The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-03 00:00:00

SPiltIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We find that attempts are made to represent
the commencing harvest as of an unpromising
kind : or probably partial views are taken, and
general conclusions too hastily drawn from them.
The public will recollect, that we have most
faithfully endeavoured to inspire them with the
contempt which we feel for the race of political
economists, particularly when they condescend
to apply their mighty minds to the subject of
grain, and the productions of the earth. Your
" half-crop," and three-quarter-crop, and crop-
and-a-quarter gentry, and all that class of per-
sons, who affect to measure the bounty of Na-
ture and the gifts of Providence every year
almost to a grain, are, without exception, knaves
and humbugs ; and honest men, wherever they
meet them, and hear them put forth their impu-
dent pretensions, ought to pelt them with mud.
It will be readily supposed that we receive many
communications from all parts of this and the sis-
ter island on the appearance of grain, from the
time that it first appears above ground till it is
housed ; and owr inference from all these in the
present year would be, that wheat and barley
both are abundant; except on the light lands, and
it is to the stronglands that England chiefly looks
for its support. We spoke of the other crops
on Friday, and to what we then said we might
have added, that the second crops of clover are
excessive; so that though the hay-harvest has
been sufficiently touchy, there can be no want of
that article. But now the present season also
seems sufficiently unsettled for reaping and
housing grain. How will it be got in, if the
weather continues as it is at present ? Not well,
we can assure the public by all that class of
people who are called gentlemen farmers, who
have taken up the trade for an amusement, and

even written books upon it. There is none but
the thorough-bred English farmer that can con-
tend with a difficult season, and snatch his crop,
not, as it were, from the fire, but from the
water, and house it dry, in spite of the opposi.
tion of nature. This will not _be done by
squires, who close their university educations in
fox-hunting and farming ; and then, when they
fail in this last employment, raise an immense
clamour, that farming is a losing concern, and
the agricultural interests oppressed and ruined.
The injury that the country has suffered, and
is suffering still, by this class of people, exceeds
all credibility; and we fervently hope that farm-
ing will continue to be the concern that they
represent it, till they are crushed out of the em-
ployment, and it reverts to proper hands. First of
all, the crop, that the gentleman does raise with
his bailiffs, and land-agents, and hosts of smooth-
fingered babblers, that neither know how to hold
a plough nor draw a furrow, he raises at more
than twice the expense that is necessary, and
when he has raised it be does not knovt how to
get it in, should the season prove difficult, which
Is the case in this climate, probably, three years
in five. But it may be said, that many farms
are thrown up, nay, falsehood and exaggeration
would represent whole tracts of country in this
state; and what can the landlord then do but
take his farms into his own bands? Answer:
He should lower the rent. But the practical
farmer will not take the land at any rate ; he
will not occupy it rent-free :—(this, by the way,
is not true ; but even allowing it)—then we
answer, the owner should have lowered his rent
long ago, and not driven his tenant to work the
land out of all heart, and render it worthless for
years to come, in order to pay up a rent inappro-
priate to the altered condition of the country.—
But how, then, could the squire discharge his
taxes ? By diminishing his expenses. The
taxes generally would have been better paid up
if the condition of the farmer had been rendered

easy, because the great mass of taxes is paid by
the great body of the people, and not by squires
and peers.— Times.

A great many of our brother Journalists
puzzle themselves and their readers a little un-
profitably, to ascertain from which side the
advances came, which led to a recent fruitless
negociation. We apprehend that no advances,
properly so called, were made by either party.
The simple fact was, that a distinguished young
Nobleman took occasion to express his regret at
the political estrangement which resulted from
the protracted and animated discussions on the
eternal Catholic Question, in the presence of a
gentleman well known to possess the confidence
of the Premier, and also personally intimate
with the Nobleman already mentioned—the sa-
gacious auditor imparted those regrets to his
principal, and was permitted to use his discre-
tion in furthering, what was considered extremely
desirable, an acquisition of an important interest.
At first things wore the most favourable aspect,
but, in the course of the negociation, difficulties
were started, and conditions proposed which were
considered unreasonable, and, as every body
knows, the thing proved a failure. It is whis-
pered that the suggestions of a veteran politi-
cian, one of the malcontent emeriti, who un-
luckily happened to be consulted, led to this un-
toward result. The return of a near connection

of one of the parties to England, after a pro-
tracted absence, is looked for with considerable
anxiety, as it is perfectly well known that on cer-
tain subjects his sentiments do not exactly har-
monise with those of the person who, in the
course of nature, must succeed to his ample
hereditary honours.--Morning Chronicle.
We lately noticed a very ingenious pamphlet,
" Sketch of a Proposal for Colonizing Austra-
lasia, &c.," and the more we have reflected on
the scheme of the author, the more we are satis-

fled that he has hit on a very important improve-
ment in colonization. We regret exceedingly
that the excessive grant to Mr. Peel, at the Swan
River, should have withdrawn that promising
Settlement from the means which the Govern-

merit might have possessed, of regulating grants
of lands in such a way as to connect a Colony
intimately with the Mother Country. The whole
of the author's scheme hinges on the concentra-

tion of the population, through the mode of dis-
tributing the land ; and Mr. Peel having already
obtained an enormous tract, may or may not
forward any enlightened scheme that might be
approved of. The inhabitants of an old country
like England can hardly form a conception of the
extent of the loss of labour in a new colony from
the want of concentration. In the South Afri-
can Advertiser of May 6, received yesterday, we
have, in a very able article, some serious state-
ments with respect to this point.
" The fanner (says the writer) in South Africa
can now calculate upon a ready market and a good
price for his produce in Cape Town, or at any sea-
port in the colony. Wheat, during the last six
months, has fetched here from ninety to one hun-
dred and thirty dollars a load of ten muids; oats
thirty dollars. If the farmer received this as ajar-
of the taxes and bur-
'e; and the man who
the arable land in his
plough, would deserve
tasty travellers and more
him. In Europe, when

Ithe fanner has reaped and beaten out his grain, his
toil and expences are nearly over. Easy roads, the
neighbourhood of a town, or a navigable river, re-
. ' lieve him from further care. He receives money at
his door even for his straw and chaff. He can thus
employ the whole of his capital, labour, and skill,
on the improvement of his land without intermission
throughout the year. Hence the perfection of agri-
culture, the wealth and prodigious numbers of the
population in those countries.
" But in South Africa, at the end of the harvest
the labours and expences of the farmer, so far from
being ended, may be truly said to have only begun.
The conveyance of his produce to the nearest mar-
ket, in most cases, being three times more laborious
and expensive titan the production of it. It is this
peculiarity in South African agriculture that has
chiefly retarded its progress. It may suit the reader's
purpose to go a little into detail—for the solid anti
lasting prosperity of the colony will keep pace with
the means successfully used to cheapen and facilitate
conveyance both by land and sea.
" We shall omit for the present extreme cases,
and suppose a farm capable of producing 500 maids
of wheat to be situate somewhere on the Berg
River, among the Piquet Mountains, near Tulbagh,
or in the Boschjesveld. The supposed farmer must
have, for the purpose of conveyance alone, five wag-
gons, one hundred and fifty trained oxen, five drivers,
and five leaders. This large establishment is indis-
pensable to the farmer as a carrier, because the
time of conveyance is limited by his farming opera-
tions to three months in the year. Could he con-
tinue despatching his produce to market all the year
round, only one fourth would be required. But in
December all hands are busy with his harvest. In
April and May he must give some rest to his cattle,
to recruit their strength for ploughing in June and
July, when the rains overtake him, and he has no
time to lose. In August, September, and October,
he must fallow, unless he renounces all claim to an
abundant crop, or to any crop at all, except on new
land. The remaining months, January, February,
and March, can only be taken for transporting his
produce, and these are the very worst for this pur-
pose of all the months in the year. The pasture is
at that season burnt up, the streams, springs, and
rivers dry. This forces him always to change his
team on his return home, not to mention the loss by
death of many of his oxen. If he conveys to town
five loads, or fifty muids weekly, lay accidents out of
the calculation, he will be occupied from ten weeks
to three months in business quite distinct from his
profession as a farmer."
The writer then enters into a series of calcula

tions, from which it appears that the charges of
transport alone are 2,138 rix dollars out of
4,500 rix dollars, the price of 500 muids of
wheat ; and from the remaining 2,362 rix dollars,
must be deducted all his other charges—viz.

. Interest upon his corn farm. 2. Interest upoi
ais cattle farm. 3. Interest and risk of his horses
employed in treading out the wheat. 4. Clothes
and provisions for himself; family, and horses.
5. The necessary implements of agriculture, &c.
.e any one make the calculation (adds the writer)

he will obtain but too satisfactory an explana.
tion of the slow progress of agriculture, and the
apparent apathy of the farmers. The example,
too, supposes the farmers to possess at least
twenty thousand dollars in money, besides the
property of an extensive estate ; but such farmers
bear a very small proportion to the numbers who
enter on business with only a few thousand dol-
lars in money, with a mortgaged property, who
have not the means of transporting their grain,
which may rot. The supposed farmer is also
within three days' travel of Cape Town, and
what becomes of the wheat raised at a distance
of six or twelve days ? By allowing colonists to
scatter themselves over the face of an extensive
country, there is thus an immense loss of labour.
The author of the pamphlet to which ,we have
alluded has suggested a means of obviating this
great evil, namely, the imposing a rent on all
land to be granted, which rent should be made
applicable to the conveyance of labourers from
this country. The reason why no rent is exi-
gible for land in America is, because it was

granted too lavishly. By limiting the supply of
land, the Government, like all other monopo-
lists, can fix its own price ; and the object should
be to fix such a rent as would force concentra-

tion, and consequently facilitate accumulation.
Every emigrant from England facilitates and ex-
tends cultivation, and furnishes in additional
rent, additional means for the conveyance of
emigrants. In this way extended colonial cul-
tivation and extended emigration from England
go hand in hand, and aid each other. But there

is another important consequence from that con-
centration of the population, and that is the im-
possibility of dissolving the connection with the
Parent State. Had the population of our North
American Colonies been kept closely together
from the influence of a system of this kind, all
revolt would have been impossible. It was not
the strength, but the weakness, of America which
defended her. We could have no hold of a

people scattered over an immense territory. But
by connecting the growth of a Colony with the
Mother Country, by a system which renders
them as dependent on each other as country and
town in an old country, there would be no other

motive for revolt than what exists in all extended

Empire where delegated power feels its respon-
sibility weakened. The example of Rapp's, and
all other Societies in America, show of what

mmense importance concentration is to the rapid
ucrease of wealth. The American Government

sought, indeed, according to some of the official
impels, to effect a concentration through the
Tariff. But this was compelling the population,
without the advantage of cheap labour, to tax
itself heavily in the additional price of goods, at
the present time, for the sake of futurity. The
population beiwg already scattered, the Tariff
could only retard accumulation by rendering
labour less productive.—/bid.

Information having been received by the civil
uthorities that a rencontre was to take place at the fairo f
O'Brien's Bridge, county of Clare, on Saturday, between
two murdering factions, Sir Hucu DILLON MASSY, Bart.
accompanied by nine other Magistrates, and Lieut. BINDON,
and the constabulary force, with 50 of the 60th Rifles,
under Captain GOLDFRAF, repaired thither, and by their
presence prevented disturbance : however, about six
o'clock, at the close of the fair, an unoffending young man,
about 18 years of age, of the name. of Jonsf FARRELL, a
most industrious and peaceable farmer, from Barbane, near
Broadford, was knocked down by a blow on the head
from a short lead.loaded bludgeon, which the assassin
drew from his small-clothes pocket, and whilst his victim
was on the ground, gave him repeated strokes of it across
the small of the back. The unfortunate young man had
his skull fractured so severely that he died in the course
of the night. After the deed, the assassin very deliberately
replaced his weapon, and notwithstanding he was seen to
commit the deadly tact, and was personally known to
several by-standers, he was suffered to walk off without the
slightest interruption. Subsequently, however, every ex-
ertion was used by the police to apprehend him, but he
has as yet eluded detection. It is asserted that this fellow
has been employed on similar occasions, and that lie was
associated that day with a gang who were armed with
like weapons (some of which were taken from them by
the magistrates), and that other victims were marked out
for destruction, which the judicious arrangements adopted
by the civil authorities alone prevented from being carried
into operation. The deceased never had any quarrel or
dispute whatever with his murderer, and it is said the
latter did not know upon whom he was to operate, till
pointed out by the person who had employed him. This
is a shocking proof of the depravity of the lower orders,
and we trust the perpetrators will be brought to that
punishment which so foul a deed merits.—Limerick
Chronicle.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

HANSI ON-HOUSE

ROBBERY AT THE NORWICH UNION INSURANCE
OFFlCE.—Gilbert Witt, a youth about seventeen,
was finally examined before the LORD AIAVOR, on
the capital charge of stealing a cash-box, containing
75/. in sovereigns, 6/. 7s. 6d. in silver, a Bunk of
England note for 401., two bills of exchange for
17/. 16s. and 221., and an I. 0. U. for .51., the pro-
perty of his employers, and in the dwelling-house of
Robert John Bunyon.
Several witnesses were examined.

The prisoner said nothing in his defence, and the
Lord Mayor committed him to Newgate for trial on
the capital charge.

GUILDHALL.

STAGE • COACH PA RCELS.—John Steadman was
brought before Mr. Alderman A NSLEY, charged with
having fraudulently obtained the sum of 3s. 6d.
under false pretences.
The Alderman remolded the prisoner till to-
morrow.

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