The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-10-24 00:00:00

STATESI

tional tax of a shilling a pound to be laid upon my
candles. I pay the tax. My customers, in consequence
of the high price, take to burning rashes; my candles
remain hoig upon my hands ; I finally sell them for less
than they cost tae ; and do those who consume them par
all the expense.. Certainly the eater of bread pays ail ,
the expenses of raising that bread ; but this Is only
when the farmer can pay his rent, and pay all Mi oat- ,
pines out of the prodaree of the farm. If he pay any
:et of the oat-goings out of capital already acearna- I
ed, which is the case at present, then the con-
Amer does not pay all the expenses of raising the bread.
Yet, Gentlemen, this is one of the many errors that hare
Mime into common use for our benefit through the imam-
mentality ofthe deep and dark school of Scotch political
siettnomists.—Of the Parliament we must speak with re- ,
serve, if not with revere nee. As far as it has gone in
the reducing of team its Acts merit our approbation,
and this I give as little grudgingly as any man in the
kingdom. But I most say, that in the general tars of
its mind I ran discover nothing to excite • very lively
hope of efficient measures from 'hat quarter. I was par-
ticularly struck, the other day, with the late Act with
regard to the turopike roads. It being a thing of con-
siderable bulk, I looked with eagerness to see if I could
discover some regulation that could lessen the tolls that
a farmer has to p-v. Nuthingappeared to me so natural
as that a bushel of wheat, worth four and six-pence Or
less) should not pay so bign a toll as a bushel of wheat
worth fifteen shilling.. In short, knowing that the late
measures shout cub-payments hare made six•pence as
valuable as eighteen-pence was before, I anxiously
looked for somas clause reducing the present toll of
eighteen-pence to six-pence. I looked, however, in
vain for any timing of ibis sort; an l found a law, the
effect of which, if the law be enforced, must be to add
greatly to the tradesmen's bills of the already breaking
farmers; because. the law will compel them to cast aside
the present wheels, and to have new-ones whether they
want them or not. Not a word did I find about lessen-
ing the tolls which the farmer has to pay ' • but a great
deal indeed, about the shape and size of his wheels.—
The circumference, the diameter, the construction of
which I found described with all the minuteness belong.
ing to an arithmetical or geometrical problem. The cy-
lindrical form, the width of the tire, and particularly the
depth of the heads of the nails with which the tire is to
be fastened to the wheel. Of the latitude e>J longitude
of wheels I found much more than an abundance;
bat of the bringing of tolls down to the pro-
portion of the price of produce of the land, I
found not a single word.---The authors of ibis
Bill would appear to have adopted a new mode
of looking at a country.—Their eyes would appear
to be fixed upon the little narrow strips along which the
coaches roll ; and not upon the parts where the plough
goes,where the cattle graze, and whence come all the food
and all the raiment, and all the riches of the natio..
Those little strips, however, do at this moment presents
spectacle most instructive to the statesman, though, eel
the Caine time, enough to chill time heart in the body 40
every man that remembers what England was. Here we
behold men driven from the fields, by time penury of tb.
farmer, cracking stones into very small pekes diet there
may not be too rude a jolting of the food to tke stomachs
of those who are crammed with the taxes. Talk, indeed,
of the wild schemes of radical reformers ! Come, then,
oar adversaries, end tell us if the world ewer before SRW
each a thing as a station of ternarys unable to pay la-
bourers to till theism!, and compelled to be able to pay
them for sitting by the way side. cracking big states
iato the size of marbles ! Gentlemen, I defy the world
to produce the equal of this; and yet it appears leaky
`that this stone-tracking was discovered. In default of
qtly a 061.11.441111.01111.8* haws retracted to that
avid

Wiling them IspOrrome. 1017;71Felesse *Waft thing**,
were unavailing,, we must have realised the old exagger-
ated proverb of dinging stones against the
Where, thee, Gentlemen, are we to look fur a remedy 7
Where See we to seeklor the remade ofthope of iseelog
better days ? I,!obat very thing whiehlias bees so re-
probated, m Iskighed at, so seared it by so many per-
sons, and by very few more this by the greater pert of
Pou; 1 mean a reel reform of the Commons House of
arliament! If, Gentlemen, that petition, which
we in Hampshire signed on Portsdown Hill,
and which is now on the parade of the Par-
liament ; if that petition had been graciously re-
celled, and bad been acted upon to 1817, how
many farmers, already rained ; bow many more upon the
vile of ruin, would at this day have been prosperous
Arad happy men! Without this reform, Gentlemen, be
you assured. that no efficient reductions will take place;
and be you also assured, that without those reductions,
you must either cease to be farmers or must be ruined
men. And when I say ruined, 1 mean reduced to abso-
lute pauperism or beggary. I do not mean merely redu-
ced to poverty in a limited f the word; for,
recollect, that lobes a man has fallen, he is not the same
man that he would have been if he had been aloft.
He does not fall to the bottom of the farmers and stand
at the head of the labourers; but he falls to the bottom
of the labourers, and bitter as the thought is, unpleasant
as I know it is for you to bear, painful as it is for me to
say, it is my duty to say it, and I give it you as my set-
tled opinion, that if you do not quit your farms or better
yourselves to obtain a reform of the parliament, thou-
nods spots thousands of yon who are now farmers, will
along with your children, become the labourers of
your present labourers, or your present labourers sons.
I know, Gentlemen, that this is not the way for me to
acquire popularity amongst yool bat I know that to be'
honest ants sincere in the declaring of my opinions is
the way to acquire a fair claim to your respect; and I
know also that in the end it is the way to possess it. It
does not become me, stranger in the country as I am, to
dictate to men like you, nor even officiously to obtrude on
you my advice ; but upon this occasion I cannot refrain
from mentioning, that I have seen in the county news-
papers. that a meeting of farmers took place at Win-
chester on Saturday last ; that they signed a requisition
to the Sheriff to call a county meeting to take into con-
sideration the propriety of petitioning the Parliament
on the subject of their unparalleled distress, ;and on
that of a enesable, efficient, and speedy remedy. This re-
quisitions they b ave resolved to seed to tbe market
towns to be signed by. the Yeomen ; and, gentlemen,
my opinion decidedly is, that if the yeomen in every
county of England will act thus, and will, when they
meet, pray, in the language of the intelligent end public-
spirited yeomen of the county of Kest, fur a Reform of
the Parhament and reduction of the interest of the Debt,
the thing will be done, you will be saved, and the coos-
try will be once more happy and free, and relieved for
ever from that disgraceful sight, labourers cracking the
stones into little bits ; lab , reduced to half-skeletons ,
thus employed by the way side, while, with full bellies and
plump cheeks, they ought to be whistling to the jingle
of the plough traces on the other side of the hedge. This
brings me, gentlemen, to that conclusion to which I
should longago have come, bad I not been enticed along
by that singular patience And attention with which you
have honoured me, and which I value so much more than
bawling and clamour. Conclude, however, I cannot,
without an eh lion or two with regard to thihardly
pressed and unhappy laho . lien Omen, there seems to
be a regular scheme on foot for gettiog something out of
this body of persons, wherewith to satisfy the other de-
mands upon the farmer. He-cannot now pay all the de-
mands that are made upon him.. Tim wet " oh! he
must pay them ; for tiny are for the support of the .10-
minion I" The tit tee : " not to pay theta were to sin
against Goo, as well As against men!" The rest : "be
" must pay that for hero is the lease; litre is the parch-

AS.

. .
" moots and what um will be worm than his contract ?'
Well thee, what are the other outgoings? The prier`
rates; " Aye, reduce thenrl" The labourers' wages:— ,
" Aye, pinch him! Get something out of him! Let him
have less to eat and less to wear, and less to warm him!"
Gentlemen, every such project will fail in the end.— '
Every such project is in defiance not only of the laws
of Ood, but of nature herself. The landlord supplies the
land ; hat what is his land without the hand of the Is. I 1
bearer? I have so wish to depredate the claim of the 1
landlord; but is his claim better than that of the labour-
e;.? Is the dirt ms which we tread more precious than
the sweat of man? Is property in land to be set before '
labour, which, according to every principle of law as i
well as of justice and of reason, is the very foundation
of all property of every description. Laying aside, how- !
ever, all principle counected with the subject; divesting
ourselves, it we can be so base as to wish it, of all those '
feelings whirls nature has placed in our breast, and
looking at the matter with an eye of common prudence
only, who can think of interest, of safety, of one tiro-
limes happiness or quiet, surrounded by a swarm of
starring labourers? Gentlemen, look at unhappy Ire-
land: think of the occupier of a farm, compelled to pass
the night with lights burning in his house, with arms
readilowled ; with his friend, sad relations collected
to., ether as in a garrison; with, the doors barricaded ;
with all the avenues rendered inaccessible; with a force
distributed in preparation for attack ; and think of the
feelings of the master of that house, while his stacks
and Ins eat-buildings are biasing, and he daring not to
sally out to forest the jousters off his own farm-yard !
Fur myself, I can irately say, that 1 would not accept of
the proprietorship of fifty estates upon the condition of
leading such a life upon one of tnem for one winter;
and I 'think I can safely say, that what I feel upon this
subject Is the feeling of von all. The description which
I bate just given is no Jescriptioe of mine. My genius
has not the merit of inventing a thing so full of horrors.
I meekly repeat what we read in almost every news-paper
that reaches us from Ireland. Do you, Gentlemen, wish
to see England in such a state as that? Every Eng-
lishman's heart answers " No!" No: GOD At.-
'noel,' forbid that the once happy farm houses of
England should be converted Into a scene like this!
Well, then, gentlemen, farmers of Wiltshire, do you see
any other means of avoiding such a calamity than that
of treating the labourers with gestelness anil indite ?
Almost through the whole of my life, being au employer
of labourers myself, I am aware that they ate trot with-
out tit-ir faults any more than the rest of mankind. I
am aware that their follies arid vices stand in need of
the correction of those whom they serve. I am fvesiOof
all this ; but I cannot forget what is due to the triilit.,
that they perform ; I moot forget the endless tiTexi-
tion of the commands of God to render to labour itstloe
reward ; I cannot forget that it is owing to stelae*.
perhaps more than any thing else, that I am not at this
day a labourer myself ; and I cannot forget, though I
, cast not about religion ; though I make not a bawling
about blasphemy. that it is the duty of us all to do Irj
others as we under similar circommaaces would ha
them dithers do unto ns. tleatlesnen, far the-great
tenth's that you save paid to me, cod pgseiamlarly f i
the patience and the man;'..estlvinst and bind feeling
with which you bare beard whit Piave said with regari
to thelVeturers, the only return I have to make you is
that of most sincerely wishing, you, WheA without your
owe exertions, lam persuaded you will new again en-
joy, prosperity." ,

~~

COLOBIIIIAN LOAN.—The following 4aiket tests M~
addressed by MIL 'Lea to the Controctofit Om the Colom-
bian Lope:— . "Dedfont, Oct. 22.
" Oestientenflre Prnclametidttleroeity the Vice
Pteittleitt of the Iltirimblie9l4, dated Bogota,
lobe Stine. iarer )Wl2Wlh-ki;elßy attention,
has not reaelied me through any authorised channel;
but I see no reason to doubt Its authenticity. I attribute
this proclamation, In fact, to vet/earnest representations
which I have urgettipon the Government on the neces
city of preventing, in future, its powers from being
applied to pnrpoself not within their due scope. and sub-
delegated to other persons not contemplated by the
Government.
" In reference to the Loan negotiated with von at
Paris, in March last, I can only refer you to the power
deposited in your-hands, signed by the executive antho-
rity, most complete in its form and tenor, and which has
never been revoked in the slightest degree, directly or
indirectly.
" In unison with the power itself, the instructions
with which I am furnished specially direct me to raise
a loan in Europe wbesevei it should be Omni/table, and
on con.litions which have not been exceeded in my en-
gagement with yon.
" No advice has yet reached me of my despatches
which announced the contract for the loan havieg ar-
rived at liogotm
" !laving lento respect exceeded ihe powers granted
to me by the Government of Colombia, I Wu only
to all, that the Government will be found faithful in
all respects to the engagements I bare entered into in
its behalf.
" I have the honour to be, Gentlemen.
" Your most obedient biamblo servant.
(Signed) F.' A. ZEA.
" Messrs. Charles Herring, William Graham, and John
Diston Powles, Contractors for the Colombian Loan."

A letter from Jacmrl tilajti) dated the Ist alt. says,
—"The day before yesterday, some members a the Le-,
erislatino Assembly, now in the midst of its session, were
r arrested by order of thit))resident, together with several
other individuals. for w t cause is nut known ; but it
is supposed the arrest It 'relation to the late intripies of
General Romaine, The umber of persons disaffected
'to the existing Govern ,is undoubtedly very ronsi-
derable; but the financins( President Boyer, the devotion
of the soldiery to Mm, and the attachment of the great
mass ;lithe population, render it proltable that nothing
will disturb tha tranquillity and security of this country.
tieneral Romaine's executioo was very sodden and un-
expected. Au Aid-de-camp of the President was seen
rifling at fall speed into Leogsni, a few mornings since,
who carried the fatal order, which was immediately ex•
ecuted. Romaine was an important personage under
Cbristophe, whom he served as a General, and bore the
title of Duke of Embe."
A Brazil mail arrived yesterday, with letters from Rio
de Jauriro to the 20th of Angus' The Prince Regent
had gone to the province of Sr. Paul, about 400 miles in
Ow interior, to quell some disturbances that bad broken
out there, leaving the Princess at the hemd of the 80.
vernment daring his absence. The packet left Bahia
on the 311 t of August, and Pernambuco un the 6th of
September. The letters from Pernambuco state, that a
number of black anal mulatto soldiers had volunteered
there, to join the Prince's forces; and a notice hal been
issued by the intedfdant, announcing his readiness to
treat with any persons to convey the troops, anionnting
to 2,000 men, to Alagoas. A vessel arrived on the sth
front Bahia, having sailed one day after the packet, the
Captain of which reported, that on the day she sailed,
an attack was made upon Madeira's out-poste, about a
league out of the town, and when his vessel got under
weigh, the place was in the utmost confusion.

31 High and ilye, the Proprietors of Vanithell
Gardens, having received permission, by an addition to
their lieense, of engsging professional dancers to ter-
tribute to the entertainment of the pohlie, will, it is said,
among their numerous intended alterolions, erect a build.
ing sufficient to exhibit the whole of Old aninsements,
I with the exception of the fireworks, oo wet high!s.