But can this system last? If during the last year the tenant paid the taxes at the expence of his capital; if that which when ripe for the market would be worth 501. be sold for 201. must not his property be deteriorated, and can he do the same this? Those, who are acquainted with agriculture, well know that the moment things are thrown out of their course destruction follows like a whirlwind. Who can command the corn to grow, or the cattle to feed? You must regulate your manure for your corn; your grass for the beasts; and if the arrangement is destroyed the whole system is lost. Need I, after this, ask if £ were obtain ed last year by dint of exécutions on the tenant, or loss of rent to the landlord, whether the very circumstance will not be the cause why half cannot be got now? and that to prove that were obtained for the taxes, without a market for farming produce,' is but to shew that you put the farmer into a state to prevent him paying the same this year; and the landlord, either to cheat his tradesmen or put down his establishment, with either of which the indirect taxes must sooner or later equally fall. And before I leave this subject, let me add, that, as wild is it to say that the quantity of country bank notes have been the cause of our sufferings, as to tell you that port wine is poison because some immoderately make use of it. Without country banks your system never could have been kept up, your war taxes never raised. Some, it is true, as in all other walks of life, have made an unfair use of them yet those, who cry down this system in the present state of society, might expect to raise oranges in Lapland without the assistance of horticultural science! But, say others, this will all be set right when we return to our good old system-when all again is cheapness and plenty. What does the stockholder answer? You forget that you owe me forty millions per annum; that the Chancellor of the Exchequer requires 'It is not any consequence what was the amount of the exact sum obtained from landed property: the argument will be the same. I poor re thirty more for the use of the Government; and that the quire between' ten and twelve in a direct tax on the land for their support. To those who are in the habit of attending to parochial duties, we need not mention the extent of evils growing out of the Poor Laws; and the state, in which our parish poor now are, but too clearly proves how sadly the best, the most charitable of human institutions may in time be perverted. Those laws, once the safe-guard against misery in old age or infirmity, are now the reward of idleness and vice; and not only is the disgrace of going to the parish done away, but the person that can impose on its officer is accounted the most clever in his society. To go into instances of this would fill a volume, and be foreign to the subject; suffice it to say, that if the increase is not speedily stopped, the poor will be sole possessors of the profits of the estates, leaving their natural owners badly paid as their stewards. For it is now well known and understood, that in the same degree as agriculture declines, do the claims on the parish purse increase, and the indirect taxes diminish. 2 The Poor Returns to the 25th of March, 1815, amount to 7,023,386, exclusive of 854 parishes which made no return. An intelligent friend of mine takes the total at nearly eight millions; and assures me, that from what he has seen of the increase to this time, the amount for the year 1816 to 1817 will be nearer twelve millions; whilst in the year 1785, the amount of the same expence was only 2,184,9041. 18s. 11d, showing an increase to the year 1816 of more than five times that sum. And comparing this statement with one sent me by the same person from his own parish, which is of small extent, and without a manufactory or town, in the south of Devon, the increase will be found nearly the same. Which sum he expects this year will be increased to one-ninth more. ? When labourers received half-a-crown a-day, they could buy tea, sugar, &c. and many other little luxuries, which at nine-pence and one shilling, their present daily pay, they are obliged to forego. When we From this state of difficulties how are we to get out? had the entire command of the seas, when we obliged every passenger to call at our door, we could regulate our affairs as we liked; we could raise taxes at our pleasure; like the man who keeps the only inn on a road, we could charge what we pleased. But now every other country is open to the traveller, when he can stop where he likes, will he buy' from us at a pound what he can get from others at ten shillings? Nay, are we so patriotic, that when we can purchase from abroad at half the price of our own markets, we shall not be tempted to do it? Ask our farmer why he gives his friend brandy and water rather than strong beer: "Because," says he, "I sell my barley at twenty shillings per quarter, and the king's duties alone, when I buy it again, make me pay for it at eighty;" ignorantly unaware, that to support an illicit trade must in the end be his ruin. And must we not expect the same will happen in all other sorts of merchandize? for, from the system of those who are engaged in this traffic, the expence of stopping them, I fear, will be equal to the revenue that will be saved by it: the greater the temptation from high duties, added to the want of other employment, the more they will dare, and the more they will increase: 1 To show the rivalry we must expect in foreign markets, I need only ask what must be the situation of the Newfoundland merchant-Can he expect to sell his fish in Spain or the West Indies, when, to encourage their fisheries, and, above all, to make seamen, the French now give a bounty of twelve francs per quintal for all fish caught by themselves in Newfoundland and carried to the West Indies; and as Spain has imposed a duty on all fish of about five shillings per quintal, a bounty of five francs per quintal is given for all carried to that country direct, and six francs for such as may first come to any port in France, and afterwards be transported thither; With a duty of twenty-two francs per quintal on all foreign fish that may be imported into France, and other bounties to their own fisheries not necessary to mention? Fish when ready for the market, in Newfoundland is worth about twelve francs. If, then, the maxim be a just one, that you must bring down your taxation to the price of your commodity, or raise the price to taxation, what a picture is before us! For myself, I will only say, that to face the danger is, I trust, half the battle; to know its extent, the only chance of finding its remedy. Let every man who lives on the taxes of our country take care to keep the sources whence they flow in the most flourishing condition; let him take the burthen from the industrious, or assist them to bear them; let him stimulate industry in every way in his power; remenbering that it is from the rapid circulation of money that the treasury coffers are filled; that there is not a money transaction between men which does not directly or indirectly leave something to the state. Let the public creditor and public officer remember, that when the farmer cannot live, when the tradesman gives up his shop, and the merchant his counting-house, their revenues are at an end. Let the land-owner remember, that to stimulate the manufacturer, the merchant, and the tradesman, to industry, is the only means of improving his rents. In fine, let the idle man be ever forward to assist the industrious with his purse, when,' public credit being restored, England shall yet support her character as the first nation of the world. My dear Yours very faithfully, A. H. H. It is supposed by many that the result of the present state of agriculture will be a scarcity of corn at no very distant period, and that the country will consequently be relieved from its present distress. I fear, however, that it will be found to have a very different effect. It is a certain and regular market, that can alone restore public credit; individuals, it is true, may profit by high prices, but the system will be as disorganized as at present. Agriculture, as all other trades, must be confined to the limits prescribed by the capital employed in it; in proportion as the value of its produce is certain and regular, will men be induced to advance money for it, and in that proportion only, can we, I believe, hope to see it restored. |