It is with pleasure that ...
The Times, 1824-01-29T00:00:00

It is with pleasue lat-we iheaT from afl 'parts of the country of the imnprovemnent in the condition of what has been called the agricultural interest, the farmers and land-' ownersof the nation. There is hardly any public ques- tion up.on which we feel.more satisficd with the part 'we have taken, than upon that of the agricultural difficulties.. The condition of the farmers. is now improving, and it inust.still go-on improving; for its amelioration arnses from natural causes, an - increasing population, and a more rapid conisumaption of the products of the earth, of the' necessaries of life, by a peQope' tolerably at ease, in full employment, and capable of earning sufficient Gubis6terree by the labour of th'lr liands. Whereas, had any artificial means been resorted to, when the agricwltiiral,p'ressure was. most severe, the. consequences would have been. tbe.veryl reverse of those whicb we novw wvitness '\rnth- so much pleasure. Tile farmers might, - indeed; have rteceived sorhe sligbt and transitory allcviationi C;bm the higher price of tifeir commodities, but our manufactures must have languished, the waster not being .able to pBy his 'woikmnari enough to buy lim bread, the foreign, martkt would have been occupied by others; our me- clianics'must either have eiqigrated, or would 'have diedpif want at liome. . And. then) we ask, vwhat act of Parliament could have kept.up -the price of grain, , when the tuouths to eat it were diminished in number? Agri-. cultural distress would now really have, only,been be-' ginning, iinstead of . drawing towards its terininatiorx. Some were for destroying the "Fundholders and the Clergy, for - Yatake my4afe * When yott do take the menins- whereby I live.". Yetbotl .t eclasseso9fpeoplehavebeen-spared ay, ad wat is more, Aare -tqu4ed by niatural means to -r;ieve that distres of whiehtey we,ore. icwise. ai- 4ieuIh'or. One order of the cominunity cm never prospef long: by-the destruction of the persons, or the invasion of theproperzy of .anotber; ... It isclear, that. to whatsoever causes the aUeviafiorrof the agricultm-da distress is owsing, those causes are not-'-f-h temporary kind; they are not of the nature of expedieits, for n6 expedients were had recoiuse to: expedie4ts operale but-flr a limited'pe'riod, and thenamake way for, other ex- pedient& VWe-bave explained above, under what influence theagricitufal distress 'Vas-in'part 'ubsided.' .Another cause, perhaps, of the improved condition of 'the finer, is the mhore rigid economy which he has been obligea 'by the 'pressure of'the times to introduce into his household,'-the 'curtailmentofbhis expenses at home and, Aroiadi This, also,- is a g'reat public and private advantage: for, there is no real.comfort derived- to the individual 'from: extrava- gance; and a state is great, and powerfld, and happy, only in the degree in which all classes of- its subjects ate frugal, active% andtindustrious. We.bellbve'it is 'now dis- covered, or ther allowed, that corn cn be produced .at a much less expense than that wvvch w as sworn to''s the leastand lowest, by certain luminaries in the art of itr- ing, before the Parliamentary Committee.