Star.
London, England, 1829-12-12 00:00:00

Mr. HUME has addressed the following letter to the
Secretary of the " Land and Cottage InveetmentSociety :"
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, forwarding a
printed prospectus of " a Land and Cottage Investment Society,"
which you are anxious to establish for the assistance of the poor,
and to which you request me to become a Vice President.
The object you have la view is, perhaps, one of the most Im-
portant that can engross the attention of every friend of his country,
and I have for years past pointed out measures to lessen the suf.
ferings of the poor, and to promote their comfort without having
recourse to poor rates.
I could satisfactorily prove to your Committee, if I had an op-
portunity, that the course you propose wW not effect that perms.
nest improvement which you hold out ; but only prove a partial
relief to the few who may come within the range of your assistance.
You admit that the population is greater than can be employed by
the ordinary industry of the country, and you propose to give em-
ployment by extrardinary means to some (although it can be but a
few) of those who want work. I admit that you will relieve
every man to whom you give a cottage and land for the use of
himself and family ; hut, by the additional population you raise by
that means, you will add to the general surplus of population, and,
again, soon increase the number of those who are without employ-
ment. Your temporary improvement in the condition of a few
will, therefore, only hereafter add to the misery of the many, by
raising new competitions for the work that is to be done.
On that ground I object to your plan u only a make-believe
remedy, (or rather the shifting of the distress,) without affording
real permanent relief, such as the country wants. Whether, as
you state, there are one or three millions of people out of employ-
ment, I aver that it is not the use of machinery, as you allege, that
has occasioned that state of the population; and I am able to prove
very satisfactorily, that in every branch of trade whete machinery
has been introduced to any considerable degree in the manufacture
of goods, the number of hands employed has been increased, in
some to double or treble and in other cases to tenfold the number
that would ever have been employed in the same branches, if the
use and improvement of machinery had not taken place; conse-
quently, the use of machinery has prevented distress, by lessening
the number of hands that would have been out of employment, if
the great use of machinery had not taken place: and, in forwarding
the plans and proceedings for your Committee, it appears to be ins-
portant that the Committee should first satisfy themselves of the
truth or error of that statement as to the injury by machinery.
The value of land has been so much increased of late years, and
the quantity of capital in the country has become so large, that there
is not one acre of land, comparatively speaking, In the country, ca-
pable of affording a return for the capital ready to be applied to it,
that remains uncultivated—l except always church lands and other
mismanaged property. If that should also be true, the cottager.
to be planted by the society could make no return for the capital
you advance them, and could only make unproductive, or waste,
the capital advanced ; and raise up families to increase the already
too large population—or, in other words, the Society would only
aggravate the evil. With that opinion of the probable results of
Its operation, you will excuse my declining the honour of being a
Vice President, which you intend for me.
It you really wish to effect the relief of the poet, "by the en-
couragment of industry and reduction of poor-rates, you must pro-
duce different results than those your " Cottage ociety" would
effect. And first, you must procure cheap food of every kind for
the people, by the repeal of the corn and other laws, which now
tax and grind the poor so severely. By which repeal the industry
of the country would be increased. You would thereby nearly
double the external commerce of the country, and soon call into
exercise the industry of the present unemployed population, who
then would, by the wages of their own labour, procure cottages
and land better and more useful, in every way, than the society can
supply.
Secondly.—You must abolish the beer licence monopoly, and
remove the taxes which now press on the industrious classes, di-
rectly and indirectly, by enhancing the price of their beer, spirits,
sugar, tea, tobacco, candles, soap, and, in short, every article of
primacy necessity.
Thirdly.—You must abolish tithes altogether, by a fair com-
mutation, as they are not only excessive in amount, fur the objects
intended by them, viz. "the support of religion," but their unjust
pressure does more to prevent the employment of labour than all
your cottage-system (if you had 50,000 shares to advance) would do
to promote it.
Fourthly.—The pensions and sinecures, and useless establish-
ments, paid to the rich, are double in amount to the poor-rates, and
the number who live on the taxes of the country is too great ; and,
besides the useless waste of money in paying them, their receivers
are the means of supporting the many and grievous abuses that prey
on the bands of industry, and press them to the earth, sweil.ng
every year the ranks of those who are driven to the poor-rates to
avoid starvation.
Fifthly.— Let the burdens of taxation be transferred from in-
dustry to capital, All monopolies removed, and the means of ob-
taining justice placed within the reach of the poor, and you would
not be long in seehig a change tor the better in the state of the poor
of this country.
If your Committee will take all these matters into their consi-
deration, and adopt powerful means for effecting these reforms I
have painted out, I shall be happy to co-operate, to the best of my
ability, in forwarding such beneficial measures; but I cannot assist
ht the istabllshment vf the society you mention, which would prove
entirely delusive,
• P.S. if the people were properly represented in the House of
• Minions, by men who had'a common feeling of interest with that
of the community, the abuses of the present aristocratical Govern-
ment would soon be removed, and comparative plenty would be
be die dwellings of every man hi the lied. '

Private Correspondence of the Morning Herald.
Coaon, Novizaza 10.
At length the future movements of the French Armee
de Mare are decided on. The first division will embark and sail
from hence, and from Nevado, the day after to-morrow. • The
second and last will follow on or about the 15th December, and ,
*us will Greece have been—for the first time for centuries—freed s
from the presence of foreign troops. The French officers believed,'
up to a very late day, that they would be employed in the intended
attack upon Algiers next Spring, and that they would' tinge been
left here until that time should have arrived ; but if such had ever
been the intention it has been abandoned—and, as is here believed.
owing to the jealousy of the other European Governments, who de-
manded the almost immediate evacuation of the Mores by the
French army.
A small party of French Officers having resolved to make a little
pleasure excursion from hence, I proposed to accompany them.
and was, with great civility on their part, permitted to do so. We
accordiogly, four in number, attended by one servant only and an
interpreter, left Citron on the 7th inst. in one of the boats of the
country, and encountered. in the course of the day, a tremendous
storm, which compelled as to make for Petalidia. Our sailors were
excellent and brave fellows, who, instead of taking to their prayers,
as we feared they would when the gale came on, exerted them-
selves so much, and so successfully, that at length we reached in
safety the little port, but wet to the skin by the deluging rain—the
first (I may say) that had fallen for five months.
Having dried and refreshed ourselves, we ordered horses, and
on the same evening set out for Nissie, four leagues distant, which
we reached before nine o'clock. having passed through a beautiful
•country. Nissie had been totally destroyed during the late wars,
but the inhabitants are re-building it, and with much taste. Here
we found a young Officer of Artillery, from Modon, who,
having obtained leave of absence, bad determined like ourselves,
to visit the interior. I mention this incident because he was
alone, and, as we ourselves were, unarmed (unless with whips),
to show you the cotivktioo of security with which a journey
inland is now undertaken in this country. Next morning early
we started again, and by twelve o'clock reached Movramata,
a little village, the houses of which are constructed out of the
remains of Miashaia. Here we hired a guide, and passed se.
veral hours in visiting the ruins of the great theatre and other
edifices, and in admiring the once beautiful and splendid c.,dumns
with which they were decorated ; but, strange to say, the immense
defensive walls, which extended from hill to bill on three sides of
the town, appeared as fresh as if they had not been for 50 years
neglected, although thousands have passed since they began to fall
into decay. Here La •onsesiawn des Savants (•ent out by the French
Government) made several interesting discoveries of monuments
and monumental inscriptions. which they will, no doubt, publish.
The numerous recent excavations pointed out to us furnish ho-
nourable evidence of the industry with which they prosecuted their
mission.

On the same day we tesumed our journey, and having rode four
or five leagues through an enchanting country, we baked fur the
night at a place called Campm.cono, situate at the foot of another
chain of mountain.. We proceeded thence before daylight next
morning, and, having passed a high and woody mountain, de-
scended into a delightful valley covered with a profusion pf trees,
shrubs, and lowers of every species, and, of course, variety. We
breakfasted at a town called Leanderi, which must have been a place
of importance while in posseseign of the Turks before the war, for
here were the ruins of several mosques and other public buildings.
We stopped ociy. for a shag time, however % and set out in the el-
pectation of reaching Spans before dark, but were benighted, and
obliged to halt at a small village four leagues distant from it. We
etartedragalit rally on the following morning, and in two hours
reached the top of a hill, from which the town of Mistra, and the
immense plain on which Sparta stood, opened beneath us. Need
I tell you that the view produced pleasure and excitement I—But
you will excuse the omission of the espression of our enthusiasm.
Arrived at Mistra, our first care was to procure a guide. A
young man, who is a member of one of the first families in the
country, and who spoke French well, volunteered to conduct and
show us all that remained of Sparta—a task easily performed, as
very little is to be seen, except here and there fragments of marble
columns and portions of mutilated statues, forming part of the ma-
terials of which the walls of the commonest homes in this, as well
as in other towns built in the middle ages, are composed. Enough
remains, however, to interest a traveller, and to occupy him agree-
ably for several bouts.
We returned to Mistra (which is distant about a league from
aparta,) where we dined and web' the night ; and, having break-
fasted u early as two o'slock next ono:sting, we determined to
explore, if possible, some district that had escaped devastation by
the Turks during the war, in order to be able to form some idea of
the state of the country, and of its inhabitants and their manners,
before the withering hand of the infidel had transformed
them. Having procured the necessary information we set
forward, and, a:ter a journey of six leagues, halted at the foot
of an immense mountain, which plainly seemed to say. ^ Thou
shalt proceed no farther;" but a worthy priest and most
excellent man tendered to us his services as a guide, and, by his
kind assistance and instruction, we were enabled to pass over the
most difficult, intricate, and dangerous rued I ever encountered.
We were four hours in getting to the summit of the mountain,
and nearly as lung in descending into a valley on the other side,
-over which we Mood scattered several villages, containing from lOU
to 200 houses each, and into which no soldier of the. Turk„ or even
of the active and desolating ibrabam, ever penetrated. Here we
determined on stopping ter the night, u the weather bad become,
very. wet, and had every reuse to be *Seed with our resolve, for
we experienced the utmost kindness and most nnalieciesibospitality
front the people ?Yu were recently the terror of travellers, the
district forming a safe asylum for robbers and brigands, who took
refuge there, knewirig she impossibility of their being pursued aid
attached. They have now all become peaceable and good men.
Sub Is thy blessed effect, 0 Ott edam ! Those beings who could
scarcely be deemed human wild* persecuted nod parroonded by the

• Tame troops have gem arrived i• France.