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RC FURTHER
2.55
, P44–
OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
STATE OF THE NATION. PAUPERISM,
*
**, * ºr
THE MEANS OF EMPLOY-
ROTECTION REQUISITE to
MENT OF LABOR. *
THE SINKING FUND, AND
§
THE LANDED AND AGRI-.
ITS APPLICATION. ;
CULTURAL INTERESTS.
BY RICHARD PRESTON, ESQ. M. P.
* @
** gº
LONDON :
1816.
198 . . . Ori the State
Lloyds Esq. being lands &f an inferior description, sold at the pub-
lic sale room of the Court of Chancery, in August 1816, even at
a still lower Rate. . . -
Of the 70 millions a year, about 12 millions belong to the public
as the income of the Sinking Fund. About 25 millions more of
the total are for the expence of the Establishment.
The Sinking Fund has its advantages and its disadvantages.
18t. Its advantages consist in keeping up the price of the funds,
and even advancing the price; and by that means reducing the
value of money, or, more correctly speaking, the rate of interest
usually given for money. The Sinking Fund could not be wholly
withdrawn, without increasing the difficulties of the times, by
depreciating the 3 per cent. annuities to 30l. per cent. and in-
creasing the real value of money to 10l. per cent. per annum.
2dly. This Fund is disadvantageous in drawing 12 millions a year
from the sources of industry into the pockets of those owners of
the funds, who buy funded property for speculation, and for the
purpose of increasing their capital, and not as the means of a per-
IIIanent 1n COme.
By keeping on foot Taxation, to answer the Sinking Fund, the
power of accumulation of capital is denied to the proprietors of
the soil, farmers, merchants, manufacturers and tradesmen, and
the money withdrawn from the country, as taxation for this pur-
pose deprives the proprietor and cultivator of the soil, of the power
of expending that money in labor. On this topic some further
observations will be added.
A determined system of Retrenchment may be calculated to
produce a saving of 5 millions a year; for example—no Gover-
nor of an Island or Colony should be allowed more than 5000l.
a year, while some have 20,000l. a year. No one person in any
department, or holding several offices under Government, should
receive more than 10,000l. a year from the Government ; and of
these officers there should be very few ; only the Cabinet Ministers.
who have official duties requiring eminent talents and their whole
attention. To those who may urge that 5,000,000 a year cannot
by any possibility be saved by retrenchment, the short answer is,
produce a list of salaries and duties, and let an investigation of the
catalogue take place, and a correct opinion on this point may be
formed !! And it should always be remembered that every 18l. a
year paid to any placeman or pensioner, beyond a fair remunera-
tion for his time, &c. withdraws from the public the means of
giving active employment to one individual, as the head of a fa-
mily; thus depriving 5 persons of the means of sustenance from
the fruits of honest industry and active labor, and rendering them
paupers. tº
Pursuing this or some such system, and reducing the military
Establishment, without abridging the pay of the private soldiers in
** of the Nation. 125
- º
the Army or the Sailors in the Navy, 5,000,000 might be savet.
being ºth of the present expenditure. The difficulty, if any, 6f
saving more than this sum proves the enormity of Taxation and
our distressed situation. After this reduction the expenditure would
be 20 millions a year, and the amount of Taxation would be 65
millions a year. A property Tax, taking from every payment
under government, including the funds, and with the exception of
the soldier and sailor, 10 per cent, would reduce the burden of Tax-
ation to a sum not far exceeding 57,500,000, being the balance of
70,000,000 after deducting 5 millions of retrenchment and 5,500,000
of per centage. In consideration of this reduction, &c. the pro-
perty of the country, as estimated at about 90 millions a year,
should bear a Tax of 10 per cent, computed at 9 millions a year,
thus adding a sum of about 9 millions a year to the amount of the
present Taxes, in the place of those taxes which press most severely
on the industry of the country. However, to enable the landed in-
terest to bear this Taxation, and in short to preserve any rental, the
burden of the Poor Rate should be so regulated that it may be borne
by the community at large in just proportions. For the purpose of
the, poor rate the rental should be computed at 90 millions; place-
men, &c. at 20,000,000; and the funded property at 45 millions,
making an aggregate amount of 155 millions a year; and houses,
docks, &c. should be computed, for the purpose of this tax, at
double their annual rental value, as the means of taxing personal
property, and thus there would be an addition of at least 20 mil-
lions, making together 175 millions.
These sources must contribute at least 10 millions to the Poor
Rates, thus making 1s. 9d. in the pound for the Poor. Beyond
all doubt the present expence of the poor exceeds the 10,000,000.
By a system of good management this expenditure may be
reduced to 5,000,000. It is essential that every parish should
maintain its own poor under the present system. Parishioners are
the best guardians of the conduct and the most competent judges
of the necessities of the poor. The country should add to the contri-
bution of each parish from Poor Rates a just proportion of the
Tax imposed on pensions, places, and funded property ; thus each
parish would receive about 4th part of its expenditure. An ex-
penditure in any parish below a certain rate, say Is. in the pound,
should subject that parish to a contribution in aid of the general
fund, so as to enable the general fund to provide for the relief of
parishes heavily burthened. The plan would require that farms only,
and not houses for occupation unconnected with farms should be as-
sessed to the present Poor Rate; and the new assessment should
be on houses, canals, &c. corporation dividends and funded pro-
perty, and on persons receiving any annual payments from govern-
No. XVII, Pam. VOL. IX. I
130 On the State
ment. By this arrangement parishes would have an interest as at pre-
sent against encouraging an increase on the Poor Rate, since that
increase must add to the burthen of the parish.—This scheme would
provide for the present race of paupers. In the ensuing session
of parliament the attention of the House of Commons is pledged to
the formation of a plan to guard against a succession of paupers, and
every well disposed person, especially those individuals who wish
to see the independence of the human mind cherished, and pro-
tected from the wretchedness of pauperism, will cordially co-ope.
rate in devising some liberal and beneficial arrangement for this
purpose. A more general resort to the system of parish apprentices
as it prevails in the western counties would be found a most
useful and benevolent part of a radical change in the system of
many districts. No peasantry are better fed or instructed, or ren-
dered more useful members of society, than that part of the com-
munity who enter life through this channel. The best servants,
men and women, and frequently the best farmers, tradesmen and
mechanics are to be found among those who have had the advan-
tage to be thus maintained and educated in their youth. Under this
system all the children dependant on the Poor Rate, and even the
children of the industrious labourers are at the age of seven years
settled very comfortably, and highly to the satisfaction of their pa-
rents; and except in some few instances, to the ultimate advantage of
the masters and mistresses, among the gentlemen, the farmers, and
the artisans in parishes; and among the shopkeepers in the towns,
and in sea ports among the owners and masters of vessels ; &c. and
by selecting proper situations, the children are placed under the care
.# those to whom they will be most useful, and with whom they
can be brought up in the manner most beneficial to themselves.
It is a great favour on the one hand to the parents, to obtain si-
tuations they deem eligible for the children; and on the other hand,
the persons who are liable to have apprentices bound on them, are
particularly anxious to have the children of honest and virtuous
parents; and it frequently happens that the child is placed with the
master by whom the father is employed. In some instances the
child as an apprentice, and the father and the grandfather as la-
bourers, are in the service of the same master. The ties thus
created, and the hope thus excited of providing for the children,
and the general habits formed by the plan, may account for the su-
periority in the characters of the labourers of the western counties
in which this practice, (a species of patriarchal system,) pre-
wails. *
For the first three or four years the apprentice may be some ex-
pence to the master. In the succeeding years he more than reim-
burses by his services, the expence thus incurred.
of the Nation. 3.31
. . The most thrifty farmers, master mariners, and proprietors of
shipping are those who have most parish apprentices well trained
in a regular succession, so that a large part of the work is per-
förmed by the apprentices; and on farms, they are fed from the pro-
duce of the farm, and thus the expense of labour is light, or rather
a home market is in effect provided.
That the servitude is for several years under a contract not
easily dissolved, secures good behaviour, and keeps the mind easy
and contented, from the knowledge that each party is bound to
the other, and must perform the contract.
To an apprentice who has behaved well, a suit of good cloaths
for Sundays is commonly presented at the end of the apprenticeship,
and these cloaths are worn for many years in grateful remem-
brance of the donor, and honest pride from the gift. *.
No children are sent from these districts to the manufactories.
A general resort to this excellent system would be a great advance
towards relief from the pressure of the poor rates, under the exist-
ing system.
The next step, and an essential one, to enable the landed interest
to bear their burdens, to arrest the present ruinous depreciation of
land, and to bring the capitalist into a just contribution towards the
expenses of the government, will be to annihilate all loans of money
by way of redeemable annuities preparatory to the great and im.
portant measure of reducing the legal rate of interest of money
from 5 to 4 per cent. By that arrangement, and it is one of the first
necessity and greatest utility, the capitalist would contribute to-
wards the burdens of the state; and persons, engaged in commerce
and manufactures would be assisted by the low rate of the interest
of money; protecting them from a diminution of their profits, to the
extent of this one per cent. or one fifth of 5 per cent. The more
the writer of these observations has heard or read, within or without
the walls of parliament, on the subject of the reduction of the rate
of legal interest for money, or examined the arguments, by way of
comparison with his experience, the more fully is he convinced of
the utility and expediency of the reduction. The benefit will be
still greater should rédeemable annuities be annihilated. Without
this previous measure, it would, indeed, be in vain to attempt a re-
duction of the rate of interest. The form of the bill he contem-
plates for accomplishing this object will be found in the Appendix.
The statute of Ann, which reduced the rate of legal interest
from 6 per cent. to 5 per cent. will be the proper precedent for a
further and corresponding reduction. That statute was framed in
times renowned for the wisdom of those who were in the law de-
partments.

1:32 On the State
*Also to protect the landed interest, and through them the go-
vernment, from a ruinous depreciation of rental, and the public from
the hazard and even the certainty of increasing pauperism and years
“of scarcity, and from great and frequent fluctuations in the prices of
provisions, and still more from the want of employment for the
active industry of the agricultural laborers, it will be a measure of
absolute necessity, to give to British husbandry a decided prefe-
rence in the corn market.
To accomplish this object, the late act of parliament regulating
the importation of corn, on the warehousing system, without duty,
should receive a revision.
In its principle this measure was right. However it has not se-
eured its object. It has not inspired confidence in the cultivator or
secured him against ruinous competition. For want of proper re-
gulation, it must destroy instead of advancing British husbandry.
It must paralyze industry, and render the country dependent on
foreigners for a supply of grain, and must keep the country in its
present depressed and ruinous condition.
While the present system of warehousing shall continue, there
will not be any regular market or demand for British corn. Those
parts of the country which are distant from the metropolis, and
from populous districts, constituted principally of manufacturers,
must be completely sacrificed, and they already are nearly ruined.
They depend for support, and ability to bear their portion of taxation,
on corn purchased by those who buy principally for the supply of
the metropolis and of large cities,and of manufacturing districts; and
who warehouse corn when the prices are low with the certainty
that advances in price must occasionally and necessarily occur;
so as to afford them a profit on their trade.
Under the present system a very small portion of British corn
will be warehoused. Thus the best and most useful market for
the farmer is lost to him. It is now obviously for the interest of
the merchant to import and warehouse foreign corn rather than
to supply himself with British corn; or in the circumstances most
favorable to the British farmer, the speculation of the merchant
would be to supply himself partly with British, and partly, but
principally, with foreign corn.
. Not only is the British farmer, and in the result British manu-
facture for home consumption, or nine tenth parts of our trade, in-
jured by this system ; but by the rate of depreciation which will
take place from time to time, as often as the warehouses shall be
opened and afford a supply of foreign corn, to the British markets,
there will be a recurrence of those mischiefs and of those distresses,
which have taken place within the last three years, and which now
press so severely on the energies of the nation 3 and British
agriculture must decline.
of the Nation. #33
It is to be lamented that corn should ever be at a high price ;
indeed should ever exceed 10s. a bushel. It is equally lament-
able, and still more distressing and ruinous to the great mass
of the population, that corn should be at a price below the expense
of raising it; and on lands of medium value, in reference to the
average of the empire, wheat cannot be raised at less than 10s. a
bushel.
Nothing is more important, as far as human wisdom can accom-
plish this great object, than to keep the price of corn nearly at the
same rate, and with the least possible fluctuation. The fluctua-
tion should never, if it were practicable so to confine it, exceed the
difference between 80 and 88s. while it has in some districts fluc-
tuated in this year from 48s., being 6s. a bushel, to 112s, or 14s.
a bushel.
It is of vital importance too, that an apprehension of famine or
of scarcity should never give an unreasonable or artificial price to
corn. On the other hand.speculation in foreign corn should not
be indulged for the sake of a few capitalists, or to gratify the pre-
judices of the manufacturers, to the ruin of the great bulk of the
people engaged in the trading and agricultural interests.
Importation free from duty, is the best protection against the
evil of scarcity, and the proper foundation of a system for making
this country the granary of Europe. The warehousing system is on
the other hand, and to a certain extent, the safeguard to the far-
mer, from the competition of the merchant, against the farmer, in
the markets of Great Britain, while corn shall be under the limits.
of the price which the legislature has deemed fiecessary for the
protection of British husbandry. But against the danger, and con-
sequent mischief of speculation by merchants, to the prejudice of
British agriculture, no sufficient guard exists. A few capitalists,
as was long since predicted, employing one million of money on
speculations in foreign corn, may in time to come, as in the three
last years, produce ruin to the whole agricultural interest of the
empire, employing a capitalih land of at least 1200,000,000, and
in farming stock, &c. of at least 200,000,000 of money, or 5l. an
acre for 40 millions of acres.
In consequence of the importing merchants running the race for
preference in the sale of foreign corn, from the moment the ware-
houses shall be opened, British corn will be excluded from all
chance of a fair sale in the British market ; and all those British
husbandmen, who from the narrowness of their circumstances are
obliged to sell early aſter harvest, at any price however reduced,
(and these are the little farmers whom it is of so much importance
to protect, and who constitute three-fourth parts of the agricultural
community) must be ruined. A remedy, and the only adequate
134 On the State
remedy for the unavoidable mischief of this system; and it is a re-
medy which it is most confidently believed, would benefit and not
iñjure the public! is to impose a duty, (for example 20s. a quarter,)
on all foreign corn imported into this country to be paid at the
time of its delivery out of the warehouse. This duty would be the
revival of the old and not the introduction of a new system. A pro-
tecting duty had existed for a long series of years prior to the late
act for warehousing corn. Even the revival of the old duty
would be some relief, but to increase the duty to 20s. a quarter,
would be the more efficient and salutary measure.
By enacting a protecting duty, a competition of capital in the
hands of ayfew merchants, to the ruin of nine millions of per-
sons º: artisans connected with British husbandry, and also
those manufacturers who are dependent on them and employed in
articles for their consumption or use, would be prevented. This
duty would keep the price, except in years of very deficient crops,
8teadily at or about the average of 80s. per quarter. It would
effectually guard against a competition which should reduce corn
to a price too low ; in other terms, greatly below the expense of
raising it. It would be an inducement to the merchants to pur-
chase British rather than foreign corn, for the purpose of being
warehoused ; and it would stimulate those exertions of British far-
mers by the security of a market (for a certain market is a point
of the first importance) and afford that protection from unreason-
able depreciation, which would insure an adequate supply from
British industry, so as to leave a stock from abundant years to
guard against harvests of deficient produce.
In the prosperity too of the farmer and of his landlord, the agri-
eultural laborer, and all those who are engaged in manufactures for
home consumption, would find regular and beneficial employment;
and on an average of every three years corn would, beyond all
doubt, be cheaper under this system, than it can be under that which
has been adopted. Hence the benefit to the manufacturer and to the
'public. Hence the benefit to the artizan and laborer by keep-
ing wages at steady rates.
This system would never advance corn to very high prices. The
importing merchant would guard against that mischief, and corn
would never be at such low prices as are ruinous to the farmer.
The duty would guard against that evil. Thus there would be a
just balance and counterpoise between the farmers and the public,
and a standard so much wanted for a just estimate of rents. i
. It must be obvious to every well-informed mind that some
... change is imperiously necessary. The present system is leading
"most rapidly to the decline of British husbandry, and of conse-
quence, there must, in a few years, be a deficient supply to a very
great amount, of the food necessary for the sustenance of British
of the Nation. 1435
t
'population; at least from the production of our own soil. 3 and to
i. to purchase a large proportion annually for a series of
years, would add to our distresses and render them overwhelming.
The diminution which will take place in seven years, under the
resent system, will in all probability amount to one-third part of
the usual supply of late years. **
The produce of the tax, as a tax, is of no importance. It may
even be fair and beneficial to give to the importing merchant of fo-
reign corn, by whom the duty shall be paid, a debenture for the
duty, entitling him or the holder of that debenture, (so that it would
be saleable and transferable,) to a drawback, at the same rate for
any quantity of sound marketable corn either of British growth, or
of foreign growth, and not exported immediately from the govern-
ment warehouse, and consequently not having paid the duty, which
he should export to foreign parts, within the succeeding two years.
This drawback is neither a measure of absolute necessity or of
justice, in case the duty should be imposed on such corn only as
should be delivered from the warehouse for sale in Great Britain ;
while it would be a measure highly expedient and even necessary if
the duty were imposed on corn at the time of importation; and if
the duty were so imposed, the drawback should be given as well on
foreign as on British corn, to be exported. The duty of 20s. a
quarter cannot be considered as equal to that which constitutes a
part of the expense, in direct and indirect taxation, of raising
British corn ; or as an impediment to the sale of foreign corn at,
or even under, 80s. a quarter; nor can this drawback, as under for-
mer systems, be any expense to government. The money paid un-
der the debenture will merely be a restoration or return of duty ac-
tually received, and may be less, but cannot be more than that duty.
The avowed object of the duty is to secure to British husbandr
a Market to the extent of all the corn grown in the country, and re-
quisite for the consumption of the country, while the price shall be
at or under 80s. per quarter, which in effect is only 72s, to the
grower, though the price in London, &c. may be 80s. Its object
is also to encourage merchants engaged in the corn trade, to pre-
vide importation against scarcity, and on the other hand to find a
market for British corn when it shall, in years of abundance, be at
prices corresponding with those of other countries after the resto-
ration of the duty of 20s. per quarter. These would be the coun-
tries in which, by the difference of taxation, corn can, on an average
of years, be raised cheaper than in the United Kingdom.
Even in the last two years, low prices have not been the conse-
quence of redundancy, as some very sensible men have supposed.
These prices have been caused by the want of a market; and that
want was occasioned partly by the supply of foreign corn to the
metropolis, the great cities, and manufacturing towns and partly,
- 1:36 On the State
and, in no small degree, from the distresses of the farmers, their
negessity to force the sale of their corn in an overcharged market;
and in places distant from markets of extensive demand, from a
competition between themselves, arising from their distress; ren-
dering it necessary for them to become sellers in a market not only
of diminished demand, but also of overcharged supply.
The present state of the market for cattle, sheep, and pigs, fully
demonstrates the accuracy of this exposition of the causes of low
TICéS,
The reduction is from 50 to even 66 per cent, in the price of
cattle, &c.; and yet at the close of the war, there was a deficient,
and not a redundant supply of animals for the market.
That Great Britain can, under a system of fair protection,
grow its own supply of corn and of animal food, cannot be ques-
tioned by any except mere theorists; men of no solid information;
men who have no accurate data on which to found their calcula-
tions: but in the present state of British husbandry—languid, in-
volved in great and general distress, and without any confidence to
revive its spirit, except among rich farmers who in truth profit by
the system, the quantity of corn grown or the quantity of animal
food provided, will not be equal to the demands of the British po-
pulation, if each person be allowed a just portion of food.
Computing the British population at 18 millions of persons, and
the number of culturable acres within the united kingdom to be
even 54 millions, which is allowing only six millions of acres of land
for wood, water, fences, roads, wastes, and for other purposes alto-
gether foreign to the production of food, there are not more than
three acres for each individual; and a well-fed population requires
that in the ordinary and hitherto deficient cultivation of the soil,
such as Britain even in her improved husbandry has exhibited,
and making just allowances for the food of cattle, and for beasts
of labor, there ought to be at least two acres and an half for each
individual; and after deducting inferior soils which supply little
food, there are not 45 millions of acres; the number requisite at
two acres and an half, for each individual.
Nor let it ever be forgotten that as you diminish cultivation,
you diminish the sources for employment for labor in Agriculture,
and in all those manufactures which depend on cultivation. You
also diminish, though this may appear strange, the quantity of ani-
mal food, and the general means of sustenance.
By those who have no experience or only a limited knowledge
on the subject, and who will not attend to that which is passing,
at the present critical period, before their eyes, it cannot be easily
-understood that the strength and welfare of a state consist in a
liberal expenditure in its cultivation. The lands which require moSt
of the Nation. 1:37
expense give the greatest employment for labor and for capital. An
acre of land not worth 8s. a year in natural grass, or for cultivation
in wheat, is more profitable and far more useful to the State when
cropped with a succession of potatoes, oats, and clover, or of tur-
neps, oats, and clover, than the best acre of land in the kingdom
occupied in a state of pasture : and he is the best patriot and friend
to the country, and most essentially serves she state, though he may
in some degree sacrifice his own interest (but that is not necessary),
who employs his capital on lands of this description. . . . ;
It is too generally received as a clear and indisputable axiom,
that one man's loss is another man's gain ; that a gain to one
branch of the community is a loss to that part of the commu-
nity which is in the opposite scale. Hence the contest of the ma-
nufacturers for cheap bread and low priced corn as the means of at-
taining reduced wages. Were this principle universally true then
the loss of the fundholder; the depreciation in the value of his stock;
would without regard to the operation of the sinking fund as im-
proved in power by low prices; be a gain to the public. Society
however is now so constituted that the country hails the advance in
the price of the funds, as a certain indication of returning prosperity.
The public even consents to pay 12,000,000 of money a year to
produce this state of market price. The object, however concealed,
is to render the rate of interest of money low by means of an in-
creased market price of the funded property; a circumstance
which evidently points to the expediency of an enactment, which
should regulate the interest of loans by way of annuity, and re-
duce the rate of legal interest on ordinary loans.
And if the advance of the price of the funds be an object, can it
be policy or justice to reduce the rate of rents, or the sale price of
land, or of houses, or of articles of manufacture ? Ought that large
part of the community dependant on the funding system, deriving an
income equal to a rental of 11. an acre on 45,000,000 of acres, viz.
the whole rental of the kingdom as computed from the produce of
the Property Tax, and contributing nothing towards direct Taxes
to church, king, or poor, or roads, to eat their food or to wear their
clothes or to furnish their houses, or enjoy their luxuries, at a scale
of reduced prices; increasing the relative value of the incomes they
receive as public creditors?
The argument presses more strongly when applied to those who
draw, the remaining 25 millions from the establishment. And
these two classes exceed the number of the proprietors of the
soil; and in ail probability influence about one fourth part of the
population, as mediately or immediately dependant on them.
To examine more minutely even the assumed benefit of low prices
* Ireland was not subject to the Property Tax.
388 On the State
£rom importation—Is it policy that a few importing merchants
should be encouraged or favored at the expense of the great body
of the community ? To encourage them to import, you give them
the command of the corn market; because unfortunately, from the
visitation of providence, and a short supply of corn of home growth
the price has advanced beyond 10s, a bushel, and the warehouses can
be opened for the sale of foreign corn || Mark the progress—
wheat advances in price above 80s. a quarter from a deficient crop—
the warehouses are opened—the supply from this source is trans-
ferred to the private warehouses of the merchant. From this mo-
ment he will be the seller in the public markets of general demand.
He will reduce his price from day to day, as often as the British
grower follows him in competition to sell. The merchant will keep
up the price as high as he can, for his own profit; but any profit to
him will encourage and even justify him to sell. Thus the price will
graduate from 80s, as lately to 60s. or 55s, as long as any foreign
corn shall remain in the market for sale; nay, for an extended pe-
riod; as long as British corn purchased by the merchants, at the re-
duced prices, shall supply a succession for future sales; so that at
the end of each season, as at present, the merchants will be the hol-
ders of the remaining stock of British corn; selling to the people of
Great Britain at 80s. that corn which the merchants purchased and
consequently the farmers sold at from 55s, to 75s. This corn pur-
chased at 7s. a bushel is yielding a profit of nearly 50 per cent. to the
merchant, while the farmers, the growers of this corn, have been
ruined by the sale; and it is said that an attempt has been making
to raise prices artificially so as to open the warehouses and liberate
from the restriction the corn deposited in them In short one million
of money, judiciously employed in the purchase of corn, would
enable a few merchants so to regulate the markets as to derive im-
mense profits, and to depress and ruin British Husbandry.
Are the public benefited 2 This is an important inquiry !!
Far from being benefited it is most conscientiously believed they
are sacrificed ; and it is a misfortune that the injury escapes their
observation.
This System depresses British husbandry; discourages cultiva-
tion; renders it impolitic and ruinous. It takes from the laborers
in husbandry, that extensive employment they would otherwise
obtain, and of which they stand in so much need. It clearly
causes to laborers in husbandry and in manufactures, a fluctuation
in wages. It injures the manufacturers themselves by diminishing
the means and the resources of their best customers; and requires
from commercial men, manufacturers, and tradesmen, a larger con-
tribution towards taxation, while it reduces their means of bearing
that taxation.
of the Nation. 139
* To those who urge that the country has great resources and
equal wealth under one system, as under the other, an answer §f
refutation is to be given. It is a short sighted policy; it is a mis-
taken opinion, like many other general rules which, true in the
abstract, are false and even absurd when applied to cases, .
though they fall within the letter, are not within the spirit of 't ſe
general rule. º
Suppose ten corn merchants to apply one million of money fa
the importation of corn, and to derive 5 per cent. from their spe-
culation. Is this equally as beneficial to the country as an expen-
diture of that one million of money in this country; distributing
I-10th to the church, I-10th to the poor, 1-10th to the king,
5-10ths' to the laborers, 1-10th to the farmers, and 1-10th to the
proprietor of the soil no rational man would support the affirm-
ative *
Again, suppose fifty thousand pounds profit to be derived from
this source of importation trade, (while the profit may by events
within the range of probability be 500,000,) is it equally beneficial
that this profit should fall into the hands of ten merchants, as that it
should be distributed into the hands of the great body of farmers ?
More than this, is it sound policy that the application of this small
capital, should have the power of destroying all the sources of
profit from a capital of 200 millions of money belonging to that
extensive and industrious class of community, the farmers ? In a
deficient harvest, to earn 5l. per cent on the capital employed in
importation may depreciate 72 millions worth of corn at 10s, a
bushel, to the extent of one fourth part of the amount, or 18 mil-
lions of money. But the corn of the united empire ought at
10s. a bushel for wheat to be 72,000,000 for bread corn alone:
being 4l. for each individual.
Without counting those who are employed in manufactures,
we may compute that at least 5000 persons, that is one per-
son for each twenty acres of corn, must be employed to raise
1,000,000l. worth of corn, and these 5000 persons support them-
selves and families, to the extent of 25,000 persons; and āgain these
persons, and the parson, the farmer, the proprietor, and the poor,
give five times as much employment to manufactures for home
consumption, as is given by the trade, if there be a trade, origi-
nating with and dependent on the regular importation of corn to
the extent of 1,000,000l. of money a year. *
But it, is denied that prices will in general be lower in conse-
quence of this importation. It is clear they will fluctuate more
under importation than without it. This, singly and of itself is
an evil. But in discouraging cultivation by the competition of
foreign corn, at any price under 80s. a quarter, you counteract the
spirit of British husbandry to an extent which more than counter-
140 On the State
*
vails the utility of temporary importation at an inferior price, and
on the whole reduce the quantity supplied to the market. From
this cause it is believed that at all times the consumers will pay more
fºr their bread under the present system, than they would under
the regulation which is proposed of a protecting duty. That an
adequate supply can be grown in the British dominions, has been
admitted by Mr. Alderman Atkins, notwithstanding his opposi-
tion to the Corn Bill was founded on the reverse of that pro-
position. His concession is so fixed in the memory of many
members of the House of Commons that it will be long remem-
bered. It went to the extent that our growth is sufficient be-
nd our own consumption, to supply our West India Islands !!!
slands which under a well regulated system of policy might
without any sacrifice of the interest of the Planters be made one
of the sources of extricating this country from the difficulties by
which it is surrounded.
The opinion now advanced respecting the probable prices of
corn is fully supported by a deduction drawn from the present
prices of meat and butter, in the markets of public demand. *.
Though cattle are reduced more than 50 per cent. in value to
those who rear them as distinguished from those who fatten them;
and though butter is sold at 6d. a pound in places distant from the
metropolis, yet in the metropolis, and markets of large demand, meat
is selling at the same prices, and butter nearly at the same prices as
during the war, and hams when dressed are retailing at the shops
at two shillings a pound.
So that the rearing and dairy farmers are pressed into those dif-
ficulties, and consequently those losses, which were predicted ;
while the public in the metropolis is deriving little or no advantage
from the ruin of the farmer, and the land owners ; on the contrary
tradesmen, &c. are involved in the consequences of the farmer’s
ruin 11 and employment, which is the great machine of circulation,
is suspended.
And the little farmer whom many are so anxious to support,
and encourage, has been the first, instead of being the last victim
of the unfortunate system which has prevailed. Without credit
and without any surplus capital, he is forced by necessity into the
markets, when, in the nature of things, cattle, corn, &c. are at the
lowest prices, and consequently the greatest sacrifices are required,
in a market with a redundant supply and his distresses begin the
race of depreciation and involve in ruin those who are next above
him in their circumstances.
The experience of the present moment justifies this proposition.
The corn of the harvest of this year belonging to distressed
farmers, is already in the market and depreciating the value, by their
anxiety and necessity to sell.
of the Nation. 141
There is now a great change in public opinion respecting the Corn
Question: nine tenth parts of the population are, by woeful ex-
perience, convinced that they erred in their former clamours; that
they were misled by their prejudices, and by popular or interested
opinion, and not by a Sound discretion.
Now then is the time for a wise government, a prudent legisla-
ture, and a patriotic press to inform the public mind; to brin
conviction even on those who are still in error, and to lead thern
to form such just and equitable arrangements, as shall give employ-
ment to British industry; shall protect British agriculture; shall
diminish Pauperism; shall support the finances by enabling those
who are taxed, to bear the burthen; and shall give ability to each
half of the population, to find employment for the other half, by
a mutual exchange of the labors and the fruits of their industry !!
It is not sufficient that Great Britain has the same physical re-
sources as formerly, or even greater. You must give action, energy,
and power to these resources. The misfortune which is experi-
enced is that you have changed the sources and diverted the tide of
wealth. You are requiring the industrious to labor not only for the
capitalist, but for those who are deprived of employment, and to a
great extent for discharged and maimed soldiers and sailors, most
meritorious objects of relief 1? The poor on the one hand, and the
fundholder, the placeman, and the pensioner, and your large mili-
tary establishment on the other hand, are drawing to themselves
the fruits of the labor of the active industrious part of the com-
munity: moreover they are consuming the capital of the Bee Hive."
This diminution of capital will, at no distant period, be severely
felt; not merely by a change of the stock of cattle and of corn from
one hand to another, (a result of no great importance with a view to
the future welfare of the country;) but by an actual and alarming di-
minution in the number of cattle, and of the quantity of corn, and
of physical power, from the absence of manure, and expen-
diture in labor ; and from the pauperism and idleness of a large
portion of the industry of the country; and the consequentinabi-
lity to reproduce an equal quantity of human sustenance.
The experience of every country which has witnessed a declin-
ing agriculture affords a lesson from which statesmen ought to de-
rive wisdom ; and to dare to oppose a system, fraught with so
much misery 3–with squalid poverty, and the unfortunate condi-
tion of the few rich, the many poor, and with the rich in a state of
poverty, from the circumstance of being the necessary distributors
of their property to the needy *
A race of peasantry once destroyed cannot be replaced at com-
*_
* In one year a capital of 1500 paid 500l. for probate duty, and for sue-
cession duty to the Government. A respectable solicitor stated this fact at
the moment of writing this observation,
#42 On the Stata,
mand. A long time must elapse before the energies of such araoe
gan be excited to the full extent of their former powers. Gold-
splith felt and has recorded this truth in his beautiful poem of the
Deserted Village. *
The prejudice of the public or rather of the manufacturers in
favor of the low price of corn, and of importation as the means of
attaining this object, deserves further attention. A few observa-
tions, by way of summary, will be devoted to the subject. Import-
ed corn to the value of one million of money may give an increase
of foreign trade to that extent This is acknowledged to be one
of the motives for a reliance on importation for a certain portion of
our food. The object is to establish a medium of exchange. The
corn is to be the article received in barter, for articles of manufac-
ture; or the price of the grain is to be paid from this country, in
a return of manufactured goods !! But attend to the consequences.
1st. You encourage foreign husbandry.
2dly. You, in effect, lay out that money in foreign Rent, foreign
labor.
3dly. You diminish the demand for manufactures for home
consumptionſ and you deprive this country of more labor, than
you employ in the equivalent of manufacture exported.
4thly. By suffering 1,000,000 in value of corn to be imported,
you depreciate British Provisions to a degree which is incalculable
and deprive your own countrymen of the means of buying that
manufacture you are so anxious to sell to foreigners || -
In the three last years, the depreciation of farm produce has
not been less than 90 millions a year, or 21, an acre on 45,000,000
of acres. The abstraction of this sum from the cultivators and
from the proprietors of the soil, and in the end from the laborers,
has brought them into the state of ruin, in which they are now
involved. The absence of this amount in the circulation of money
is the result of low prices, and has produced a stagnation in our
manufactures, and brought ruin on almost every class of the com-
munity. J
It will be asked is then Importation to be altogether excluded ?
Such exclusion is not either necessary or desired. The repose and
security of Government; the peace of the country; a protection.
against extraordinary high prices, are cogent reasons for encou-
raging importation under just regulations. Those regulations, as
already stated, should protect the farmer who pays heavy taxes.
against an overwhelming competition from the foreign grower, or
the British merchant, who is exempt from these taxes. A duty on:
all corn which shall be sold in Great Britain from the ware-
houses of this country, is the appropriate and only adequate re-
medy thus equalizing the prices and guarding against a ruinous
depreciation of corn of home growth; a remedy producing no other
of the Nation. 143
effect than making foreign corn, when sold in Great Britain, Šubject
to a duty approximating to, but not equalling the duty which in fact
is paid by the British grower. At this moment, with a duty of 25l.
per cent on cheese, the Dutch can afford to be competitors for the
sale in the British market of that article of their manufacture.
After a duty of 20s. a quarter shall be imposed on wheat of for
reign growth, the foreigner or the British Merchant, could afford
to sell foreign wheat in the British market, at or under 80s. a
quarter, and (for this is a most important consideration) derive a
greater profit from his capital so employed, than the average of
British farmers derive from their capital at like prices.
Against recommending a duty on the sale of imported corn, a
timid and vacillating administration may list, entertain the appre-
hension that the people will be excited to commotion as they were
against the measure of the late corn bill; and 2ndly, they may
fear lest the duty, may divert capital from the purchase of corn for
importation—a fear which argues the cowardice of imposing taxes
by the phalanx of influence and consequent majorities, without dar-
ing, as Mr. Pitt would have done, to take care that the means of pay-
ing the Taxes should be insured, notwithstanding public clamour.
As to the first point, the people have learned, at least they
have had ample opportunities of learning, wisdom from experience.
If they have profited by judicious observation on that which has
taken place during the last three years, they must have found that
bread may be cheap, farmers poor, their profits abolished and even
their capital wasted without any advantage to the community ; and
that, as was the natural order of events, the system has brought the
extreme of misery on the other parts of the community. - The
bees have been sacrificed. The drones are in possession of the hived
When a depreciation to the amount annually of twice the rental, has
deprived of employment and of payment all those through whose
hands this money would have passed, how should the bees have
preserved their hive or retained their honey : If the plan of pro-
viding a guinea for each person would have revived trade, have given
a new spur to agriculture and to employment in manufactures;
have been a remedy for the existing evil; what must be the mischief,
and the error of taking from one half of the population 90 millions
of just remuneration, in returns arising each year from the best
species of property—a property which graduates through every
rank of society: while a guinea distributed into the hands of each
person would in a very short time find its way to the treasury, and
finally into the hands of the Capitalist, the fundholder, public cre-
ditor, and those who share in the plunder of the State. But 90
imillions a year to the farmers, as the just and fair return for the
expence of cultivation, would be a renovating source; weekly
144 On the State
*
distributed through the various channels of industry and of general
circulation. This sum would return as regularly, and as rapidly as
it was paid, either in the shape of Taxes or for articles of manu-
facture &c. &c. for the public creditor and the dependants on the
establishment would have been paid out of the other parts of the
return. This is an important point for consideration. The public
taste has an unfortunate tendency to view this point with a jaun-
diced eye | Some late state papers in Holland have made regu-
lations which on this subject display true wisdom and sound policy
in those who administer the government of that country.
2ndly. It is an imperious duty on Government to inform and
to enlighten the public mind on topics of this nature. The sum
frequently spent in the employment of the press to reconcile the pub-
lic to any favored meas, re would with sound policy, and on the best
principles of economy, be expended for the information of the
public on this interesting subject. The truth should be fairly and
distinctly avowed, (a truth generally understood though not gene-
rally acknowledged) that low priced corn cannot support high priced
establishments in church, king, and poor ; and that the church, king,
and poor, and not the rent, are the principal causes of the necessity,
that corn must necessarily be dearer in Great Britain than in other
countries in which Taxation does not press so heavily. Besides let
the manufacturing laborers (the conflicting part of the community)
be candidly informed, as the truth really is, that the object of low
priced corn, is to diminish their wages, not to give them the abilit
to pay for more bread | | A shilling advance on the bushel of wheat
ought not to add more than 12d. to the price of 60lbs. of bread;
being less than a farthing on each pound; while this shilling would
guard against the evil of the want of employment, among the agri-
cultural and even the manufacturing laborers.
But certainty of market, not advance of price, is the object to be
attained To the farmer, unfettered by a lease; and to the pro-
prietor free from debt; the amount of price is of no importance.
Great fluctuations are to be avoided, so that the value of rent and
the sale price of produce may be stationary. All other conse-
quences, as part of a system, may be disregarded. , Great as may
be the evil of a depreciation of the value of land, that termination
to the present system must necessarily draw after it to those who
can retain their land, a corresponding reduction of the value of all
other articles of property. The difficulty is to protect farmers who
are involved by leases or by capital invested in improvements; and
also to protect proprietors who are subjected to debts either as part
of the price of purchase, or contracted with creditors, or created as
part of family arrangements; and three fourth parts in number of
the land proprietors are to be arranged under one of these classes}!
of the Nation. 145
The apprehension that corn would not be imported when want- .
º º º
ed, is futile and absurd. Merchants would import whenever
circumstances required a supply. It may be true that the
duty proposed as a protection would, in some cases, abridge
the gains of the merchants; still however they would purchase
when the price of corn was low on the continent so as
to justify speculation for some market, if the English market should
not be open to them." Generally speaking they can import at 6s. 6d.
a bushel: add 2s. 6d. for the duty. This addition would bring the
expences to 9s. a bushel; and 9s. a bushel is equal to the farmer’s
price when the corn is at 80s. for the quarter in the public markets.
The other shilling for éach bushel is composed of the expences of
freight, commission, agency, &c. &c. The profit at 10s. a bushel
would be more than ten per cent; and were the price in Great Britain
higher than 10s. a bushel, there would be still sufficient encourage-
ment for importation in times of necessity ; since every advance in
Great Britain of 1s. a bushel would admit of an expense to the
same extent in the price of providing foreign corn; and leave the
profit of ten per cent, with the difference only of the expence of
interest on the increase of the requisite capital.
Some have recommended that the cultivation of your inferior
lands should be abandoned that the deficiency of supply may ad-
vance the price. In the first place importation would counteract
the expected benefit. And secondly, a more mischievous advice
was never given; a more dangerous doctrine was never advanced.
This advice would diminish the supply, and raise the price on the
public, without the consolation of an adequate supply, and would
leave a large portion of the community without employment, and
in the result without the power of obtaining food. It is the ad-
vice of those who judge superficially, without weighing all the con-
sequences of the opinions they offer to the public. Throw out of
cultivation all the lands which produce an average crop of twenty
or even of fifteen bushels an acre and the quantity of corn to be
grown would not be equal to one half of that which is required for
the bread of the people, and for other useful purposes.
Let the country profit by the experience of this year! a year
in which Providence seems to have inculcated a lesson of wisdom to
counteract the folly of the advocates of this system. What would
have been the state of the country, in reference to the crops, had
not the light lands made up for the failure of the crop on the heavy
lands 2 The two species of land are in our variable climate the
best security for an average crop ; are a safe and secure protec-
tion against the failure from one species of soil; counterpoising
the benefits and the injuries from either a dry or a moist season.
* This is all the warehousing system contemplated that they should do.
NO, XVII. Pam. VOL. IX. K
146 On the State
Besides without sufficient employment for your population even
in the present state of your husbandry, what would be your con-
dition were this advice to be followed 2 “Britons, venerate the
plough.” This is the sound and useful policy to be inculcated. It
was the policy of our ancestors, and is now in a more especial
manner an axiom of interest, of duty, and even of necessity
That employment which all sensible men now feel, is so much
wanted, and which a few worthy friends of the country are so
ready to give, and which when the corn question was in agitation,
was so much overlooked ; will now be considered.
Agriculture is the main and principal source of employment. It
is certain, continual, and may, without any great exaggeration, be
said to be inexhaustible. In no other mode can a large population
be so useful to themselves, or to the community, or equally useful
or safe to the state. Without the assistance of agricultural laborers,
scarcity, perhaps famine is to be expected. They provide food for
themselves and for an equal number at least of persons not con-
tributing in labor to the increase or production of food. The
present want of employment of this useful part of the community,
will, on the one hand, render them the victims of indolence and
ultimately of famine, unless the evil be speedily averted. The state
will have a disturbed population, and the industry of the country
a burthensome and mischievous poor. In all probability thresh-
ing machines will be destroyed, corn stacks burnt, and similar
outrages be committed by an irritated and starving population.
Manufacturing labor must diminish in the same proportion as agri-
cultural labor shall cease to be in demand ;
First. Because the former is essential to raise the sustenance
of the latter. –and
Secondly. Because a distressed tenantry and proprietorship, as
experience woefully proves, cause a stagnation in trade and in com-
merce. It would be easy to demonstrate that agriculture may
thrive without commerce. But manufactures cannot be pros-
perous, while agriculture shall be languid or distressed ; and still
less when three fifth parts of the farmers are in a state of insolvency
and many of them in actual want and incapable of giving employ-
ment to labor. Secure to the British farmer a certain market for his
produce at a remunerating price, and all the demands of the poor,
the church, and the government, may be fully and easily answered,
and bread and provisions at reasonable prices be obtainable. Agricul-
tural labor will be immediately in a state of demand and activity.
The sources of employment are not exhausted. Want of mar-
ket, and of circulation, and consequently the absence of the means
of giving employment are the evils. Adequate and useful subjects
for employment may be provided for another century, and even
for ever; and the country acquire strength, as its popukation in-
of the Nation. 147
i.
creases, so as sustenance on the one hand, and on the other hand
useful labor be provided for them. Agriculture has a singular
advantage, which renders it of such vast importance to a state. At
the same time that it provides food for those whom it employs, it
gives employment to all those who are willing to assist by their
labors, in raising the means of sustenance. It raises food for an
equal number of other persons, and gives activity to their labors as
manufacturers.
Though by no means an advocate for small farms as an exclusive
system, yet some small farms are highly expedient and desirable ;
not for the sake of those who are to occupy them ; for the laborer
enjoys a larger portion of comfort and independence than the small
farmer ; but for the sake of the great and extensive employment
which is given in building farm houses and offices, subdividing in-
closures, &c. forming hedges, &c. A farm of 1000 acres divided
into 10 farms would require in the most economical attention to
expenditure an additional capital of 600l. for each 100 acres for
buildings, fences, and gates ; and ever afterwards an annual expen-
diture of 5 per cent. on this capital; or 30l. for each farm. A
farm so managed must increase 60l. a year in value to justify the
expenditure : 30l. a year to pay the interest at 5 per cent. and 30l.
a year to defray the additional expences. The public suffer these
things to escape their notice, when they complain of high rents.
For the next 10 years surface draining of retentive soils would
alone employ 100,000 men annually. Suppose every man to drain
3 acres at 6l. an acre he would earn 18l. a year or 7s. per week;
or 1s. 2d. a day. This would be 300,000 acres a year, or 3,000,000
of acres in 10 years. The earnings from this labor would provide
sustenance annually for 500,000 persons, at 5 to a family. Now
there are more than 3,000,000 acres in Great Britain, which
stand in need or at least admit of this improvement. The
expenditure of 181. on 3 acres would require, at 5 per cent.
per annum, income from the expenditure, that each acre should
be improved at the rate of 6s. a year. The worst land in this
country would justify that expense and the farmer to give this
increase of rent. Lands which will bear any crop, would by
the increase in corn or grass, the saving of seed, &c. the preserva-
tion of the virtues of manure, fully warrant such expenditure.
Dry, husky and unproductive land, such as Bagshot Heath,
would warrant a like expenditure in plantations of fir and larch,
or other woods adapted to that species, of soil. Such plan-
tations would give employment to another 100,000 families. In
time to come the pruning, felling, &c. on the planted lands and
good husbandry on the drained lands, would afford constant em-
ployment for a large part of this population. Irrigation on an ex-
tended scale would give similar employment. Were this, the most
important and beneficial of all improvements, carried into effect to
the full extent which the country admits, there would be at least
148 On the "State
three millions of acres of excellent meadow from land now of
little or no value. The best lands now appropriated for meadows,
would then be wholly applicable to the purposes of grazing;
and also raising dairy produce ; another great source of employ-
ment; giving activity and useful labor to the females of the
family. The extent to which irrigation may be carried is incredi-
ble, to those who have not applied their attention to the subject.
To say that the natural grass of the country may be doubled in
quantity and value, is to speak within bounds. With spirited ma-
nagement it may be trebled in ten years, without availing ourselves
of the important discoveries of the value and use of Fiorin by Dr.
Richardson; whose perseverance will, beyond all doubt, be ulti-
mately crowned with that fame from posterity which is denied to
him by his contemporaries; and it is gratifying to see that his de-
termined character has subdued ridicule, and nearly overcome in-
credulity. Challenging sceptics by the proofs which ocular de-
monstration affords, he must silence opposition and increase the
number of disciples to his practice.
The introduction of hoeing into those parts of the country which
have not adopted that beneficial improvement would add to the
extent of the demand for labor. The time is not far distant when
the broad cast crops of wheat will in all probability be committed
to the hoe, with the same care, and with the same zeal as the crops
of turnips are now managed in the best cultivated districts. Such
practice promises great advantages to husbandry, and would give
scope for a large portion of labor, in the months of April and May 3
to be followed by hay-harvest, then by turnip hoeing, and finally
the harvest of corn.
The extension of potatoe culture would create a large demand for
spring and autumnallabor; and increase in a great degree, the quantity
of food; and be the best security against extravagant prices of corn.
A large portion of useful labor might also be applied in making
bricks for buildings and draining, and pantiles for covering
buildings. The plan adopted at Exeter of giving employment in a
pottery and brick kiln, to all who can labor and apply for paro-
chial relief, has, it is said, diminished the poor rate to the extent of
1000l. a year. A plan of this sort, were it general, would be one
of the best measures for diverting men who are able to work from
an unreasonable desire to resort to parochial relief. This employ-
ment would be of great benefit. It would avert from the ..".
one of the greatest evils with which it is threatened, and wi
which indeed it is even oppressed—too great a dependance on the
poor rate as a substitute for industrious labor.
Nor would the mere employment, be the only advantage. In
those countries in which mud-walls and thatch prevail, there would
be a saving of the immense waste of corn occasioned by vermin
safely lodged in walls and roofs of this description. In the west-
of the Nalion. 149
ern counties, the loss by vermin is beyond any thing which can be
conceived by those who do not enter into calculations of this na-
ture, or who are without the means of witnessing the depredations
of rats and mice.
Neat and comfortable cottages for industrious labourers, would
quickly follow the more general use of brick and tiles; nor is
the waste of manure in coverings with reed, thatch or straw suffi-
ciently appreciated. A loss which once incurred can never be re-
gained, except by a sacrifice of the covering, while in a state to be
fit for manure. The answer which will be given, that the old straw
is a substitute for manure for each succeeding supply, which shall
be furnished, may be easily refuted and its soundness disproved.
Ireland, unfortunate Ireland l is not to be overlooked.
Would you improve the condition of the lower classes in that
country, you must teach them the value of a better state of society.
With abundance of lime, with great facilities from its insular state,
of obtaining timber; and, no doubt, with ample means of making
bricks; and, when slate is not at hand, of making pantile and other
roofing tiles, what a source of employment may be found !!
A good, neat, and comfortable cottage might be built for 60l.,
to consist of a brick wall, a brick, or such as is common in Devon-
shire, lime-ash floor; a roof covered with tile or pantile. In such
cottages, built with a view to oeconomy or comfort, there might
be three rooms for this sum, especially in those situations in
which there are young plantations affording materials for part
of the roof: or three cottages ultimately convertible into one good
farm-house, might be built for 2001. By forming hamlets,
tythings or villages, as was the practice with our forefathers, of
from five to ten houses, each so placed as is common in Devonshire
and Cornwall, that the inhabitants of that cottage must have the
conduct of his neighbours under his eye, and annexing ten acres
of ground to each house, you would not only constitute a society,
but each inhabitant would become a watch and a guard, as the
constitution ordained, over his neighbours; and two or three sober
honest men, especially those selected for their good conduct in the
army and navy, and who had attained subordinate commands as
serjeants, corporals, &c. &c. would be a security against the vio-
lentoutrages and the evil practices of their less civilized neighbours;
and better and cheaper guardians of the peace than the present
military establishment. Social intercourse would harmonize the
mind: recreations and amusements would take place, and they
should be encouraged ; and the grounds might be so allotted, that
each should have his portion in contiguity to and with reference to
the convenience of his cottage; and the hamlets should be so dis-
tributed as to leave an interval of 440 acres between every 200
acres; so as to cover a greater portion of country, placing each
15O On the State
hamlet at the distance of a mile from the other, or placing the
buildings in a quincunx form, so as to divide the distances into
half miles; and the centre hamlet might be the residence of a
clergyman, and the Scite of a place of devotion for public worship :
1,000,000l., of money thus employed, would give 16666 cottages.
Five millions, at 1,000,000 in each of five years, would give
83,330 cottages, providing habitations for 416,650 persons, and at
20 acres each they would occupy a portion of soil equal to
1,666,600 acres.
The system would rapidly extend, were these cottages arranged
with judgment in one county, by way of trial. The counties
least inhabited are most proper for the commencement of the
experiment. Such cottages with the annexed farms would be-
come objects of laudable ambition; and the cottage and an addi-
tion to it, would afford a just medium of rewarding those whose
good conduct and industry had entitled them to a preference.
Even the hope of advancement to this habitation of increased com-
fort would be an incitement to good conduct. The females would,
in particular, be anxious for a habitation which would so greatly
increase domestic comfort; and the husbands would soon enter
into the feelings and be anxious to promote the wishes of the
females of their families.
The moral influence of this plan would be quickly perceptible,
and proprietors might be entrusted with loans from Government for
this purpose. These proprietors, when enabled by an improved state
of the affairs of the country, would readily extend a system which
would prove equally for their benefit and for the welfare of the
state; and at a period not far distant Ireland would become, as she is
by nature and local advantages destined to be, and as many of her
patriotic representatives are aiming to make her, the most happy
and prosperous member of the British Empire.
Hailing most sincerely, as an act of justice, every benefit com-
municated to Ireland, it is at the same time to be taken into cal-
culation, that the admission of Ireland to a participation in the
English market for corn, has depreciated the market price of
English corn to the full extent of the protecting duty which is
proposed.
The forest of Exmoor offers at this moment a large field for the
employment of labor. Roads are to be formed under the late
Inclosure Act. By uniting the plan of allotting sites and small
quantities of ground for these hamlet cottages, the very individuals
employed on the roads, fences, &c. would become the inhabitants
of the cottages, and that, which is essential, they would earn from
their labor on the roads, &c. the means of cultivating their portion
of land and providing a cow, &c. It would be in vain to build
the cottages or allot the ground in this district, except under the
circumstances of finding employment for the inhabitants, so that
of the Nation. 151
they might earn wages for their labor; or except you could find.
that which would be difficult, men who had a sum of money to
expend on their portion of land, and to provide a stock for it.
The Saving Banks promise more utility in forming the nest egg
of a capital for such cottage farms, than in any other probable result
of their establishment. s
As an useful part of the plan in the formation of such cottage
farms, individual proprietors should supply the stock of cattle as part
of the farm. The writer of these observations has adopted this plan
and means to extend it. A regulation in the Poor Laws providing
against an increase of paupers from this source, would greatly faci-
litate the employment of land in this manner. The Poor Laws
were the great and primary cause of consolidation of farms, or the
conversion of many small farms into a large one. Tenements of
the value of 10l. created Paupers, and in the expense of repairs,
&c. &c. the rent was exhausted.
It is true that neither Exmoor nor Dartmoor is worth cultiva-
tion in the ordinary course, by farmers at the expense of hired
labor. Each of these forests, however, would afford excellent
sites for a population who would be content to occupy a few acres
of ground of from 10 to 50, as the means of sustenance and sup-
port to a family, and the advantages of raising potatoes and vegeta-
bles, and obtaining milk. But the occupation of these tracts,
except so far as the prison on Dartmoor shall be devoted to
some national object, must be a work of time : the improvement
must be gradual. One series of settlers would be necessary
to precede the establishment of another, that there might be
employment to aid each successive improvement, and that there
might be the convenience of market, roads, &c. to dispose of the
surplus produce, as the means of obtaining requisite cloathing,
paying taxes, &c. Nor must it be forgotten that these cottagers
would overstock the market with eggs, butter, pork, &c. were the
system general. In performing a charity to some, you would in-
volve in ruin or in increased distress, a larger portion of the com-
munity. Such a plan is likely to be beneficial to a few individual
proprietors who have lands requiring cultivation, a population, &c.,
rather than as a measure either useful or proper to be adopted ge-
nerally. o
Such improvement and occupation will take place gradually as
the population of the country shall increase. *
The natural order of such improvement will be to form cottages
in the vicinity of the towns or cultivated districts, so that the im-
provement would advance from the extreme boundary to the centre.
But if roads, &c. were forming on Exmoor which promised em-
ployment for several successive years, the cottages would be built
in the line of the roads, in hamlets or villages, at the distance of
152 On the State
one, two, or three miles from each other, according to the num-
ber of persons to be employed, and the probability of continual
employment till the cottage farm would maintain its inhabitants or
farmers. The cottages should precede the formation of the roads,
for the obvious reason of having laborers near to the work to be
performed, and thus saving the loss of time in passing to and from
the site of work; and also because the future employment on the
road would provide the cottager with the means of subsistence
and assistance in the improvement of his allotment of land.
The capital proper for such land would be,
20 Bushels of potatoes,
2 Young pigs,
2 Yearling cattle,
2 Sheep. º
The price may be estimated at twelve pounds. At the end of four
years this capital might be increased to 50l. or 5l. an acre at least,
and afford an annual return in produce of 50l. Such land ought
at the end of five years to be in a state of high cultivation; with
crops of
acres of corn, §
—— of vetches and rape,
— of potatoes, mangel wurzel, turnips, cabbages, and
of clover and grass,
besides bee-hives, &c. &c. enabling each cottager to have every
comfort he could desire.
Five pounds an acre for each of these crops on an average is
very moderate. Well managed and at fair prices, the crops ought
to be worth 80l., and the farm annually improved so as to become
more productive.
It is well ascertained that on a system of this sort, a population
might be maintained to, the extent of one person to each acre, or
sixty millions for the united empire; and lands of no value in their
present state, might in a few years become as productive of food
as the best lands in the kingdom. A farm thus managed ought to
supply its own manure in great abundance: even Dartmoor can
exhibit proofs, and the wastes of the different parts of the empire
occupied by cottagers, clearly evince, that this plan is practicable.
The difficulty is to infuse the spirit and excite the industry which
should carry this system into effect.
It is more easy to find proprietors who would appropriate
ground for this object, than it is to find industrious laborers to
carry the plan into effect. \
Another great, and even the greatest source of immediate and
beneficial employment, would be the formation of a National
Road through the British empire, so as to aid, not oppose the
canals; to communicate with them and not to run in lines which
create conflicting interests.
:
of the Nation. 153
A rail road is to be preferred to canals or to turnpike roads.
First, because it would come quickly into perfection; and secondly,
because it may be carried into execution in different parts of the
country at the same time.
A road of this description might be formed through England in
one year from one part of the kingdom to the extreme end thereof;
and it is confidently believed that a road might be thus formed,
were it desirable, in one continued line and nearly on a level; but
this does not seem to be the most eligible plan. Certain it is,
that in the county of Devon, in the parts apparently most hilly,
there is at the base of the several hills, a line of level, from the
sea of one channel, to the sea of the other channel.
So, from Honiton to Bridport and the sea shore, though the
communication is by a very hilly road, there is a line of level,
without any difficulty to impede the formation of a rail road.
The like observation is applicable to every part of the kingdom
which the writer of these observations has ever visited. ,
The manual labor in forming the road may be estimated at 1500l.
a mile. The materials would require 1500l. more for each mile ;
and at least one half of this sum would be constituted of the value
of labor, making 2250l. a mile for labor."
At 7s, a week, or 18l. a year, employment might, with the first
1500l. a mile, be found for 83 persons, giving subsistence to 415
persons, at 5 to each family; and principally to discharged sol-
diers and sailors, and unemployed manufacturers, &c. The other
half of 3000l. a mile, would be employed in getting iron and ma-
nufacturing it; providing stones for the road; brick, &c. for
arches; timber for the sleepers, and for the machines and imple-
ments requisite, first for forming, and afterwards for using the
road; and buildings for granaries, inns, &c. which would soon
be erected on the line of road; and in burning lime for the diffe-
rent works.
This would be employment for at least 40 men more, and sub-
sistence for their families to the extent of 200 persons; making
615 persons for each 3000l. expended.
A main advantage of the plan is not only that the work might be
performing throughout the whole line at one and the same time;
but the surplus laborers of each district might be engaged on the
part in the immediate vicinity of their habitation without assem-
bling too many persons into one district or at one place, and thus
producing riots, The money expended in each part of the
country would give activity to the manufacturing trade, &c. of
that district. Nor would the work be one of useless expense: on
the contrary, every mile of road would improve the grounds ad-
joining to the line, to an extent which would warrant the expense
and justify a contribution by the proprietors of the soil, or a county
* Roads of a less public nature might be formed at 1000l. a mile.
154 On the State
rate, or a toll, by way of tax on the use of the road: such toll
at 10 per cent, applied in increase of the sinking fund, would
be more beneficial than the money abstracted from this fund, and
more quickly annihilate the debt.
Take a mile of road as an illustration of the probable benefit.
It would cost 3000l. or 150l. a year for the interest, at 5 per cent.
The ground at the distance of one mile only from each side of the
road would be 640 acres; or 1280 acres for both sides of the road,
Let the benefit be supposed to terminate with these 1280 acres,
without an allowance for any ground at a greater distance, though
such remote grounds would cxperience considerable improvement
in value. The most distant acre within the two squares in
contact with the two sides of the line of road, would be within a
mile from a road, which affords the cheapest mode of carrying
produce to market or to a canal, and of obtaining manure; two
important and essential advantages in farming Ceconomy.
There are 1280 acres in the area of the two squares. An ad-
ditional rent of 2s. 6d. per acre would more than pay the Interest
at 5 per cent, and the mere saving in the carriage of corn to market
would to any well-judging farmer justify this and even a far grea-
ter advance of rent. Carry the line of road through uncultivated dis-
tricts, and the benefit would exceed 10s, for each acre annually.
The country, and in particular the metropolis and large cities,
would be benefited by the facility of receiving provisions from a
greater distance. Thus food would be cheaper at the metropolis,
and the seats of manufacture. While meat is from 10d. to 1s. for
a pound in the metropolis, it is at this moment only 4d. in the
country." Thus as with merchants, dealing in corn, so with carcase
butchers &c. dealing in provisions, the profit is to the capitalist,
while the citizens of the metropolis ascribe to the farmers, those
prices which are realized by their own neighbours!
How little do manufacturers understand these subjects | They
are clamorous against protection to the growth of British corn at
the rate of one farthing for the consumption of each Individual per
day, or five farthings for a family of five persons, and yet do not
take the means of providing against a high price of provisions.
They disregard the advance in the price of meat. While 8 ounces
of meat for each person costs a family of five persons at 10d. per
pound, 2s. 1d. in the metropolis instead of 10d. in the country, being
a difference of 1s. 3d. or 3d. a day for each person, and being more
than the whole expense of their bread. The like observation might
be made on the advance of one penny on the price of each pot of
beer; an advance which is little regarded !
, Take bacon as an illustration of the same sort. That article is
at 100 per cent higher in the metropolis than in the country-a
* In some districts, 2}d.
of the Nation. 155.
pound of ham is when dressed sold at 2s. or at four times the
amount of the price to the farmer. * f
The butter which in Devonshire may be purchased at 6d. per
pound is in London worth one shilling as the market value,
Thus are men sacrificed to their prejudices because they have
drawn in with their mothers’ milk the notion that cheap corn is a
great blessing ! They do not reflect that corn cannot be as cheap,
when taxation is at 70,000,000 a year, as when taxation was at
10,000,000 a year; when Poor Rates are at least 10 millions a year,
(for they are now more) as when they were at two millions a
year, and when Tithes are at 3 times their former amount, com-
puted by the acre of each farm; and when labor is doubled in
price.
The land proprietors will take an alarm at an advance of taxa-
tion. They will urge and apparently with reason, that they are
already overwhelmed and nearly ruined, and cannot without im-
mense sacrifices and great deprivations bear the burthens to which
they are already subject.
Unfortunately no other part of the community, if the fundholder,
the capitalist, and those who depend on the establishment be ex-
cepted, is able to bear additional taxation. The capitalist cannot
be reached except through a property tax, or the more useful
measure of the reduction in the rate of interest. Nor can the
fundholder be subjected, except through a property tax, to any of
the impositions of government. The fundholders have submitted
to a property tax, and would rather approve its re-enactment
than oppose it. They feel and know it is for their interest
and security that the present distresses of the finances, and of the
country should not continue. Though the property tax be, in effect,
a reduction of the interest guaranteed to the public creditor, he
would not oppose that aid; and yet he would clamor at a positive
and direct tax, and complain of it as a breach of national faith and
of the pledge of parliament.
The finance minister must be sensible that a property tax is
the only means of supporting the credit of the country, or ra-
ther of preserving the appearance of an ability of paying the public
creditor and the establishment. The land owner feels that he
must in some stage bear his proportion of every taxation. A
direct tax best suits his interest, and his situation. It is absurd
however and impracticable to impose any new tax on him with-
out reviving the confidence of the tenantry and their secu-
rity against unreasonable and ruinous depreciation, or giving them
the ability to pay rents founded on a calculation that wheat is worth
10s. per bushel as an average price. The farmers are aware that
large quantities of corn are warehoused on the continent and ready-
for the British market, as soon as such corn shall be saleable in
3.56 On the State
that market, consistently with the regulation of the warehousing
act. Should such corn come into the market, then another race of
depreciation will take place: the certain consequence will be gene-
ral despondency among agriculturists; positive ruin to those who
are now preserved from the wreck, by the kindness and forbear-
ance of their landlords, or the extent of their capital. National bank-
ruptcy from the inability to pay taxes; and within 2 years, posi-
tive starvation and famine from the inability to obtain food for sus-
tenance, will be the unavoidable consequences.
This is advanced with the fullest conviction of the probability
and moral certainty of the result of such a state of things; and with
that integrity of heart which dares to state the truth as it occurs
to the mind. In many districts cultivation would entirely cease.
In the counties of Devon and Cornwall, it is already so diminished
that wheat was lately selling at from 14s, to 16s. per bushel ! The
accounts from different parts of the country agree that every farm-
er in these districts who can convert his land into grass, is already
pursuing that course. To those familiar with the subject, it is
well known that the best land is that which the farmer will select
for the purpose, and not the land which it is supposed (a very
mistaken supposition 1) has been brought into cultivation unnecessa-
rily or at too great an expence. There are too many farmers to
justify or enable any individual or class of individuals to make the
price of corn depend on the extent of an injudicious expenditure.
To prevent the lamentable prospects before the country as the
consequence of extensive importations, parliament ought to be
assembled without delay, for the single purpose, if no other pur-
pose were pressing for attention, of enacting a protecting duty ;
partly to guard against the increase of importation under the faith
of the present system ; for corn once imported cannot by an ex
post facto law be justly subjected to duty ; partly to induce the
farmers as the necessary result of this protection, to continue and
even extend their cultivation (for the season is now passing away)
and partly and principally, (this indeed is the main point to be re-
garded,) to secure employment, through renovated and exten-
ded cultivation, for those who unfortunately, till the present busy
season of the year for field works, were without employment, and
to be seen by the sides of the roads, petitioners for alms 1 and
who after harvest will again become the victims of a *stem of pa-
ralyzed industry ! A
it may be, indeed it is conceded to be true, as Mr. Colquhoun has
observed, that whatever sum of money is due by one member of a
family to another of the same family, cannot add to, or take from,
the quantity of property possessed by the whole family. Yet
when he advances that the same reasoning applies to the Nation,
of the Nation. * 1.57
since whatever is owing by the community at large to a part of the
same community, cannot in any degree increase or diminish the
natural capital, he is urging a sophistry 3–a truism in language
which conceals the real state of the case. Under these circumstances
the positive wealth of the country is for a moment the same;
but the relative wealth of the country, and its resources and pros-
perity are very different; and every succeeding year will witness a
decline and a diminution. Were all the property of the country
brought into a few hands, would the country be as powerful and
as happy, and eventually as rich, as if that wealth were duly dis-
tributed in just gradations, so as to preserve the different ranks of
society, give stimulus to industry, and which is of vast importance,
to consumption and to circulation, and maintain each class in com-
fort and independence with the increased and increasing ability to
provide all the means of subsistence and enjoyment, and of educa-
tion to the younger branches of the families which belong to that
class of the community ?
The proposition conceals the important truth that three hundred
thousand persons, the computed number of fundholders, with their
families making a total of one million five hundred thousand persons
or one twelfth part of the population; and the establishment of the
army and navy with the host of placemen, pensioners, and persons
connected with government for the collection of taxes, &c. (con-
stituting another twelfth part of the population, and making together
one 6th part of the whole population,) enjoy extraordinary ad-
vantages, by dividing among them 70,000,000 a year, (being more
than the actual rental of the kingdom,) while a large part of the
remaining 5 sixth parts of the community are involved in distress,
and more than one sixth part of the whole are in actual pauperism,
requiring sustenance at the hands of the cultivators and eventually at
the sacrifice of the proprietors of the soil; and deriving none or very
little contribution from those who receive in clear, undiminished,
and in a great degree untaxed Incomes, an amount equal to the rental
of the kingdom. Thus 6,000,000 of persons or one third of the
population, are directly and immediately a burthen on the other two
third parts of the population; and that burthen falls more immediately
and heavily on the landed and agricultural interests; and is the
direct and obyious cause of their depressed condition.
The º system of finance also denies the power of an easy
change in our condition.
To support the credit of the nation, and to counteract the im-
mense debt contracted in redeemable annuities; (a debt which with-
out an artificial supply of money to the market would depreciate the
value of the annuities for want of buyers;) a taxation of 12,000,000,
a year is imposed on the people under the name of a Sinking Fund;
158 On the State
a fund which, instead of sinking the debt, has sunk the people ;
and which on the present system, instead of relieving the people
from any part of the taxation, causes an actual increase of taxation
to the extent of more than one sixth part of the sums collected for
taxes, or 3s. 4d. in the pound.
This fund is now so interwoven into the system that it cannot
be annihilated without gradual preparation for the purpose. Part
of the fund might be withdrawn with advantage to the people;
and the choice is between the extinction of taxation to the extent
of the sum withdrawn, or its application to useful purposes. As
early as circumstances will admit, the sound policy will be to di-
minish taxation.
In the present state of the country the application of this fund
to measures of public expediency is preferable to its extinction. By
means of its application the rich who have taxable property, would
contribute to give new energies to the industry of the country, and
lay those foundations for improvement which would enable the
country to take advantage of any opportunity, which may offer, of
improving its condition and extricating itself from its existing diffi-
culties.
Above all things, the delusion that the distress is temporary
ought to be carefully avoided. The distress is the result of a
system, and is as permanent as the causes by which it has been pro-
duced. Remove the causes and the evil will cease. The first
and imperious duty therefore is to investigate and ascertain the real
state of the country. If all the causes cannot be removed, at least
counteract them, and as far as circumstances will admit, create a
counterpoise; and apply appropriate remedies.
To shew the enormity of taxation it may be truly stated, that
taxes to the amount of 70 millions a year, are nearly equal to all the
corn required for the bread of the population for a year at 8 bushels
of wheat for each person, and 10 shillings for each bushel. In
proportion as you reduce the price below 10s., the greater will be
the comparative burthen of the taxes on the property. The like
observation applies to manufactures, and to the price of labor and in-
dustry in that branch of national wealth. In proportion as you
reduce wages, prices, &c. in the same degree will the taxes be-
come overwhelming. We are said to be in an artificial state, then
those who have placed us in that state were bound?to have ren-
dered the state consistent, and if not beneficial, at least not ruinous
and destructive.
Palliatives must be rejected; they may retard the evil day but
cannot avert it. The longer the evil shall be continued and relief
protracted, the greater will be the pressure of the evil, when the
distress shall have accumulated, and have brought on a crisis. By
a tardy system the South Sea scheme attained to an enormity,
which involved the country in the greatest difficulties. *
of the Nation. 1.59
It required for a period of three years the able pen of ari
Hutcheson (the member for Hastings) to open the eyes of the
country to the folly of the speculation of the South Sea scheme,
in which it was engaged, and to bring the affairs of the Company
and in effect of the country, to a crisis.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer of that day, (Mr. Aislabie,)
was not protected by his office, or his superior knowledge, from the
miseries of the scheme. He lent himself to the speculation, and
fell a sacrifice to it when the bubble burst. His property was
confiscated. He was in all probability rather the dupe, than a wicked
contriver of that scheme. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he
might have fairly pleaded, that his interest was in the prosperity of
the country. *
The South Sea scheme was another such a bubble as the Sink-
ing Fund. The avowed object was to make men rich. The more
the people paid for Stock, the richer they were to have been. This
was one of the specious and fallacious arguments advanced by
those who were duping the country, and “ committing fornica-
tion with the whore of Babylon.” This was a phrase of Mr.
Hutcheson's. His sentiments were expressed in these few but
forcible sentences, applicable in an especial manner to our present
corresponding situation.—
“ I have the authority of some of the greatest men in the
House of Commons to confirm the opinion I have long maintained,
viz. That until our debts,” [far less in amount than the pre-
sent taxation for one year !] “are discharged we can scarcely be said
to be a people. I am sure till then we are a people in a state of
the utmost insecurity. But if instead of this, our debts increase,
our trade lessen, and our gold and silver be exported in greater
quantities than heretofore, and if the projects which have been
resorted to for our relief, have increased our misery, what can the
end of these things be Must not such a prospect as this fill the
mind of every honest man who has a warm heart for his country,
with dismal apprehensions P And surely in such a situation the
people of this land may address themselves to their Representatives
in Parliament, pretty near to the same effect as those of Egypt did
to Pharoah, Know ye not yet, that Great Britain (though not
destroyed) is in great distress It is certain that this work is now
become more difficult than it would have been some years ago, and
every day's delay will increase the difficulties; but how great
soever these are or may be, the work must be done or the Nation
is inevitably undone; and as far as I am capable of judging, the
state of our affairs requires a speedy and will not admit of a long
and lingering cure. &
“I have in former treatises expressed my poor thoughts on this
16O . On the State
important subject, and these tracts being already in the hands of
the members, I shall not here give them the trouble of a tedious
repetition; I shall only briefly mention, that if our debts, and .
consequently our funds were discharged, our trade would be there-
by unfettered, and the balance would soon turn on our'side, our
remaining gold and silver would stay with us, and fresh supplies
would be added daily, and both poor and rich would be then
freed from the burthensome taxes, under which they have groaned
for many years; and in such a situation I verily believe 100l. per
annum would gb as far in the necessaries of life as 150l. at present
doth, and in a few years we should again become what we have
formerly been, a great, a wealthy, and a happy people, and in such
circumstances we should be perfectly secure against all attempts
of foreign enemies. And in my opinion to make the people feel,
by ease and plenty, the blessings of the Government under which
they live, is the best, perhaps the only solid security against all
commotions and insurrections at home. •
“ These surely are blessings of so extraordinary a nature as
no price can be thought too big for, by any man who loves his
country; or to express the same thing in other words, who pru-
dently and discreetly loves himself. I have long been and still
am under so thorough a conviction in this particular that I shall
once again repeat what I have said on this subject on former
occasions, viz. That to discharge the Nation entirely of its debts,
and thereby to make the Government safe against all foreign and
domestic enemies, and to give to all my fellow subjects a state of
ease and tranquillity, I should think myself richer and happier than
I at present imagine myself to be, after I had given away for such
glorious and generous purposes, a tenth, a fifth, or even a moiety
of my-estate real afid personal. And surely what I aim at, and
have so long wished, would be easily effected, if one tenth part of
that zeal for the public good should seize as universally, as that
which has lately appeared for private interest, though at the risk
of the ruin of our country. But if substantial and intelligible
methods for the discharge of the public debts shall happen to
be disrelished (which I hope will not be our case) and if nothing
but doubtful and uncertain expedients will go down, which can
tend only to the enriching by deceit and fraud, the very vilest and
worst of men, what is then left for an honest man to do, but to
acquiesce patiently, and to drown quietly in a ship which it is not
possible to preserve from sinking.” -
But the cry has been, perhaps in spite of evidence of the fact it
will be, that lands have advanced beyond all reasonable bounds in
value and price. Is that cry just at this moment, and is not. its
fallacy sufficiently refuted 2 The argument always' coli templates.
of the Nation. 1 61
the few ancient land proprietors, and they are few, who have pre-
served their property through successive generations. It never
justly applied to those who from time to time have become pur-
chasers of land, at the price of the day; save that you may ex-
cept those who purchased during the American war, and with
equal truth and justice those who are purchasers at this day at
depreciated prices. But you may equally and still more justly
complain of those who became fund-holders during the American
War. zº
It would be easy to prove that, in all times since the Baronial or
feudal system ceased, the capitalist has had the advantage over
the owners of the soil. The land proprietors have been poor,
needy, and in debt, with large possessions and small incomes. In
the shape of beneficial leases for lives, mortgages, redeemable an-
nuities, &c. &c., men engaged in trade and manufactures, and
those who have employed money at interest, have had the advan-
tage most decidedly over the land proprietors.
This was the case even before the funded system was intro-
duced. That system has injured the proprietor of the soil in a
still greater degree. At the commencement of this system the
rental might be computed fairly at 12,500,000l. a year, though
the computation was far less. At that period the landed interest
more than equalled the value of personal property. Now the per-
sonal property including the funded debt, is double the amount of
the landed interest. In effect the prosperity of one interest has
caused the poverty of the other. To the burthen of direct taxa-
tion you must always add pauperism, and the tax of the poor rates
as its attendant.
Never let it be forgotten that wheat at 10s. a bushel is only 2d.
per pound, and each pound of wheat will make a pound of good
bread. The man who advances that it can be grown for less, is
bound to shew the data on which he builds his opinion. Instead
of proving that proposition, he has a ready answer | He will say
rents are too high ; and high rents cause high prices of the neces-
saries of life. This statement will be considered:—Grass land
pays more rent than corn land. For every 6d. in the price of
beef or mutton, the proprietor of the soil is allowed at least 2d.;
for every pound of corn, he has not a third but only 1-10th of the
price. The parson too has by law an equal share of the grain
which is raised.
Examine this point. An acre of wheat at 20 bushels an acre,
and 10s. per bushel, yields 10l. : for such land the proprietor can-
not obtain 20 shillings per acre ſent. Let the lands produce forty
bushels an acre, and be let at 40s. per acre, the proprietor has
only 1-10th. Suppose he obtains 4l. (and what English farmer
NO. XVII. Pam. VOL. IX. L
l62 On the State
will, give that rent though he can afford it), yet the proprietor has
only 1-5th instead of 1–3d part of the produce. #
. It will naturally be demanded, how the population can be em-
ployed in the mode which has been suggested, without adequate
resources; and from what fund these resources are to be drawn 3
- The answer is, you must make some sacrifice—you are in a
storm, and some part of the lading must be thrown overboard, at
the general expense of the adventurers, in order to save the ship
and the remaining part of the cargo.
Every parish, instead of contributing to the subsistence of able and
healthy persons in idleness, should bring them into a state of active
labor and useful industry. These persons should be sent to aid in
the formation of a national road, or in some other work of utility.
- The road itself should originate with Parliament, and a part of
the sinking fund may with propriety, justice, and advantage, be
appropriated to this purpose. Let 1–4th part of it, or 3,000,000l.
a year be abstracted for this great work. With this sum you may
accomplish every object which has been recommended. You may
put the whole country into a state of activity, and with the pecu-
liar advantage of employing men in different parts of the country.
The money thus expended will be restored to the individuals
through whose hands it ought to pass. It will create a demand
for consumption in those parts of the country which are in most
need of a market and of a circulation of money. The dispropor-
tion between the circulation is one of the evils of the moment.
It will give activity to the plough, to the mines, to rural employ-
ments, and to the mechanics who are connected with rural labor.
You will hear no more of starvation at Bilston, nor of furnaces out
of blast, nor of colliers out of employ, nor of men assembled in
the highways, to the number of thirty in a gang, soliciting either
charity or employment; or uttering their execrations against those,
who have diverted the channels of industry, or dried up the sources
of charity. Does not the subscription towards the fund to meet the
distresses of the manufacturing poor prove that nothing short of par-
liamentary aid can accomplish the object of providing employment
for industry P
It is difficult by any simultaneous act to give a stimulus with equal
certainty or rapidity, to those branches of manufacture which are en-
gaged in supplying the luxuries and the elegances of life; or of those
parts of dress, which are ornamental rather than necessary. With
old-fashioned notions, the conviction of the writer of these obser-
vations has always been, and he has more than oncé urged it, and
always practised it, that it is a duty to encourage every article of
British manufacture in preference to that of foreign countries.
He has felt that the person who uses foreign manufactures, dges
in substance prefer to give encouragement to the industry of fo–
of the Nation. : F63
Ç
reigners; and that he is, in effect, consuming foreign 'éðrn,” in
the shape of foreign manufacture. In truth, it matters not, as
was formerly observed in the address to the fund-holder, &c. whe-
ther British capital be spent in France by those who pass into that
country, to avoid taxation or for pleasure; or be spent in England
in the productions of the labor, and, in the result, in the preduc-
tions of the soil of that country. Let it not be supposed, that the
value of external commerce is either neglected or overlooked.
With a just interchange of commerce between any two countries,
there may be an equal duty, and an equal merit, in encouraging
articles of foreign manufacture, as the best means of giving more
effectual and more extensive employment to British industry. But
the primary duty is never to exclude British manufactures from
the use of British subjects, when the use of foreign manufactures
would leave the British manufacturer destitute of employment.
At the present moment to wear French clothes, laces, watchés, &c.
is treason against British industry; destructive at once of the Bri-
tish manufacturer; and through his poverty, of the British agricul-
turist, and even the British pauper, and of the national resources
for taxation.
In giving employment, the great object should be not to degrade
the persons employed, but to preserve their independence and rank
in society, by rendering that employment beneficial to those who
give, rather than as a bounty or charity, to those who receive it.
It may be urged that the funds would be depreciated by with-
drawing from them so large a portion of the sinking fund. In the
first place, this is conjecture: it is possible, not probable. The
interest of the public creditors would be best promoted by a re-
turn of prosperity to the country; by its general welfare; by a
revival of confidence: by a conviction that an ability to answer
their demands, can be restored; that the country has enèrgies and
resources, and men who have the sense and the firmness to avail
themselves of these resources; and that the population of the
country can be kept in a state of actual and beneficial employmerit,
promoting the welfare of the country, instead of congregating into
a state of turbulence and riot. “ i.
Besides the fund proprictor would have the price of his stock
advanced more by a reduction in the rate of interest, than it would
be injured by the diversion of three millions a year of the sinking
fund to the salutary purpose which is recommended !
But even granting each of these suppositions to be erroneous,
what right has the stock proprietor to demand the application of
the sinking fund for his exclusive benefit; to have 12,000,000 a
year extracted from a distressed population to advance the value of
his debt; and by increasing the distress of the proprietor of the
**t # * i. , I 3. ;
s: -º
& ... 3 * * * * *- :
*
.*
164 On the State
soil or its cultivator, to depreciate the property, and destroy the
rental, &c. &c. of the former and the capital of the latter. By all
means keep the faith of the nation with public creditors—justice
and sound policy impose the observance of this conduct, but the
public creditor cannot for one moment urge a right to control the
application of the sinking fund for his purposes, to the sacrifice of
a paramount interest, on the part of the public, to have that fund
applied in a mode more conducive to the benefit of the public, and,
in the result, of the fund proprietor, as part of that community.
No subject causes more delusion than the sinking fund, and it is
of importance to say a few words respecting it.
It has been said to be the greatest treasure any country ever had.
In its consequences it has proved the greatest calamity, which ever
was brought on this country.
Let those who speak of this fund as a treasure describe it.
Can they convert it into money P Can they use it as money :
Is it tangible in any shape or for any purpose as gold or silver, or
any other article generally used as a treasure ? Will it feed an
army, or produce the means of feeding it? The answer to each
question, if correctly given must be in the negative.
What then is its value 2 What is its use Its value to the
public is nothing more than the support of its credit ; to give to
the public funds a price beyond their real intrinsic value; to pre-
vent their depreciation; to afford a general supply of money in the
exchange, to purchase the floating stock of the market; so that
there may, as far as this fund can provide the means, be always a
buyer, to the extent of the stock which the proprietors are neces-
sitated or desirous to sell. In taxing the present generation, it
pauperises posterity, by annihilating the means of realizing capital.
At this moment, to the great inconvenience of the public,
12,000,000 of money are drawn from the public in their unex-
ampled distress, that the price of the three per cent. annuities may
be preserved at 60 per cent. or thereabout, instead of being at 30 per
cent. as they undoubtedly would be if there were not a sinking
fund, to protect them from depreciation.
Great however as the pressure of the taxation to supply re-
sources for the sinking fund is felt; highly advantageous as it
would be to leave the 12,000,000 a year with the public in the va-
rious hands from which it is extracted, yet such is the complicated
nature of public credit, that this fund could not be wholly and at
once withdrawn, without causing a great increase of our national
difficulties. The immediate benefit of leaving 12 millions of taxes
with the people, would retard the period of that prosperity or ra-
ther apparent prosperity which will be a more effectual relief from
the presentembarrassment. • - , ,
However, it is not conceded that to abstract three millions a year
*
of the Nation. lfift,
further depreciation, unless their industry be called into full acti.
vity, and unless they, and the proprietors of the soil, are encouraged
or rather enabled to give employment to the laborers in agricul-
ture, and to purchase articles of manufacture, the country will
soon have to lament the consequences; and when it shall be top
late, deplore, that a false policy, the want of candor to the people,
and the indulgence of those feelings and those prejudices which
give them bread at a price in one month of 56s., in another month,
of 80s., in another month of 128s, a quarter, have involved the
country in irremediable distress. " . .
If the proprietors of the soil are to be called on for further tax-
ation, or even to bear their present burthens to their full extent, they
must be protected now, as they were formerly protected by our an-
cestors, by the reduction of the rate of legal interest of money; and
by such a duty on corn sold in the British market, as shall place it
beyond the power of foreigners or British merchants to sell corn
in the British markets at those prices below the expense of English
cultivation, which exclude the British husbandmen from the marr
ket, or involve them in ruin, if their necessities compel, as they
have lately compelled them, to run the race of depreciation in that
market, and even by fears and anticipations of the future, from
the experience of the past, to cause an annihilation of a large
part of the real value of a fair rental.
Lastly ; in future, taxation should be direct on land only, and the
protecting duty should be on corn imported and sold in this country,
so as to raise the price of corn at the rate of three pence a bushel
for every shilling of rent withdrawn by the tax. By this arrange-
ment the people would be taught and would feel the real effect of
taxation. The threepence a bushel, or two shillings a quarter,
would, it is believed, be the just protecting duty against the ope-
ration of the tax, and the cheapest mode of distributing the tax
among the people. It would also enable the country more clearly
to watch the effect of taxation. No minister, however, will be
found of sufficient firmness to give to the people so clear an in-
sight into the interest they have in opposing the progress and con-
sequences of taxation.
No single act can relieve the country from its distress. There
must be a combined operation of several acts to produce effects
commensurate to and countervailing the causes. The country
must either submit to the sad necessity of a breach of faith with
the public creditor, or it must make those regulations which will
enable the people to sustain the debt. The demand of the
creditor must be diminished in fact, or the value of his annuity
regulated by an increase in the nominal and relative value of the
168 On the State
property and of the industry of the country. Small incomes
cannot bear the burthen of large taxation; still less of taxation
equal to the rental value of the property of the country.
The view taken of the state of the nation is not one of despon-
dency.
Would the country meet its difficulties by supporting a just re-
gulation, and encouraging parliamentary enactments on these or si-
milar points, then the energies of the country would instantly re-
vive—prosperity would return—the impending storm would be
averted; and it would be difficult, in the happy change, to find
any class of the community, or any considerable number of indi-
vidual persons, who could fairly urge that their interests had been
materially or in any degree unjustly sacrificed.
Many of these topics are not enlarged on as fully as the reader
might have expected. The address to the Fundholder, in which
these evils were anticipated and predicted; and the view of the
ruined state of the landed and agricultural interests, will, to those
who possess these publications, supply a large portion of the de-
tails which would have been added in this work, had it not been
deemed expedient to avoid repetition as far as the subject would
admit. The communications now published, of the agricultural
distress, have fortified, not invalidated, any of the opinions which
are advanced.
-ºr-
APPENDIX.
AN ACT for more effectually enforcing the observance of the
Laws against Usury.
Whereas, amnuities granted for a life or lives, or for years ab-
solutely or determinable on a life or lives, with a right to the
grantor or some other person to repurchase or redeem such annuity
or annuities, are made the means of evading the wholesome and
Salutary laws against usury,
Be it therefore enacted, &c. that all grants which shall hereafter
be made of any annuity or annuities, for a life or lives, or for
years determinable on a life or lives, or for years absolutely in
consideration of any sum or sums of money or funded property,
or the funds or stock of any company, or any pecuniary or other
valuable consideration whatsoever, with a right to the grantor or
grantors or any other person or persons whomsoever, to repurchase
such annuity or annuities or any part thereof, either for a price in
of the Nation. ... 169
*
money or any funded property, or the stock of any chartered or
other company, or for any other price of a given value, ºto be
measured by a market value, shall be void to all intents and pur-
poses whatsoever. But nothing contained in this act shalf invali-
date or impeach any grant heretofore made of any alºngity Or
annuities; or shall impeach or invalidate any grant to be hereafter
made of any annuity or annuities without any right to repurchase
or redeem the same annuity or annuities, or to any gift by will, or
to any other voluntary gift of any annuity or annuities (though
subject to a right of redemption, or to be purchased, ceased or
determined on certain terms or conditions pecuniary or otherwise),
but every such grant and gift shall be of the same force and effect,
and of such force and effect only, as the same would have been if
this act had not been made.
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