The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-04-30 00:00:00

complainants conld possibly proceed. The consider-
ation has, they admit, been forced upon them by the
sufferings of the country, in the same breath they
maintain the impossibility of obviating the effects of
their former impolitic acts of omission and of commis-
sion. To a Committee composed with such a prepon-
derance of Ministerial power as the list exhibits, we
are not perhaps to look with much hope, nor indeed
dry we look with any, except inasmuch as their.report
will furnish points for investigation, facts for elucida-
tion, and general object* for discussion. From the
report we expect very little, from after investigation, 11
when the whole energy of the oatiunal ability shall be
brought to bear upon this curious, intricate, and km
damental question of political science, every thing
that knowledge and talent can elicit.
It is, however, full time for the country at large
steadfastly to calculate the effects of the change which
lutist happen. England (almost up to the present day)
has been acting upon the idea of Expansion of her
possessions. England must now come at once to cons-
pate upon the effects of Contraction, not only of
nominal value only, bat of her system of individual
expenditure. The first grand operation has taken
place upon agricultural produce, but even with respect
to articles of the first necessity, the depression is yet
partial, and only at its commencement. Land, the
immediate sonrce of production, has hitherto been
comparatively very little affected. Rents have not
',offered the depreciation they are doomed shortly to
nnilergo. In this operation, farmers who hold under-
INises, will surer a loss of property also indefinite,
because it will depend upon the impression their
s.-vetal cases and the general state of things shall
make upon their landlords. Some will meet ruin,
stone will compromise, but all must suffer. With or
is some instances before the fall of rents, the tithes
will sink, but not we apprehend to the same degree,
because the clergyman having the alternative of a
moduli or a gathering, will be likely to insist more
nearly upon the utmost value, and most especially
lwause the generally insnificient incomes' of the
church, will, of necessity, render incumbents more
evict. Thus those incomes which circulate perhaps
th- most immediately, will be suddenly and greatly
diminished, while the price of all other commodities
will follow subsistence at a touch slower rate. It is
therefore impossible to estimate the distress which the
sudden and %Went contraction of demand must occa
sinn, unless counteracted by other cusses. Those
traders wire derive their profits from articles of luxury,
will be the first reduced, because those who must
retract, will first begin with the abandonment of
;interim It will not be until the reclined income
st:all be adequate from reduced price to command the
saute gasntity of commodities which the artificially
enlarged income now commands, that distress will
cease. Nor will it then altogethvr ; for the pressure
of taxation will he felt with a weight proportioned to
the comparative relation it bears to protlnc.ion.
If we take the two periods just before the com-
mencement of the late war with France, 1791, for in-
stance, and the present time, we believe it is next to
impossible even to soajecture what the difference of
Vie pressure may be. We know indeed that the tax-
ion was then 17 millions and is now about 54 ; but
is impossible to compute the increased value of the
oduction of the kingdom. It is obviously immensely
mgmets:ed, but it is not probable, even under the pro.
tgious advances scientific power has made in *pi-
.altare and all the arts, that it should be raised to any
'hung like thrice the former amount, the ratio in
hich production ought to stand to taxation, iu order
to place us upon the same footing. Colquhoun's corn-
sutations will now avail us nothing. since all the
;Janda:ions of his ralentations are already and must
be still further altered. There is then still a period
If great weakdess to be over-lived, and it is therefore
imperative upon the government to throw in some
support that may enable the patient to sustain his
fusses. Retrenchment is certainly one means, bet we
Lave always held it a very inadequate means. Tim
tru • remedy is the course which we learn from tint
natural pear r?-1 of society—to set idleness to work by
app:ication of capital upon fresh sources of pro-
ductien.—We cannot express the abhorrence in which
we hold the doctrine of those political ceconomists
er'to maintain that public misery can be wrought by
abundance. It is not the abundance, but the unequal
distribution of that abundance that is the cause, and
the-c is no peaceful way of restoring the balance, ex-
cept by raising the idle into the class of the indus-
mons, and thereby enabling them to exchange
till (roils of their labour for the fruits of the la-
boor of others. Al: that we have heard and read
about nn profitable employment being attainable
f apitat and labour proceeds from the determination
to adhere to artificial standards for the great bulk of
commodities. erected during the war, and to accept
the natural standard to which the price of corn Las
fallen And is falling as the remuneration for labour
eniplosed in agricultme. It is allowed on all bands
diet we must Tillie the price of corn or depress that
of every other commodity. and the only difference be-
tween the alternative of raising or reducing lies is
t .is—the first it forbidden by external relations and,
Y) domestic necessity, and these obstacles to the first
iervirably lead to the acceptance of the second term of
the proposition. There is then no present immediate
or *devote relief bat by an increase of production
e Taal to the relative increase of taxation ; and in the
clear, decided, manifest failure of individual exertion
to preside such relief, we contend that it is Ts' DCTI
for Tun Ooettttxuax t to originate a MEASURE OF NA-
TIO:I/IL ASSISTANCI.
Mesa, Aram 27.—Sailed this evening. for
Bouhugne, the Sybil, Captain Middleton, having on
bearsi the Hight lion. Ueorge Canning.—April 2S,
passed the Honourable Company's ship Bombay. from
tae Downs, fur China, with a fine wind east.
Yesterday afternoon, between 3 and 4 o'clock, a
young man, having the appearance of a gentleman's
secant was observed deliberately mounting the hal-
lustindes of Westminster Bridge. A number of the
passengers stopped to observe him, supposing be had
dropped something over oa the jettueste of the bridge,
whoa hiving gained his object. he sprang into the
water : in a few moments lie rose to the surface. and
appeared to commence swimming; but after striking
out a few times, be raised his hands above the water
and gradually sank. There was but ens boat near
the spot, Walsh instantly made towards lint ; bet it
was Ino late—tbe body had disappeared. The bat
net was pinked up.

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trI'ATP.;SMA:

PRICE OF STOCKS TIFIIS DAY AT on lIECLOC 11
Sank. Stint • ••1 fedelitdar 04 se A• 1
C 7411 P I
Son
13*idsei—ew An.s. hats. 4p•
Pee CoT C Crilh-Ren Rork 711
#er Met. 111‘.
14 per Cents. Os. Ss. Ss. pin
Viper Ct, Diaty4oll 7j 111 S tiontian for Moony pos •
toper Cent. I Bank for Areount
Long Ann. 191 India for ditto •
I lop. S per Cent. Con. foi Met
Irish A pie G.M. • Lott.l4thets 141. 141.

LONDON:
MONDAY EVENING. APRIL 30, IS2I.

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