The Sun.
London, England, 1817-10-07 00:00:00

EX",VRAORDINARY PitEsENT,

During. Sir Faii.t.ccts iittaneTT!s stay in Cork-,
he was waited 011.hy, Mr. MITCHELL, .the pat.rio-
tic razor-maker in.that City, who presented hint
with a superb- case of t4iors, made exPress!Y
for hint, wirh mother-of-pearl ham& s and
mounting, with a harp wreathed with sham-
pocks; and the motto Erin go Bruit engraved
on them, in a very eiegaut style. Mr. MITCHRLL
addressed Sir k'ltAticis BURDETT 'at some length,
stating his reasons for giving him such it
present. lie said he was certain the free-
d:An 'of the City %vould not. be -prcy,enfctl to
him but trivial as his gitt might appear, he
was sure it was. more valualde• than the'privi.
lege of being a Member of such a Corporation,
because the razors %via:it shave him as keenly
as Sir FRANCIS hat! shaved the enemies of the:
Constitution, and always keep his face as clean
as he has hitherto kept his hands. lie con-
cluded his eccentric speech by saying, that his
principle motive for the'gift was, because he aii-
ceived Sir-FaANc;s BURDETT to be the greatest
robber in the Honseof Commons, for he had nlnit-
acte,Levery.Memher in it of his individual portion
of Patriot km, public t•pit-it., H d hoacity, for thn
purpose Of centerilig them all in his Own person.
The Biro:let received Mr. M ITCH ELL Wide marked
kindness, shook his, .hand wi:h great-cordiality,
and dechred he would preserve the palriot is razors
as long as i.e lised.(Duidiri Eat, ing. Post.)

A nor el kfnd of Civicitle.--4:ast week, in a gen.
in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire,
a sheep was Ihund greatly mangled, supposed by
n dhg. The foihioing -day smother sheep was
discovered severely larerated, and on, the thitd
tootoiog it was found, that the ears were o@ from
a third- Victim: Next 'slight, a watch being set,
the depredator WB5 det ce;ed. This was on other
than a Salail flighland pooev, which was caught
itt .the ak of laying hold With his teeth on a fourth
member of the flock) anti tossing it out of wan-
tonness, alter the liniuner of a greyhound with it
dthIICCISA maukin.

ENGLAND'S PROSPECTS.

LEffEit 111.

To JOHN BULL, Esq. Lord of the Ocean, Lord of the Isles,
Master of Arts, and a good Fettew of all Societies, &c.

shall say nothing to you, JOHNNY, of your
►;aval force, except that I was very sorry to cib-
se:ye a hasty spirit of retrenchment urge you to
a diminution of it, too rapid for those who were
'tin own out of employ in consequence of it. I
du not believe, that, if a full investigation of
roil( and loss were to take place, you have gained
sixpence by it ; and 1 fear that you have lost
much wore. Had you first discharged all those
who were capable of trades on shore, and re-
tained the real seamen until they could be gradu-

ally employed in the merchant service, your dimi-
nution of expeuce would have been neatly as rapid,
and you would have preserved both the hearts
and bodies of a gallant, aye and a scientific, race of
common seamen—a race extremely difficult to
form,. and even more difficult to recover when'
once they have fallen into the hands of a quiescent,
,but still inveterate enemy.
Your army has also cost yon much to create ;
much money must be spent, and mach blood must
be spilt, before one hundred and fifty thousand
veterans can be formed. Nor will present sav-
ings in Commissariat, or Ordnance, amount in
many years to any thing like the ex pence you
have been at to bring those complicated services
to efficiency. I am indeed aware, that your sons
would behave as well in another twenty years
star as they have done in the last ; but their
education has cost you something, and it %vitt be
cheaper to allow the present race to continue
their studies in a quiet harmless way, than to be
obliged to semi others not only to school, but to
set them out in business before they have learned
their trade, as you found necessary in the early
part of the contest.
But
.to leave generals, for particulars, excuse me
JosiNtar, I am not at a putt, let us take a walk
ovWyour farm, then a peep into your workshops
and counting •houses, your canals and sect-ports, a
glance at your treasury, and finally pay a visit to
the good lady in Threadneedle•street—we may per-
haps find something to arouse an idle hour, and
perhaps we shall finish our morning ramble with
less alarm than we commence it, and set down to
our roast beef and plumb pudding with good ap-
petites and thankful hearts, that bad as things arc,
they might have been much worse, and will soon
be much better, if we do not prolong the evil by
an injudicious eagerness to avert it. As for your
farms, and those of your tenants, really JOHNNY,
I think they put on a very handsome appearance.
y our enclosures are good, and you have but little
waste land, considering all things ; but 1 arts
sorry you don't plant a few more oak trees 'in
some of your forests, which at present ate nearly
as bare of cloathiug as the learned lexicographer
found seven parts of your Sister l'EG's farm
forth of the TY-TAWs „iYiteg 61,11fre in im lade; --
bur 1 am afraid, JOHNNY, that your workhouses
have increased as your farm-houses have dimi-
nished : and, though the riches of your farmers
proceed from improved agriculture,. I atn doubt-
ful whether the real wealth of all your children, or
even their individual comfort, has increased much
from that peculiar circumstance. That Britain
is a rich country, nobody will deny, notwith-
standing present distress ; yet there is an ob-
servation of ADAM SMITH'S which is Of sonic
im-
portance on this subject. He -says, that " in
agriculture, the labour of the rich country is nut
always much more productive thao that of the
poor; or, at least, is never so much moreproduc-.
tive, as it commonly is in manufactures. The
corn of the rich country, therefore, will not al-
ways, in the same degree of goodness, come
cheaper to mat ket than that of the poor." Now,
if there is any truth in this general principle, and
we find that the corn of a rich country; after a
dead "season, shall come down to an unprecedent-
ed cheapness, it follows, either that the country
is declining in its wealth, or that some extraor-
dinary change has taken' place in the relative si-
tuation of society with respect to demand and
supply, and even in the comparative value of the
circulating medium.
But general principles too often lead to -preju-
diced hypotheses; let us therefore examine the
facts of the case, and perhaps the truth may be
found where a systematizing philosopher would
never think of looking for it. IE4 SOP tells us
that a cock found a diamond whilst scratching a
dunghill; but though he despised the diamond,
in comparison with a grain of corn, we may per-
haps turn it to a better purpose.
We know, that from the commencement of the
last century, until the close of the Spanish war,
England was annually all exporting country ; but
it has been clearly anewn that this arose from the
lowness of our population, and conseqaent home
demand, in conjunction with agricultural exer-
tion. A country, whose population is little more
than agricultural, can always raise much more
than. its home demand requires, Without any ex-
ertion beyond the natural cultivation of the soil ;
whereas an arttficial population will always re-
quire artyicial cultivation. During the period we
speak of,
population proceeded very slowly to in-
crease, although there was an evident superabun-
dance of food e for, manufactures being then in
their infancy, those who were not agriculturists
had nothing to offer to the farmer iu lien of his
corn,. with the exception of a few landholders
mid merchants, so that the surplus population not
having means of livelihood, they had --oat in-
tim:v*4-gs to marry. •
We are told, indeed, that there wades's. pover-
ty at that period—if it means less apParent po-
verty, I will concede the point; because where
the rich are few, the comparative poverty is less
evident ; to say nothing of there being fewer
poor, Alecause there were fewer people. But
after time American war was dosed, manufactures
began to flourish ; corn came more into demand;

instead of sending it abroad, for foreign produce
or manufactures, we sent abroad our own manu-
factures to pay for that which eve could not produce
at home, and eat the corn omselves. Thus popula,
lion soon increased, and it is an absolute fact, as
adduced by a tvell-known accurate economist,
that although from 1796 to 1811, the prices of
corn rose to an enormous height, yet the popula-
tion augmented more than in 63 years of plenty,
even ollott.ing for the chain of the army and navy,
as weli as of the Colunics—to say nothing of the
extensive emigration front Scotland and treland to
the United Sates.

It is to our--borne demotic] then that we must
look for agricultural support, instead of foreign
consumptioa ; particularly as the relent reduced
prices, low as they are, do not enable us to meet
the foreign farmer in the foreign market. If fur-
ther proof were necessary, it would be in the fact,
as stated in the Hous'e of Commons, that even
during the cessation ,of torn Export, this country
had become the greatest agricultural nation in the,;
world : so that within the last 20 years, not only
had two blades of grass been made to grow where
only one had grown before ; but, more correctly,
might it be said. that four had been now pro-
duced where one only could formerly be found.—
Here then is an illustration of one of Mr. M
Ttl US'S , doubts, which so much alarmed you,
JoussY, it few years ago. That Gent'enlist) very
ingeniously spewed that mankind might double
their numbers every 50 years in any particular
country. America, in fact, had doneso•in five
and twenty--but still it was impossible that cul-
tivation.could go on doubling its produce every
half century in a Coon try of circumscribed limits
like England, though America might tsor many
periods of increase extend her cultivation iu an
equal proportion. - But there can be no cause of
alarm for us at present, that we shall very shortly
be unable to feed our population, it in 20 years we
have increased our produce four fold. it is true
that in time there must be an end of increased
cultivation here ; but before that period arrives
many heaths, commons, and forests, must be
brought under -the ploaglr. Besides our popula-
lino has not increased' in proportion to llcreased
cultivation, otherwise the extra demands of the
war could not have been answered. Now, in-
deed, those extra demands are extinct ; and su-
perabundance has produced cheapness : bat cheap-
ness will encourage population, and thus we shall
have an extra market for our surplus supply.
A calculation laid before the House of Com-
mons proves the superabundant increase of sup-
ply ; for it was assumed that if we now bad only
two millions of acres of new land in tillsge, these,
at the rate of three quarters per acre, would yield
six millions of quarters of grain : but if the popu-
lation of Great Britain, from 1800 to 1811, had
only increased to the extent of two millions, then,
as the annual consumption of each individual
might be taken at one quarter, it fallowed that
there were four millions of (pouters for which no
market could be found at home. A surplus there
must then be in the 'market ;. but when trade in-
creases a little, so as to allow all of your children to
have a bellyfull, and when the number of farming
families is increased by the reduction of farms,
and when every little cottage can afford to brew
its'own beer, more loaves and more. malt will -be
tv al! ted, w citadtlitAcrdl.
Out %Vest India Islands need not depend upon the
United States -for Indian Corn or Wheat flour,
whilst there is so mach at home that cannot find
a purchaser. Let the ships in the West India
Trade, which now go out light, be loaded with
the surplus of our own markets. The merchant
can afford thus to scud it tree of freight, which
will of itself be a very handsome bounty ; for the
West India price is always above the London
markets, and as ships must go out for lull cargoes,
though only in ballast, as often happens, the saving
in freight will be equal to a bounty to be added to
the other profits that will accrue.

A recent observation of Lord CASTLEREAGH
is worthy of notice, even though coming from a
Cabinet Minister, tut these folks sometimes deal
in home truths, whilst others of your advisers
are exhausting all their ingenuity to make you un-
derstand something upon abstract principles,
which they do not ,very cleat ly comprehend them-
selves. His Lordship said that it was not un-
likely that during the high prices, some lands,
and those of the best quality, were cultivated to
such a pitch, that they could no longer he farmed
with profit under the same system ; that others
were absolutely exhausted with a view to tempo-
rary gaiti ; hut still lie thought these were only
exceptions to the general system, and that prices
must find their level now they were freed from the
competition of foreign importation. If so,-there
were, he conceived, no other circumstances that
indicated decay of national prosperity, although
a pressure for a season might exist. He added a
most important fact, that he had watched the re-
venue every week with the greatest anxiety, and
no week hitherto had produced any failure. Fi-
nally, his Lordship shoved there could be no
reason for despair, as there is even now a general
tendency in prices to rise. Even in Stottand','the
price had got up to 725., and therefore -it 'Hight
soon be expected to reach that in England.
further acknowledged, that certainly we have a
greater burthen to endure than in 1792-; but this
would not prevent prices from finding their level ;
and if corn should rise to 80s, or 903., lie asked,
where would be the distress ?

. •
Now, JOHNNY', is it not a molt extraordinary
fact, that in the commencement of the nineteenth
century, a Minister, of State shall be obliged to
comfort the Representatives of the People with
hopes of a rise in price of the necessaries of life ?
Would you, a century ago, have believed it pos-
sible ? Nay, only ten years ago, would you not
have bought a strait-jacket for any of your chil-
dren that might have told you ;such a story ? Has
not the constant cry of your children been for
cheap bread—have
,Whey not often wished also-'for
cheap beef and mutton, in order 05 indulge your
grand-children with something like a Sunday-din—
ner ? Must you not therefore begin to suspect,
that those who are so clamorous for high prices
have sonic unexplained motive for opinions
in direct opposition to. the common feelings of
mankind dini„4 a course of centuries ?
The doctrine is new, and therefore it
requires a little investigation, before you permit

speculative innovators to meddle with your corner
cupboard ! Perhaps the best mode will be to re-
trace some of the leading features of our agricul-
tural policy and practice. Simple facts are less
likely to mislead than abstract theories. Von
must recollect, my old friend, that before the
French Revolution, your agriculture
was flourish
lug ; at least you had few complaints, except of
-
the dearness of provisions, with many sly hints
about the advantages telt in other countries,where
corn was cheap and plentiful. At that period,
hard times always meant high', prices ! Now,
Jonx NY, at that period I took many a
ualk over your farm, and over those of your
pleasant
nants. I was pleased to find a simple and ,regular
mode of industry. I found your wheat lands laid
down in ‘s heat ; on soils fitted by nature for oats
and barley, Oats and barley were grown ; and
your grass lands and meadows, unbroken by the
plough, were occupied by lowing herds, and full
of the sweet smelling odour of new-mown hay.
At that period you had experienced no feverish
demand for any one species of grain, nor had.
your farmers been tempted to apply their land to
any other purpose than that for which nature
seemed to have intended it. . The supply was
therefore judiciously varied, and was also as co-
pious as the demand required, thus prompting to
consumption, and at the same time encoaragiug
a natural increase of the Market. At that period
also; farms in general were of a moderate size,
tenanted by a greater number of occupant agri-
cultural families, affording great facilities, alto
indeed prompting necessarily* to the raising 'of
small stock, through which sufficient and suitable
employment %vas given to your farmers' wives and
daughters. Besides these, you had a sufficient
number of large farms for all the purposes of
agricultorat experiment and improvement. Tur-
nips and other productive fallows were extending
themselves, thereby rendering every year in seven
productive, instead of two idle years for rest and
recovery of the .soil. Your waste lands were
gradually enclosing ; not front the hurried avarice
of monied speculators, but by means of the laud-
able industry and manual labour of the neighbour-
log yeomanry. Such was the situation of your
estate at the commencement of the French Re-
volution ; butt the year 1792 opened upon a new
era. Small landholders, tempted by increasing
.agricultural profits, took a number of small farms
into their own hands, and agriculture becOnta-Cu
fashionable, that the distance front the dun;-yard
to the drawing-room was shortened, whilst oyer-
grown Commoners, sporting Baronets; and blind-
box Lords, all adopted a rural life'. Sheep-
shearings, cattle-shows, and splendid dinners,
soon associated amateurs, connoisseurs, graziers,
butchers, and gentlemen drovers. In short, the
pastoral crook becathe the universal symbol, and
the days of Arcadia seemed nearly realized amidst
the show of gilt cups and horned cattle. In this
happy state of rustic enjoyment, you were checked
a little by a short harvest in the second year of
the present century and though the deficiency
was only equal to one fourth of an average crop,;
yet so great became the alarm, and consequently
the temptation to speculation, that prices actually
trebled those before the war commenced, not
only affording unexpected profits to the farmer,
but also inducing the landlord to raise his rents in
nromitioo. filt.attoation
at toaanet iou, mew large capitals out of trade, and
constantly alThoit of riewadventurers,whose money
. was more than equal to their wit, invested all their
dormant capital in agricultural speculations. This
new calling was not only justified, for a time, by
the increasing demand for wheat, but also tempt-
ed many to apply lands to an expensive cultiva-.
tion of that species of grain, which in their mon,
ral state were totally unfit for the purpose. You
are aware, JOHNNY, that money can almost do
every thing. The consequence was, that manure
of all kinds was laid on the land, until the most
and heaths were first covered with guineas, and
then with waving crops of grain. In short, if
this agricultural mania had been stimulated a few
years longer by high prices, it would not have
been matter of surprise to The to see the bowpots
of Threadneedle-street and Change-alley,. toge-
ther with the Royal Exchange and St. Paul's
Church-yard, converted into green fields and
farm yards. The Capitalists now cried out,
, " 'Give us butt land, or footing any where, and,
we will find you crops ;" just as ARCHIMEDES
exclaimed to the Svracusan Monarch, " Bite
me a .fulcrum for my lever, and .1 will move
the world !" Indeed our farming speculators seem-
ed determined to move both Heaven and Earth,
regardless of consequences, and totally inattentive
to the misery they were rapidly producing.—
Though they certainly raised more wheat than
before ; yet, with the exception of new inclosures;
they did not raise a much greater supply from the
land in cultivation, for the very mode of proceed-
ing caused a greater waste, whilst the raising of.
small stock diminished in a greater proportion.—
Besides, the small 'faiths were swallowed up in this
inundation of capital; which rendered labour only
a secondary, instead' of a primary article in our
-
agriculture.
.Unr Illieertt,. and even substant•ial
yio were, • therefore, driven from their
iomnenstlitry ,
those w
ho Could work had no resonrce
e
bat to become labourers on the farms once tilled
by their ancestors ; the aged, who could not work,
soon became the inmates of parish svotkhonses ;
whilst the population, being now become too nu-
merons for the improved system, the young men
enlisted for soldiers, and the young women com-
ing to London tor places, soon filled our streets
with prostitutes.

Such was the state of your farm, JOHNNY, (when
I sat down to address this letter to you) some
months ago ; but circumstances having postponed
that communication, little is now left to me, but
to congratulate you on the extraordinary change
that has taken ',lace in the affairs of your fatally.
On your farm you have now gathered in an ex-
cellent harvest, and your state of agriculteral so,
ciety is assuming its proper.level, in the division
of farms, the arrangement of rents, and the re-
duction of poor rates ; your workshops again re-
sound with the voice of industry, and the cheer-
ful noise of honest toil ; yonr counting-houses are
filled with busy faces, and busy pens ; your ca-
nals are covered with loaded boats ; your sea -
ports are once more a scene of hustle ; your trea-
sury has reduced its unnecessary expellees under
the sanction of the legislature, and has also re-