The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The speech of the Kmg of Holland at the
opening of the States-General has naturally, in
the present posture of European affairs, and in
the present stage of the negotiations for settling
the Belgic question, been expected with much
interest and anxiety. The document itself,
which we present in another part of our paper,
will, we are afraid, neither satisfy that interest
nor remove that anxiety. His Dutch Majesty,
it will be observed, expresses his disappointment
at. his inability to announce the termination o
the difficulties occasioned by "the revolt in
Belgium," for such is the manner in which he
still speaks of a revolution which severed for ever
the dominion of the Belgic provinces from the
family of Nassau. He then takes credit to
himself for " a moderation," which, instead of
leading to a final adjustment, had only in-
creased " unreasonable demands," and he makes
this complaint before Belgium, whose " revolt"
!tie had undertaken a military invasion to sub-
due, and before Europe, of whose Sove-
,eigns and Plenipotentiaries he had refused
the advice and rejected the award. The
next paragraph, in which his Majesty an-
'ounces " the deep interest taken by Foreign
Powers in the affairs of Holland," and boasts
of her means of defence against foreign aggres-
sion, speaks volumes in support of his present
resolution to decline all the reasonable overtures
of peace which his Allies have lately pressed
upon his acceptance. His allusion to the
amount and efficiency of " his land and sea
forces,"—to their " experience and discipline,"
—to the possibility of increasing them if neces-
sary,—to the conduct of the local authorities,
in calling out and organizing the militia,—to
the readiness of the recruits to join their brothers
in arms,—and to the provision made for the
families whose supporters should become martyrs
to the public cause,—all breathe war and defiance.
But if these declarations were not sufficient, the
concluding paragraph of the Royal speech is suf-
ficiently explicit on the subject. The " glory
of ancestors" is never appealed to except when
their posterity are to be roused to emulate ex-
ploits which made them renowned ; and " the
fruit of noble perseverance" is never expected,
unless it is to be plucked from apprehended
dangers. On the eve or in the midst of a
war with all the Powers of Europe, no Sove-
reign could use more solemn expressions of
trust in Providence, or more decided resolu-
tions of appealing to victory, than the King of
Holland in his address to his Legislative Chambers.
Unless, then, the Dutch Government instantly
changes its whole system of conduct—or unless
all the great Powers of Europe abandon the
treaty which they have ratified with Belgium,
after 18 months of patient deliberation—there
seems to be no means left for avoiding a hostile
collision between Holland and the two most ac-
tive members of the European league, In such
state of things, the public may be expected to
isk what his Dutch Majesty really demands as
the alternative of war ; and, notwithstanding all
their previous information, they will no doubt
he surprised to learn that he will be satisfied with
nothing less than the re-subjugation of Belgium.
He has hitherto shown no disposition to acknow-
'edge its independence, and even in the present
speech he speaks of its " revolt." The propo-
sal to close the Scheldt—to which he knew that
neither Belgium nor the other commercial States
of Europe could for a moment listen—is found
at last to be only advanced as a means of pro-
crastination, in order that he might take the ad-
vantage of all favourable accidents, or as a mode
of bringing back the Belgians under his yoke,
from a regard to their trading interests. But
such a termination of the Belgic " revolt" has
never been contemplated for the last eighteen
months by any body beyond the precints of Bed-
lam or of the Palace of the Hague. The con-
nection between the family of Nassau and the
Belgic provinces was irrevocably destroyed by the
bombardment of Antwerp, and by the decree of
deposition passed in the National Congress at
Brussels. All the world then saw that a resto-
ration without a war was impossible, and that a
war to restore William of Nassau to Brussels
would be a war to restore the Bourbons to the
ruileries,—a war, therefore, of opinion all over
Europe. No statesman was more sensib'e of
this fact than the Duke of Wellington; and
herefore no Minister was more ready than his
Grace to confirm by a treaty the separation which
"revolt" had effected. On the very day of the
ineeting of Parliament, in November, 1830,
M. Van de Weyer arrived hi England, as
Envoy from the Belgic Provisional Government ;
Ind before the Duke had left office (towards
the end of the month) it had been decided by
the five Powers which now compose the Con-
rerence, that Belgium should be independent.
The demand of the King of Holland for the
interference of his allies to reconquer his " re-
volted" subjects was on this ground rejected,
and nothing remained for the Conference but to
prevent the invasion of Holland by the Belgians,
then the victorious party, and to effect a separa-
tion on equitable terms between the two sets of
provinces which the act of 1815 had united.
That adjustment, after long delays, and through
numerous difficulties, has been effected. It has
received the sanction of all the powers of Europe.
It has, in fact, become as much a part of European
public law as the erection of the kingdom of
Bavaria, or even of the throne of Nassau itself.
A new Sovereign has been elected by the new
state, and has reigned over the Belgians for
fifteen months—without a riot, without a
murmur of dissatisfaction, and with the re-
cognition of every European Power. We
.ire parties to the treaty in question, and in the
interest of Holland itself we arc bound to see it
lacleectited
Kin,gevoe at t
fn
Holile aindfazard of resistance.isomeof from
the Tory
prints—with a mischievous infatuation, or with
In anti patriotic selfishness which is almost in-
conceivable—call upon the Dutch to resist our
demands. Are they aware of what they are do-
ing ? Are they alive to the results which may
follow from their counsels ? We have had wars
with the Dutch before, and we can easily calcu-
late the extent of our own losses and the
amount of theirs. Our Tories, who would
alarm or disgust their own countrymen at any
attempt to coerce Holland into a peace for her
own benefit and for the tranquillity of Europe,
perpetually dun into our ears the disgraceful
union of England with France to oppress the
Dutch republic in the time of Charles IL—but
have they forgotten the events of the 20 years
preceding that alliance ? Have they forgotten
that in the period of our history when popular
power was supposed to be most predominant,
and when the national sentiment was understood
to be expressed with the greatest freedom, Eng-
land declared war against the Dutch ? Have
they forgotten that both in 1652 and 1664
both under the Commonwealth and the Res-
toration—we thought ourselves obliged to declar6
war against Holland, and to support our hostile

attitude by a great display of force ? Have
they forgotten that the navigation act, of which
some of the most bigotted of their party regret
the modification, was framed almost exclusively
against the States• General and the Dutch ship-
owners ? Have they forgotten the victories of
Blake, and the insolence of Van Tromp ? Have
they forgotten that the only popular act which
King James 11. performed was the defeat of the
Dutch fleet, when he was Duke of York in
1664 ? At the latter period the French were
allies of the Dutch, as they may be again in
some new combination of European politics.
All that we contend for, by the above allusions
is, that England is free to act as becomes her
national interests, that though we had an alli-
ance with Holland for 70 or 80 years anterior
to the time of the Commonwealth or the Resto-
ration, we were not prevented by Mere recollec-
tions of friendship from asserting our rights—
that a war with Holland, our most " ancient
ally," was then popular because undertaken for
what was thought just and necessary objects ;
and that after an alliance of nearly 150 years
more, we must not abandon, for the sake of
pleasing a few factious declaimers, that policy
which we deem essential for our own honour
and for the tranquillity of Europe, merely be-
cause it may lead to a collision with the ob-
stinacy of the Dutch Government.—Times.
The purport of the Speech to be delivered
by the King of Holland to the States-General
at the Hague, upon their re-assembling for a
new Session on Monday last, was previously
pretty well understood, and appears now to have
been very correctly appreciated in London some
two or three days ago. We ourselves, in a
former number of the Morning Herald, risked
" for the nonce," the experiment of prophesy-
ing ; but the text of the address itself, which
we translate from the Hague Journals of Wed-
nesday, and will be found
.subjoined, so far
confirms our anticipations, not merely in spirit,
but almost in detail, that we do not regret,
upon this occasion, that we placed ourselves
upon the political tripod. To say that King
William remains in precisely the same mind,
unswayed by passing events, and undismayed
by threatening prospects—even those, if he can
see so far, from the Downs and Cherbourg—
that he has been in for the last eighteen months
—is only to assure all who have studied his cha-
racter, and particularly those of his subjects to
whom we have been indebted for some useful in-
formation on the state of the question, that
they have not mistaken him in any degree, mis-
calculated his intentions, or at all over-estimated
his " firmness." In this his last and formal
address to the Legislature of Holland, the King,
in the face of all Europe, by implication, repudi-
ates every thing like a tendency to concilia-
tion or concession ; he again talks, and in the
same strain as ever, of the hardships and nth-
fortune of his position, for which he is not
answerable ; appeals to the national prejudices
of his subjects against the threatened disasters;
and deliberately informs them that he is pre-
paring proper estimates of the necessary ex-
penses for an obstinate resistance to the armed
remonstrances of at least two of the most
oweiful States of Europe. As we give the
speech itself, it is unnecessary to divert the
reader's attention from it by any lengthened
summary of its contents in this place ; but the
following very brief glance will be found to
convey all Us meaning. In the outset the
King expresses.: his regret that, notwithstand-
ing a lapse of two years consumed in negotiation,
he was still unable to report upon any satisfactory
termination. He then boasts of the moderation
%illicit he has shown throughout—next asserts
that he has received what, under other circum-
stances, would be common-place, but in his,
rather equivocal, assurances of friendly disposi-
tions from Foreign Powers. He cheers the
States by favourable reports of the efficiency of
the land and sea resources—then congratulates
the authorities and Dutch people upon their pa-
triotism and devotion to his cause, as shown in
the zeal to fill the ranks of the militia ;. and, in
conclusion, confides to the fate of war and the
God. of Battles their common fortunes, con-
vinced that the zeal of his people will continue
to supply him with the means of resenting out-
rage upon the country's honour, and that in the
sympathy which they feel for him he will find
abundant justification for all the defensive mea-
sures which he might be compelled to under-
take. The whole Speech is as complete a throw-
ing down of the gauntlet to "all and several" those
who may be displeased with his policy as can
well be. There is still, notwithstanding all that
has been said, the average share of mystification
about the conduct of Prussia in this affair of
Holland and Belgium. The people of the
Hague will not believe that Prussia is sincere in
ranking itself amongst their enemies. . Contra-
dictory reports prevailed upon the subject, but
we find it stated in a letter received last night
from one of our correspondents at the Dutch
capital, dated the 15:h instant, that a courier
which arrived from Berlin on the 13th was the
bearer of despatches much less unfavourable to
the Dutch Government than had been antici-
pated. A courier had also arrived from Vienna,
whose burden had also been understood as ra-
ther satisfactory than otherwise. King William
must be relying upon some secret support, but,
from the lengths to which matters have already
gone between him and the Courts of England
and France, it is not easy to see how hostile
measures can be now well averted.—Morning
Herald.

We have been favoured with a communica-
tion on the subject of our relations with Holland
from an informant, whose means of knowledge
are such as to demand the most implicit reliance
for his statements. . We are able to assert posi-
tively, not only that the speech of King William
to the States requires from them energetic as-
sistance for the prosecution of a just war, and
the maintenance of indisputable rights, but that
the reply of the States will contain as cordial an
assurance of that assistance as ever was given by
loyal subjects to an honoured and beloved ruler.
The Dutch King and the Dutch peopre are arm-
ing themselves. They are not hurried into this
fearful struggle by any wild passion for military
glory, for they have by negotiation, by mode-
ration, by concession, done all that could be
done for the avoiding of the perilous crisis ; nor
blind to the awful consequences which rest upon
the hazard of the die they throw, for they
have well calculated the force of the
enemies who are upon them, and the appa-
rent insufficiency of the defences which
they are to oppose to their attacks. But they
rely with firmness upon the righteousness of their
cause ; upon the perfect unanimity with which
Prince and peasant fight together in its defence ;
and, above all, upon that Providence to whose
blessing, in mightier trials than those which now
await Holland, Britain has owed her salvation.
In t hese considerations the high honour and the
deep-seated religion of the Dutch nation will
securely trio. Yet if his Dutch Majesty has

any means of divining the sentiments which arc
entertained at St. James's—if the burgher of
Rotterdam guesses rightly what is whispered by
the citizen in Threadneedle-street—they may
find in such knowledge a soberer source of hope.
Our Gracious Sovereign is acutely sensible to
aught that touches the honour of the flag under
which it is his pride to have served. How long
will he endure to see that illustrious ensign
fluttering by the side of the revolutionary rag
of France, and threatening destruction to a
shore which gives birth to our most honest
allies ? Our merchants and traders know
that the resources of the country are already
sufficiently depressed. With what tone will they
hail the announcement of a war undertaken to
prostrate the opulence of the Dutchman, our
customer, and to foster the manufactures of the
Belgian, our rival ? Lastly, politicians of all
parties, Whigs and Tories, Ins and Outs, Peel
and Palmerston, feel alike and acknowledge the
necessity of making in Belgium, whether united
with or separated from Holland, a barrier against
the encroachments of France. Is there one,
when our fleets shall have failed, as they failed
before, to make an impression on the posts of
the Scheldt, and when the co-operation of a
strong land army shall appear necessary, as it
before appeared necessary for our success—is
there one, we say, who will suffer the advance
of such an army of co-operation, marching un-
der the tricolour flag, and directed by the Duke
of Dalmatia ? Since we wrote these remarks,
we have read the Speech of his Dutch Majesty.
The sentiments it expresses are such as we an-
ticipated. They are expressed with all the elo-
quence which belongs to those who have a just
quarrel and a powerful foe.—Morning Post.
It is observed by one of the greatest of mo-
dern historians, who had made immense re-
searches, with a view to elucidate the causes of
the decline of the Roman Empire, that they
were chiefly resolvable into excessive taxation.
In all the cities, the burdens became so exor-
bitant, that all enterprise was checked, and they
fell necessarily into decay. If any nation is
called on to take warning from what has hap-
pened in other countries, it is England. We
have only obtained the means, through the Re-
form Bill, of checking the system of profusion
under which we have so long suffered, at a time
when the patience of the nation seemed all but
exhausted. We trust that the electors will take
particular care to send no men to Parliament
who are not ready to support a very different
financial system from any that we have yet
known. The expenditure of the country is in
truth enormous. Mr. Samuel Jones Lloyd tells
us, that " the condition of the lower orders of
this country is not that which can give satisfac-
tion to the true lover of his country." But if
the condition of the loner orders be so unsatis-
factory, what is the condition of all men living
at the expense of the community ? The extra-
vagance of the notions fostered by our aristocracy
may be inferred from this, that Lord Henley is
the subject of attack in a Magazine dedicated to
the establishment (the British) for injustice to-
wards the church, and yet he proposes to give

the enormous sums of 15,0001. to one Arch-
bishop, and 12,0001. to another-10,0001.,
8,0001., and 7,0001. to three Bishops respec-
tively, and 5,0001. to each of the•rest of the Bi-
shops. Can any man read the New Testament,
or any of the writings of those Christians who
lived in the centuries which immediately followed
the time of our Saviour, and say that it is ac-
cordant with the spirit of Christianity, that
while the flocks are in a state of suffering often
iiiproaching to destitution, a Christian Minister
shall be in the receipt of 15,0001. a year ?
Monstrous ! No man who proposes 15,0001.
a year to a Christian minister can know anything
of the spirit of Christianity, which is a religion
of brotherly love, and directly opposed to all
such revolting distinctions as are implied in
15,0001. a year to a Lord Bishop. The sum
allowed to the Aichbishop of Paris is about one-
thirtieth part of that which Lord Henley pro-
poses for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and no
man will say there can be any difficulty in ob-
taining men in France perfectly well qualified to
discharge the Episcopal duties for 5001. a year.
But all the higher offices are paid in the same
extravagant way. In no country are there such
revolting differences between the top and the
bottom of the scale as in England. But we
contend that the principle, according to which
public services are requited in this country, is
altogether indefensible. The question ought
not to be, what will be agreeable to such or
such individuals ; but what effective services can

be obtained for. The Birmingham Journal,
of Saturday last, justly observes— _ _

" The collection of the public revenue need not hence-
forth cost 4,200,000/ ; nor can 15,100,0001. of annual
expenditure on the army, navy, and ordnance, be net essary
to the prosperity of the people. Our colonial system must
he reformed ; economy must pervade every department of
the State : in short, we must have double the benefits of

Government' at half their present cost. There are those
who apprehend great difficulties from the want of future
harmony' between the two Houses of Peers and Com-
mons. We are welt aware that a majority of the Lords—
blind with the prejudices of the eighteenth century—will
probably oppose the Commons, determined on riveting the
wants of the present times ; but the governing power is
now in effect transferred from the Aristocracy to the Com-
mons—the custody of the purse-strings is vested in the
British electors, and we doubt not that the people, who
built the engine of Reform, will devise ample means for
working it to advantage."

The great evil is, the enormous allowances
to those at the top of the scale. This, as we
have more than once said, is the necessary con-
sequence of the aristocratical system so carefully
bolstered up in England. All means have been
resorted to, in order to enable a certain number
of families to possess enormous incomes, and
these enormous incomes again are made a pre-
text for paying all public men in this country ten
times more than in any other country. Nl'ho
has forgotten the statement of Sir James Gra-
ham, of the enormous amount of public money
divided among the members of the Privy Coun-
cil? One Parliament, or even two, may not
suffice to correct the erroneous principles acted
on in this country. But in time, if the people
persevere, the aristocratical system of profusion
may be fairly knocked on the head. Sir Wil-
liam Temple tells us, that the men who governed
Holland in his time—the De Witts—never
had more than a single servant, and did not even
keep a coach. John de Witt, he says, used to
go through the streets of Amsterdam at night
on foot, with a servant before him, carrying a
lanthorn. It was by means of this economy that
the Dutch, with a population not exceeding that
of Scotland, were able to keep pace with England,
and to furnish an equal force to the grand alli-
ance against France. The extravagance in the
expenditure of the State extends to all public
expenditure. In every county, every borough, i
we have a Government n miniature, pillaging
the people after the example of the State. How
can the mass of the people be any thing but

drudgeS, with such incessant demands on them ?
The same journal (the Birmingham) observes,
" Our contemporaries cannot exaggerate the deep inte-
rest which the people now feel in this vital question, and
in the reduction of our enormous burthens of local taxa-
tion. Indeed, acutely as the public experience the pres.
sure of the times, and the weight of the numerous perio-
dical levies on their pockets, few really`know the variety or
extent of the exactions imposed under the name of rates.
We will instance, for example, the county of Warwick.
This great agricultural and commercial division of the
kingdom, by the last centus, contains a gross population of
337,600 persons, the area of the country comprises 902
square miles, or 577,280 statute acres. The annual value
of the real property, as assessed in 1815, was 1,236,7271.
Mr. Rickman's Population Tables, in 1821, computed
that 16,779 families were employed in agriculture ;
39,189 families dependent on trade and manufactures;
and that there remained 4,155 families not comprised
in the two preceding classes. We will now detail, from
the recent various parliamentary reports, the amount and
description of local taxes annually levied on the capital and
industry of this single county. We approach that evil of the
national debt, surnamed poor-rates. In 1829 the poor-rates,
expended for the maintenance nil relief of the Poor of the
county of Warwick, amounted to the enormous sum of
141,5781. 18s. ! The Assessed Taxes, in 1830, levied
in Warwickshire, were in gross 79,174/. ! I In 1827,
the County-rate Expenditure was 22,9441. !! ! In the
same year the Highway-rate levied in the county was
20 0031. The Church-rate, at the same period, for the
whole county, was 11,1981 Mil We take these sums
from the last Returns made to Parliament, as those least
liable to exception ; but it is well known that most of
these rates are considerably below the present levies. The
annual amount of the Poor-rates, County-rates, High-
way-rates, and Church-rate., in the year 1826-7, was
three shillings and four-pence halfpenny in the pound,
c deulated on the annual value of the real property of the
county ! This estimate of local taxation of course ex-
cludes the Assessed Taxes, the Tithes, the rates peculiar

to the towns, and the innumerable species of indirect
taxation under the name of Customs and Excise—net to
forget a particular mention of the tax on Corn ! The
greater portion of these dreadful impositions has been,
moreover, hitherto extracted from the pockets of the
people, without their consent, and expended altogether
it responsibly."
These rates, Comity-rates, Highway-rates,
&c. are for the most part managed irresponsibly,
and we all know the nature of the management.
The irresponsible managers are many of them
(in several counties a majority, and in all a con-
siderable number) Parson-Justices. The con-
sequence is, we have Parsons thrust into every-
thing. We have Parsons to preach to Lunatics
at a good salary—we have Parsons in every
Prison and Correction-house—we find even in

workhouses the Parson of the Parish contrives
to have an additional income (or, what is the
same thing, he makes a deduction to the extent
from his Curate) for saying prayers to the pau-
pers.. So deeply has this system corrupted the
upper classes of this country, that their moral
sense seems in many cases quite perverted. We
have no doubt that Lord Henley thinks Mr.
Hume a great enemy to his country, because
he has endeavoured to limit the expenses of
Government, It would actually seem as if many
of them thought that the essence of Christianity
consisted in rioting at the expense of the people.
A Mr. Irving Brock, who,we suppose, is a parson,
in a Letter to the Chairman of Mr. Roebuck's
Committee, published in The Bath Chronicle of
Thursday last, declares that his reason for sup-
porting Mr. Hobhouse is, that he is in no re-
spect like Mr. Hume. "Of Mr. Hobhouse
(he says), I know little, except that he is a gen-
tleman of fortune and family, unassailable its his
moral character, and unlikely to betray our con-
fidence. I and most of my connexions will vote
for him, and him exclusively, less for what he is,
than for what he is not. This candidate is not
presented for the first time to our notice by an
individual with whose name is associated all
that is base in human nature. Mr. Hob-
house's virtues do not rest on the testimony of
one whose moral turpitude is proverbial, and
who has proved himsey. destituteof all religious
beliv: If so mighty a criminal had recom-
mended Mr. Hobhouse to the electors, what,
Sir, may I ask, would you have thought of me,
a professor of Christianity, if I had itot only en-
gaged my vote to Mr. Hobhouse, but engaged it
precisely because he came thus recommended ?"
—lt is quite clear that this professor of Chris-
tianity deems Mr. Hume destitute of all reli-
gious belief, and to concentrate in himself all
moral turpitude, all that is base in human na-
ture, because he sets his face against jobbing ;
because he wishes to protect the people against
excessive taxation ; because he has for many
years devoted his days and his nights to this
great object without fee or reward ; because he
has gratuitously laboured more than any six
other men deriving large incotnes from the pub-
lic. Christianity, with this fellow, clearly means
jobbing and peculation. There are too many
such Christians among us. We wish they would
take their Christianity from the New Testament,
and think more of the manner in which our
Lord lived on earth, than of the flesh-pots of
Egypt.—Morning Chronicle.
Too much importance was, perhaps, at one
time, attached in this country to foreign com-
merce ; but it would seem, from the language
held by the Conservatives in every quarter, that
we ought to realize what Bishop Berkley put
hypothetically—namely, to surround ourselves
with a wall of brass. On Saturday last the
Marquis of Chandos, who aspires to be at the
head of what is called the agricultural interest in
this country, dined with the farmers at Buck-
ingham, and there delivered opinions (we have
adopted a report abridged from The Bucks
Herald) which, if acted on, would go to the
complete interdiction of all foreign commerce.
At this dinner, Lord Chandos is reported to
have said—

" As the Corn Laws now exist, we have a protection.
A fixed duty will make us lose what we now have, unless
it be of such an amount as I am sure the Ministers will
nut grant us ; and, with this desire of change on their
part, what can ensure us the permanency of any fixed
t:uty?—(Applause.) So long as I have a voice in the
country, I will say no to free trade in corn—(Bravo, and
cheers from all parts of the room.) We cannot com-
pete with the foreigner, who, at a low rent, raises his
grain in a❑ untaxed country, and can raise his crops at an
expense to trifling as to defy the attempts of the best
farmers on the best !awls under the most advantageous
circumstances—(Hear!). All men, who would not see
the ruin of the agriculturist, must unite in saying that the
cause bas a right to protection—the fanner to remuneta•
tion. One expense o, e must always maintain, and that
cheerfully—l mean the wages and support of the labourer;
that most valuable class, of whom I may say, with justice,
that whilst well used and protected, he is the best friend to
the farmer. He earns and should have that pay which
shall enable him to have those comforts which his industry
and honesty entitle- him to ; but without a protection to
the master, how can the servant hope to prosper ? Ir is on
the protection and the manner of it that you must decide.
Will you, I ask, have a fixed duty, or our present gradu-
ated scale ? '

When the various manufacturers of this
country produce commodities beyond the con-
sumption of the country, these commodities
must be exported: But exportation of commo-
dities supposes importation of commodities in
return, for all trade ultimately resolves itself into
barter. The Marquis of Chandos says we
cannot compete with the foreigner in raising
food, as he pays a low rent, and lives in an un-
taxed country. How thenis the manufacturer,
who must buy this high-priced food, and who
must pay besides high taxes, to be able to com-
pete with the foreigner r' If the foreign farmer
raises food at a low rent and in an untaxed

country, does not the foreign manufacturer work
so much cheaper on that account, and is not
the low price received by the British manufac-
turer in consequence of competition with manu-
facturers who can live so much cheaper than
himself, subjecting him to a heavy tax for his
food, in addition to the other taxes to which he
is subject in common with the farmers ? In
other words, is not the remuneration claimed by
the Marquis of Chandos for the farmer and the
labourer entirely entirely borne by the manufac-
turers, who, so long as they export, cannot have
any protecting prices, but must be governed by
the prices in the foreign market ? Mr. Brick-
well, the Chairman of the Meeting, observed—
" The produce in Poland, according to Mr. Jacob, is
but fourfold, viz., they sow five bushels, and reap twenty
bushels; this proves the little value of corn ; if it was
worth more, the produce could be doubled. Toe growth
of corn, in cost, is reduced to almost nothing by the up-
and.down system; when the land is worn out, they break
up fresh land and crop it, until exhausted in fertility,
merely ploughing, sowing, and reaping, by slave labour,
&c. &c., and then leave it to renovate, while fresh land is
broken up and treated in the same manner; the former
land is not broken up for many years, when it becomes as
productive as before. Now, how can we compete with
such land and such a mode of tillage, with a free trade
or low fixed duty ?—(' We cannot,' Impossible,' &c.,
and much applause.)" .

The statement' of Mr. Brick Well, assuming it
to be true, amounts to nothing. If the land
be cropped in this way, the quantity of corn
raised for exportation must be trifling. A more
careful mode of cultivation must be resorted to
before the export of food can be considerable ;
and then, according to Mr. Brickwell, the slo-
venly up-and-down mode of cropping is the
cause of the farmer's ability to raise food at a
lower rate than the Englishman. If the quan-
tity imported into England do not exceed
what it is at present, the prices of the English
farmer will not be more affected than they are
at present ; for it is the quantity in the English
market that determines the price, and the quan-
tity cannot be increased under the existing
mode of foreign cultivation, which has such
terrors for the English farmer. A Major G.
Pigott objected to a fixed duty, because it
would favour free trade. " That system has al-
ready been tried to a ruinous extent in the glove
and silk trades, although they have a duty of 30
per cent." According to these principles, we
say there should be an interdiction of all foreign
trade whatever. We must not receive food in
return for the produce of our industry, and we
must not receive manufactures. What, then,
are we to receive ? It is clear that every addi-
tion to our exports of manufactures, if we nar-
row their returns, is only depressing them more
and more. The landowners will allow, we sup-
pose, luxuries to be imported in return for them,
because the landowners cannot live without wines
and other luxuries of foreign climates. But
what interest have the working manufacturers
in an extension of manufacturing industry,
which brings them no food in return ? Is it

not clear that every extension of their industry,
the market abroad being narrowed, must lower
their prices more and more, and, consequently,
give to the landlords a continually increasing
quantity of labour for the same quantity of food ?
The manufacturer cannot protect himself
against the landowner. He cannot have
two prices, one abroad and another at home.
The moment the domestic consumption is ex-
cluded, the foreign price determines the home
price. No man would export, if he could
obtain a higher price at home than can be
obtained abroad. Perhaps the wall of brass
would be a better system than the tanta-
lizing system which the cupidity of the
landowners has forced on the country. But, in
the mean time, what are we to do with our im-
mense manufacturing population ? Before they
can be reduced to the level necessary for our
domestic wants, the utmost distress must take
place. The balance would in time be restored
by a number being thrown on the land, and we
should be in something like the condition to
which Mr. Owen proposes to reduce us. But!
we can assure the Marquis of Chandos, that
the Aristocracy would not be gainers by this
state of things. The people would not allow
them to export food, and it would be impossible
for them to obtain any other luxuries than what
are produced in the country. We do not mean
to say that the Marquis of Chandos and others
of his caste might not in time become satisfied
with whiskey, gin, and beer; but whether satis-
fied or not, on the close system they would ob-
tain nothing else. "We must look with a
cautious eye on the manufacturer (says the
Marquis of Chandos), and distrust his eager
clamour to change, for agriculture must not be
conceded to any clamour. The farmer must look to
himself, for it is he (to use a homely phrase)
who pays the piper for everything.'" Is it true
that the farmers thrive under the present system ?
Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that the farmers
for many years have been in a state of great suf-
fering ? The landowners are, it is true, in many
cases, so involved, that they cannot afford a re-
duction of rents. But the nation has no parti-
cular interest whether A, B, or C he the land-
owner of a given piece of land. If A has been
imprudent in borrowing money or otherwise, let
him give way to 4; or 13 to C ; the individuals
are, no doubt, to be pitied, but in a national
point of view, it is. of no consequence whether
A is in a fine mansion, and B in a workhouse, or
B in a fine mansion, and A in a workhouse: But
it is of consequence that the commercial system
of the country should not be such as to impair
its resources. We apprehend, that it is for the
interest of the country, that we should abandon,
as fast as we can, the abominable system of
bolstering up this and that branch, of industry
with a view of forcing a remuneration. The
landowners are the very last class in the
community who ought to be considered in
regulating the commercial system of the country,
and yet,
unfortunately, the whole has been regu-
lated with a view exclusively to the augmentation of
their incomes. The incomes of landowners are in-
creased of course by the prosperity of the commu-
nity ; and with what accrues to them in a fair way
by such increase of prosperity of the community
they ought to be contented.We wonder when men
like the Marquis of Chandos are dilating on
the low rents and wretched agriculture of coun-
tries on the continent, they do not ask them-
selves why it is that the condition of an English
landowner is in so much more enviable a condi-
tion ? Is it not by the very manufactures that
they are seeking to destroy ? What would the
landowners of Holderness and the North of
Lincolnshire be, were there not a market for
900,000 quarters of their grain, and meat of
course in proportion, in the West Riding of
Yorkshire ? It is the extension of British in-
dustry that carries agriculture along with it. The
owner of an estate would no doubt always have
ut his command a certain share of the produce
of the soil ; but without a successful manufac-
turing and commercial industry, he would be
obliged to consume his
.produce at home. When
Water Poet, took a journey front
Taylor, the
London to Edinburgh, in the reign of King