The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-12-21 00:00:00

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AGRICULTURAL RELIEF.

The agricolturWs are lamenting their burthens in
the begi»ning of their troubles ; they bear only a tithe,
of the evils which will fall upon them, as well as upon
the trailing part of the community, if decisive and pm-
meii;liTh are riot -ptiriiiedliir their relief.--
Their. Commondersin-chief, ..41r. Webb Hall, has kind-
ly displayed his nostrum,- a countervailioirodety of
,40s: per (patterns the importation of foreign wheat!
Bat this panacea is not a catholicon; and •SO far
from producing that harvest of benefits, which the
poor deluded Gentleman dreams of, it would generate
more injury than advantage. When such trash and
nonsense are adopted, by so large a portion of the cow
munitv, as the dictates of wisdom, it proves, beyond
all donbt, that deep knowledge of political economy is
not widely extended even in this kingdom. Nothing
can be more absurd and ridiculous than the pompous
insanity of that Gentleman's speculations; and when
we consider that his efforts are directed, as he supposes.
to the aid of agriculture. laughter at his ignorance is
restrained by disgust of his impudence. History tells
us, that some years since, many of the owners of land
in Denmark presented themselves before their King,
and entreated him, on their knees, to accept
their estates, as the taxes were heavier than the
rents Would discharge ! To this pass it will
come in England, if a remedy be not found for the
evil. The other day we were told, by a pretended
• philosopher, that the country was in danger from over
population ; now we are assured, by the Prime Mi-
nister, that the agriculturists suffer from over produc-
tion. If one could laugh on such a serious occasion,
the risible mnscles would be distended by such doc-
trines. The me:Matron* evil of the philosopher, arising
from over population, is, in a year or two, devoured by
the statesman's opposite evil, over-production. Oar
forefatners thought that the increare of the people was
an increase of strength—our forefathers believed that
plentiful harvests were actual benefits; but, in the pre-
sent day, if we would follow the opinion of fashion, we
most dread the increase of population as a decrease of
national welfare, and bountiful harvests as corroders
of the farmer's purse ! Some years since, lamentations
of the peasant. on the exportation of corn, rang in our
ears; now we hear lamentations because corn is not
reported. We hear, in the cant of the day, enough
about the utility of the farmer, and the necessity of
supporting his lalimonrs—we bear a great deal about
these things, bet we see no substantial efforts for his
his r, lief. One man cries aloud do not touch the
Corn laws!—another, lay a tax of a shilling a bushel
on corn !—a third, impose such a duty as will prevent
importation! a fourth, take off the tax on saddle
horses and leather !—a fifth, tax transfers of stock.—
llnt all these wild vagaries, if carried into execution,
wonld rot enable the farmer to stem the current of
necessity; a necessity that will not be restrained is
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its operation, by barriers built of cards, nor weirs of
card paper ! That agriculture is distressed, aide hat
Me a ericultniists ought to be relieved, are proposi-
tions that no one pretends to deny. If they are not
assisted, and assisted with effect, they will be involved
in ruin, and their ruin will drag adieu the Government.
The situation of the country creates alarm ; but still
the generality live on the hope that the system will
last their day ! This hope is delusive. Some of them
will witness its annihilation, if effectual and immedi-
ate care be not taken to eradicate the seeds of destruc-
tion. The LegisLitore may enact laws to prevent im-
portation, and thereby impoverish the nation—it may
take oil' the tax upon leather and agricultural horses—
and even taz transfers of stock, and yet ruin will fol
low, in spite of such a bungling mass of political but-
tresses, however finely it may be gilded. The fact
is, that high priced establishments must be reduced to
Me level of low priced corn ; and though the farmer
complain of LOWNESS of price, as the evil which pa-
r alv zes his nerves, it is a grievous error. Takation
—taxation is the source of Isis calamity; and if some
of its currents are not cut off at the spring, they will
I.rto a stream, the torrents of which will sweep away
the frill's of the labours of the husbandman, and the pro-
duce of the ingenuity of the artisan. With an increase
of taxation, rents have increased—with the increase
of rents, the value of tyilies—as these have risen
the poor's rates have swollen—the preternatural im-
pulse given by the war, has ceased, and those things
which were elevated by that impulse beyond their po-
litical level, are now falling in prices to their proper
state. Where is the man who can contemplate with
indifference, a great and mighty nation fast declining
in wealth and power, from the schemes and follies of
its rulers ? Where is the man, with heart so callous,
that can, even in anticipation, reflect on the disas-
trous occurrences which must clothe that nation in
sorrow, if l.er progress. towards ruin, be not timely
checked? Where is the man, whose heart is alive to
the feelings of humanity, who can, with calmness,
survey in prospect, the links of subordination broken
asunder ; the harmony of society destroyed ; Govern-
ment falling from the weight of its eon folly ; and
a scene of anarchy, confusion, and disorder, spread-
ing over the land ? It is the duty, and the bounden
duty of every Englishman, to endeavour to avert the
calamities which hover over his country ; it is a seer&
duty to save it from the horrors of intestine comm•
lion, as well as from the terrors of military despotism.
To show that the cause of the evil, of which the farmer
complains, does not arise from LOWNESS or Pities,
it will he accessary to discover what was the price of
wheat on the ayes age of seven years before the war ;
theu not exceeding 40s. squatter; and for the last seven
years, not less than 705.! In 1791, the average price
was ss. 10d. a bushel; now about 7s. In that year, all
the taxes taken together did not amount to wore than
18,000,000/.; and if all taxation, exceeding that sum,
were taken off now, if rents were reduced to the standard
of that time, and the poor's rate properly diminished,
all timings would fall in a due proportion ; and the far-
mer, in a year of abundance, would have no pretence
for not selling his produce at as cheap a rate as Isis
predecessors. We have now • charge upon the public
so enormous and inordinate, that had its amount been
mentioned by an angel from Heaven, in 1793, as the
annual expense which the cursed war would entail upon
us, all would hare laughed at the prophecy, and despised
the prophet. The evil springs from increased taxation
—increased poor's rate—increased payments tittithes—
increased rents, anti the effects of a corrected cur-
rency: it must not be treated tenderly; the Legislature
must, or the People will, root it out. The present sys-
tem of taxation, raised to support the devouring mon-

it •
ster, partiaPentlojtienSs, slot am
hut item Its ine cpinliti•and injustice.
ability to pay is absurd; those who are the least able to
ear the barflies. eafty'the greatest' Ind, and dreg is
not the slighteit'propedion between the Peer • sun the
Peasant. It sobs the labourer of more than half. bis
earnings, and takes from the manufacturer the greater
part of the profits of his industry. Instead of being raised
in a ratio, compounded of the difference of conditions
and the superfluity of possessions, a fanciful Stand-
ard isassumed. If the rich man enjoy a capital man-
sion, with windows ten feet in height. and three feet
ten inches in width,. he pays for them as single win-
dows: but if a man of little fortune should have win-
dows in his house, of modern date, five feet high and
five feet wide, each window is charged to him as two!
If the rich man brew his own beer, he pays a duty
only on malt ; but if the poor artisan quenches his
thirst at the alehouse, he most pay in the price an ad-
ditional duty on beer ! To the gentleman of 5.0001.
a year, salt does not create an annnal expense, in ge-
neral the thousandth part of leis income ; but on the
moderate calculation it costs the peasant the sixtieth
part of his wages. The poor, who ought to pay no-
thing, are the heaviest taxed according to their means
of cantributioa ; *whilst the rich escape by the payment
of impositions, which they, comparatively, scarcely
feel. It is of no service to remark, that Legislators
are not geometricians—they on At to be philosopbels;
sod if they are not they undertake a task which they
in honour, are bound not to attempt to perform. Fu-
turity will scarcely believe that the resources of such
a country as Great Britain, instead of being drawn
from those who have most to spare. are principally ex-
tracted from those who need that which is eztorted
from them. It is high time that such a system should
he abolished ; and a new one more rational, more
equal, and more just, be adopted in its stead. Til
then the great art of Government will be, to devise
expedients to keep its bungling machinery together;
to counteract the edicts of its friction ; to splice avid
nail its disjointed parts ; to bind the heterogeneous
pieces; and to dissipate a great part of the exactions
from the many, in discharging the wages of the
State carpenters, employed in patching an half rotted
engine of intolerable oppression ? To suppose that
substantial relief can he given to the agriculturist and
the manufacturer, without the severest economy in the
public expenditure—without a great and effectual re-
trenchment—without an extensive diminution of rates
and taxes—without preserving the currency in an
healthy state—is a supposition as wild as ever entered I
the human brain. The quackery of Mr. Hall, werefi
in operation, would ultimately tend to ruin Ai
farmer and starve the poor : supply already exceeds
demand, not on account of an actual over production, 'I
but, because demand is diminished with a decreasing
trade. The labouring classes of all descriptions are
worse paid, and less employed, than they were so
years since; and. though their wants are the nit*
their means are lessened. Such a state of things ca
not last long ; it sows the seeds of its own destructiosi
There may be men, with nerves so firm as to conteor
plate the scene without horror ; but the great balk
the people cannot be indifferent—they are interested'
averting the evils that streak the political horizon. The
present Ministers possess not the capacity.if they hat:ithe
inclination. to grapple with danger, and contend suc-
cessfully with difficulty : their fears and their feelings
prompt them to bind rottenness together with paper
bands, rather than disturb the system which their prts
decessors. of similar political principles, introduced, and
which they have assiduously laboured to preserve. With
the agriculturist, the manufacturer, as well asthe land-
owner, should join heart and hand; and, instead of en-
deavour.ing to bolster agriculture by the imposition of
countervailing duties, from one extremity of the king-
dom to the other, in every village, town, and city, they
should prepare petitions, praying the Legislature to
begin immediately to lop off all useless expenditure—
extinguish all sinecures—reduce all pensions and sala-
ries to the circumstances of the titues—tefortn the
poor laws—and introduce a rigid system of economy
and retrenchment, to preserve the Constitution, and
PRIViNT REVOLUTION ! it is not merely folly, hut
the extreme of wickedness, to maintain an inordinate
standing army in time of peace, at an expence of eight
or nine millions ! It is a disgrace to a free nation, a
disgrace which our noble ancestors would not have
borne. Even Lord Chesterfield foresaw the effect of
an establishment of soldiery in time of peace. " By
degrees," said he, " a free people must be accustomed
to a standing army ; by degrees, that army must be
made strong enough to hold them in subjection : it is
the machine by which the chains of slavery are ri-
vetted upon them." That the nerve of industry should
be paralysed by an enormous weight of taxation. for
such a purpose, would exceed credibility, if we did not
know the wantonness of power! Sophistry will no
longer avail :—the grand panacea for the relief of the
agriculturist. must be found ia reducing an high priced
establishment to a level with low priced corn ! All po-
litical animosities should cease : Whig and Tery.Roy-
alist and Republican. should unite, in the endeavour to 1
save their country from convulsion—from ruin wads
d
I despair !
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