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

o. 1•2,809.)

( PRICE 7D.)

Just published, price 6s.
CONSIDERATIONS ON JOINT-
STOCK BANKING, chiefly with reference to
the Situation and Liabilities of Shareholders.

flow to the place where it is required. The labour
of the poor man is his only commodity, and the
reasons should be cogent indeed which justify any
legal impediment to his carrying it to the best
market he can discover.
Dr. Adam Smith, in the " Wealth of Nations,"
has dwelt with peculiar force on this particular sub-
ject : he has laid down with his accustomed accuracy
the general principle, that " the property which '
every man has in his own labour, as it is the original
foundation of all other property, so it is the most
sacred and inviolable." After stating the law, he
points out the evil, as it still exists in England, in
these emphatic words :—" The scarcity of hands in
one parish cannot always be relieved by their super-
abundance in another, as it is constantly in Scotland,
and I believe in all other countries where there is no
difficulty of settlement ;" and he sums up the state-
ment with this remarkable expression, which is true
to the present day—" There is scarce a poor man
in England of 40 years of age, I will venture to
say, who has not in some part of his life felt himself
most cruelly oppressed by this ill-contrived law of
settlement."
Amidst the numerous difficulties to which agricul-
ture in this country is exposed, and amidst the dis-
tress which unhappily exists, it is a consolation to
your Committee to find that the general condition of
the agricultural labourer in full employment is better
now than at any former period, his money wages
giving him a greater command over the necessaries
and conveniences of life.
As an illustration of this fact, it may not be inex-
pedient to institute a comparison of the condition of
the labourer in some one county at the present mo-
ment, contrasted with his condition in 1821, when
the last general inquiry was instituted into this sub-
ject.

4. Brought home to men's business and bosoms."—Lord Bacon.
Frazer, Regent-street; and Royal Exchange. 1833.

Will be published on the 30th inst., price 69., by R.
HEWARD, 5, Wdlington-street. Strand.

11HE WESTMINSTER REVIEW,
No. XXXVIII., containing
1. A Free Trader's Defence of the "Mercantile Sys-
tem"-2. History of France-3. Nova Scotia-4. Cor-
porate Reform-5. London University Magazine ; Note
on Austin's Jurisprudence-6: Pitcairn's Criminal Trials
in Scotland-7. Letters of Horace Walpole-8. Sinking
System at Sea-9. Rush's Residence at the Court of
London-10 The gone-by Session-11. Physiology of
Plants-12. Otto on the Violin—l 3. The Repea'ers-
-14. History of the Middle and Working Classes-15
Kingdom of Greece and the lonian Islands-16. The
Question of Absenteeism reducible to the Principles of
Free Trade—List of Book., Index, &c.

THE GIULIANIAD, or GUITAR MA-
GAZINE, No. 6, price 2s. 6d., will he published
on the l st of October, when the first volume of this work
will be completed.

CONTENTS :—Guitar Makers and Sellers—lnstructions
to niy Daughter—Pelzer's Instructions—Kerieve's Chit
Chat, &c.

The music are Giuliani's Fantasia, (Op. 62.) Diver-
timento by Naske, and 5 Songs, with English and German
words.

Sherwood and Co., 23, Paternoster-row; Duff and
Co., 65, Oxford-street; Chappell, 50, New Bond-street,
and Johanning, No. 6, John-street, Oxford-street.

At that time Mr. Hanning, a gentleman from Sc-
mersetshire,appeared before the Committee,and gave
the following evidence :
" Has there been a change in the food of the la-
bourers within the last two years ?—Unquestionably.
I see the labourers, being constantly mowing about
my own farms; I see them now almost wholly sup-
plied with potatoes; breakfast and dinner brought
to them in the fields, and nothing but potatoes.
" Were they in the habit, in better times, of con-
suming a certain quantity of animal food 2—Some
certain portion; for instance, bacon and cheese,
which they do not eat now.
" Has there been a decrease in their use of malt
liquors ?—ln my neighbourhood it is principally
cider. As to malt liquor, I only state the informa-
tion of a tenant or two of my own, who have ale-
houses and inns, who say they do not sell so much
as they used to sell; but I cannot vouch for that.
" Will not the increased consumption of potatoes
you have mentioned account, in a great degree, for
the reduced price of wheat ?—The lower orders,
from necessity, eat less wheat.
" Of course, then, a less consumption of wheat
will produce a depreciation ? I think their poverty
drives them to eat a worse food."
By your Committee on the present occasion Mr.
Western Peters was called, a gentleman residing at
Petherton, in the county of Somerset, occupying
600 acres of land, partly his own property, and
agent to Mr. Portman, who possesses large estates
in that county. By him the following evidence is
given on this point :
" Do the tenants employ less labour on their lands
than they used ?—No; I think they employ every
labourer in the parish ; there is not one unemployed.
" What is the rate of their wages now ?—I sup-
pose they average about Bs. a week; then the
farmers find them potatoe-ground; and in most of
our parishes they have alloments of about forty
perches a man, independent of that.
" What used to be their wages eight or ten years
ago ?—About the same ; the shepherd and carter
have generally got about Os. a week.
" Their money wages are reduced about Is. per
week, all the other allowances remaining the same ?
—Yes; and most of the farmers, I cannot say for
all, but a great many, supply their labourers with
wheat under the market prices besides.
" Those allowances have not changed within the
last eight or ten years ?—No; I apprehend not.
" The reduction in the money wages is about Is.
a week ?—lt was reduced Is. a week; but I think
it is about the same again now.
" What is the condition of the labourer now, con-
sidering the price he pays for the, articles he con-
sumes, compared with his condition eight or ten
years ago, when he got Is. a week more wages ?
It is a great deal better.
" And the agricultural labourer in Somersetshire
is better off than he was ?—Yes ; I think so.
" Is it apparent in his condition that he is better
off ?—Yes, think it is; most of them now keep a
barrel of cider, and a pig besides, which they used
not to do; malt liquor is not much used in Somer-
setshire, on account of the large number of orchards.
" They used not to have cider in their cottages ?
—No.

" Have they now pretty generally ?—There are
exceptions, and so there are to the wages, because
one man deserves more than another; but speak-
ing generally to their wages, I should say from 7s.
to 9s.

" You say generally that their condition is better
than it was ?—Yes.
" Have most of them cider in their houses ?
Yes; and besides, the greatest part, I think, of those
men who have from 7s. to 9s. a week have three
pints of cider a day generally allowed, and in sum-
mer more.

" You mean to say that at the present time they
are more in the habit of having a small cask of cider
in their houses than they used to be /—Yes, now
they have.

" The labouring poor, you think, are in a better
condition than in dear times ?—Yes.
"You state the farmers have reduced the scale of
their living; have the labourers reduced theirs ?—I
do not think they have.
" Do they eat more meat than they did ?—I think
they do.

"To what extent ? I cannot say. Formerly
if they got a pig, they used to sell it to pay their
rent, now they feed and kill it.
" How often will a farm labourer in full employ
in Somersetshire eat meat in the course of the
week P—Nearly every day, I should suppose, the
best labourers.

" What kind of meat ?—Generally bacon, and
when they go to market they buy coarse pieces of
beef in the evening.
"Do they not in the course of the week get some
beef or mutton ?—I think they generally get some
beef.

" Used they formerly to have some meat in the
course of the week ?—No; I think the labourers
have had much more meat latterly than they used
to do.

" You think, that though the farmers have suf-
fered by alteration of prices, the labourers are better
off P—Yes.

" Is your knowledge of the situation of things
during high prices in the war sufficiently accurate
also to enable you to speak to the condition of the
labourer then and now ?—Yes; I can recollect when
the labourer ate barley-cake without meat or cheese.
I was then quite young, living with my father,
but I recollect seeing the men come.
" Had they their barrels of cider then as they
have now in their cottages 7—No, certainly not.
" The period that you speak of is preceding the
high prices which followed during the war 7--The

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ing of wa:; when I was a boy,
my father, and men used to
barley-cake to work, without

that the generality of the la-
sire have meat every day ; are
Ingle man, or are you speaking
Fe and two children ?—The
lest labourers have meat every

The Committee may collect from your evidence
that the labourers are better off now than they were
before, from whatever cause arising ?—Certainly."
This is an instance taken from a particular county,
but it is no unfair sample of the improved condition
of the labourer in full employment.
At the same time it appears from the general
tenor of the evidence, that in many districts of the
country the supply of agricultural labour is greater
than the demand, and that this disproportion mainly
arises from the inability of the farmer to employ
that quantity of labour on the land which would be
requisite for its perfect cultivation ; yet even where
labour is thus redundant, the alarming increase of the
poor-rate has fixed attention on the condition of the
labourer by grants of land attached to cottages, by
a more judicious distribution of labour throughout
the parish, converting into productive that which
had been unproductive, coupled with due attention
to the character of the party relieved, and a more
provident distribution of the relief itself, the growing
evils of pauperism have been partially arrested, and
in some cases by timely interference have been ab-
solutely overcome.
In Scotland, where rent and wages of labour are
the only outgoings borne by the tenant, the farmer
on the whole appears to have suffered less than in
England from the fall of prices, and corn rents,
which have lately come into more general use in
that country, protect the tenantry under lease from
the effects of a falling market; but the labourer in
Scotland being paid principally in kind, and receiv-
ing only a small portion of his wages in money, has
not gained so much as the labourer in England by
the altered value, although his nominal earnings have
not been much reduced; on the other hand, the
dezrand for his labour as yet continues unabated,
and the law of settlement in Scotland does not
impede its free circulation.
In Ireland, as far as the growing demand of the
English market extends, agriculture is improving,
the growth of wheat is rapidly increasing, and the
gross amount of produce is considerably augmented.
The demand for lime and for manure is greet
throughout the province of Leinster; new roads
have been formed ; the inland navigation has been
improved; the soil is fertile; and a progressive in-
crease of the supply of wheat from Ireland may be
anticipated.
With the war, however, the great contracts for
salt provisions, which were drawn from Ireland, ter-
minated; and it is doubtful whether any present
demand from England for corn compensates for the
loss which Ireland thus sustained.
The minute subdivision of firms, the system
of con-acre, especially in Connaught, and the conse-
quent increase of population, have a strong tendency
to enhance the value of land throughout Ireland,
and to lower wages by the same competition which
reduces both the tenant and the labourer to tire
lowest level of indigence.
Emigration has taken place from all parts of the
United Kingdom, and continues increasing from
year to year; in some instances local contributions
have been raised to defray the expense of the pas-
sage of pauper families, and the parishes where this
measure has been adopted with due precautions
have experienced some relief; but in many cases,
without such assistance, the poorest and least able
remain, while the more efficient and richer depart,
taking with them small accumulations of capital, and
thus rather impoverishing than benefiting the dis-
trict which they leave.
In the counties of England, where yeomen here-
tofore abounded, occupying their own estates, which
estates in many cases had been transmitted from
father to son, a great change of property has re-
cently taken place. The high prices of the last war
led to speculation in the purchase, improvement, and
enclosure of land; money was borrowed on the pa-
ternal estate for speculations of this nature, which,
at the time, were not considered improvident.
Prices have fallen, the. debt still remains, or the
estate has changed owners, and the interval between
the fall of prices and the adjustment of charge and
of expenditure to the altered value of money has
been most pernicious to this body of men.
In rural districts, from the absence of competition,
the small tradesmen have been enabled to keep up
their prices, although perhaps bad debts and dimi-
nished custom have not added to their profits ; but
the means of the yeoman have diminished more ra-
pidly than the fixed demands on his income, and on
him have fallen all the evils of an income progres-
sively decreasing, without a corresponding reduction
of charge.
The landlords in every part of the United King-
dom, though in different degrees, have met the fall
of price by a reduction of rent, except where, during
the war, the rents on their estates had not beets
raised, or where, by a large expenditure of capital,
permanent improvements have enriched the nature
of the soil itself.
The spread of the drill system of husbandry, a
better rotation of cropping, a more judicious use of
manures, especially of bones, extensive draining,
improvement in the breed both of cattle and of
sheep, have all contributed to counterbalance the
fall of price, and to sustain that surplus profit in the
culture of the soil on which rent depends.
Where the fixed incumbrances are heavy, and the
family settlements founded on the war rentals are
still in operation, large reductions of rent must ne-
cessarily occasion the most serious embarrassments,
and the effect produced has already been an exten-
sive change of proprietors throughout the kingdom.
It is impossible to overlook, and it would be cri-
minal to disguise, the fact, that the depreciation and
restoration of the value of money, consequent on the
Bank restriction of 1797, have unsettled the habits
disturbed the fixed engagements, and injured alter:
nately the interests of large classes of the community
In the words of the Agricultural Committee of
1821, " the general effect of the restoration of our
currency has been in some degree to derange the
markets of every part of the civilized world ; arid as
bearing on British agriculture especially, that report
contains the following passage, in the truth of which
your Committee fully concur :
" The departure from tire ancient standard, in
proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of
money and persons dependant on fixed incomes,
was a benefit to the active capitals of the country;
and it cannot be denied that the restoration of that
standard has, in its turn, been proportionally disad-
vantageous to many individuals belonging to the
productive classes of the community, and especially
of farming or of trad,ei.f'in'
to those who had engaged in speculative adventures
Fluctuations of price, whether they arise from al-
terations in the value of money, or from changes of
eteheteli.:3Pvnalreinceyeancodona..s. during the corn laws, cannot fail to produce evils in every
branch of rural economy, which, independently of
these disturbing causes, must ever remain exposed to
grievous vicissitudes from the uncertainty of seasons.
These artificial fluctuations, however, only aggravate
the natural evil: they render the income of the land-
lord precarious, the fixed rent of the farmer a hazard-
ous speculation, and the wages of the labourer an
uncertain remuneration.
habits,
Steadiness a
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is the primary object never again to be overlooked;
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