The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-02-27 00:00:00

try. He would remark on what the Noble _
}.:4-ie ema"rls-aid in conclusion, that there could be no more
teas me..sure than the increase of the eiretstatio,.
4131:Eennd its level. The sending out of four millions.
pit was proposed, would iocreaas the decollation too
sorb
As they were bound to preserve a metallic
•
soothed of currency, he would not stop to argue
whether that should be a silver or a gold standard ;
but as tiler were to have a metallic standard, be was
convinced that standard ought not to be altered.—
sate measure should be resorted to, besides the with-
draniog of land out of cultivation. Retrenchment
might to be wised io every branch; that was time
raware, and the safest for the public creditor.
be,ed JUNO, referring to the Resolutions of the
BrIlli•D Committee of the year 1811, said, he thought
the Noble Earl opposite would bare been more con-
sistent with himself if he had proposed resolutions of
a miteihr future. For iestance, if he had proposed
',that it is the opinion of the public that taxation is
not the mese of distress—that France and Poland are
is a loseishing state in conselnenee of an excess of
prober, which is the canoe of suffering here."—(A
huh) The leading article of the Ministerial creed
wei.ttl to be, that taxation was not the cause of
distress. A great superabundance of labour bad
brought shoat what the Noble Earl opposite (the Earl
of Lirerpool) called an exceess of produce. If any
roodation was to be derived on the subject of our
morn distresses, from a comparison with the distresses
si Dorm, as the Noble Earl seemed to think, be won-
dered be should not hare traveled to time countries of
Asia, where the trite canoe of distress would be plainly
sees to be the rapacity of li .vernment. If he under-
stood the argument of the Noble Earl, it was, that
taution could not be (be cause of the existing distress,
because it could not produce low prices, which low
Flees, were the aetnal cans.- of the distress. Hut in
this calculation the Noble Ea;.l had omitted one princi-
pal point, which was, that taxation was the cause of
the iecreased cost of production, and that was the
manse of the distress. As a proof of this, it was not
postible to derive any profit from the cultivation
of old lands. The Noble Earl said, the country had
been relieved from a great weight of taxation ; hot he
asked him to look at the increase in the Excise duties
for the last twenty years, and then say, whether it
emit sot have bat the effect of rasing the cost of pro-
doctios. He particularly alluded to the articles of
1-ather, soap, salt, candles, an.l malt, which pressed
mot heavily on the agricultural classes. The three
principles on which the Government rested their pro-
cm-lings were—that excess of taxation could not pro-
timedistress ; that relief was only to be given by rs-
during the rate of interest ; and that five millions was

nrcevary In keep in hand, exclusively to be applied to
that rechartim. These were tte wain doctrines of Mi-
nisters, which to be sure, daring the last six years, had
been occasionally enlivened with transient absurdities
For instance, at one time the distressed state of the'
route, was owing to • superabundant population.
Then came their superabundant production ; and the
tonedy which had been applied to this state of things
was, to carry away a portion of the superabundant con-
s niers or thitneiabanktntprOace.—(Near.)—Aad
sq it would las 417-iiiii years longer. The siutlg
tkrittiwy bad taken too much from the Wood
. i

etasses to give to the idle; and the consesoence
fast they had augmented the rate• of production so
mach that it would no longer afford remunerating
prices to the grower. Perhaps the Noble Earl oppo-
site would tell them flat there was too much capital in
the casstry, and that they most take steps to drive it
oat; as he said, they mast throw the poor lends out
of cultivation. These were the glorious absurdities
broached by the new school of political cc momists.—
(Hear, bear, bear.)—lf they dro►e the capital out of
the country, it would be a bar to all future improve-
:nests. The Nair Earl said they must look to na-
tural
b•en referred to Nature and Providence. But who are
the men %rho told the country this? Those who, for
the last twenty years bad done all they could to coon.
tercet by taxation the workings of nature; who bad
placed the country in the state of one which possessed
a had climate and a wretched suit.—(Hear, hear.)—
The possession of a surplus revenue of five millions was
a strong argument fur the reductioa of taxation to
that amount. He believed that it was so mach desired
to have a Sinking Fund to tbr amount of fi►e millions,
as to sbew foreign powers that we possessed the amount
of smile, to do what we pleased witb.—(Hear. bear.)
Lord ELLENBOROUOH could not attribute the ex.

hlisx distress to an excess of cultivation, as that had

•
rather diminished than increased within the last few
years. in his opinion, it was the great excess of pro-
dote last year, combined with the effect of the change
lathe currency, had created the fall in price, to which
the distress was owing. He agreed with the Noble
Motives' near him (the Marquess of Lansdowne)
that the great taxation ander which the country la-
boured, contributed to the distress of the farmt r as a
grower ; but he could not agree with him that the
redaction of five millions of tares would give any
sensible relief to the farmer. To elucidate this, he
would suppose that sum to be applied as • direct
bounty on production. If they calculated each per-
son to consume one quarter of wheat a year, that
could be a bounty equal to ss. a quarter upon wheat,
and it was a question whether the reduction of bs.
non each person would be a sufficient relief to the
fawner. This was giving him the full benefit of the
Are milling; fur, if it was taken off in taxes, the ope-
whin of relief would be oolong in reaching the quar-
ter it was intended to affect, that the benefit would be
altno.t lost. There bad, he believed, been some
scheme for lending the farmer money till prices should
came round again, but that appeared to have totally
Liled• The present was a case of peculiar difficulty
and distress : of a nature not only to Affect the interests
t.f Cie agriculturist, but actually to destroy the inde-
pradetwe of his mind, soil give it a direction hostile
to Government. It had already settled into dieted'.
f!r:ioz, and under the particular circumstances be
• be disposed to concur its sow violent oiresure
put an end to the distress ; opportunities would
.-r for discussing the question, and he hoped all the
ereies of their Lordships' understandings would be
4..,erted to its consideration.—(Hear.)
Ate palm of BUCHINUHAM disclaimed any in-
te.tion of enteriog into those depths in political
r eco-
'rin which his predecessors in the debate bad
''Treed. He must, however, declare his dissent
"those Who attributed to the operation of taxation

'lf;-*',,...,sotaikkal

. '

:he distressed state of the agdeultural interests•
that they were is a Mate of distress, it did not urea
any one at that time of day to tell them. Bet was
this the first time that particular interests of the
country bad been in a suffering condition arising from
the circumstances of the times ? Did they not all
recollect the distresses of the manufacturers and com-
mercial interests a few years ago, and what was now
the state they were in ? The commercial prosperity
was of a .most gratifying descriptiow in its nature
and extent ; and as to the manafocturing chases, they
were now employed at the highest rate of w Res of
the highest times. As to the s of agricultural
distress, they were plainly owing to the manner in
which persons had been tempted to bring land into
cultivation, the continuance of which could only be
justified by a continuance of that high price of wheat
which induced their cultivation.—(llear.) Instead,
however, of their cultivation being discontinued, they
had been taken at long le uses, and now plunged the
owners of them into that state of distress which was
the subject of complaint.—(clear, hoar.) The Poor
Laws also, it should be remembered, hung as a
burden round the neck of the landhol•lers which
oppressed them. These laws should be restored
to what they were formerly, and the poor should
no longer be treated as an,mitants on the land-
holder.—(Hear, bear.) He hoped the Gentleman,
with whom he was not personally ■cgsainted, who
had intro laced this subject to the consideration of
Parliament last year, woald not drop his intention of
pressing it still farther. If, as the Noble Marquess
(Lansdowne) said, taxation were the cause of the dis-'
tress, it would be felt equally in the commercial and
other interests of the country as well as agriculture.—
It was said by those who took that erroneous view of
the case, that the Excise duties upon soap, salt, tallow,
&c. fell with peculiar weight upon the farmer, paricu-
larlyaffecting the price of the produce ofthe land. Now,
if it were true that the weight of the tax affected the
consumption, th,t which paid the highest tax would he
least used, and rice reran. But with regard to the
existing agricultural dist , he htd no hesitation
in saying that taxation had no effect whatever. To
illustrate this, he would suppose the case of a farm
of four hundred acres, at two guineas an acre, as to
the amount of produce. He supposed two hundred
acres to he laid out as grass lend, 134 acres as
spring vegetables, and the rentaininz 66 acres wheat
land. These 66 acres would produce 198 quarters,
which, valued at 31. a quarter, would amount to 5941.
With a farm, thus productive, supposing the farmer's
family to consist of himself, wife, one woman servant,
and three men, they would consume fifteen quarters of
malt, the tax on which amounted to 121. I Is. Slaking
a fair calenlatioa of the quantity of articles of every
other description which such a family would ecotone,
it would be found that the total amount of taxes paid
to the Crown was 331.4. Of the amount of indirect
tales, which dep:nrad on 111, price of labour, it was
not so easy to get at, but the be Away would he to
•eke all the taxes which might be considered to fail oa
land, and throw them back to the farmer. By the
abolition of every tax which was paid by the farmer to

can-s-iii;red ad adequate relief? The only remedy
was for the great lAndbolder to do u the manufacturers
had done some years ago, to p t the firmer from
falling, by making common cause with bitn.—(flear,
hear.)—The concluding sentence of the Nuble Duke
n as inaudible.

Lord DACKE contended, that the 'tem of pro-
duction so much spoken of did nut is reality exist,
when compared with the increased population of the
country. Since 1813, an increase of four millions had
been made to our population ; and the ten years preced-
ing, an increase of one milliowynly was apparent.—
Since 1791, there was an increase equal to ere-ninths
of the aggregate population; and no one eould sup-
pose there was too much cora produced for the coon•
try. The loci which had been made so gene-
rally throughout the country, had 'greeted the change
of much arable into pasture land, and this would ac-
count fur the low price of cattle, but not for a super.
abundant supply of wheat corn. He saw so reason
why the price of corn should be higher now than in
1791, supposing the ge supply was natural and
sufficient. The natural price would depend in a
great measure, upon the state of the circulating me-
dium. He confessed be was enable to estimate co -
reedy the power of the circulating medium at the pre-
sent period. It could not be estimated by its quantity,
but by its velocity; bat looking at the state of the
currency and the present price of corn there certainly
was no reason for concluding that there was a super-
abundant supply of corn, or superabundant cultivation,
disproportionate to the increased population of the
country. What effect the change of the currency,l
with thirty millions of taxes, had in causing the dis-
tresses of the country, might be better understood. It
was far from his intentiou, however, to advise a return
to the fraudulent measure which was put wend to by
this change ; but t'irr ease being as it was, it became
their duty to look it in the face, and do all in their
power to alleviate the sufferings, and relieve the agri-1
guitarists of the burdens by which they were excessively
borne down. The farmer did not, as the manufacturer,
withdraw his machinery from use till the temporary
low rate of remuneration should pass away. 'l he far-
mer was bound to support the poor, and therefore
could not avail himself of any such advantage as the
manufacturer possessed. They must not bold out the
hope of a return to high prices. No alleviation could
be extended to him but a reduction of the expense of
produce. Taxation rather raised than diminished the
prices, but taxation might press so heavily en the die-
d agriculturist, u to force him prematurely into
the market. It was impossible to have cheap corn
and dear labour—and the expense of Wiwir it was in
their Lordships' power to reduce. He could show that
the taxes which fell upon arable land amounted to
3s. 6d. an acre. and the remission of that would be a
wo
uld
be alleviation to the grower. But as there
be many opportuoities of discussing that matter at
greater length, he wonld not longer press himself on
the attention of their Lortiships.—(Hear.)
The Duke of BUCKINHHAM explained.
The Earl of HA ItROWBY addressed the House, but
its a tone of voice which rendered the greater part of
his Lordship's observations inaudible below the bar.
We understood the Noble Earl to contend that the low
price of wheat was owing to the grade& $y
itoportittou of that cuusurolity from Teilictil: nit

661.