country, and the farmers will
have their advantage of it. It never will be restored
for the farmers alone ; and, if the farmers think that
it will, they are only playing the game of their ene-
mies, and they will find that there will be year after
year greater oppressions upon them, greater burdens
on their shoulders, and greater difficulties on their
part to preserve the position in which they are placed.
I do not advise you to give up the principle of what is
called " Protection to British industry." That is a
theory that is founded on principles which very great
men have advocated, and which may be supported by
a great force of argument; but it is not a system that
any longer exists, and, unless you get the majority of
the country with you, you will not get it back. In
the meantime, are you to do nothing, when you have
a case totally irrespective of protection ? You have
a case the strongest in the world, if you
go forward and ask for justice instead of pro-
tection. Take protection if you can get it. If
others get protection you will have it; but no other
class can call for financial justice except the agri-
cultural: class. It is their own case, and if they
choose to unite depend upon it that the Bill which
they prefer to the Ministry of the country cannot
easily be satisfied, and that some compromise, which,
after all, is an arrangement most in accordance with
the common sense and experience, and character of
this country, will be entertained and gained, which,
if they follow the advice of other gentlemen than the
present Member for Buckinghamshire who now ad-
dresses them, they will have very little chance of ob-
taining.—(Hear.) I hear frequently that the influence
of the agricultural classes has been very much exag-
gerated, that the constitution of the country has been
based on a parallel principle, and that each kind of
property has not had its fair influence, and that the
day has gone by in which the agricultural interest in
all its classes can be supposed to exercise the influence
that it did. I hope the day has gone by when any
class can obtain favours from the Legislature to which
it is not entitled—when any class, because it pos-
sesses political power, shall be able to accomplish
social injustice.—(Cheers.) I don't wish to enter
into the question of what is the comparative influence
of classes ; I only wish to say this, that the farmers,
the most powerful class in the country, in the class
which mostly employs labour. The farmers of
the united kingdom are the class which mostly
employs labour, much beyond other classes, and,
therefore, the farmers of the United Kingdom are
really the most powerful class. That is the test—not
an imaginary, but a practical test—which will decide
legislation, if the farmers are united ; and, therefore,
if the farmers will only embrace certain practical
ideas, and carry out and support them, it is quite
possible, if they are founded in justice, and can be
supported by argument, that they will not make their
way and be successful. I don't ask any man to give
up the system which will secure him remunerating
prices. I don't ask any man to give up any of the
essential principles ,for which we have fought, and
none of which we have relinquished ; but when a
system becomes a theory, and ceases to be a fact, I
say it is of the utmost importance that the farmers of
this country should be aware of that. If the farmers
are persuaded that a greater burden of taxation is laid
on them than on any other class in the country, they
can, with the power which they possess, and which
under any form of government they must possess,
because no new reform in Parliament can diminish
the just and legitimate influence of the greatest em-
ployers of labour, make on appeal to the Legislature,
which will not be unsuccessful. I don't say I really
wish the system of local taxation altered. I don't wish
to say I don't estimate the importance of the malt-tax
as a source of imperial revenue ; I don't mean to say
that many arguments may not be urged that may
show the expediency of directly taxing land ; but if
those processes are carried on, and those results are
obtained by a system of financial injustice, it is the
duty of statesmen to find some compensatory power
which will enable the agricultural class to bear the
increased burden. That is the only point on which I
insist, and I am sure that if you will support these
views a very abort time will elapse, a very short
time indeed, before you will find that they will pro-
duce you fruits, that you will find yourselves in a
healthier position, and that you will arrive at the
results which you desire, at that remunerating price
to which my friend has very properly alluded, by
means in which the whole country will go with you,
and in which, instead of being looked on as a power-
ful class, exercising your power for aparticular end,
you will be looked on as a great class in this country
who are only exercising your power for the attain-
ment of that justice with which all classes of Eng-
lishmen sympathise.—(Cheers.) I find that what
has happened since the repeal of the corn laws has
placed the farmers of the United Kingdom in a much
better position as regards public opinion than they
once enjoyed. I shall not allude to some facts
which I mentioned the other day in the north of
the county among your brethren there to
show the results of this energy and enter-
prise ; and I think they are now perfectly acknow-
ledged. I think it is admitted that, on the whole,
the agriculture of England, certainly of the United
Kingdom, is the most skilful agriculture in
the world ; and I think it is also acknow-
ledged that, especially since the change, there
has been no lack of energy or enterprise on the part
of the British farmer. But a good many other falla-
cies—calumnies I might call them, if I were not dis-
posed to-day to use the gentlest terms—have been put
an end to. The statement that the farmers could not
carry on business from the want of capital, is pretty
well exploded. Even the highest authority on this
subject (Mr. Pusey) says he has been at work at high
farming for several years, and that he never could
put on 6/. an acre. Therefore, all those stories which
carried in a great degree the repeal of the corn laws,
such as that no farmer should have less than 101. an
acre on his farm, and that no farm in England had
more than 51. an acre, are put in limbo.—(Laughter.)
Those discussions of 1846 also have very much cleared
the reputation of the farmers. We have had since
then a great commercial distress in 1847, and there
was a Committee of the House of Commons ap-
pointed to inquire into the cause of that commercial
distress. I was a member of that Committee. The
gentleman who might have been your chairman to-
day was also a member. We investigated that sub-
ject with our utmost efforts. I supported those views
which are popular among ourselves. My friend,
Mr. Labouchere, a free •trader, took another view
of the general question, but we all arrived at
one conclusion. It was the unanimous decision of
that committee, which consisted of fixed duty men,
Free-traders, Protectionists, and Manchester men,
that the commercial distress was principally occa-
sioned by commercial men carrying on their business
without capital.—(Laughter and cheers.) I really
think that is the best vindication of the farmers of
Great Britain that has yet been made. The year
after they repealed the corn-laws this distress oc-
curred, and we came to the unanimous conclusion
that the principle cause of the commercial distress
was men trading without capital. But lam reminded
of another circumstance. It was always said that
one reason why the farmers could not carry on their
business to advantage was that they could not keep
accounts. Now, a great many of my friends who
are farmers keep accounts. I can go to Wickbaml
market and buy a farmer's account-book which might
compete with many of the ledgers of commercial
men. But, since that was said, since every leading
member of the Manchester school—(A. laugh)—held
of capital—no less than 200,000,000/.—by commer-
cial the
ep
epa
of
ea
or mu
ne
trss of
, there Great
has
been Britain as men a
ni
immense
nws
oh who
ocvoeus
tl do I no
no
tt
men and the middle and trading classes in the
construction of railways. Very few of those specula-
tions have turned out so satisfactory as was ex-
pected ; andto in
comqumiriteteesinotfoinvtehsteigatrieoansohnasve been
why
formed
they have not yielded what my friend has called re-
munerative prices, which committees have all come
to the conclusion that this 200,000,0001. has been in-
vested by commercial men who cannot keep accounts.
—(Laughter and cheers.) I really think that these
are circumstances which tell on the minds of the
people of the country ; and year after year, as these
things transpire, there is a general impression in this
country that the farmers of this country have not had
justice done them, and that even if the change which
took place in 1846 was beneficial, as many supposed,
it was obtained by false pretences. Therefore I think
there is a general disposition on the part of the public
opinion of this country to view what is called the
agricultural question in a temperate and moderate
spirit—(Hear, hear)—and I believe there is an anxiety
to come to some arrangement which, without mainly
interfering with those financial principles prevalent
in
this country, would:make the position of the cultivator
of the soil easier by reducing the cost of his manu-
facture. If you see those tendencies, itis not extremely
politic and expedient that the agriculturists should

The Brewery, Burton-on-Trent.
Stores, 61, King William-street, City, London.
Cook-street, Liverpool.
High-street, Birmingham.
The Exchange, Manchester.
33, Virginia-street, Glasgow.

whether it is your opinion that you should try to do
anything else.—(Hear, hear.) Now we are in this
state—that when Parliament meets the very first
question which will engage the attention of the House
of Commons and the country will be the principles
on which the taxation of this country is to be estab-
lished. That is the first question. The income-tax,
which is now the keystone of the financial arch,
must, unless some interposition takes place, fall.
Therefore, as in fact in a few months the income-tax
ceases, there must be a great deficiency in the revenue
of the country; and the Parliament, which, after all,
only represents the opinions of gentlemen who, like
my Friend who just now so courteously interrupted
use—(A laugh)—l am speaking most sincerely—l am
glad he did interrupt me—Parliament must decide
upon the principles on which the taxation of this
country is to be raised. If it be true, as I believe it
is, that there is a great and undue pressure of taxa-
tion upon the agricultural interest of this country—
that the owners and ohcupiers of land pay a much
greater portion of the general taxation of the country
than they ought to pay—then, if that is understood,
and is fairly and properly represented in the House
of Commons, when the great discussion comes, it is
not impossible that some arrangement may be arrived
at which may prove advantageous to the land in all
its classes and interests. But if you, instead of un-
derstanding this part of the question, instead of
giving your intelligence and energies to this part of
the question, determine that you will only try to get
a remunerative price, by bringing back an abrogated
system, which you know at the present moment the
country generally will not support you in bringing
back, the consequence will be, that when the new
system of taxation is established, there will be im-
posed fresh burdens on the land, and fresh injustice
will be entailed on you.—(Cheers.) I don't want
to enter into any discussion at the present moment,
but I will repeat, in a few sentences, some general
conclusions which no one has yet successfully chal-
lenged. It is a fact that in the United Kingdom
13,000,000/. per annum are raised by local taxation,
and raised from one species of property, called
" real property." Of these 13,000,000/. it is a fact
absolutely ascertained, that 8,000,000/. are contributed
by the land, the pure land alone. I say, that as the
rental of the united kingdom is only 60,000.0001.,
and the taxable income of the country is more than
three times that amount, it follows that two-thirds of
that should be paid by the general revenue of the
country, and tlaerefore that the agricultural interest
is paying in local taxation alone 6,000,000/. a-year
more than it ought; and I say that that is one-tenth
of the whole rental of the country; that it is equal to
a 10 per cent. reduction of that rental.—(Cheers.)
But I do not say that that is the only excess of taxa-
tion which the agricultural interest bears beyond
other interests. I say that there are restrictions upon
the industry of the soil such as no other great industry
of this country experiences
and endures. I say, that
when the Prime Minister rises and lectures the
farmers of England, and tells them that they must
not trust so much to the wheat crop—that they must
give up growing wheat—it
is most unreasonable that
he should at the same time be supporting laws which
restrict the cultivation of the next superior grain—
barley.—(Cheers.) The land-tax, again, is another
ground on which you may
appeal to the Legislature
of the country for an equitable adjustment of taxation ;
for the land-tax is not one which can be justified on
those new principles of political science and economy
which are the governing
principles of the day,
and on which avowedly your new commer-
cial system is established. I say that the
principle on which Your new commercial
system is established is, that there should not be
a tax upon the raw material, and, in my opinion, a
tax upon land, like all your local taxes, is
a tax upon
the raw material. Since I made that observation I
see that there has arisen a great controversy upon the
subject. Indeed, almost as entered this room a most
intelligent gentleman now
present demurred to me
on this point. He said, " I don't understand how
land can be a raw material. Land always remains."
Now I think that in that observation I trace that
fallacy which is very prevalent in this country, and
which, I am convinced, should be exposed, as it is
most injurious to the farmers of this country. Since
I made the observation at Aylesbury I have seen the
opinion of the most distinguished writer on political
economy of the present dayM
—r. Stuart Mills—and
be says, that it is a fallacy to treat land as a raw ma-
terial, because he says that man did not make the
land. But there I think that the fallacy of the
whole to the principle
what
laid down is to be found, because
is, that man did make the ?land—(Cheers)—thatyou,
yu
which
I maintain I have
make the land of South Bucks. I say that it
o, opposition
the farmers of Backinghamahire, did
is your cultivation, your manures—your artificial
manures—your various processes to which the land is
every
yrial of your crop that you
subjectedvest
it
with under
certainy o your
creativesc ienc aq
qualities—that
iteexs experience,
ae , thatport
iionn-
rat
produce, and
ma-
nufacture; in fact, if you did not cultivate the land,
it would cease to produce your manufacture. Your
machinery is the plough, the clod-crusher, the
of those qualitiiessinisfaweatsttbeed
thrasher, but not the soil. The soil is the raw ma-
terial, and it is created by you", and every time that
the crop is produced some creative qualities of that
raw material are expended, some portion, in fact, of
that raw material which you must Supply by reno-
vated skill, by renewed experiments, and by
increased
culture. Therefore, I say, that land is the raw ma-
terial of the British farmer, and that in this country
you tax his raw material, whereas the raw material
of the manufacturer is not taxed; and you announce
this to be the great principle of Your new and en-
lightened system of commerce, that no raw material
of manufacture should be taxed ; and don't apply to
agriculture the same principle that you do to corn-
merce. Well, then, lam asked what good is there in
stirring these questions, " Are 6,000,0001. of local
taxes to be taken off land, even if it does unjustly con-
tribute it ? Is it possible that they can be taken off
land in the present state of the finances of the coun-
try ? Is it possible you can do without the malt tax
and the land-tax, because they are opposed to the
principles of financial justice and fiscal equity ?" lily
answer is,—here is a great interest suffering in con-
sequence of your legislation. It is necessary for me
to discover what are some of the causes of its suffer-
ing ; and I am not to teach you how you are to pay
your bills; how you are to discharge yoUr debts ;
but I am to show, on the part of the agricultural in-
terest, whom you acknowledge to be the only great
suffering interest, and who are suffering in conse-
quence of undue taxation, and it is for politicians, and
statesmen, and persons who represent the community,
that are revelling, we are told, in every degree of
prosperity—it is for them to devise how they can
meet their engagements in the most easy and oonve-
nient manner for themselves.--(Cheers.) Thee is
why I think it is so unwise thet farmers when, they
complain should be calling out to the Legislature for
a particular scheme of relief, which is one odious to
the multitude, putting themselves in the position of