The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-04 00:00:00

THE A

URISTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
"Pity the sorrows of a poor old mar. !"
hope to remedy, by means of your extensive
circulation, the injustice suffered by a much injured
and most unhappy set of interesting, amiable men,
called agriculturists, merely because our hares eat the
crops, and our horses level the fences ; like that ex-
cellent dish, called haricot, because it contains all
possible ingredients and condiments, except haricots.
Before the Agricultural Committee of Lords, 1836,
an arithmetical fact transpired, which seems now
entirely forgotten—namely, that any rise or fall, say
of 10 per cent. in the-market price of the produce of
our farms, is a rise or fall of 30 per cent. on our 116a1
property in that farm held in capite. Our farmers, it
is clear, are bound to make three rents, one for
one for our plant, and one for themselves. In the
very general case of no lease, or lease expired, we
never suffer them to retain on labour-skill-risk
grounds, more than they have already got, so that the
whole of that 30 per cent. rise or fall in the
market price annexes itself to (or defalcates
itself from) our Wel property. We have by royal
assignment the same beneficial interest in that 30 per
cent. that H. M. has in Begshot-heath or in the ex-
cellent Widdicomb. Now, if the statists had stated
this to us, or if the p economists had politely
said so, should we, could we, with such a per-centage
to lose, have made such a gallymaufry Lf protection,
with little Benjamin for guide. The agriculturists
unfortunately see nothing with their own eyes—
So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veil'd.
Our advisers should have pointed out the voragine
into which we were rushing, like Curtius tutto
armato e guardandola. For here it no escape—yes-
tigia nulla retrorsurn—the ratchet of popular zeal
has a spring of great volume, stubbornly tempered,
and which the power of progress alone can lift : teeth
of rack filed to a very acute angle forward: omnia
in advorsum spectantia. As each superincumbent
tooth ceases to act, the ratchet is forced, with im-
petuous recoil and jarring sound, well under the next
tooth, and the only difficulty is to keep the machinery
clean.

Nor is this the only offence of political economists
against the grand theory of

_
Rent!
Si possis, recta, si non, quoounque mode, Rent!

Entirely omitting the element of money in their cal-
culations, they have sanctioned by default a scarcity
of money which immensely enhances our debts, and
most of us are two-thirds indebted. " The worth and
value of a thing," says Hudibras, "is just so much
as it will bring." lam not speaking of the value of
gold or silver, nor the value of principal sums in an-
nuities, for Si. per annum is not more the value of 961.
at present, than 961. is of 3/. per annum, but I speak
of the value both of Si. and of 961. in goods. Danarj
or denarii are denries, viveri, anything which supports
life—general ralues. If I owe 401, having a horse
worth 30/. and a pony worth 101., I must sell both to

pay the debt, but if the horse is worth 401, I sell the
horse and keep the pony. If a tray bearing four pounds
of sugar and one pound of tea is worth 65., and I owe
65., I owe that tray, but if it is worth 125., I only owe
half the trayful. If a ton of iron is worth 91., and
the ironmaster owes 4/. 10s., he owes half that ton ;
but if falls to 41. 10s., he must make and sell a whole
ton to pay the 9/. A debt, called national, of 30
millions per annum, with wheat at 405., is twice as
large as the same 30 millions with wheat at 80s.
Diminished currency lowers prices, especially price
of labour, and increases the damage, pressure, loss,
and veritable cost of all debts, large or small, funded,
book, or bond, each and every pound of them. This
truth, awful, obvious, yet occult, hundreds of persons
are prepared to demonstrate, but cannot get a hear-
ing. Sometimes also they break down—whoever
speaks on these subjects should speak unanswerably.
A dash of the Minister's pen, a nod or innuendo from
him would increase the circulation much, and devote
it to the hire of labourers, but ultimately we must
have banks of discount everywhere, with 11. notes for
England, and even ss. notes for Ireland. The only
obstacle is the canker of 17 millions gold and silver.
It is a proverb that our industry brings the gold here
For Anglais—j" ai paye mes Anglais; the latter is sel-
dom true as a universal affirmative. One of the wit-
nesses in blue folio said, "It is true, we are a credi-
tor country, but then ours is a country where large
sums are seeking foreign investment." The job-
bers are seeking it, but their scrip is soon got rid
of, and England is left with 150 millions owing her,
as states by Lord Palmerston, eighty of which to
Spain. How much shall we get back from America
and Spain ? English gold is as proverbial as
Oriental treasure, and for the same reason. When
this gold has been suffered to accumulate, some
scheme of great loan-firms, some engrossment and
forestalling of Baltic corn, takes it off. The Bank
lends money for time-bargains in loan-scrip or corn-
scrip, the borro ever takes it in gold, and as the specie
wanes the securities, lodged by borrowers, wax. This
has been the invariable preliminary of each panic.
M. N. M. Rothschild told the Committee of 1832,
" The directors are ,clever men, and know what the
gold is wanted for, but they never ash." Could afence
be better defined ? Then, after by their connivance
the gold is gone—" Convey, the wise it call"—when
the steed is stolen, by themselves, they shut the
stable door, and refuse discounts except to the same
great houses, made great by absolute command of
the Bank—on the double pretence that the securities
(which they have increased) are already too high,
and that the gold (which they have conveyed) is
nearly exhausted. They first rob the house by col-
lusion with loan-dealers and corn-dealers, and then
set it on fire by getting up a panic which hurts every
one but the confederates. The great and wise
Alexander Baring spoke both publicly and privately
against the gold standard or legal tender : well he
knew the house-list could not be trusted with gold
a discretion. What I have said applies to the directory
only; ,the Bank stockholders are innocent people,
persuaded by their private bankers to take shares in
the great polypus of which they are penniless branches.
And is it to retain in such hands the irresponsible
control of all labourers and their hire, that we agri-
culturalists are to have our debts trebled by rarity
and scarcity of money ?
If a brigade of Gerdes Mobiles arrived in plain
clothes while Sir J. Burgoyne happened to be dining
out, sacked our 17 millions treasure, scattered half a
million or so among our flash-fauxbourgs, and carried
the rest to Louis Napoleon, it would be far better for all :
the present temptation appears irresistible to loan-
dealers, and if by a non-sequitur, far less preposterous
than that of refusing discounts after gold is conveyed,
the Government, in consequence of such Garde Mobile
affair, should discontinue paying dividends, the
misery and anguish would be infinitely less than has
attended contraction, because they would leave hope
alive and industry free. Most of the fundholders—
for instence the red Emperors—are mere speculators,
they might, very properly, be " confined" to Hudson's
Bay, and the remainder might be relieved by a
voluntary supply. I speak of stopping the dividends
as a monstrous absurdity, even in this age. Mr. D.
Salomons said, incidentally, in a railway pamphlet,
there were six ways of paying off the debt, in terest
and principal, with ease.
Such, Sir, is our feeling about political econo-
mists; they concealed from us that a fall of ten per
cent. in market price of the gross produce of a farm
is a fall of thirty per cent. on the Real property of that
farm. Secondly, they are wilfully blind to the troth
that all statistic combinations depend on the power of
money, or that which it will bring : this element of
money is not, like the atmosphere, unchangeable, but
may be modified as a chemist compounds or divides,
expands or compresses, the various fluids in his re-
ceiver. Charles Fox hated political economy, possibly
on this very ground, which did not weigh much with
me ; but since one Lankester, tried for burning ricks,
embodied in his defence that "it would make corn
dearer and raise wages," I we; shaken. This is not
the way to raise wages. Lankester certainly " went
too far. '—l have the honour to be, Sir, &c.,
AN AGRICULTURIST.

FIRE AT ST. GEORGE'S WORKHOUSE, BOROUGH.

—On Saturday, shortly after noon, considerable alarm
was ceased amongst the poor inmates of St. George the
Martyr's Workhouse, Southwark, in consequence of a
cry being raised that tie building was on fire. In the
space of a few minutes dense volumes of smoke poured
forth from the several windows in the casual ward, and
assumed such an alarming aspect that many persons
feared the whole building would have been destroyed.
The engine belonging to the workhouse was immediately
brought out and set to work, and several brigade or,
gine? with that of the West of England Comrany, fol-
lowed. There being plenty of water obtained, the fire-
men, inmates of the workhouse, and the parish engineer,
succeeded in getting the tire out, when it was ascertained
that the cause of so much alarm was the straw used for
the casual paupers' beds igniting, but from what agency
is unknown. Fortunately very little damage was done
by the fire, except the demolition of some windows.
The workhouse was insured for 10,0001. in the Sun Fire-
offi' e. Late the same evening some alarm was caused
in Lambeth by a report being raised that the workhouse
belonging to that parish was on fire. The various en-
gines quickly started to the place, when the fi:emen
round that the cause of so much consternation was one
t f the chimneys of the poorhouse taking fire.

TOE FIRE AND SUICIDE IN BERMONDSEL—On
Saturday evening Mr. William Carter, the coroner for
East Surrey, held an inquiry of several hours' duration
at the Simon tho Tanner tavern, Long-lane, Bermond-
sey, respecting the circumstances attending the death of
Samuel Smith, aged 33, who committei suicide at the
house of Mr. Medford, a general dealer, No. 163 in the
same thoroughfare. The jury returned a verdict " That
the deceased destroyed his life by inhaling the fumes of
charcoal, he being at the time in a state of mental de-
rangement."