The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-10-05 00:00:00

ThE ATATEAMAI4

3~ -.

, THE -DISCONTENTED AINUF4C-. Borouglitnongers against the Constitution: these two
i
, • TURERS. ,
war', together with another war, for lasingclose- t
presented. America', have wonderfully altered the
LETTER 11. situation of the industrious classes, which before then
was very easy and comfortable;, but by the intoler-
-
TO THE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN.
SIRS we cOnsider how popular discontent steleip elveti"v shove mentioned they are now no
,
better than Helots, working for the profit of others.
is or ought to be treated in England, and compare it Whether Mr.
Pit EsTON*B calculation is correct or not
with the manner in which the People are treated in is more than I will affirm; but it must be allowed
foreign countries, we ought to feel grateful to our
that it is monstrous, and that it has not been di:-
ancestors for having bequeathed us the inheritance of proved. Its pressure is beyond human sufferance,
mfeetal or corporal : for ifs labouring mail bad powerS
a Constitution so excellent and invaluable. With .
as the People have s' an undoubted right to pets I body to earnsufficieet for the anneal support of
himself and family after paying ten pounds to the
lion," that is to set forth all the grievances, wrongs, Government out of every eighteen by him so earned,
injuries, &c. which they suffer, or conceive they suf. it is hardly to he supposed that when he came to re-
fer, either collectively er individually, and to their fleet in his own mind, upon the diffetence of his
situation from dm of persons of the same condition
own Representatives belongs the task of examining
in former ages, whets all the necessaries of life were
their complaints, and of propounding a remedy, untaxed, as well as upon the application of the money
This allotted from bin., it is hardly possible, I say, that which the King is hound to carry into effect.
obligation on the Crown may he established by va. he would have mental f force and fortitude sufficient
rious proofs—by the words of Ft:tonsure, who says, to bear up against his situation; for it is absurd to
suppose Wit any man will exert all the powers of his
that the power of the King is a power confided to
body if his trim, is not elan engaged in the task.—
him by his People for the express purpose of defend .The People of Paraguay. .
refused to work, Red re-
Ing them in their persons and properties against all fused food, and laid liiPrOi•PiVP4 down sod died, when
injury—it may be proved by the Message sent to they found that the Jesuits were In reap all the pro.
RICHARD 11. from both Houses of Parliament, by the fits of their labelers, anti that tarry Eubslsteocs mos,
months of the Duke of GLOCCE4TER, the King's "1" that was to be allowed them ; just so our matid.
uncle, and the Bishop of ELT, who told Dianfectorers, however deposed to industry, may he et.
petted to flag under the heart-sinking belief inspired
(Rictisen), that if a King should disregard his Pea- by Mr. l'itesToN's calculation, that not of the earn-
ings of their labour ple's grievances, and the advice of his Parliament, II small portion only goes to their
and only follow his own froward will, he may, by own maintenance, whilst the larger share goes to the
the ancient Laws and Constitution of the kingdom charges incurred by the reinstatement of French Le-
gitimates, or to pay the pesisinns of Sinecurists and
be deposed, and some other of the Royal Family pot
plundering lioroughmongers. It is impossible, I re-
in his stead, which in fact did shortly after happen to pest, that habits of industry cart he kept alive in a
the said King RICHARD: end lastly, It may be proved country under such a deadening influence, and they
by the preamble to the Statute of Provisos', quoted i who expect it, expect that which is not in the nature
in my last, in which it is laid down as a fundamen- of man.
tel part of the Constitution, that " whenever any I will now lease this poor British Helot toiling-
for insatiable taskmasters and tax-gatherers to the
common mischief shall happen to the realm, the King
commiseretion of such of my readers as possess a few
ought, and is bound by his Coronation Oath, by and grail's of Christian (hooky, ar.d proceed to view the
subject in a light purely political. Mr. Pur,vottoojo,
with the advice arid consent of his People in Petite,
men!, thereof to maks renaedy. More need not be that upon ss. gained by the working mechanic the
said to•show, that when the nation is governed Sc- Government adds a tae of ten shillings, what is this
but a tax upon industry ? a tea amounting to,
cording to the Constitution, every complaint must be
say 125 per cent., arid how can the tioieufec-
heard, every grievance redressed, and every cause of tures of any cosetry fleovish under such a load ?
jopt disconteot renr yeti ; but if the People allow the how can the merchants who export our manufactures
Constitution to he dispensed =ith, if they participate stand a competition in a foreign market with the ma-
in the corruptions of Statesmen, they ought not to
nufactules of other nation., where labour is not lased?
Wirrooent was willing commerce should perish, so
blame the Constitution, but themselves. Men who
the war to restore French Legitimacy proved success.
have rights and vial not use them, deserve no pity, f I .A ul ttil our commerce might have perished, and
be their sufferings what they may. Let us now look our manufacturers have all died by famine, for any
to other nations for a moment, who have no Consti- thing that that unnatural monster, so unworthy they
1 totion. ID Torkey the subject dares not complain, name of an Englishman, or the war party with
which he acted, egret,. If England has escaped such
let the oppression under which lie groans be ever so
a calamity, no thanks to these traitors, who betrayed
great—the People have no right to petition, what
her interests for the sake of Bourbon restorations
then do they do ? Why they set fire to their neigh- which from first to last was the object of their hearts,
boors' houses, and this in fact is not an act of dew. though their perfidious tongues disavowed it occa.
rate madness, so much as of deep policy—those sinnally. Had it not been fur British illgentlilyi so
whom oppression lies reduced to want, make by this successfully directed to the invention of machinery,
Wimonsit's wish would have been accomplished,
means others as forlorn and wretched as themselves.
and our trade and manufactures would have perished
Tlle'nutnber of the discontented is thus increased, for the sake of a family whose despotism and ambition
and the same Government that ruled by terror be- have been a curse upon Europe for ages. Thongs
gins to feel terror in its turn ; the GRAND SEIGNIOR these Anglo-Bourbonic betrayers of their country
is blockaded in his seraglio, and compelled to throw failed in bringing upon it so great. a misfortune. yet
we Owe to theta the lasting otiligatiun of a tea of 1'25
over the wall the head of his Minister, whose cruel
per cent. upon British labour. now our mapu!':e-
esactions had reduced the People to wretchedness.— tures can compete with those of other countries en.
Sometimes be himself is dispatched, and another der such circumstances is difficult to imagine, esp.-
Prince of the same family placed upon the Throne; cially when it is considered how much the value of
in short, an expiation is made, and it is either the Mi. those articles is increased by labour. In some cases
the price of the raw material is said not to exceed a
nistry or the Imperial family that furnish the victim,
quarter., in others not an eighth pert of the valve of
But this is a savage and ferocious mode of obtaining
the article when manufactured. All this increase is
the redress of a nation's grievances, and ought to be produced by labour, and British labour has, if Mr.
avoided and even execrated by Englishmen, ertio have PRESTON'S calculation is correct, been taxed a hon.
the advantage of a free Constitution, which may be dred and twenty-five per cent. to effect the DISGRACE-
taiIed a sort of political machinery, invented and set rut., the IMPOLITIC, the IMPIOUS purpose above
mentioned. One point I must again anti again insist
ep to answer this very purpose in a Lae and legal
upon : that this extensien of taxation to the nevem..
way. It is true that this excellent machinery has ries of life, by which mesas those are taxed who
by length of time got a little out of repair ; are not represented, is both against the Con-
and there are many wicked men who find it stitation and the wise policy of our ancestors.—
their interest to keep it an, but the influence of these They left the national industry free and unshackled,
men is fast declining. They are now known and stud the natural consequence was that it flourished
greatly, as Sir JOHN FoRTEICUE assures us, the La.
branded as delinquents of the highest order, cam. borious Classes had plenty of butcher's meat. and fish
pared with whom highwaymen and housebreakers on fast days, and good beer to drink, and fine
are poor and pitiful thieves, fit objects, not so much woollen clothing, and hnosehold goer, whilst water
of our indignation as of compassion ; whilst the was drank by no one except for penance. At pre-
others, becoming daily more and more the objects of . sent no
man, who owes his support to labour alone,
thesei comforts. This deterioration in our
public scorn and detestation, accelerate by the offeuce enjoys
condition s the consequence of universal taxation;
which their unparalleled effrontery (on which they
but universal taxation requires Universal Suffrage to
chiefly depend) is incessantly giving to the honest render it Censtitatiotril, swd I hors to God it never
feelings of the nation the very Reform they endeavour will be rendered Constitutional. Universal Suffrage
to avoid. Let our industrious manufacturers never instead of freeing thelaborinesClasees from that yoke
despair of obtaining redress in a constitutional way, of taxation, the weight of which has been mode mani.
fest by Mr. PRESTON, would only rivet that yoke
although the same power of corruption has been the
about their necks; instead of a favour it would be to
primary cause of their distress, should evert itself in do them the greatest injury. I know my old
• certain Assembly to prevent the apirlication of a friend
Major CARTWRIGHT thinks differently.—
proper remedy. Let them console themselves with the I know that his wish is toot to injure but to relieve
reflection, that this is a power which can only operate them. His intentions are good, hot his deductions
are contrary to reason and experience. It was the
by the aid of darkness like other robberies, and can.
emancipation of the Laborious Classes from taxation
not long withstand the light of the present day; and ire every kind, legitimate and illegitimate, that made
moreover, let them feel an honest pride in the con- this an industrious, and manufacturing, and commer-
sciousness that every man capable of forming a just cial country; now this happy state is not to be reco-
and moral estimate will pay more respect to the state vered by making taxation legitimate, but by claitning
of an industrious mechanic, however abject his con- a constitutional exemption from it. The ,effect of such
a measure would not be confined to the
_party es-
dition, titan to the splendid guilt of the corruptionist
emitted—it would vivify the whole system, as 1
wallowing in wealth wrung from the sufferings of promise to prove henceforth; but I must conclude the
the People. present Letter, in which I have shown that the People
Mr. PREsToN has asserted in the very teeth of Mi. have aconstitutional right to state their grievances ,
nisters, who have not dared to contradict him, that and to expect legal redress--that the Laborious
Classes are aggrieved by illegitimate taxation—and
out of every eighteen pounds earned by labour, ten
that to put these Laborious Classes in the same fa.
are paid to Government in the way of lases ; which vourable estate enjoyed by their ancestors, tares
said taxes have been luta still are imposed for two should not be lakl on the necessaries of life, but only
purposes, in my mind, equally nefarious; the one on supereoltiet, which would not only afford redress to
for the espence incurred by an open war against the those classes, but (es will he further shown) give a
Independence of a foreign Nadel, for presuming to new stimulus and energy to the wttolts system.
do what we ourselves did in 1688 ; the other occasion- i remain, &r.
ad by a sacred hadoilestig war wagedbySioecariatsaud Balbp Set. St TIMOTHY TLII,IIIII.A3is
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