The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-01 00:00:00

Other country_ in t urope, in spite of all the taxes. We
have heard many very large estimates of the additions
made to the productive power of the country by machinery,
the loWest quadruples the extent of that. tabour ; thus
making the lahour of fifteen millions equal to the labour of
sixty millions; whilst the total Crown revenue collected is
not equal to the labour of three millions, thus giving an
excess of produce, in favour of machinery, of forty-two
millions. In point, of fiiet, however, the whole disposable
revenue to be disbursed for the Army, Navy, and Esta-
blishments, would not maintain one million of men. It.is
not our present purpose to argue, either that the Army,
Navy, or Establishments, are more or less than is necessary
—more money may or may not be expended than ought to
be expended—that is fair ground of argument and enough
of argument and of declamation too we have upon it.
The folly, the egregious folly, is to suppose, that the
existing national distress is to be relieved by ally, even
the most successful result of, such discussions. Aa Mr.
Canning so properly asked on the first day of the Ses-
sion—" Would you discharge men, when the market is
already over-stocked with labour ?" We would put the fines-
don one point further, and asked the landed interest—would
you wish to provide for more paupers from the poor-rates,
instead of allowing the present number of men, at least, to
be maintained out of the taxes ? The market for labour
is now overstocke&—it is, therefore, on the plain prin-
ciples of demand, and supply certain, that every man dis-
charged by the Government, must either displace another
workman, or come himself on the parish. Now, we would
venture to ask any calm and diSpassionate noin, if, at this
moment, a tax of .5/. were levied on each gentleman's car-
riage, and 20,000 men collected from the starving popu-
lation of Manchester, and fed and clothed by the money
se obtained, would not the operation be, as far as it went,
a beneficial one ? If it would not be beneficial, why are
subscriptions collecting all over the country to maintein
the poor ? Is it any difference (we speak of a substantial
difference, not that - which is found only in the mind)
whether U. be taken as a tax on a luiory, or given as a
donation—or whether a man be fed as a cottager without
work, or as a soldier without Work ? Abuse is not argu-
ment. Give our question a fair and candid answer. We
' are not now entering into the cause of the existing dis-
tress—we are not proposing a remedy ; for we laugh at
those who think Government, acting on a fiftieth, or even
a twentieth, part of a whole, can provide a remedy ; all we
contend for is, that, to raise money by taxes, or to borrow,
by loan, from those who have it, and employ soldiers and
sailors, would, ut this time, be a wiser ,and better mea-
sure on the part of Government, and tend, as far as it
went, to give more substantial relief to the country than a
reduction of taxes, and a discharge of soldiers and sailors,
or any other description of persons now employed by the
Crown. Under these circumstances we do earnestly hope
that Ministers, convinced, as they must be, that they have
it not in their power materially to aid the country, will
not, by giving way to an idle and an ignorant clamour for
a reduction of taxes, and a diminution of expenditure,
take measures which, so far as they have any operation at
all, must inevitably increase the temporary distress under
which we are now suffering. —New Times.