The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-05-28 00:00:00

'I

**SIM /MLA, AND SIR T. LSTARIDGE. •

The following correspondence Is well worthy of
attention on account of the en e fully that it eithc,
ir
bill.- was heard of he.
It really is like the totem Lange of 4somplimenra
Mween Dan We/ire and the Maniac ! Only think
4.f awn beiag. at this time order. more and more eon-
that the importation of corn (of which there
PsTeers eare for three years) is the cause of theime
price of prod wee end of agrienitural distress ! As to
varleJetaisdiet. Webb, we defy any bunion twine.—
What dors he mean by totally ASI) anaccthei ' The
shame is. however, not in Webba hot in those of the
landlords and farmers, who *till support him in his
V prof:efflux... He declares his determination
to persevere! That he will. We warrant it. as long as
I,e ran find fools to raise money to pay fir the graed
diallers at fienderann'e Hotel, and to defray the ex-
pense of circulating his empty botubast about the
casein y.
Hendemon's Rotel, Westminster. 9th May. Mo.
s.a,—f have the honour to acquaint von, that it it the
unanimous make of this Committee of Management for
the petitioners on Agricultural Distress, that 1 should
leee no time in offering you their unqualified approbs-
t,on, and their most hearty and grateful thanks for your
independent, able, and manly conduct, in venturing to
move an amendment in the Hotowof Commons last night,
en the proposed Resolutions of the Marquess of Im '-
decry for the regulation of the Corn Triole„and alt.
• 1
on such repliers you were 'lmported by only 24
agaieet 243, strange as it may appear to many!-1 can
with truth assure you, that neither the great body of pe-
titioners, pervading every county in the kingdom, and
feeling alike the pressure of which all complain. nor this
Committee, intend in the least to relax their exertions
in consequence of such majority, to obtain that fair and
.e4;1131 protectiee for all the prodact ions of our soil, which
without they are convict-al by experience and evidence
of facts, no power upon earth can maintain or preserve
the productive or profitable cultivation of the soil of the
united kingilmn.—Sir, this Committee has outlived the
imputation of insanitlfrom a cleaner of very high autbo-
riev, for having is 1819 ventured, on their own ',Teri.
race. to petition stalest the evil tendency and pernicious
werking of rhessth Geo. 3d. e. 26, which hie ItlajestjeGo-
yerrwisent themselves, with only the int tog expe-
rience they bad of its defects, have since renounced and
discarded. not only as insufficient and ineffectual for the
ends proposed, but as being actually alike injurious to
the interests both of the growers and importers of core,
in .arms as strong as this Committee ever ventured I.
apply to that most erroneoessystem.—Bottorned on theie
own experience, therefore, of the defects and ineta.
cierwies of that law, and perceiving only a shade of dif.
ference in all the essential parts of it with the proposed
Resniutiona, inasmuch, as by the most delusive aitalihb
latioursystere of ge is still retained, and ifs duty
be added. a redamion almost equal in amount to such
duty is wedeln the restrictive price. this Committee
again ventures, even at the like hazard of imputed inset
site, and eves in the face of such an overwhelming ma.
jarity of the House of Commons. thus publicly and se•
letunly to declare to you. Sir, and also most humbly sod
respectfully to submit to his Majesty's Government, and
the logiststure,l'lsat the proposed Resolutions, if car-
ried into effect, will neither arrest the progress of dot
*traction already cotnaienced, and now in frightful and
mast alarming progress among all the Occupiers of thil
soil, nor restore confidence to inch of them as may yet be
able to maintain their ground, and who have capital hill
to continue theirmenpations ; Tor we venture boldly
to declare, on the evidence of past experience. that the
lands of the United Kingdom cannot, and will not much
lunger, he cultivated under the Resolutions propoeodby
the Noble Marquess. I shall now proceed to lay beets
you our objections to the Noble Marquee'', propositions,
• more for the purpose of recording those objections, than
the vain expectation of prevailing with them until fur-
ther distress and experience of their insufficiency shall
again stiptrsede such a system, in its turn, in the oil.
nion of his Majesty's Government, as it both already the
provisions of the 55th Geo. 33. c. 21.
By these Resolutions every prospect of rent and pro-
fit on cultivation are completely annihilated, as will ap-
pear from the following short and simple statement.
Rent, and of course profit, which can only arise after
payment of rent, does not commence or accrue on an
oversee of years, (with our present taxation,) until
Wheat shall reach Wt. per quarter. or 74. W. per bushel.
With the highest dote proposed, viz. 1.75. per quarter,
Wheat on an average of years, may be imported at and
under 50s. per quarter, whenever the price in this coun-
try shall reach 70s. per quarter, or, only 10s. per quar-
ter, on the average of years. above the disbursements
necessary to grow it before either rent or profit shall sc.
erne! And thus will every motive, with all ability to
cultivate, be completely eatinguisheil.
The same principal applies to, and the same estimate
may be made, on every other production of our soil. on
all of which the proposed Resolutious are either altoge-
ther inadequate or silent.
1 am wiling to impute these omissions on the part of
the Noble Marquess, to nothing but want of that expe-
rimental knowledge. which we possess, of the operation
and effect of such protecting duties as we seek ; for his
alarm at these duties must vanish, if he will only advert
to the constant and unbounded supply of the only two
crops of British growth which are effectually and securely
protected ; and these are at this moment, end, upon an
average of yeats, are, the most redundant crops grown
is the United Kingdom. I mean Hops and Potatoes ;
the former protected by the prohibiting duty of Sf. per
cgt.—and the latter equally protected from import by
their bulk. Our experience tells us, that-if every pro-
duction of our soil were equally protected, the result in
all would be equally beneficial, both to the growers and
consumers; hut that 'nth, state of Betweenity, if I may be
allowed that expressive. although not classical wort. the
culairation of these Islands,cannot only nut be carried on,
but cannot exist. The duties we propose, when well de-
fined, and rightly understood, are in reality.neither more
nor less than bounties, paid by foreigners to promote
our own internal industry, and can never be paid by
the consumer in this country, because the importer
must gall here on the terms which the supply and de-'
mend in our own market shall adjust, and every import
moat increase that supply, and tend to tomer the price
against himself. But lam told the effects of these du-
ties must be to command high prices in this country, or
they sill do us no good; this I totally and altogether
dewy. The effect may, and must be to raise the present
prices, and restore confidence to the occupiers, or it cer-
tainty will do no good : bat when such duties shill-have
raised the I and legitimate cost of production In
this country, sod witheet which our Agriculture cannot
be maintained at all, they will from that moment con-
steady lower them in the exact degree that production
on our soil shall be promoted by such duties, and there
is this grand difference between the present system, and
that which I propose, for, we shall then have the whole
Mass of Oaf produce grown on our soil, the whole sup-
ply of our population, to balance the whole mass of tax-
ation, which now we hare not ; and by Nos reserving
the whole supply to massive+, the production of such
whole supply will sustain such minium, and yet tender
provisions cheaper, on the whole average of years, than
the consumers can possibly obtain them by dividing our
market with foreigners. and thereby paralyzing. the
*bola iminstry of this country. Only protect *grind.
tarsi capital and industry, and competition between the