The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-12-11 00:00:00

PRESENT PRICE OF PROVISIONS.

Tilt PUBLIC, THE PAWS. AND THE LANDLORD.
We are perpetuallycealitTjust surprise expreseild •
that many articles of food, which are reported to be so
very cheap in various parts of the country, should be
sold at such disproportionate prices in one markets ;
and by snany..it is oves—doebteembether such reports
are true.—Of the truth of the generality of these
facts, recorded in the newspapers, there is no donbt;
'we hare ourselves more than once reported the prices
of meat in-Smithfield; and yet we well know, that at
the west-end of the town, and in many families who
deal with butchers by agnement for the year round,
and in others who confide in the integrity of a butcher
with whom they are accustomed to deal, as well as
seen families who entrust their marketings to their
servants, prices more than double haiie been paid.—
And thus it is with other articles to a greater or less
extent. The fact is, that the public at large do not,
benefit in the degree they ought by the present ex-
treme and almost unprecedentedly low price of the
necessaries of life ; the farmer is ruined by the low i
price which only he _cut obtain fot the 'articles he
produces;—the price is so disproportioned to the ex-
pense he is at, including taxes, tithes, rent, and other
charges, that, when the remainder of the capital be
msy have accumulated is gone, as gone it soon must
be, be has nothing to look to but a gaol or a work-
house. Nevertheless this is not the fault of the pub-
lic at large; they have a natnral and equitable right
to be fed as cheaply•as persons in their situations in
life are fed in other European countries ; and it is 1
abominable imposition in the middle-men, the butcher,
and the baker, and others, who buy cheap, but who
sell dear, making an inordinate profit out of the lo,ses
of the farmer, and the ignorance or inattention of the
public.
There is a great deal that is wrong in all this; there I
is nothing wrong in the farmer being obliged to sell
cheap ; he mast do so, 'if he sell at all; he ought to
slo so ; but then he ought not to be placed in such
cireensstances by those who at present conduct the
usludnistration of public affairs in the country, that it
should cost him, perhaps, at the rate of twelve uhil-
lings to produce that which he sells for six ; this is
not tight, nor can it continue without involving such
distress as was never beface known in this nation to
the occupier of land, and the consequent loss of rent,
embarrassment, and final ruin of those owners of land
who have nothing but their estates to Rive upon. The
average price of wheat, prime Kent and Essee,.vanking
as high in quality as that of any counties in Eaglaltd,
in Mark-lane, last week, was only forty-six shillings
the quarter. or net six shillings the bushel ; but all
other descriptions were totally unsaleable. although
offered at a much greater reduction. In two provincial
papers, of two adjoining counties in the eastern part'
of the island, there appeared, a few weeks since, ad-
vertisements of the sale of the stock and effects of
nearly Jose hundred farmers *; and, from the uniform
tendency of the evidence given before tbe Committee
in the last Session of Parliament. It is evident that the
present race of farmers, yeomanry, and minot- hind,
Inds, mast be twerly undone. moles* some 'effec teal
relief from the burdens, which press them doWn' to the
ground be speedily administeied.
The state of things, as relates to one of these '-
pressed dosses of society, must be wrong; from whence
that wrong proceeds it behoves to be discovered with-
out a moment's loss of time. The thing is. hotreive,
as the late Speaker said, the traffic for seals in a cer-
tain House was, as notorious as the sun at noon day.
There are those, nevertheless. who *Wally shut their
eyes against the perception of . truth,'though equalle
notorious ; but of them it may be said. without the
spirit of prophecy, " verily they Shell have their re-
ward." There is, however, ' nothing wrong, but
much to rejoice in, that the necessaries of life are
so reduced, as to be brought once more within the
reach of those of the industrious classes who can
obtain employment at all. We rejoice in tbe know-
ledge ,of the fact—not because the farmers are hurt
thereby, which they ought not and need not be ; but
because the poor, and those who labour, will, by the
wages of their labour, be enabled to live and support
their families comfortably,—because we see no
righteous reason why the people of France. and
Spain, and the Netherlands, should be fed with
wheat at 4s. a bushel. and the people of England pay
Ins. or 12s. because we are anxious to banish for ever
that poverty-striking system, which has made England
a land of peepers.; and, because we hope to live to
see the time when every poor maa in England will
not only be able to read his bible, bat to live easily by
the honest labours of his hands, and have roast-beef
and plumb-pudding for his Christmas dinner.--
(Bristol Mercury.)

From the miscellaneous contents of a Sydney Ga-
zette, which has come to hand, dated Saturday, June,
2, 1821, same idea maybe formed of the improving
state of civilization and commerce in that colony.
This single paper contains between forty and fifty ad-
vertisements, many of which announce the sale of
most of those various articles of common convenience
and luxury which are used by the peoplu.of this
country. One of them offers to let genteel furnished
apartments on the drawing-room floor. Such is the
state of a new and extended English society in the re-
motest quarters of the globe, and a spot which, about
thirty years ago, was a mere wilderness. The follow-
lug are extracts :—Aasixe of Bread, the loaf of tw
pounds, sixpence halfpenny.
Average price of articles at yesterday's market:—
Wheat, Ile. 6d. per bushel; maize, 4s. 64. per bushel ;
potatoes, 7s. per cwt.; fowls, 2s. 6d. per couple; but-
ter, 2s. 6d. per lb.; eggs, 31. per dozen.
la the month of December peaches begin to ripen in
this agony. and have hitherto been out of season by
the latter end of March. at furthest. We have now en-
tered upon June, and green peaches are still exhibited
in our streets for sale. This certainly is worthy, of
remark, as it is I eirceinstastee wholly unprecedented,
and consequently may be ranked moot; the extraor-
Ansel's.
MAllatill.—On Wednesday last. by special license,'
at the church of St. Philip, Sydney. by the Rat. Ri-
chard Hill. Mr. Richard Read, artist, of Net-street, to
Mies Rlisa, eldest denim, of Mr. Beekman Hitch-
cork, of George-Wed, Sydow:.