The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-12-27 00:00:00

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THE 4GRICULTURAL DISTRESSES.

(raoM THIS NORWICH MIRCURI4
We understand it to he in contemplation of the
cultural Association of this county to call a public meet-
ing fur the purpose of considerias what means can he
• allopted to alleviate the present pr sure of stairs, and
to bold out a reasonable hope of prosperity in-future.--
U sack a meeting be mile& we hope moistly it will be
attended by gentlemen of landed property aid by the in-
telligent tenantry of this opulent county, with a slow to
• the fair discantsiou and elucidation of 'the real merits'of
the question. In 1812 the price of wheat wasfrom 106
to 140 shillings a guilder. During the greater. part
of the present year the average has not risen meat
above 53-56. Here then is a depression which no piker
trade could support, a depression of nearly 200 per cent.
not upon the profit. but upon the whole return of the
business. These prices, it is true, exhibit the extremes
of high and low—but if half the amount be the actual
depreciation. it is more than enough to account for the
ruin of the trade and of those engaged in it.
There have been abatements in rent and tithes io
Most cases. These have, lately—subsequently to the
first depression—been voluntarily reduced in many in-
stances—the one from 15 to 20--the other from 10 to
iS per cent. The pries of labour' is slightly reduced,
but that has alwa; s been too low to bear much reduc-
tion. The cost of seed and horse provender us-
/orally falls with the price of corn, as does the
subsistence of the parties interested. The capital em-
Oloyed Is also less in proportion. Still the farmer
contends, that notwithstanding an increased produc-
tion from superior cultivation, be cannot live--nay.
be goes further, be says his profits will afford rso rest
at all. We have heard the most upright and
intelli-
gent of our Norfolk Farmers maintain that there is
not a patch of land in the county that in the present
stets of affairs can afford a shilling for rent ?• On
the cpntrary it is urged that farms are no sooner va-
cated that hired—in many instances (the corporation
farms in particular) at the old rents, and that though
many suffer, the great body of thefts occupied in agri-
culture go en at Iraq if they do not prosper. Of all
things then it is most desiralife to obtain a knowledge
of the farts of the case.
From the above statement it appears that the only
item of a farmer's expenditure which remains un-
changed is TAXATION ; and it is now become not only
a serious object. het indeed the costa' object of en-
quiry, whether the present weight of taxes be or be
not capable of producing all this disturbance in the
equilibrinui of trade and property—in the prosperity
and happiness of the people. We see no reason why.
under a reduction of all tl:e component parts of ex-
penditure, rent, tithe, seed, provender. labour, and
subsistence; we see no reason, except the unaltered'
weight of taxation, that ought to render an equivalent
reduction in price, so decidedly ruinous to the grower.
But It is high time that the point should be aster-
seined, for if it be as the farmer represents, the ruin of
the State mast shortly follow the ruin of the indivi-
dual, and at present there appears to be but too much
ground to credit to a considerable extent the averments
of the agriculturist.
Let us however be understood. We have not the
most remote idea that any measure which contemplates
a high price—that is relatively to the contiuental
price—can be advantageous to or even borne by this
country. It is perfectly absurd to suppose that any
plan meditating an arrangement by which subsistence
shall be perotenently sustained at a rate nearly three
time' as high as the cost upon the great continents of
Europe and America can be possible. The effect of
any sach provision as that which the spirit of the
Coro Bill was taken to imply—namely. a pretty con-
stant price of 80 shillings can never hold. In any such
event all persons of fixed income, and all whose
products of industry are affected like manu-
factures by the rate of subsistence, would soon leave
England for cheaper lands, and the agriculturists would
be left to eat their high-priced corn, and pay the taxes
and support the paupers themselves. But it is no less
important to the country than to the individual, that
the facts of the farmer's condition should he ascertained,
and such remedies as are feasible immediately applied.
The farmer ought not to be any further the victim of
lopes and fallacies such as have been held out to dupe
him thus far. We therefore earnestly advocate a gene-
ral attendance of those interested, and particularly of
. county gentlemen of weight and capacity at such a meet-
' ing as we understand will be called. This is no ques-
lion of party. It involves the safety of the country, and
'deserves the most calm, dispassionate, and complete in-
yestigStion, consideration, and discussion. We are
quite aware that in what we have said we only recapi-
tulate principles and facts we have before stated more
than once, but it is imperatively necessary on the eve
. of such a meeting to endeavour to impress them gene-
rally and strongly.
• We have this week received the actual reeks of con-
cerns carried on by practical men of skill and industry.
•Fraut these we select one case, of which we shanty.
space permits,insert next week the details. It its
•of 221 aerosol light land, and exhibits a loss (ftlearill*.
elegies:Bl62o to Michaelmas 1821) of 432it.55. flek-,. •

AMERICAN LAW CASE.

(PROM THE M'ESTIRN HERALD.]
IMPORTANT DECISION.
Supreme Court of the State of Ohio for Jefferson County,
Octs.ber Term, 1821; present, PEACE, Chief Justice,
and HITCHCOCK,Judge.

THE STATE OF OHIO V. ELIZABETH GEOZOI.
This was a prosecution by indictment against the
defendant, a woman of colour, for the murder of her
infant.
The traverse Jury being impanelled sad sworn, the
Counsel for the State offered Mary Cooper, a black
woman, as a witness, to prove the fast of killing.
The Counsel for the prisoner objected to her being
sworn as a witness, on the ground that she was lucent-
potent to.certify in the cause by the statute of this
State, amendatory to the Act entitled so Act to regu-
late black and mulatto persons. The section of the
law upon which the objection was founded is in these
words:—" Bs it further enacted, That so black or
mulatto person or persons shall hereafter be permitted
to be sworn or give evidence in any Court of record,
or elsewhere, in this State, in any cause depending, or
matter of controversy, where either, party to the same
is a white person, or in any prosecution which shall
be instituted, in behalf a this State, against any whits
person." The witness offered in this case was pure