Star.
London, England, 1820-08-03 00:00:00

w . N. .

what way the erection of villages in the form of pa.
rallelegrams, conlftepeal those enactments against
foreign trade, aolaidi are a disgrace to the age we
live in r It has seldom fallen to our lot to remark
on a more flippant, or a more misplaced sneer than
this. Is there anything ridiculous in the form chosen
by Mr. Owen for his projected villages? Or has he
bad any part in enacting the statutes complained of?
• Statutes, Goo knows, many of them highly absurd,
and seriously injurious to the country, but most of
them adopted at theespecial instance and entreaty of
our merchants and manufacturers.
es For ourselves, we do not despair of our coup,
• try,". say the Reviewers ; " and we have no objection '
• to state what, in our opinion, would restore the king-
doth to its once flourishing condition. Give freedom
to commerce, and lighten the pressure of taxation,
'and-we shall have no complaining in our streets. As
et:anti-rot is always an exchange of equivalents, a
nation ihatwill not buy, cannot sell ; and restrictions
upon import a 4 prohibitory duties upon export. On
the contrary, the more we admit the productions of
foreign countries, the more extensive becomes their
demand for our commodities. Let the absurd sys-
tem of our Corn Laws be cautiously and gradually
abolished, and allow the cheap agricultural produce
of the North of Europe, and of the Continents of
Ainerica and Africa, to be freely introduced, and we
shall obtain an unlimitertiot for our manufactures ;
the profits of stock will be restored to their level in
other countries, and the consequent accumulation of
capital, will cause the increanng demand for labour
to bear a nearer proportion to the increasing supply
of labourers."
We as little despair of our country as the Re-',
viewers • possibly can du. We conceive there is re-
quisite only a little common sense, or a little common
honesty, in conducting the affairs of this mighty
kingdom, in order to carry it to al degree cf power,
and of prosperity which it has never yet approached.
But although we consider a perfectly five trade, ac-
companied by its necessary attendants, a total aboli-
tion of-the Excise, and Customs, with their nume-
rous Officers; as a necessary step towards its ultimate
prosperity, yet we consider, it as one which ought to
follow, but by no means to precede, a total change
in our system of Taxation. The Commercial Peti-
tions, which so nearly advocate the principles of the
Edinburgh Reviewers, as to make it not improbable
that they originated with them, hold out as the
grand panacea against all our evils,. a free trade in
Corn : but they would not disturb the existing Du-
ties, becau e they would not cripple the Revenue.
Yet we, on the contrary, conceive that Corn is the
very last article to which this free trade ought to be
extended, because the trages of labour, and the pro-
fits of industry, are so heavily taxed in this country,
that if our farmeis had their lands free of rent, still
they could by no means.generally compete with the
foreign corn, even in our own market; those only
who occupied the superior qualities of land, could in
such case continue their cultivation, and the inferior
qualities, amouiaing to perhaps half our territory,
must be returned to grass: But what must be the
-unavoidable consequence of our coming to depend
for a large proportion Of oar subsistence on fo-
reigners? That the first year of general scarcity in
those countries from Which we tommOnlj: dreW
• most considerable suppliewould shut them exporta-
tion against us, and we must be subjected to fa-
mine instead of scarcity. This is not a casualty Un-
likely to happen : seldom have twenty years passed
away without producing more than one season of ge-
neral scarcity over Europe, which has not unite-
quently extended to North America. Whence, then,
are we to draw our supplies? From Africa, in its
present state, is too absurd a proposition to merit a
single observation. But this is not the only risk we
should run, in adopting such an improvident sys-
tem : e have had recent experience that even " a
Heaven-born Minister" could not keep a small pro-
portion of the ports of Europe open to our com-
merce, and that his successors were equally unsuccess-
ful with regard to those of America. Has our Go-
vernment attained to so mpch wisdom as never again
to be exposed to folly? Or has the Holy Alliance
secured us against a possibility of recurrence to the
sword ? The amount of our Standing Army would
not indicate such a belief. We have hitherto but too

much cultivated foreign commerce, which, though
sometimes a rapid, has been always an unstable, road
to wealth; which has been the origin of most of our
wars, and the principal cause of our present over-
whelming Debt. Although palliatives may be ad-
ministered to our present distress, yet we firmly be-
lieve, that no serious permanent improvement in our
condition will be effected, until we procure a Legis-
lature whose interests shall be identified with those
of the Nation at large; then, and not till then, can
confidence be restored, and the public burthens ap-
portioned, according to the ability to bear them:,
When this shall take place, and the Landholder and the
Fundholder shall be made to contribute in a fair pro-
portion, according to their property, with the rest of
the community, then will the capital employed in
industry be probably restored to that productive rate
of profit, which may enable our Agriculturist and
Manufacturer to resume their former activity, inde-
pendently of protecting Duties; but should it then
be found, that a recurrence to inferior soils had so
far enhanced our wages of labour that we were still
unable to compete with foreigners in the supply of'
our own markets with Corn, the general interests of
our population would then render it expedient to re-
lieve the capital employed in Agriculture, from such
a proportion of the public burthens, as should re-
store to it in average years, the possession of its own
market, and thereby secure the country from those
most terrible calamities, famine, and consequent
pestilence.
All writers on political economy have, with one
voice, admitted that capital, when unrestricted, will
naturally: flow into those employments which are most
beneficial to the Public at large ; and upon this prin-
ciple are rested the Commercial Petitions. But will
it conduce to the free employment of capital in those
occupation to which it would naturally flow, to re-
move them from one employment of capital, while
they continued to be most rigorously enforced on
every other? Certainly not. Such regulations could,
only tend to divert capital still. farther from its natu.,
ral'course of employment, and to drive it into chan-
nels less beneficial to the Public thin those into which
it would naturally flow. Mr. Ricardo says, ao sot
exact a dtity 04 foreign corn, becauortiolkwill en-,