REASONS,
Sfc. Sfc.

3

-sr

LONDON:
PlUNTliU BY TUOT.IAS UAVISON, WllITliFJUAKS.

REASONS

FOR

OPPOSITION

TO THE

PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES

OF THE

PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.

LONDON :
PRINTED FOR W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL,
stationers' hall court, ltjdgate-street.
1821.

REASONS,
8fc. Sfc.

It is now some years since the country was told by ministers,
that the transition from war to peace was the cause of the un
usual distress, and that the sufferings which then formed the
subject of just complaint, could neither be foreseen by human
wisdom, nor prevented by human means. Since that period
England has remained in profound peace. At different in
tervals, when the excess of a pressure even more severe than
the first, has been felt, the same reason has been assigned by
the supporters of administration, and " time and patience " as
often recommended. Poverty and privation have passed alter
nately from commerce to agriculture, and from agriculture to1
commerce, till at length it is allowed that one vast ruin menaces
all classes. " Time and patience," it is now feelingly under
stood, have brought only an augmentation of evils.
Although it is by no means a new fact, it is not the less
strange, that a country possessing millions of acres of waste soil,
surrounded by seas abounding with fish, enriched with the
finest colonies and dependencies any nation ever enjoyed, — that
a country, moreover, which has accumulated more wealth and
capita] than can be profitably employed, — that such a country,
too, with natural advantages, population, and scientific power,
so astonishingly vast as to imply a production of all the neces
saries and all the luxuries of life to an unlimited excess — it is
most strange, that a country so overflowing with all the means
of affluence and of happiness, should nevertheless exhibit the

most deplorable instances of misery — not individual misery, but
of misery visibly paralyzing whole classes and communities ;
one year driving industrious artificers, by thousands, and tens
of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, into absolute want
of the bitterest kind, the next, afflicting the cultivators of the
soil with the same calamitous and hopeless distress, — the la
bourer without employment, the farmer impoverished, and the
land-owner himself aghast and trembling at the stoppage or
destruction of that industry by which his rank in society has
been hitherto supported. Such a state of things exhibits
nothing but a series of monstrous contradictions: the blessings
benevolently scattered amongst mankind thus seem to be given
in vain.
But since effects are always to be traced to causes, the cause
of this perversion of natural order must lie in the direction of
our affairs, in the regulations or the laws of the society in which
we live. If in the progression of time our circumstances have
accumulated difficulties, it is the province of government to
remove them : if, on the contrary, our grievances proceed from
obstacles that are merely temporary, the same duty is theirs, and
it can but be a lighter task. It is perhaps probable that our
evils partake of the nature of both ; but still they must proceed
from some defect in those institutions which form the character,
and originate and direct the transactions of a people, and which
are the grand objects of the care of the government. The
fault may be partly that of the predecessors of the existing
administration, and partly their own ; it can, however, lie no
where but in misrule. Wise in their generation as our governors
are by some accounted, the eloquence of the prime minister
himself must fail, when he would persuade a starving populace
or a ruined community that " abundance is the cause of want."
It must be clear, even to the meanest capacity, that if millions
want, the want arises from unequal distribution, not from
abundance ; and it may be capable of proof, that the govern
ment* does possess the power of affecting this distribution in
* The word Government has two senses: one which implies the per
manent power of the state; the other, the temporary power delegated to
an administration. It is in the latter sense only that the word Govern
ment is used in the following pages.

3
such a degree, as materially to influence the comfort or the
misery of those they govern.
For if, as a general proposition, the discouragements or
checks to industry which are given by treaties or by laws are
agents of any force, the first principles upon which the gains
or losses of the productive classes are settled are thus in the
hands of the legislature. How far the legislature is identified;
with the government, needs scarcely now be shown. It is
hardly to be doubted, that the crown by its negative, and
ministers by their influence, (these two branches emanating
from one) do virtually possess the power of an absolute
authority in enacting or in rejecting laws. The prerogative of
the crown in this respect is inalienable ; and an administration
which is at any time incompetent to cany, or successfully to
oppose, any law, has (till the last few years) been held' to be no
longer equal to the conduct of affairs. A ministry outvoted
upon any of its essential measures has commonly felt it neces
sary to appeal to the people by a dissolution of parliament, or
to abandon office. Extreme cases are no more than exceptions
establishing the rule. But should a specific example be thought
necessary, the recent conduct of the present servants of the
crown, in relation to the petitions from the agriculturists, will
afford direct proof, and may also be useful in demonstrating
what the popular branch of our constitution is able, by the
legal exercise of its functions, to perform. It is well known
that parliament, instigated by the representations of ministers,
did, in 1820, reject these petitions with every mark of scorn
and contempt. When in the next session they became so
numerous as to compel the attention of the House of Commons,
it is as well known that a committee was appointed to examine
the whole question, and that the Marquis of Londonderry
(then Lord Castlereagh) expressed himself astonished at this
decision, and prevailed upon the House to adjourn the question
till the next day, when he succeeded in .limiting the objects- of
inquiry to the corn averages, which was in effect to reduce the
utility of the committee to nothing ; and afterwards, when in
the session of 1821 the subject was renewed, and a fresh com
mittee named, ministers obtained the appointment of a majority
of their friends to that committee, which so completely con-
is 2

trolled its operations, that instructions to move the repeal of the
Agricultural Horse Tax given to the chairman were shortly
after abrogated by the manoeuvres of ministers ; and finally, it
is understood, that the report itself was drawn up by Mr.
Huskisson, one of their own body. Here, then, is a complete
demonstration of the power of the servants of the Crown for
the time being to influence the decisions of the legislature, in
such a manner as to cause our lawgivers to reverse on one day
the transactions of the day preceding, to nullify the powers of
a committee appointed for a most important purpose ; and when
the voice of distress becomes so piercing as no longer to be
silenced or withstood, the same power appears to survey, exa
mine, determine, and promulgate its own dogmas, as the result
of a dispassionate and impartial investigation of a Committee of
the House of Commons*. That the House of Commons itself
should, after the delivery of this report, and after the spon
taneous admission of the chairman-(- that the proceedings re
specting the Horse Tax had not been quite fair towards the
member J who proposed its repeal — that the House should vote
the repeal by a small majority, against the declaration of
ministers and the protestation of the Chancellor of the Ex-
( chequer, who said, such a motion could only be regarded as
; an attack upon the whole system of finance, — ought also to be
i viewed as an exception, and a most important exception, inas
much as it completely establishes the superior force of public
opinion, when opposed to the influence of an administration.
Having thus established our two propositions, 1st, that from
the institutes of a state, proceed those encouragements and
checks to industry, which are the efficient causes of public
wealth and private happiness ; and, 2ndly, that the Government
or servants of the Crown possess and exercise complete power
over the framing these institutes ; it will be our next step to
show how the present ministers have used their prerogative.
And to this intent, we shall divide our subject into three great
heads. 1. Religion and Morals. 2. Commerce and Manufac-
* It is understood, that the report was carried in the committee by a
majority of two only.
t Mr. Gooch, member for Suffolk.
J Mr. Curwen, member for Cumberland.

tures. 3. Agriculture. To these we shall append some few
remarks on the general appearances of the times, and on those
occurrences which serve to throw a light on the principles
which ministers adopt as the foundation of their scheme of
government. By this order it is not designed to give to com
merce and manufactures, the precedency over agriculture ; but
as the state of agriculture has fallen last under the considera
tion of parliament and of the country, it must in such a dis
cussion be reserved for the last place.
A very eloquent writer has said very justly, " that every
government is responsible for the morals of the community
over which it holds its rule. Government is the former of
men's minds, and the rectifier of their judgments; the great
pervading power, that, if it does not find the people virtuous,
must make them so. Every legislative act, considered in its
effect, is an article of their creed and a precept for their con
duct. An existing administration has evermore the instruc
tion of the people, and therefore the welfare of the state is in
their keeping."
One of the first requisites in any scheme of government
must be consistency of principle and unity of object, which
imply as a matter of course an accordance amongst the members
of government. When however we come to the fact, there
are differences as wide as east and west in the English Cabinet.
The hostility, not perhaps actually avowed, but maintained by
every day's practice, between the Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge and the Bible Society, is not less a matter
of notoriety than the enmity between the advocates and the
opponents of Catholic Emancipation. We are friends to tolera
tion in the fullest sense of the word; and by this exposition of
the opinions of ministers we mean not to confound them with
any^judgments we may hold upon these important points of
policy. But when we find Lord Liverpool advocating the one
society and Mr. Vansittart the other ; when we perceive the
same noble lord, with Lords Eldon, Bathurst, and others of
the ministry, opposing with all their might, and the Marquis
of Londonderry, with some of his brethren in office, supporting
Catholic Emancipation, it is impossible not to be struck with
the jarring antagonist policy which such divisions in the Go-

6
vernment must create. Not very long ago, the dissenters rose
in a mass against the famous bill proposed by Lord Sidmouth ;
and since that period we find the Government denounced by
the clergy of the established church, for their inattention to
the progress of the sectaries. Roused at last by the repeated
complaints of the striking want of churches, they originate a
bill for the erection of those indispensable buildings, but not
until the country is possessed by dissent ; and though nothing
can be well more apparent than the evils which religion and the
establishment labour under from the non-residence of the clergy,
and the asperities engendered between the pastor and his flock
by the collection of tithes, yet there are thousands of parishes
where there is no resident clergyman; and still the growing
evils of the tithe-system remain without abatement or atten
tion. The care of the public morals is mainly delegated to societies,
partially useful perhaps in themselves, but constituting an im-
perium in imperio, a separate and powerful force, which no
strong or efficient Government ought to need or to desire.
The Society for the Suppression of Vice, the Mendicity
Society (the best of them all, both in its object and in its acts),
the Society for Prison-discipline, the Society which extorted
the Grant in Aid of Emigration to the Cape, and lastly the
Society (calling itself constitutional) for the Prosecution of
political Offences, are all so many proofs of the weakness of the
Government, since these are no more than associations of pri
vate men* for the performance of public duties; duties, too,
which are the functions and the chiefest functions of the great
officers of state. To commit such duties to the irresponsible
* It is not intended to withhold the praise which, as individuals, the
members of most of these societies really deserve. They are composed in
the aggregate of persons solicitously anxious to ameliorate the condition
of their fellow creatures ; but the necessity for their exertions obviously
grows out of the neglect of the powers to whom such regulations of right
belong. They wish to repair by their care, personal zeal, and activity,
what ought to be effected by a system of government constantly working
to good. And if, in spite of the efforts of all these associations, vice and
immorality are arrived at such a head, what would have been the state
of society had they never been formed ?

hands of unknown numbers is in fact to endanger the general
peace by connecting public morals with a partisan spirit*, of
which none can perceive until they feel the complete effects.
It is to admit that public offences -f- have risen to such a height,
as is above the control of the law, because they require to be
hunted out with a vigor beyond the law ; for the law neither
knows nor acknowledges, nay, it expressly forbids, combina
tions, as dangerous alike to the impartial execution of justice,
to liberty, and to personal rights. There is then in the enor
mous vice and immorality which is the excuse for the forma
tion of such societies, as well as in the societies themselves, the
strongest proof of a weak and insufficient government; fpr
under a wise, vigilant, and active policy, " the people would
have been found virtuous," or would have been " made so."
Look to the monstrous consequences — to the corruption of
the public mind engendered by many of the objects of finance ;
by lotteries, by taverns, by alehouses, and by the excise laws
in general. What shall be said of an administration, one of
whom admits the depravation- which a spirit of gambling in
troduces, yet declines to give up a paltry tax of 200,000Z.
per ann. which is drawn from the very ulcerous vice which
he deprecates ? What shall be said of an administration, when
another of the body declares, that the sound sense of rectitude
which opposes a tax extracted from this demoralization, is " a
false and sublimated morality," in defiance of principle, in de
fiance of understandings in the teeth of his more humble arid
honorable colleague, who with pitiable truth pleads the apology
of poverty — of poverty both pecuniary and intellectual — as the
excuse for continuing a tax which he has neither the infamy
to defend nor the ingenuity to supersede by one less objec
tionable ?
These are dire evils, that tell also of incapacity in our go
vernors more dire and terrible to the state. But there is yet
behind a source of corruption still more fatal — one that
* This remark applies most particularly to the Society falsely calling
itself " Constitutional."
t According to the latest return, the numbers of commitments to the
several jails of the United Kingdom, were in the year 1818 — 107,030.

blasts the honest independence of the labourer, sets up hard
ened impudence and idleness in the place of wholesome in
dustry, and threatens gradually " to consume the entire
produce of the soil." This evil is the poor laws, to which no
one is insensible ; yet no relief has been administered. It is
three years since the appalling report of the committee was laid
before the House of Commons, yet have ministers not advanced
a single step towards the cure or even the mitigation of the
disorder which is feeding upon the very bowels of the country.
Let us not be deceived concerning this particular. The sub
ject is unquestionably amongst the most difficult that can
engage the mind of a statesman. But it is the property of a
commanding intellect to seize and to grapple with the great,
the leading objects, and to leave all meaner things till these
grand purposes be accomplished. Whether such be the cha
racteristics of the talents of the present administration, we
might submit to be decided by those who shall have duly
weighed their employments as typified by the prominent topics
of parliamentary discussion during the last eighteen months,
together with the imposing ceremonies of the coronation and
the royal progresses to Ireland and to Hanover.
It is thus, however, that most of the momentous points of
national importance, in respect to religion, and moral as well
as political objects, have stood still or have been taken up at an
hour when the opportunity of benefit has nearly passed away,
by these tardy servants of the public ; and seldom, too, except
when pressed by representations from their friends or adver
saries, coupled with broad statements of evils so inveterate,
they can no longer resist inquiry. At the conclusion of peace
they stood high with the country ; no matter from whence they
borrowed the lustre that surrounded their acts. The spirit of
the age was then as it is now — religious and civil improvement.
Any efforts of the Government would have been supported by
all the character, weight, and talent in the empire. If then we
see irreligion and sedition, vice and immorality, stalk abroad
and daily increase, till, as we are taught to believe both by
precept and example, they are beyond the grasp of the ordinary
powers of Government, and till they are to be restrained and
repressed only by powers new to the constitution, by societies,

9
and. by combinations, and by subscriptions, till the whole
realm resounds " with the din of all this smithery," to what
is this monstrous- growth of crime to be attributed? To the
negligences, omissions, and incapacity of that Government,
" which is responsible for the morals of the people over which
it holds its rule ;" — that Government, which " is the former of
men's minds, and the rectifier of their judgments ;" — that Go
vernment, whose " great pervading power, if it does not find
the people virtuous, must make them so." The institutions of
every kingdom tend to good or to evil. The constitution of
England, the basis of her general and political morality, has been
allowed by all who have ever considered the matter, to be by
far the best that human wisdom has yet projected. It must
then follow, that if the people of England be so corrupt, as
they are thus depicted to be, by the diffusion of the spirit of
irreligion and sedition, by the state of our prisons, by the pro
gress of juvenile crime, by the increase of taverns, gin-shops,
nocturnal coffee-shops, and alehouses — the resorts of thieves and
prostitutes, and lastly, by the invasions of our constitutional
safeguards, in order to invest ministers with new powers against
the liberty of the subject and the liberty of the press, together
with the questionable ends of bodies of men associated for the
prosecution of such indefinite and undefinable offences as
libels — it must inevitably follow that the constitution has been
grossly corrupted — or is now vilely and weakly administered
— or, probably, that it is both. No other cause is equal to
such an effect.
We come next to the facts which have attended the progress-
of commercial affairs since the peace. It will scarcely be de
nied that a great change in all the pursuits of trade was to be
wrought by that event, and this change must have been fore
known. The war had thrown into the hands of the British
merchant by far the largest portion of the commerce of the
world. England had not only become a depository of the
various products of distant parts of the globe, which were con
sumed among the different nations of Europe ; but the demands
of the war itself upon the labours of our people were great in
proportion to the magnitude of the scale upon which the con
test was carried on. It must have been foreknown that the

10
industry of nations, whose territory had been for so many years
the seat of war, would revive the moment tranquillity came to
be restored ; and that their efforts would draw from us a portion,
and probably not an inconsiderable portion, of the monopoly
we had so long enjoyed. It must have been foreseen that the
low state of manufactures abroad, the cheap subsistence, and
the want of capital, would immediately allure our " redundant
population," our unemployed talent and our overflowing wealth,
unless efficient means were resorted to, to encourage and to
fix them at home. It could not but be apprehended that the
very cessation of the war would throw loose upon society a
number of labourers at that time engaged as soldiers and sailors,
and in all the departments connected with the supply of naval
and military stores, which would not only introduce a competi
tion that would reduce the price of labour, but would probably
increase rapine, violence, and crimes of all sorts. These things
could not but have been foreseen, because they lie upon the very
surface. These were expectancies which it will be justly thought
would engage the previous attention of a ministry, and dispose
them to take measures to obviate consequences so certain, so
immediate, so inevitable.
But for five years these consequences were permitted to
work their way, not silently indeed, but amidst demonstrations
the most frightful, the most miserable. There was not a single
anticipation above recited which England did not see realized.
Her commerce divided, her artisans engaged, and her capital
vested in foreign and rival establishments ; surrounding nations
invited to competition by laws framed by herself, forbidding
the receipt in barter of their growth for her manufactures ; her
manufacturers starved by millions through stoppage of employ
ment, and the increased number of labourers. Such were the
visible, crying, lamentable effects of impolicy and neglect ; and
out of these distresses, and the conviction that they were re
mediable, arose the assembling of congregated multitudes,
which might justly alarm the country by their numbers and
their necessities, goading them to the extremity of complaint,
although peaceably meeting ostensibly and really for the con
stitutional purpose of petition. Then, and not till then, when
suffering and want might naturally enough be presumed to

11
have engendered a spirit of disaffection, does administration
consent, on the proposition of a member of opposition, to a com
mittee " to consider the means of maintaining and improving
the foreign commerce of the country ;" — of maintaining that
which had already departed in a good degree from us ! Of
improving what our own enactments had prohibited! But
upon this subject let the report speak for itself, for it speaks
the plainest truths ; and let the reader only bear in mind that
this report was framed by a committee of which ministers
themselves were the most efficient members — by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Canning, Mr. Hus-
kisson, and the President of the Board of Trade, for they were
all upon the committee. The report then says :
" Before, however, your committee proceed to advert to the
points which have been the principal objects of their inquiry,
they are anxious to call the observation of the House to the
excessive accumulation and complexity of the laws under which
the commerce of the country is regulated ; with which they
were forcibly impressed, in the very earliest stage of their pro
ceedings. These laws, passed at different periods, and many
of them arising out of temporary circumstances, amount, as
stated in a recent compilation of them, to upwards of two thou
sand; of which no less than eleven hundred were in force in
the year 1815, and many additions have been since made.
After such a statement, it will not appear extraordinary that it
should be matter of complaint to the British merchant, that so
far from the course in which he is to guide his transactions
being plain and simple ; so far from being able to undertake
his operations and to avail himself of favourable openings as
they arise with promptitude and confidence; he is frequently
reduced to the necessity of resorting to the services of pro
fessional advisers, to ascertain what he may venture to do, and
what he must avoid, before he is able to embark in his com
mercial adventures, with the assurance of being secure from
the consequences of an infringement of the law. If this be the
case (as is stated to your committee) with the most experienced
amongst the merchants, even in England, in how much greater
a degree must the same perplexity and apprehension of danger
operate in foreign countries and on foreign merchants, whose

12
acquaintance with our statute-book must be supposed to be
comparatively limited, and who are destitute of the professional
authorities which the merchant at home may at all times con
sult for his direction ? When it is recollected, besides, that a
trivial unintentional deviation from the strict letter of the Acts
of Parliament may expose a ship and cargo to the incon^
venience of seizure, which (whether sustained or abandoned) is
attended always with delay and expense, and frequently fol
lowed by litigation ; it cannot be doubted that such a state of
the law must have the most prejudicial influence both upon
commercial enterprize in the oountry, and upon our mercantile
relations and intercourse with foreign nations. And perhaps
no service more valuable could be rendered to the trade of the
empire, nor any measure more effectually contribute to promote
the objects contemplated by the House, in the appointment of
this committee, than an accurate revision of this vast and con
fused mass of legislation ; and the establishment of some cer
tain, simple, and consistent principles, to which all the regula
tions of commerce might be referred, and under which the
transactions of merchants, engaged in the trade of the United
Kingdom, might be conducted with facility, with safety, and
with confidence."
Such a confession was surely never before extorted from the
lips of delinquents. Know, reader, that during the long period
of this impolicy, confounding, perplexing, and paralysing the
enterprize and the designs of British merchants, during a period
the most important to the trade, the morals, and the constitu
tion of England, upwards of two hundred statutes were
passed relating to commerce and manufactures, in addition to
those in force in 1815. But that no doubt might remain as to
the course which it behoved ministers to take at the peace,
that no part of the just censure and indignation of the country
might be directed from themselves to foreign powers, the re
port is thus concluded : —
" They feel," say the Committee, " that a principle of gradual
and prospective approximation to a sounder system, as the
standard of all future commercial regulations, may be wisely and
beneficially recommended, no less with a view to the interests of
this country, than to the situation of surrounding nations. Upon

13
them the policy of Great Britain has rarely been without its
influence. The principles recognized and acted upon by her
may powerfully operate in aiding the general progress towards
the establishment of a liberal and enlightened system of na
tional intercourse throughout the world, as they have too long
done in supporting one of a contrary character, by furnishing
the example and justification of various measures of commercial
exclusion and restriction. To measures of this nature her pre
eminence and prosperity have been unjustly ascribed. It is not
to prohibitions and protections we are indebted for our com
mercial greatness and maritime power; these, like every public
blessing we enjoy, are the effects of the free principles of the
happy constitution under which we live, which, by protecting
individual liberty and the security of property, by holding out
the most splendid rewards to successful industry and merit,
has, in every path of human exertion, excited the efforts, en
couraged the genius, and called into action all the powers of an
aspiring, enlightened, and enterprising people."
Here, then, is a complete case made out, not only of neg
ligence, but of five years' inveterately stupid (not blind) per
severance in a course which is at length with effrontery
matchless as the negligence and ignorance of which it speaks,
declared by the parties themselves to be subversive of our
commercial greatness and maritime power : and it must be
again pressed upon the attention of the country, that the in
quiry which led to the promulgation of these facts, in no degree
proceeded from ministers, but was at last forced upon the
Government by a member of opposition. So much for the
care of our " commercial greatness and maritime power " exerted
by ministers.
Let us next examnre- the circumstances connected with the
agricultural case, and endeavour to discover to what causes is
to be attributed the ruin of that most useful class, by whose
operative capital, by whose skill and labour, the land-owner is
sustained in his rank and elevation, and the community sub
sisted. It is particularly necessary and essential to be clear as
to the facts in this case. The first great evil of such times as
we have witnessed has fallen and must fall upon the tenantry,
because they (and especially those who have been fixed as it

M
were to a spot by leases) stand between the consumer and the
proprietors of land, the church, and the government ; while
the former has obtained his food at a cheaper rate than it can
be produced for, and the latter orders have continued to levy
and generally to receive their demands in full, up to a very
recent date. In the accomplishment of these purposes the
property of the tenant has been swallowed up ; and one of the
chiefest dangers that threaten the country is the degradation
or annihilation of this most useful and indispensable class, per
haps^ in the commonwealth.
Before the arrival of peace, it was clearly apprehended and
maintained by writers upon political economy, that with that
event a new order of things must obtain with respect to the
value of agricultural produce ; and it seemed (as it has proved)
an equally inevitable consequence, that the foreign price of
corn would ultimately come to be a sort of standard by which the
English growth must be measured and adjusted ; for, in the first
place, it was an exceedingly doubtful point whether our own
soil produced enough for our own consumption : the average of
more than twenty-five years had shown an annual importation
of 500,000 quarters of wheat alone, besides other grains. Not
withstanding the prodigious stimulus which had been exhibited
to agriculture by the increasing demands of a growing popu
lation, and the consequent addition to production by the in-
closure of wastes and the vast improvements in the science
itself, together with the power of high' farming which the ac
cumulation of capital bestowed, as late as 1811, no less than
1,304,577 quarters of wheat were imported*. '
If, therefore, there should be found a necessity for the ad
mission of foreign grain, it was quite clear, that at whatsoever
price the rate of admission was fixed, whenever the ports were
* In relation to the necessity for importation, upon which the whole
question of price depends, it has been generally overlooked, that to the
increase of our population, and the superior diet of the industrious classes,
the increased demand is to be attributed. With the depression of the
profits of agriculture, cultivation and production stop, but population goes
on. Every year, therefore, will probably augment the impossibility of
taking any other standard for home price but the price in the markets of
the world, by rendering importation more necessary.

15
open, so vast an influx would rush in, that the value must in
evitably sink in a ratio incalculable ; and if the expedient of a
duty were resorted to, the effect could only be to fix the price
at the sum amounting to the foreign cost and the duty imposed.
No duty, it was observed, could be endured, which would
bring the value of foreign growth up to a price that would ;
remunerate the English grower if he remained under these
existing charges upon his production. Again, it was truly
urged, that capital and manufacturing skill would fly to lands
where subsistence was abundant ; and that all persons of fixed-
income would as certainly emigrate to countries where the
necessaries and the luxuries of life were cheap and abundant.'
If, therefore, it was attempted to maintain by artificial regula
tions the war price of commodities, it was quite clear that great
and ruinous fluctuations must continually happen ; that the
active capital, with large bodies of the industrious classes, to
gether with a vast proportion of persons of fixed income, would
rapidly leave the country, and that none but those fixed to the
soil by property in the soil, and paupers, who had not the
means of emigration, would remain behind : in a word, that
there would be a fearful abstraction both of production and
demand, and consequently an equivalent decrease of the na
tional power and resources, while the national burdens would
remain the same, or nearly the same. For it is most important
to bear in mind, that of the taxes which are collected, nearly
thirty millions are expended in the unvarying interest and
charges of the public debt *, which can suffer no diminution
without a breach of faith with the public creditor. That such
was the great, the natural, and the probable reason of the case,
needs no other illustration than will hereafter be drawn from
the recent report of the committee appointed to inquire into
the agricultural petitions in the last session of parliament ; an
illustration taken, like our exposition of the consequences of
* This leaves the sinking fund out of view, which ought to appropriate
upwards of sixteen millions annually to the liquidation of the debt';
but, thanks to the provident care of ministers, that sum is otherwise dis
posed of.

16
the ministerial ignorance or apathy upon the affairs of com
merce, out of the mouths of ministers themselves.
In such a crisis, what did it behove a government to at
tempt ? what was the obvious course dictated by an honourable
and a rational policy ? The first step seems to have been to have
at once declared the inevitable effects of peace, and the, deter
mination of the Government not to aim at upholding, by arti
ficial legislative regulations, the false and ruinous hopes of
those whose commodities must be reduced, and consequently
whose salvation must depend upon a commensurate reduction
of their expenses. This was the just and natural line of con
duct for wise and honest ministers ; since every other, it was
too plain to be doubted, and it is since proved by their own
report such teas their own opinion, must be supported by false
views of the subject, and bolstered by artifices which could
have no other result than the ruin of the character of those
who could consent to become the authors of such fallacies, and
the destruction of their dupes. These, it may now be safely
averred, because it can be completely established upon their
own acts and their own authority, and by the departure of
public confidence from them, were the only practical effects
that could be, or that were anticipated in the rise, progress, ,
and termination of the conduct of ministers, in relation to the
interests of agriculture. Such a declaration would have been
immediately acted upon with a due caution by the tenantry in
their future hirings ; rent, and tithe, and labour, together with
other charges, would have followed the price of subsistence;
things would rapidly have adapted themselves to that great
regulator of value, and the farmer would have met his reverse
under every circumstance that could have alleviated his losses ;
he would have had the full, undiminished amount of his war-
profits, and, knowing what he was in future to encounter, he
would have sought redress and made his contracts accordingly.
All the grand components of price would thus have adjusted
themselves, except taxation ; and here we arrive at the next
great duty of ministers, the introduction of prompt and effectual
measures of economy, by which the public expenditure should
have been reduced to the lowest possible ebb, and the burdens

17
of the people lightened to the utmost, in order to give full play
and vigour to the spirit of enterprize, by which alone our
commercial eminence could be kept at its pitch. For since it
is clear, that as production is augmented, taxation will gradually
be less felt, because levied upon a larger amount of wealth, so
every cause that contributes to production acts as efficiently as
a positive abstraction of the weight by the repeal of taxes,
And this brings us to assume, that it was the duty of ministers,
besides the duties of retrenchment and reduction, in times like
those we have experienced since the peace, when the distress
of the manufacturing districts was more urgent than language
can describe, to have originated some plan for augmenting
employment : for national prosperity is, after all, no more than
the reciprocation of demand and supply ; employment is the
source of general wealth and individual gain ; and, both phy
sically and morally speaking, of individual comfort. If one
class of producers and consumers becomes inactive, their decay
must necessarily be followed by a torpor of the other parts of
the body politic. However difficult the means may appear, it
is, no doubt, amongst the first duties of a Government to seek
for and apply extraordinary incentives to industry, when so
dreadful a languor, as has, at more than one interval since 1814,
pervaded the manufacturing districts, is found to prevail.
What was Mr. Pitt's loan to merchants at a former crisis ?
what were the poor and pitiful expedients of the exchequer
bills loan act, and the aid granted the emigrants to South
Africa by the present administration, but recognitions of this
principle, at the same time that they were admissions of their
miserable ignorance and incapacity? What are their two
hundred and four statutes relating to trade and manufactures
since 1815, but proofs, practical proofs (weak as the expedients
are) for the necessity and the duty of the interposition of
Government in procuring or aiding the employment of the
population, thrown out of occupation, and therefore into idle
ness and vice, by causes of more than common occurrence and
operation ? Here, as in our other accusations, the principle is
established by the acts of ministers themselves, insignificant or
futile in every other respect as those acts have been found.

18
Such, then, were the duties. that presented themselves to
administration at the conclusion of peace ; now let us see how
they went abput to perform them. Just previously to that
date (1813) the whole landed interest began to be, alarmed;
while the manufacturing classes, who had so long been sub
jected to a high cost of subsistence, felt, almost for the first
time, the benefits of a lower rate of living, and they anticipated
still greater advantages. The subject of agricultural depres
sion was agitated in parliament, a report prepared, and resolu
tions, tending to establish the price of one hundred and five
shillings and twopence for wheat, as the rate at which importa
tion was first to be permitted, under a duty too of twenty-four
shillings and three-pence, were moved. So monstrous a pro
position was naturally rejected, a new committee was appointed,
and their report was laid before the House in July, 1814.
After the calm reflection of another year, the Corn Bill at
present in force, was enacted ; which allows importation free of
duty at all times, on condition of warehousing the corn under the
king's lock until wheat reaches eighty shillings per quarter,
when it may be offered, to sale. Ministers, in a meeting
with the country gentlemen, submitted to them the alternative
of a duty, or the warehousing clause ; and the latter was pre
ferred. Here, then, it is obvious, that the word of promise was given
to the ear, and broken to the hope. By the introduction of
the proposal for a duty, as well as by naming a rate at which
import should be allowed, equal to nearly thrice the average
value of foreign grain, ministers propagated the false, per
nicious, and ruinous notion, that a, price proportionate to the
expenses under which the occupier then stood was to be arti
ficially maintained. Mark, reader, this was in 1815, at, or
soon after, the final conclusion of peace.
It was quite obvious, and at the time stated universally out
of doors, that the only consequence of this bill must be a
ruinous fluctuation of prices. Wheat at eighty shillings would
afford the importer of foreign corn a profit, of more than one
hundred per cent, besides freight outwards arid inwards, and
the gain upon a cargo of merchandize sent out in barter.

19
The law must, therefore, be either a dead letter, in the event of
our growth being equal to our consumption, or (in the event
of open ports) the cause of alternately greatly exalting and de
pressing the rate of subsistence, one of the most distressing
evils a country can endure. The fluctuations in the years
1815,1816, and 1817, came directly to prove the justice of
these arguments; but the former year at once brought about
the reverse of the fond illusions in which the tenantry had
been indulged, through the agency of ministers, by their Corn
Bill. New propositions, still tending to sustain an artificial
price, were submitted by a county member*; and ministers,
while they negatived his absurd notions, did not, however, fail
to inspire new confidence, by the assurance that the distress
was merely the result of causes temporary and transitory :
" time and patience " were duly recommended once more, and
thus was the Occupier pacified. Upon the harvest of 1815 was
made the first considerable loss ; a loss which is wholly, solely,
and entirely attributable to the fallacy imposed upon the farmer
by the hopes of better times instigated by ministers, and by the
worse than foolish provisions of the Corn Bill.
The harvest of 1816 proved wet, and prices immediately
ran up (in November) to the disproportionate amount of from
one hundred and twelve shillings to one hundred and twenty-
eight shillings, in the face of open ports. Then it was for
ministers to exult in their admirable foresight, and the
justice of their assurances: all was now promising, all as it
should be. How very short had been the period of embar
rassment !
The importations of 1817 were immense, and the price con
tinued, above the importation rate, with a short intermission
(during which corn continued to arrive), till February 1819.
The quantities brought in during 1818 were still rriore vast,
the prices thus remaining high. The English farmer, who
possessed the means of holding, kept back his stock ; while the
importer wisely took advantage of the demand, and sold. In
March, 1819, no more than nine hundred and fifty-seven
* Mr. Western. c 2

20
quarters of all the prodigious import of two years remairied m
warehouse: thus the English grower held for a depressed market,
and increased his loss by the expenses and the waste ; and a new
and still heavier abstraction of his capital was effected by the false
confidence placed in the equally false assurances of the ministry,
repeated at every interval apparently favourable, for the moment,
to their shallow views.
In 1819, the agriculturists, alarmed at the prospect, began
to petition ; but ministers took the earliest opportunity, the
second day of the session, to signify their intentions. Mr. Ro
binson, the president of the Board of Trade, said, " It ap
peared to him to be of the utmost moment to make a distinct
avowal of the view in which the subject was considered by his
majesty's ministers. They were decidedly of opinion, not only
that it would be unadvisable to agitate such a question ; but in
case of any substantive proposition being brought forward, they
would meet it with their most determined resistance. They
looked upon the last measure as one of sound legislative policy,
and that it had produced all the benefits that were expected to
be derived from it to the agricultural interests of the country ;
but they would consider it to be the height of imprudence,
amounting almost to insanity, to introduce any new measure*."
Such was the positive way in which ministers continued to
regard their policy,
At length, in the beginning of 1820, the bubble burst, the
film fell from the, eyes of the agriculturists, complaint was loud,
was universal, was not to be withstood; yet so late as the
month of June, Lord Liverpool (the prime minister) declared
.that " no alteration was expedient in our laws, either as they
respected the trade in corn, or the currency. It appeared to
him, that it was of the utmost importance the public should
understand this, and that our present laws should be regarded
as a permanent system by foreign merchants and foreign na
tions-)-." The reader is requested to bear this in mind; for he
« Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxxix. p. 68.
t The new principles of ministers had been previously promulgated, by
which they negatived and stultified all their former assertions in opposi-

will presently be called upon to compare this declaration with
the newest annunciation of ministerial opinion, as it stands in
Mr. Huskisson's report of the agricultural committee. His
lordship, moreover, in this famous speech, which must be taken
as his exposition of the existing state of the country, averred?
that he found little reduction in " the great articles 7' of do
mestic consumption. " The great articles," reader, were tea,
coffee, tobacco, malt, British spirits, butter, salt, bricks, and
tiles. Now it might rather have been supposed that bread-corn,
butchers' meat, and wool, were the great articles by which
agriculture was affected, and the comforts of the industrious
classes indicated. These, however, it suited his lordship's
purpose to omit ; and he did omit them, although the accounts
of the corn brought to market, and of the decrease of con
sumption of butchers' meat, from Birmingham * and other large
towns and districts, proved, to a demonstration, that the la
bouring hand was driven to a dreadful state of privation, as
indeed the fact, as " notorious as the sun at noon day," of
hundreds of thousands thrown out of work, and depressed
wages, confirmed. It was impossible for the working classes
to purchase the same quantities, even of food. It was morally
impossible that Lord Liverpool should not be acquainted with
this truth ; for if he was not, he was the only subject of the
crown of England who was ignorant of it. Again, the fall of
the price of wool, and the authenticated accounts of manu-
tion to the bullion report ; but upon this occasion, true to their notions of
consistency, Mr. Peel and Mr. Huskisson asserted one set of opinions, and
Lord Castlereagh another, at the beginning and the .close of the debate,
though they voted together. We have postponed this part of the subject,
in order to keep the arguments relating to the Corn Bill entire and
compact. * In the first four months of the year 1818, the slaughter of animals for
the supply of the town of Birmingham amounted to 5,147 beasts, including
cows and oxen ; in the corresponding four months of 1820, the number of
cattle slaughtered was 2,783. In the first four months of 1818, the
number of sheep slaughtered was 11,479; and in the corresponding four
months of 1820, it was reduced to 8,216. During the same .period of
1816, a year of great distress, the poor's rate was 5,857/.; in 1820 (same
period), it was 10,843/. See Mr. Spooners speech, in the debate on the
distressed state of manufacturers, Friday,, May 12, 1820.

22
facture from the Cloth Halls of Yorkshire*, showed a pro
digious defalcation in the demand. Lord Liverpool's state
inents must, then, have been most grossly defective,, or mos
grossly illusory: ministers are quite welcome to the alter
native. The thunders of complaint continued to roll and to in
crease, as the case of the farmer became more desperate
during the remainder of 1820; till, in 1821, it was impossible
for ministers longer to withhold the palliative of an inquiry.
By this fourth access of depression, (the claim's of the land
lord, the clergyman, and the tax gatherer, still continuing to be
satisfied from the capital of the occupier) the farmer was re
duced to the very verge of ruin, and decisive proof was ex
hibited, that the causes of fluctuation were not, as repeatedly
stated by ministers, temporary and transient. It was clear that
* STATE OF THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE, 1819-20,
NARROW CLOTHS, MILLED.
Pieces. Yards.
First quarter  34,545
Second quarter .... 29,789
Third quarter .... 30,088
Fourth quarter .... 25,278
119,700 . . 4;889,181
Milled in 1819 .... 140,314 . . 5,721,392

Decreased in 1820 . . . 20,614 832,211

BROAD CLOTHS, MILLED.

First quarter .... 71,609
Second quarter .... 67,555
Third quarter .... 66,148
Fourth quarter . . . . .57,966

263,278 . . 8,406,314
Mijled in 181? .... 324,339 . . 10,246,205
Decreased in 1820 . . . 61,061 . . 1,839,891
The whole manufactory produced in 1820, ¦'
in yards ........... 13,295,495
Ditto, 1819, in yards ....... 15,967,597
Total decrease in 1820 . . 81,675 . . 2,672,102

23
the fountain of evil was as freshly flowing as at first. " Time
and patience" had done their best, and almost their worst.
The appointment of a committee to inquire into the agricul
tural petitions was therefore at length extorted from ministers.
On Monday the fifth of February, Lord Liverpool delivered
his wise and honourable dictum in the House of Peers, that
the INCREASE OF AGRICULTURAL rRODUCTION WAS THE CAUSE
of agricultural distress ! and on the same day, Lord Castle-
reagh, in the other House, volunteered the consent of ministers
to the formation of the committee ; most scrupulously, however,
guarding against the introduction of the subject of taxation
into the inquiry. His lordship expressly stipulated against
injuring public credit, " by decreasing the revenue, upon which
that public credit rested," as he was pleased to phrase it. The
committee was formed : the majority of its members was
thought to be the ministers and their tried staunch friends :
its sittings were stormy and contentious; its inquiries were
protracted till the close of the session, when scarcely a com
ment could be made in the House upon its proceedings ; and
Mr. Huskisson, one of the ministers, is understood to have
drawn the report — a task usually allotted to the chairman of
committees. Why this general provision was departed from
may be readily conjectured, without any invidious imputation
upon the abilities of the honourable member for Suffolk. A more
gratifying oblation, however, could hardly be made to the prin
ciples and practice of his friends in the cabinet.
At the close of the session the report was presented, and
it has been universally held to be ingenious, but illusory ;
combining falsehood and fact in such proportions, as to puzzle
the understanding and entangle the question ; • maintaining no
distinct policy, but still holding out the lure of fallacious hope
from protecting duties, and evading or slightly touching the real
grounds of the evil. Having thus brought the narrative of
the conduct of ministers on this point to a conclusion, we shall
here recapitulate the effects of their errdrs, touching the three
grand heads- into which we divided our subject, before we
enter into the discussion of the real causes of distress. We
adopt this method, in order to separate those which have arisen
from the ignorances or negligences of the ruling hand, from

24
others which are inherent in the nature of our past and present
situation. The particular evil then of which the agriculturist and the
country have to complain, is that, by the communication of
fictious assumptions and the adoption of artificial and decep
tive expedients, the property of the tenantry, and even of
the small owner, has been absorbed by the other orders of the
community. This is the especial work of ministers. Our re
cital of opinions and events has shown that they consented
to the propagation of the belief, that the Corn Bill would esta
blish eighty shillings as the average if not the lowest price at
which corn would be kept- and in lending their sanction to
this belief, they confirmed the hope that the existing outgoings
of the farmer were to be compensated by a remunerating price
for his commodity. At every accession and remission of the
symptoms which brought their principles to the proof, they
accommodated themselves to the occasion ; now preaching " time
and patience," now exulting in the casual alternations of increased
value, as the tests of their wisdom. The farmer was thus, in
1813,in 1815, in 1818, 1819, and 1820, exposed to the re
petition of heavy losses, while he was led on, by the false hopes
held out in the declarations of ministers, to endeavour to bear up
under contracts which could have no other end than the gradual
absorption of his capital, and his ultimate ruin. But this was
merely a ministerial expedient, to keep the aristocracy of the
landed interest, quiet. It is no less obvious and incontrovertible,
that had ministers, at the conclusion of peace, exhibited a
luminous and comprehensive view of the consequences of that
event, and insisted strongly on the impossibility of maintainino-
a price of corn greatly exceeding that of the growth of foreign
countries, , (as , they are now brought to acknowledge rin the
report,) tilings would at once have found their level, and. the
war-gains would have compensated in a. good measure the
peace-losses :, the first loss would have been the only loss., This,
however, would have alarmed the great proprietors ; and thus,
by. the hesitating and; uncertain policy of ministers, the burdens
of four, distinct and subsequent, though not successive periods
of loss, have been aggregated upon ,the back of the farmer ;
while the manufacturing classes have been now forced, into

-preternatural activity, now depressed and injured, starved and
expatriated by casual fluctuation of employment, and elevation
of the price of subsistence. Perhaps the worst feature of the
case, as it concerns administration, is, that it is next to impossible
for ministers not to have perceived the true nature of the
causes and effects ; and this doubt casts a very dark shadow
indeed over the temporising course of miserable expedients, by
which the country has been deluded and beggared.
For what is the present condition of the operative agricul
tural population ? The rightful independence, of which honest
industry is the parent, is exchanged for abject and servile alms
from parish allowance, in almost every labourer's case — since
insufficient earnings are eked out by drafts upon the poor's
rates. The losses of the farmer himself can be partially only
made good by debts to the humanity and the generosity of
the landlord and the clergyman, which stoop his spirit, cloud
his "prospects, and blight his happiness. Man is not made for
a condition of such obligation ; at least, not man in his free state ;
not an Englishman, such as /Englishmen were wont to think
themselves. But to this abject condition two of the most use
ful, most numerous classes of the community — the labourers
in agriculture, and the yeomanry — have been bowed and bent,
if our premises be not misstated, by the weakness or the vice
of the public servants of the crown.
Some further notice is however dud to the report itself;
because, as proceeding from the mind of a minister, it may
seem to show the nature of the economical principles of admini
stration. The report sets out with an admission of the grievances
under -which agriculture suffers. It is granted that the farmer
is not remunerated, and that his payments are made Out of
his capital : and it is most curious, that the inference is, that
from his hitherto " creditable punctuality," an expectation is
held out that' he will still be able to bear up under his dif
ficulties.- This is indeed to compliment a man at the expense
of his judgment ; for can there be one living creature so' dull
as not to perceive that the very reverse is the just conclu
sion? The farmer, who pays his losses out of his capital, can.
stand no longer than his capital lasts. The farmer, says the
report, has paid his losses out of his capital — He is not re-

26
munerated, and is therefore still continuing to lose and to pay
out of the capital which may remain to him. We see, further,
say the committee, no means of remedying this state of things ;
ergo, the farmer will still be able to bear up under his losses,
because he has borne up. Admirable logic ! Is there not, in
such an argument as this, a striking proof of intention to
deceive? .-.-¦¦•
By combining, in a subsequent part of the report, the effects
of the assumed depreciation of the currency with those of the
agriculturalimprovements, (another cause of the elevation of rent)
and then measuring the fall of land by the depreciation, a new
fallacy'is intermixed with fact. The existing cause of depressed
.price is the .supply being greater than the demand, which arises
from abundant crops and large importations,. operating simulta
neously through the false opinions propagated by ministers, and
through the Corn Bill. Had their views of " time and patience,"
not been apparently sanctioned by the rise after the wet har
vest of 1816, the English grower would not have held his
stock in the face of such prodigious importations, and the con
sequent effect of extraordinary supply would have closed the
ports at a much earlier period. This is the true cause; for
while the English grower held his. stock, or while he was com
pelled to pay the price of his credulity by bringing his crop
to sale, the currency could not have the smallest effect what
ever. The relation of demand and supply was the cause and
the whole cause, and this must continue to regulate price*;
because if we import, the foreign growth introduced will even
tually depress the value of the English corn, nearly to its own
cost. If we grow enough to export, (and one or other must be
the case,) no English grower "will send out a grain till the home
price is so low as to afford him hopes of a better market
abroad,. The same .effect therefore must unavoidably attend
either a want of corn from abroad or a surplus at home. The
report then, in this instance,- endeavours1 to confuse the ques
tion, merely to conciliate and console the land owner. "
If the reader will take the pains to bring together and com
pare the clauses in the third division of the report, he will see
* See clauses 34, 3,5, and 36 of the report.

27
how completely the compromise ministers, towards the end, de-
sire to make with the prejudices of the agricultural interest re*
specting the possible imposition of a duty, are contradicted by the
beginning. Observe the absurdity. The cost of a quarter of wheat
in Hamburgh has been, upon the average, about thirty-two shil
lings and sixpence, the freight probably from three shillings and
sixpence to five shillings. Say then that the entire value would be
thirty-seven shillings : a duty of forty-4hree shillings would thus
be necessary to bring the price up to the present rate of allowed
import, which is considered as a remunerating price.. Now in
clause fifty-three, the committee argue, that in the event of im
posing a duty, the present rate of importation must be lowered s
and in clauses seventy and seventy-one, they expressly state that
the proposition to lay such a duty as forty shillings? , is a pro
position which the legislature could never entertain. To^com-
plete the demonstration, at the close of clause sixty-orie# after
enforcing the necessity of guarding against " creating by ar
tificial means too great a difference between the cost of sub
sistence here and in other countries, not only on account of
the people themselves, but also from the risk of driving much
of the capital by which their industry- is supported, to seek
* The error under which the advocates for a protecting duty, or in
other words, high prices, labour, is, mistaking circulation for increase.
Give us high prices, says Mr. Webb Hall, and we will furnish you em
ployment. But this can only be to receive with one hand, and give back with
the other: the balance would be the same. But if the agriculturist
retain a portion of the sum he takes, insomuch the consumer must be
injured; that is to say, if the grower of corn extorts a larger sum from
the. consumer, he, will make the consumer do more labour |or his bread.
If,, on the other hand, the consumer lays the, additional cost of,hi^ sub
sistence upon the articles he barters, the general amount of their dealings
will be augmented, but die gain on both sides will be the same. Em
ployment is' no benefit to the persori employed, nnless his labour enables
him to command a greater quantity of what he wants or desif es;: Num
berless .other incontrovertible reasons arising out of foreign supply,' the ac
cumulation of capital, and the progress of knowledge, might be ,adva#ee4
against ,Mr? Hall's theory : one however wfll, be sufficient, $H£hat
Mr. Hall proposes is, in effect, to raise prices. r|ow^ if such, was the road
to prosperity, how1 easy would it be to fix a certain rate on all com
modities! But experience has long proved the folly of such expedients.
Maximums and minirnums have long been justly exploded.

28
employment in other countries," the committee state, with the
fullest force of irrefutable truth, " there cannot be a doubt
that this difference operates in the same manner as taxation to
diminish the profits of capital in this country ; and there can be
as little doubt, that though capital may migrate, the unoccupied
population (alias the paupers) will remain; and remain to be
maintained by- the landed interest, upon whose resources, dimi
nished in proportion to the diminished demand, this additional
burthen would principally fall!" Thus the truth breaks out.
But did not ministers know this at the peace ? and if they, did
¦know it, why seek to evade so inevitable a train of consequences
by the provisions of the Corn Bill? Why then become the
principal actors in a scheme which could only, end in transfer
ring the property of i the i farmer to the landlord, the clergyman,
and the tax-gatherer ? Why still seek to hold out a hope of a
protecting duty which is contradicted as soon as urged^a
spurious project, strangled as soon as born, by the father that
gave it being? Alas, of what slender and weak materials is the
web of sophistry constructed ! These contradictions prove that
there is not, there cannot be, the smallest intention on the part
of ministers to grant that legislative protection, so fondly, so
loudly prayed for. The fifth and sixth divisions of the report,
indeed, still more strongly tend to kill the hope ministers have
so long cherished.
But perhaps the most objectionable part of this paper
morally, financially, and politically considered, is the allusion to
the subject ; of taxation, and to the operation of the sinking
fund, with which it concludes. The committee knew that
Mr. Pitt's solicitude to render his plan inviolate, and his fund
inviolable, had been nullified by the present ministers. Not
only has nearly the whole seventeen millions been appropriated
to the. payment of the interest, in lieu of the liquidation of the
principal of the debt, but the new taxes imposed upon malt,
tea, pepper, tobacco, and other the necessaries as well as the com
forts of the poor, estimated by the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer at three millions — these too have almost disappeared
in the general vortex ; The revenue has decreased, 'old taxes
and new taxes ;. and it is extremely problematical, whether there
will be any surplus at all derivative from the solid, permanent

29
revenue of the country. All the trifling saving that appears
in Mr. Vansittart's last year's calculations was collected from
repayments, arrears, retrenchments, Sec. which can have no
continuance, while the expenses of the coronation, the king's
journeys, &c. remain yet to be provided for. There is yet no
real sinking fund in existence. The conclusion of the report
therefore is worthy its general tenor ; worthy the policy and
the practice of its framer, and his coadjutors in office. They
are, in this instance, as in all the rest, content to gloss over our
present evils with future expectations, and to prop an empire,
as it reels under their guidance towards the precipice of ruin. .
But as the subject of the currency, in its relation to finance,
has been introduced, we may here examine a little into these
effects, as well as into the expedients of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. That they have hitherto completely failed, com
pletely falsified all his glowing productions, and as completely
stultified his administration, might in itself be sufficient. But
we will go a little deeper into this matter.
Since the peace, and subsequent to the suppression of the
property tax (with which, by the way^ ministers boldly de
clared their resolution to stand or fall, though they humanely
relented, in consideration of the desolate condition in which
their resignation of office would have left the country), the
Chancellor of the Exchequer assured parliament and the
people, that taxation had reached its "limits. In 1817* there
was said to be about two millions of income (not revenue) de
rivable from the Sale of stores and arrears of property tax.
These, with 12,600,0002, borrowed by means of Irish treasury
and exchequer bills, furnished forth the ways and means of
that year. His expedient in 1818 was toiraise a loan (without
the name of a loan) by the creation of a new stock, bearing
three and a half per cent, interest, by which he mortgaged the
additional half per cent, in order to obtain a 'present sum of
eleven pounds. Thus, in point of fact, he borrowed on an
interest of four and a half per cent, and a small fraction, while
he amused himself and his true believers with the hope that
the funds would rise so as to enable him to discharge those
stocks which bore an interest of four and five percent. At
this time the three per cent, consols, were at eighty. They

.•30
soon after sunk fifteen per cent. * arid are now at seventy-eight ;
yet money is so plentiful, that the bapk has recently discussed
the propriety of lowering the terms of discount to four per
cent. In this year, notwithstanding the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had three times repeated his opinion that three
millions of debt would be discharged, it turned out that the sum
of six hundred thousand pounds was added to our permanent
obligations. So much for the accuracy of ministerial calcula
tions, and the truth of their positive declarations. During
this eventful year also took place the first direct invasion of
the sinking fund, which dashed down all hope of the liquidation
of the pecuniary engagements of the state, and gave the first
example of a breach of faith, on the part of the Government
of England, towards the public creditor.
In the session of 1819, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
notwithstanding his former assurances that " taxation had
reached its limits," was Compelled to resort to new loans and
new imposts. The sum "Wanted for the year was 31,074,400/.
of which 10,-597j0007. was for the repayment of a debt of
5,000,000/. to the bank; and 5,597,000/. to take up outstanding
exchequer bills. The unfunded debt was thus decreased by
these joint amounts, (10,597,000/.) while the entire debt was
increased by a loan of 12,000,000/., and the operation of the
sinking-fund was stopped by the appropriation (under the fictious
name of a loan) of 12,00O!,000Z. of its produce to the payment
of the interest, in lieu of the liquidation of the principal. The rest
of his plan was to 'create a new and real sinlting fund of jive
millions (he had ' just extinguished the agency of Mr. Pitt's
old sinking fund amounting to sixteen), by which the country
was "to be placed in an' attitude to command the respect of
the world." ; Thdse five millions were' to be increased,- by thie
effect of compound interest, to eight. The three millions of
* On 'the'thfrct'of June, 18l9, the three per 'pent, consols were at
65|; the. elevation at present is rationally to he accounted for by the
fact, thai'^if the capital recently employed in commerce, is, on account of
depressed price, equal to carry ori^ the same quantity of business! Trie
capital thus thrown1 but 'of 'employment, must, therefore, rind its way into
the funds of our own or other countries!

31
new taxes on tobacco, tea, coffee, pepper, malt, and spirits*,
were to be added to the surplus of the revenue above the
expenditure, which, Mr. Vansittart said, amounted to two
millions. Thus was " the real and effectual- sinking-fund " to
be begun, for the discharge of a debt of more than eight
hundred millions, in the fourth year of peace !
In 1820, the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
did not, however, verify that of the former year.. On the
19th of June, when the budget was brought in, he was com
pelled again to resort to a loan of five millions made in the
money-market, to another from the sinking-fund of twelve;
millions, and to funding seven millions of exchequer bills;
which, wiltfi a sum from the sale of old stores (amounting
altogether to 24,260,000/.), enabled him to reduce the un
funded debt nine millions, and to meet the exigencies of the
year: thus he borrowed twenty-four millions, and paid nine.
He was also compelled to admit, that the real efficient sinking-
fund of five millions existed only in his fond imaginings; and
the probability was, that it would not reach; more than three
millions during the ensuing year. Remember, reader, his last
year's statement had anticipated a surplus of two millions, and
an addition of three millions from new taxes ; that year being
passed, he anticipates anew, and this. year, fixes three millions
as the probable amount of his real sinking fund-f-. But, alas !
this anticipation proved no more veracious than the former.
When the .debate on the finances took place, it was admitted
on both sides, in the midst of disputes, as to other and more
particular . .details, that not more than six hundred thousand
pounds of debt (instead of the creation of the real sinking-fund
of.fiyemjillions) had, been discharged in 1820 j., Mr-Yansittart,
however, still anticipa1,ed\ his,, three^or, four rnijlions of saving
(l>rii;rr .-• .- .,- !'' . t;i. ;¦> F-a.a :-flj'oqitt\.-> -¦'• '"'
* In the debate which followed these propositions, Mr. Fowell Buxton
said, "he pould not concur in the propriety ^pf. imposing the^e taxes,
which' were' exclusively on the. poor, especially; where the object was
to estahlish a sinking-fund; for the establishment of suijh-jp fluid, was
meant merely for the benefit of the1, rich; and nothing could he' more
iniquitous than 'to tax the jroor, in order to" secure the property p£ the
rich." — Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xl. j>. 1026.
t It is by no means easy to find out the actual balance of the year'*

32
in the year to come. We shall close our narrative of the pro
gress of revenue by the details of the present year, compared
with the basis upon which the minister's calculations in 1819
were founded. Remember, reader, 1819 was the yea"r of re
generation, the new and brilliant sera of the commencement of
the real efficient sinking-fund, " that is to entitle us to the
respect of the world ! "
Mr. Vansittart computed this fund at five millions, when he
promulgated his grand design — two millions surplus of revenue,
and three millions from new taxes: he now, in 1821, calculates
(by anticipation) these five millions at no more than 3,500,000/.*
But mark how this fund is to be produced ; not by Revenue, but
from a saving of expenditure, the sale of stores, ! and repay-
accountSj as stated by ministerial arithmeticians ; but it should appear,
that the true amount (taking Mr. Vansittart's figures) stood as follows :
DEBT INCREASED. ...
Loan from the sinking-fund . . . 12,000;000
Exchequer bills  o7,000,000
Loan  . . 5,000,000.
24,000,000 ¦'¦
Balance  2,000,000
"26,000,000 '
DEBT DIMINISHED.
Sinking-fund ........ 17,000,000
Exchequer bills paid . . . . . . 9,000;,6o6 '
Debt paid .  .26,000,000
This statement is exclusive of the interest of the national debt, and' is
made-upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer's figures;: but Mr. Ricardo
contended in the debate, that the funded debt had been increased exactly in
the same proportion the unfunded debt was diminish ed ; thus leaving no
surplus, no real sinking-fund whatever! , Mr. Maberley, also, ad
verting to the possibility of future wars, said, that war and' bankruptcy
must be considered as synonymous terms.
* Figures ought to present the most indisputable evidences, they ought
to .prove themselves; yet the national accounts, are so ingeniously, kept,
as always to become the .source of dispute, not as to the accuracy of par
ticulars/but as to the general-result.

33
ments of loans, — items which are not income: the last two' are
but the application of capital lent formerly, and now repaid.

1819. Surplus of revenue

. . . £2,000,000

Estimated new taxes

... 3,000,000

Ought to have produced

. . . 5,000,000

Saving of expense . ,£1,800^000

Old stores, &c. . . .

163,000

French indemnity . .

500,000

Repayment of Ex. Bills .

125,000

Surplus of 1820 . . .

81,630

Deduct ....

. . 2,669,630

Probable produce of revenue . . 830,370

By this recapitulation, it appears that the revenue, or the
permanent income of the state:, had ' decreased by upwards of
four millions, instead of increasing five ; for it is manifest, that
the old stores and repayments cannot come again ; while from
the saving of expense must be deducted the maintenance of ten
thousand troops, which have been added to the army establish
ment since 1819, upon the plea of domestic discontents. And
it is worthy of remark, that in various points the condition of
the country is shown by this statement to be rendered far
worse ; for revenue being a measure of trade and consumption,
it is quite clear that both must have declined, and consequently
the gains and the comforts of the people must have diminished
also. This view of the case is further confirmed by the falling
away of the duties on beer, candles, leather, soap, aftd other
articles, which constitute some of the necessaries of life. Again,
the same amount of' taxation, (indeed the amount has been
subsequently increased by the three millions of taxes imposed
in 1819,) being gathered from a diminished income, diminished
both by the fall of price and contracted production, must press
with greater ^weight upon the people; and if we look forward
to the possibility of war, in what state of power and prepara
tion must that country find itself, which is barely able to raise

the interest of its debt at the expiration of six years of profound
peace ! That debt is admitted by the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer to amount to eight hundred and twenty mil
lions; and, in point of fact, it amounts to a larger sum. The
expenditure of the country, during the last year of war, was
about one hundred and ten millions; its income is now about fifty
millions : it must, then, be clear, that a declaration of war will
be the declaration of the bankruptcy of England, unless more
efficient means be taken for the liquidation of her debt. These
facts prove also, that while the state may be making a feeble
effort towards such liquidation, that effort, is attended with an
accession of heavier calamity to the country.
But in order to complete our view of the policy of ministers,
in regard to finance, (for such a tissue of failing expedients
does not deserve the name of a system,) we must draw atten
tion to one other important measure, the return to a metallic
currency. We have already noticed* the differences of mini
sters and their adherents upon this matter, with themselves; we
have quoted their denial of their principles of the bullion report
at one period, and the admission of those principles at another ;
the allegations of Mr.Peel and Mr-Huskisson, in their speeches
at the beginning of the first day's debate, and the contra
dictions of Sir: Robert Peel and Lord Castlereagh, at the end of
the- second.: these are to be taken, we presume, simply as
proofs of a liberal tone of thinking, and not at all as impeaching
the consistency and steadiness of administration. But to the
fact^^ * ; • ¦ : i
The problem of the greatest public difficulty has been, and
still is, to ascertain whether the weight of taxation can be borne
under a depreciated value of things, and a .probable decrease of
pcodiuctioni When ministers first consented to the expediency
of returning, to a metallic currency, it was under the absolute
conviction that a depression of prices must follow ; fori it was
given in evidence by the governor of the Bank of England,
and.by other directors, as well as by merchants andi traders of
the; first estimation, that a, forcible contraction of the issues of
the bank must; be the first step towards the desired object, that
* Page 20.

the facilities afforded to commerce must consequently be'
lessened, and that, in point of fact, the trade of the country
would necessarily be reduced by such forcible contraction of
those issues. What conclusion, then, arises from the con
sideration and comparison of the antagonist powers ministers then
brought into sudden action ? First they enact a corn bill, which
is to keep subsistence high ; next they enact a return to cash
payments, which is to bring prices low. Subsistence constitutes
the chiefest part of price; yet price is to be raised by one
measure, and brought low by another, in order to force an
export trade, and allure hither the precious metals: It must,
then, have been certain, that the two things could not exist
together. What has followed these contradictions? The distress of all
classes. But what places the absurdity in the strongest light, is the
expectation that the same amount of taxation can be -collected
from a production indefinitely reduced in value and quantity ;
for nothing can be more obvious than that if the tax-gatherer
calls at our doors for the same amount as be did when prices
were high, we feel the increase of the weight in the proportion
that prices are fallen. If, for instance, when wheat is at fifty-six
shillings a quarter, the said tax-gatherer calls upon the farmer
for as much as he called for when wheat was at one hundred
and twelve shillings a quarter, it is clear he takes just double
the sum he took from him before; 'he takes the- value of two
quarters of wheat, instead of one ; and as price must eventually
follow the cost of subsistence upon all articles, it is alike cer
tain, that the pressure of taxation must fall with a weight pro
portioned to the fall of price. Nay, it is even enhanced by the
additional three millions of new taxes lately imposed i; an ad
dition equal to about one sixteenth part of alltbe taxes paid
before. ! - ; ' ' r
Waslitinot, then, the obvious policy, as well as the obvious
duty of ministers, who wished not only to alleviate the burdens
of the people they govern, but to consider the practicability of
their schemes;^-was it not their obvious policy, and -their ob
vious duty, to accompany this measure, which they knew must
n 2

36
inevitably produce such wasting effects, with some palliative?
It was, unquestionably ; and that palliative was immediately to
be found in retrenchment alone. It remains only to show that
such retrenchment was practicable ; and if we prove that it was
not only practicable, but easy, we think we shall have substan
tiated this part of our case against ministers ; be it owing to
their ignorance, their apathy, or (as we believe) to their settled
design of shoring up their falling influence, after the public
confidence had departed from them, by the application of the
public resources to the maintenance of an enormous and con
suming patronage. We shall proceed to the proofs.
In 1792 the expenditure of the Government, including the
charge of collecting the revenue, was no more than 7,800,000/.
The charge for the same services is now no less than twentjt
six millions ! exclusive in both instances of the national
debt. Now admitting the increase of our population, and the ad
dition to our colonies to their fullest extent, can there be the
shadow of a reason for trebling, more than trebling, the expenses ?
No man will be so absurd as to argue for a moment in favor
of such a necessity. Here, then, upon the broad, general,
face, of the fact itself, is a self-evident demonstration of wanton
profusion : this were alone sufficient. But happily for our
position, and for the country, there is even a stronger cham
pion to fight on our side.
Mr. Hume, the member for Aberdeen, has applied himself
sedulously to the dissection of the public accounts, and he has
laid open to the general eye, the want qi economy in the various
(particularly the military) establishments. In the .: details; ;pf
the ordnance, |the,_army, and the navy, ho. has pointed., out
direct means, of reduction, without impairing, the real strength
of thfy, country, tQ.art enormous, amount. Itr sis well-known
tha,tj after the (delivery of. the estimates, although vxinfst^s
had declared that it was impossible to lessen them, it is well
known .-jjha&ithey.Ktfre lessened. Both the. Master GjeneraLof
the Ordnance} and, Lord Castlereagh had asserted in-iifche) iinost
positive terms, that no reduction of the forces could h& made;
yet aftel" Mr. Hume's 'notices, twelve thousand men1 were" strnek

37
off, and a saving of more than a million and a half accrued
to the country*. Again, in the collection of the revenue,
which cost the country 4,136,641/. last year, exclusive of
112,637/. for quarantine expenses (a sum amounting to more
than half the whole expenditure of the Government in 1792),
in the mode of this collection he has pointed out most mon
strous negligence of economy, and his charges have been ac
knowledged, and his suggestions acted upon, when the eyes of
the country could be no longer blinded upon the facts.
Mr. Hume, in the two departments of receivers-general of
taxes and stamp distributors, proved, that sixty-five of the
former, and ninety-five of the latter places, were nearly sine
cures ; and yet they cost the country no less than one hundred
and twenty thousand pounds per ami. By the abolition and
reduction of the offices and salaries of the tvvo first, through
Mr. Hume's recommendations, which have been seconded by
those of a committee of the House of Commons, there will
accrue to the country a saving of seventy-five thousand six
hundred and fifty pounds in one hundred and seventeen
thousand nine hundred. In the distribution of the stamps,
there are men enjoying' from four to five thousand a year, yet
performing their duties by deputy. It has been satisfactorily
shown by Mr. Hume, that an Immense saving might be con
veniently and rightly made in this branch. Nay, such re
formation has, since his showing, been partially begun; and
from his future exertions, the country may still' hope for a
more efficient reduction. These are only instances of the first
effects of his labours — but, ex pede Herculem — this specimen
will show how much of real Utility has resulted from this gen
tleman's' persevering inquiries, and how much ground mi
nisterial5 profusion has' created for the strictest investigation .
Yet has Mr. Hdme been taunted and reviled with matchless
effrontery both in and out ofdoors.1' But he has triumphed,
*,,Let'Mi saving be compared with the statement- 6f the financier's
estimate forffthe present year; and it willbe seen that in point, oi fact the
reduction of bxpendituaiea* scarcely more than equivalent $ft -the addifjon,
since 1819. Ten thousand men had^been, added £>,Jhe jqmy^n^ twelve
thousand were deducted from the establishment.

38
and has extorted even from'those who have voted against him
upon every question, the well-earned praise of having rendered
great service to the country*.
At this moment the army enumerates one hundred and
fifty-seven thousand men more than in 1792 ; the whole
amount of troops being_24j9U)0.ft. Can such an establishment
be necessary when the world is enjoying profound peace ?
Would not those men who compose the volunteer establish
ment be as easily found, and as efficient, without draining the
country of the enormous expense lavished upon them in the
provision of adjutants, Serjeants, &c. and in the pay and ex
emptions from taxes which the cavalry especially enjoys, and
which either passes into the pockets of the captains of troops,
or is lavished in idle parade, or in still more wasteful dinners
and entertainments -'p ?
The parading of these poor men even on the sovereign's
birth-day — their pistol-firing and their grotesque chivalry, are
become so thoroughly contemptible, that there is hardly a
country lout who does riot hoot at their mock discipline. Yet
are these people commissioned to play soldiers at the expense
to the country we have recited, while the people are groaning
under burdens which ministers have been bold enough to
declare can admit of no alleviation. There cannot now remain
a doubt of the fact, that from four to five millions might have
been with ease deducted from the public expenditure every
* ' So said Mr. Sherlock Gooch, the member for Suffolk, and chairman
of the committee to inquire into the agricultural petitions, in the me
morable debate upon Mr. Curwen's motion for the repeal of the tax on
horses employed in agriculture. This honourable member had uniformly,
when rjresentj, opposgd^r. Hume's motions, yet, wijhn ministerial; con
sistency, volunteered fh'e, compliment we quote, to his usefulness.
t Every volunteer cavalry man costs the country ahout.six pounds juir
tfraniiM— arid for their services look to Manchester. We believe there is
not. noa; a ¦mbgistrate in ; the kingdom who « would employ volunteers,
where^fher^, was a possibility . of,, attaining the assistance of regular
s9rAi^\f)iG^7^FPx^entU<j9^S3?9f »T»^5.i a .more worthy. or a njore,,^,
ceptable sacrifice to public feeling and the duty of economy, than by
abolishing the greater portion of these worse than useless estabnshrqijits.
BWthe'patnJn'age'ahd the c'6nhexio'n>— We kridw it'. '"»"'"' '

39
year since the peace. Mr. Hume has even gone further, and
averred, that from the present expenditure of seventy millions,
he can propose arrangements by which ten or eleven may
be saved to the country !
Yet, reader, Mr. Hume is but an individual — an acute, able,
and industrious individual, it is true. But the administration,
be it remembered, to whom he has suggested these beneficial
alterations, wields all the power, and can command all the
talent and information of the country. Can these facts have
been unknown to them ? Incredible ignorance ! It is more
over their duty and their interest to promote their popularity
by easing the subject. To what, then, is such profusion to be
attributed ? To the desire of patronage — to the mischievous
and mistaken notion of governing by a hired influence, tehich
consumes the very vitals of the state. There is no other cause
equal to such an effect.
These are a part only of the expenses of the Government.
There is yet to be considered the vast, the prodigious amount
of taxation drawn from the people for the liquidation of the
interest of the national debt — a debt, however improvidently it
may have been incurred, nevertheless honourably contracted.
This debt in 1792 was about sixteen millions ; it was on
June 6th, 1820, 836,946,923/. The interest in 1792 was
9,334,276/. ; in 1820, it was 31,252,618/.
This, too, is exclusive of the nominal sinking-fund created
by Mr. Pitt, made inviolable by parliament by so many re
peated declarations and protecting enactments ; all which fences
were thrown down by its appropriation, in 1818, to the liquida
tion of the interest instead of the principal, throughi the agency
of Mr.Vansittart. This nominal sinking-fund how amounts
to about seventeen millions, and these joint sums are a part
of the expenditure of the country ; the whole of which stands
this year, in the Annual Finance Account presented, to par
liament, at the prodigious amount of seventy millions, eight
hundred^ and fifty thousand, seven hundred, and1 fifty-one
pbunds. This vast sum is to be discharged by taxes up6n the
people. We are quite prepared) to allow the relations of price and
taxation are not the only considerations in regarding the effects

4-0
of the latter upon the country. Taxes are a certain portion of
the production of the general industry, which is taken by the
Government, The proportion, then, which, the total of taxation
bears to the total of production, is the true mode of estimating
the burden. In this way we are content to examine the
question. But price makes an important feature in the view of this
matter. At the conclusion of peace, from our enjoying almost
the monopoly of the trade of the world, it is probable that the
production and the profits of commerce (which form a part of
productiveness) were higher than at this moment. It is well
known that the price of commodities has fallen since the
peace to an amount, indefinite indeed, but, certainly not
less upon the aggregate than fifty per cent. Taxation
has remained nearly stationary ; for if the property tax has
been repealed, a considerable part of the. burden thus taken off
the people has been replaced upon them in various ways,
under the specious name of the consolidation of duties, and
under the more open form of new taxes. From such a state
ment, and it is very near the truth*, it appears that the same
amount of taxes is gathered from half the amount of pro
duction. We speak in moderatipn. The value of money
being enhanced, the burden also becomes much heavier from
this circumstance.
Here, then, is the sufficient reason why the country " groans
and sweats under the weary load." Half the production (at
the most in value) pays the same taxation as the whole used
to pay." Taxation thus becomes, a more than double evil.
Again, it has been found, according to the ablest economists,
that price follows the cost of subsisterice, after, the, lapse of no
very long period. Accordingly, we see landlords relaxing J;heir,
* We state the proof of the increasing expenditure of the country, as
given in the Annual Finance Account, Which must be met or covered by
taxation. This expenditure has been as follows :
£. " !<> ' '
- ¦¦¦ .- rfn;1817j '¦¦. ¦ . . ,¦68,710,503^x1 >o,V
1818 ,.,,!., . . 68,821,437,,, ,
1819  69,448,899
1820 .... 70,850,741

41
rents, the clergy their tithes, the labourer parting with a
portion of his hire. Land, subsistence, horse provender, and
all other articles, decline, and find their level : but taxation
remains the same. Taxation, then, is the only circumstance
that does not bend and conform to the times. Taxation, then,
constitutes the difference, ' the almost sole difference, and be
comes, as it is found, the unaltering evil of the public con
dition. Upon this roiNT, Reader, be not deceived.
Look to this close, this plain deduction, and the truth must
stare you in the face.
We must, however, turn aside for the present from the
inference to be drawn from this momentous consideration, to
elucidate, by acts apparently less important, but remotely of
the utmost consequence to the country, the principles of do
mestic government adopted by ministers. Their foreign po
licy we cannot here insist upon; we can barely point to the
consent silently accorded to that "Alliance" miscalled " Holy,"
which _has for its object the support of " the monarchical prin
ciple." For this hasty view we shall pass over the manifest
neglect of our commercial interests and relations with foreign
powers. For the omissions and the commissions of ministers
under this head, we may simply recur to the before-quoted
clause of the report of the committee appointed to inquire into
our foreign trade*.
The basis of this alliance is stated, in the diplomatic cor
respondence of the governments engaged in it, to be, " that
constitutional improvements can only emanate from thrones?
and this basis was confirmed by a circular note from the' Em
peror of Russia in March, 1820, when Spain demanded a
representative form of government, to the Spanish resident
ambassador, complaining of jthis' effort, and signifying " that
the relations which Russia would preserve towards the Spanish
government would depend upon the measures by wliicti Spain
shall endeavour to destroy, the, impression produced in Europe
by the events of the month of March." This note was en
forced by another to the ministers of Russia at the several
courts, wherein his imperial majesty stated, that " in virtue of
* See page 11.

4.2
his engagements of November, 1818, with his allies, he was
bound to mark with the most forcible reprobation the measures
to give new institutions to Spain." These declarations were
recommended to the conjoint adoption of the five allies (Russia,
Germany, England*, France, and Prussia), and physical ob
stacles alone prevented the entrance of foreign powers into
Spain. In immediate connexion with these notes must be. taken
certain proceedings " emanating from thrones " in Germany,
A permanent commission was decreed, whose duty it. was to
watch over the universities, to remove professors obnoxious to
the government, and to preclude the reception of a student
dismissed from one university at another. Thus the entire
progress of intellectual cultivation was placed at the disposal
of this commission; and the wise, and liberal dictum of the
Emperor of Germany, " that he did not want learned men,
but obedient subjects," may be fairly taken as the law by
which they were to regulate the exercise of their authority d
It is still more worthy of remark, that besides submitting the
press to a previous censorship, the several governments were
to be held responsible to each other, and to them all, for per
mitting the circulation of any works "wherein any attacks
were made upon the constitution or the Administeation of
any state of the Confederation." The suppression of a journal
was to preplude the editor from engaging in any similar under
taking for five years, and every periodical publication was to
bear the name of its principal epnductor-f-.
To consummate this formidable, and detestable array of
power, a commission was to assemble, at Mentz, to inquire into
political associations, ,and tp examine , any ^dividual th$, com
missioners might think fit to call before them. ,,,,!
* Ministers have, however, distinctly d.eclajed,. that England is not a
party tor" the Holy Alliance." ... r
t The readerf is requested to bear this in mind, and to observe how it
squares' with the severities' of the late bills for restraining the English
press, and more particularly with the proposed but rejected' clauses, sub
jecting libel to transportation. These are hnks in the chain which may,
perhaps, be thought to connect foreign despotism with the designs of an
English ministry.

43
Such were the preparations of the Alliance for stopping
altogether, or at least opposing, the progress of knowledge;
the bitterest enemy of despotism, previous to the revolution in
Portugal, and the late attempts to obtain a representative
government in Naples, and in other parts of Italy i The
people, whatever might be the temper of those who were the
leaders in this endeavour to free the most abject country in
Europe — the people of Naples generally were unworthy to
receive or to enjoy the blessings of a free constitution. But
we are now examining the conduct of " the Holy Alliance,"
not the dispositions or qualities of the Neapolitans. No sooner
had the king " determined to second the unanimous wishes of
his people," than he prepared to announce to the court of
Vienna what had occurred. The ministers of Austria evaded
the reception of the mission. The kiug himself wrote to the
emperor. The ambassador (the Duke Nicholas of Serra) was
not received, and the emperor "did not think himself bound
to reply to the letter, on a supposition that the contents were
purely confidential*:" and a second ambassador was stopped
on his way to the capital, by orders from the Austrian ministry.
Remonstrance was vain ; and although it was shown by a
memorial from the Duke di Campo Chiaro, that the objects of
the Neapolitans were purely domestic, and that the nation was
animated with one single sentiment, " its own welfare," no im
pression could be made in its behalf. The sovereigns assem
bled at Troppau — it was resolved to '¦'¦free Naples by a com
mon effort " — the king was summoned from his capital thither
— the Austrian army advanced, and took possession of Naples.
The emperors at Laybach, on hearing of this success, " with
exemplary piety, immediately repaired to church, to return
God thanks for the happy issue of affairs." Here, then, is the
succinct history of the practical proofs of the principles of the
Holy Alliance : it begins with measures for silencing the voice
of improvement, and stopping the progress of knowledge ; it
concludes with the compulsion of a people (a dastardly and
corrupted peqple, it is true,) back , to despotism by military
* Thisy'surelyi is the strangest reason that was ever assigned farde-
elining to answer a letter.

44
force. No man will pity Naples; but every man will abhor
the dictation by which she has been so basely assailed, and to
which she has so vilely submitted.
But what, it may be asked, has England to do with this ?
Ay, that is the question. England decided, as her ministers
declared, upon a neutral policy ; and to the circular of the
monarchs assembled at Troppau, in which " the monarchical
principle," that " constitutional improvements can only emanate
from thrones," was asserted, a reply was written, purporting to
disclaim this principle, as " contrary to international law."
But the British Government did not hesitate to express,
" with respect to the particular case of Naples, their strong
disapprobation of the mode and circumstances under which
that revolution was understood to have been effected." Further,
they declared, " they should not consider themselves either
called upon or justified to advise an interference on the part
of this country; they fully admitted that other European
states might feel themselves differently circumstanced ; and
they professed that it was their purpose not to prejudge the
question, or to interfere with the course which such states
might think fit to adopt." Such were their declarations — and
what were their acts ? Although the king remained upon the
throne, our amicable relations with his court were suspended ;
a British squadron was sent'into the Bay, to afford protection,
as it was given out, to British subjects and property, and
remained there while it might overawe the people, but was
removed when its presence could only have been available for
the ostensible purpose of its employment. British officers
were forbidden to enter into the service of Naples on pain of
forfeiting their rank in the British army. • Thus our cabinet
fully disclaimed the' principle by their words which they ad
mitted by their actions. The fact is, ministers were conscious
of the justice of the cause of the patriots of Naples — they were
conscious too that, such was the state of opinion in this coun
try, it was imperative upon them to make at least a verbal
declaration to such an effect ; but, at the same time, their
conduct exhibited a series of practical equivocations, which
contradicted their assertions, and gave something of vigour
and effect to the very conduct they deemed it a duty to deny

4.5
in their state-papers and in debate. The Lords Grey and
Ellenborough, however, fully exposed this hypocritical, this
intriguing sinister course ; for the former thus designated the
principles laid down in the circular from the sovereigns at
Troppau. His lordship said, " That a people offering no
encouragement to rebellion in other nations, and announcing
no projects of foreign aggression, but merely making improve
ments or operating changes in its own internal government,
should present a fit subject for complaint, remonstrance, or
interference, on the part of its neighbours, was such a mon
strous principle as had never before been avowed or acted
upon by the most profligate ambition:" while Lord Ellen-
borough demanded, with irresistible pertinacity and force,
" Was this country, when a war was carried on between
despotism and freedom, between arrogant adherents of anti
quated principles and the people of various countries establish
ing a constitution which they conceived, perhaps erroneously,
but which they still conceived to be essential to their liberty
and happiness — was it possible for this country to persist in
preventing its subjects from a taking a part, and acting on the
side which struggled for the true liberty and independence of
nations ? This he conceived to be quite impossible ; and, if
the restriction were removed, he formed a very incorrect
estimate of the people of England if they would not with
great enthusiasm and zeal spring forward in defence of the
principles of liberty, which involved the interests of all Europe.
Whatever the Government might feel, the people felt strongly
for the Italians. There. was not a single gentleman from this
country on the other side of the Alps who did not feel as an
Italian." This noble lord spoke the true sentiments of his
countrymen. At the same time he declared, that " foreign powers
were not ignorant of our distress and inability to go to war,
and that they therefore, would, neglect any remonstrance on
our part." Such, reader, was truly the paralysing effept of
the impoverished condition to which this our once just and
proud country was, at this point of tipie so interesting to free-
domj so important to thehappiness of mankind, reduced by the
weakness of its administration. , We have .shown it is not only
from the words, but from: the acts of the government that their

46
true principles and purposes are to be collected. The conduct
of ministers in the affair of Naples serves, however, principally
to connect and bind together the proofs of their original leaning
towards the " monarchical principle," as demonstrated in the
consent to the surrender of Genoa to Sardinia, Venice to
Austria, Norway to Sweden, and Parga to the Porte — black
and irremoveable stains upon the fair fame of England, but
sufficiently characteristic of the arbitrary policy of the present
ministers. Let us now cast our eyes over domestic events, and en
deavour to discover whether they support or contravene the
disposition imputed to the administration. It will not have
been forgotten, that, soon after the peace, the Habeas Corpus
Act was suspended, upon the hackneyed pretext of arming the
Government against the machinations of the seditious : nor will
the employment of spies, and the shield of ministers thrown
before Oliver and Edwards, and Franklin or Fletcher, soon
fade from remembrance. We next turn with abhorrence to
the attack upon the multitude at Manchester assembled on
the 16th of August, 1819, to exercise the right of petition.
But upon this event it will, be necessary to dwell a little. Such
meetings were not new ; and it appears, even from the garbled
correspondence between ministers and the magistrates, that the
distress and the consequent agitations in the manufacturing,
districts had long been objects of serious concern and anxious
consideration. The magistrates were fully aware of the dis
satisfaction arising from distress — -they distinctly stated such
to be the natural effect; they apprized the ministers from
time to time of the exertions of mischievous and disaffected
characters ; they considered, and they stated, that they had no
legal power to prevent meetings of the people. Indeed, on
the first of July, 1819, they expressly wrote, " As the law
now stands, we cannot interfere with these meetings, notwith
standing our decided conviction of the- mischief and the
danger." Yet, on the 16th of August, only1 six weeks after
this declaration, they did interfere, and in such a manner, that
some persons were killed, and upwards of 600 of a multitude,
subsequently proved to have committed no act that could be
construed into a disturbance of the peace, were wounded by

47
an armed force. This change of opinion could only have
been wrought by the instructions of ministers ; and therefore
they must be held, in point of fact, to be the authors of the
attack. But, for this naked exercise of authority, this " vigour
beyond the law," so eager was the Government to pay its
acknowledgement, that in two days a letter of thanks, in his
Majesty's name, was transmitted to the principal actors in this
scene of violence — a space so short, that, it seemed impossible
to have laid the transactions before the king, who was absent
from his capital and at sea, and whose name and authority
were used. Affairs spiritual and affairs temporal certainly can
have no connexion : but it forms a curious coincidence that
his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, within a few weeks
of this event, should have bestowed the vicarage of Rochdale,
a benefice worth nearly 2000/. a year, on the Rev. Mr. Hay,
the spiritual-temporal magistrate, and first narrator of this
scene of confusion.
A case wherein life was lost and wounds inflicted, it might
be thought, was a fit subject for solemn inquiry, but not one
of the parties wounded could obtain such inquiry. Inquiry
was refused in the courts of law — it was refused in parliament.
Hunt, the president of the meeting, indeed was tried at York ;
but there the judge declared, " that he considered the conduct
of the magistracy and the cavalry as a collateral question, and
would not therefore allow any interrogatories to be put con
cerning these points." It follows, then, that the magistrates
acted in contradiction to their own declared opinion, and, it
must be supposed, under the authority of ministers ; that the
consequences lie upon ministers for the indistinct or absolute
nature of their instructions; and, lastly, that ministers, by
their letter of thanks from the king, took upon themselves the
responsibility for all that, had passed. Why, therefore, inquiry
was refused cannot be doubted.
But the circumstance which stands most strongly against
them is the total neglect and apathy to the transactions of the
coroner's inquest upon the body of John Lees, one of the men
who died, as was supposed, from wounds received during the
dispersion of the people at Manchester _ by the yeomanry
cavalry. The inquest had sat many days, when it was ad-

48
journed by the fiat of the coroner, and never resumed, although*
a majority of the jury publicly addressed that officer ,for its
resumption, and declared their conviction that " a foul murder
had been committed." Yet were no means taken to inquire
into the fact or to punish the coroner. Surely this was a case -
for the cognizance of a government careful of the lives of its
subjects ! But, from this negligence, it is now established by
precedent that a man may be murdered by accident, or other
wise, and the inquiry concerning his death, ordained by the law
of England, may be suspended at the pleasure of the crown
officer with impunity.
These events were soon followed by the peremptory dis
missal of the venerable Earl Fitzwilliam from the lord-
lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire, a dignity which
had been conferred upon him by his -sovereign as an honour
able testimony of his Majesty's sense of the long and patriotic
services of that nobleman, and upon the express stipulation
that it was not to imply any support to any administration.
The venerable Earl was thus insulted because he had at a
public meeting, in coincidence with the Duke of Norfolk and
other noblemen and gentlemen of the highest rank and cha
racter, expressed their opinions concerning the necessity of an
inquiry into the affair of Manchester.
Soon after these disgraceful transactions parliament was
assembled, especially to consider the means necessary to put
down the alleged growth of sedition, and five bills were intro
duced to this intent by ministers. By these enactments, it
was permitted to enter a man's house, in search of arms,, at
any hour of the night, on the authority of a justice's warrant —
ten thousand troops were added to the establishment — the
right of meeting at pleasure was denied to Englishmen — this
right was exchanged, as it was aptly said in debate, for " the
permission to request to be permitted -to meet"-^-and, lastly,
the press was fettered with new restrictions, of such a nature
as to leave its freedom doubtful and dangerous to the individual
bold enough to attempt its exercise. But, toput.the intention
of ministers in the true light, they proposed to punish libel,
that indefinite and undefinable offence, with transportation ;
and actually had inserted a demand of sureties to the amount

49
of 500/. from three bondsmen, and 500/. from every publisher
himself, to guard against a possible prosecution. Compare
this, reader, with the proceedings of the Germanic Com
mission. Are they not of the same family ?
As we approach the present times, our materials necessarily
diminish ; but there is yet a fearful subject which has drawn
after it consequences scarcely less disastrous than we have re
cited — not less ominous— not less indicative of that disposition
to substitute the bare power of authority for the wholesome,
safe, and respected provisions of law. It will be instantly
imagined we can allude only to the trial, the persecution, the
death, and the interment of the late queen. We shall wave
the question of policy in bringing her majesty to trial. It is
sufficient for our purpose to know that the decision of the house
of peers was such, that ministers considered it expedient not to
prosecute that decision further. They even admitted the queen to
be " technically innocent,'" yet, professing to be guided by the
lawj they deprived her majesty of all the advantages she would
derive from her actual acquittal. They kept her name from the
liturgy ; and they ceased not to insinuate her guilt, thrusting
forward the king's disputable prerogative as the authority,
and thus debasing still further the dignity of the monarchy.
For what must the inference from such conduct be? Mi
nisters advise the exercise of this disputable' prerogative to
effect what they declined to pursue under the sanction of a
vote of the house of lords. Thus the benefit of that beautiful
provision of English jurisprudence, that the accused shall
be esteemed innocent till proved guilty, was annulled and
abrogated. Right and wrong- were thus confounded, for the
High Party was submitted to the Same ignominy, the same con
sequences whether guilty or innocent. In advising the king to
submit the question to parliament, ministers bound themselves
to abide by the decision of parliament. In declining to act
upon that decision, they practically reversed the verdict of the
house of peers. By both they had given up all right to punish
for imputed offences. By abandoning the vote of the lords,
they degraded the estimation of that dignified body ; by pu
nishing upon the mere fiat of the assumed prerogative, they
brought into question the justice of the crown. But they left

50
no room to doubt the spirit by which they were guided : and
that no circumstance of disgrace and dishonour to the authors
and conductors of this fatal proceeding might be omitted, the
sudden prorogation of the house of commons, and the precipi
tate retreat of the speaker, amidst the loudest expressions of the
scorn and contempt of a great portion of the members, have
tended to degrade that branch of the legislature, and have
affixed the seal of indehble dishonour to the consummation of
this miserable transaction.
That the coronation of the king is a ceremony necessary to
his majesty's perfect accession to all his dignities may perhaps
be granted ; but that it is indispensable to the exercise of his
kingly authority, will be maintained by few. It became then
a question, whether under such circumstances as the king was
placed, with regard to his royal consort, and with regard to
the national situation — it became a question of the deepest
moment whether a ministry ought to have advised the cere
mony at all during such a posture of affairs, private as well
as public ; and especially whether with all the antiquated
splendor of costume, which at the present hour would- be
likely to excite contempt rather than challenge admiration.
As a matter of mere 'policy, regarding it in the light of ren
dering his majesty's person and government popular, it was a
highly questionable measure ; as a matter of pecuniary pru
dence, there.can.be no such hesitation. That the country
at large would have been far more gratified by the postpone
ment of sueh a pageant, upon tl}e ground of the avowed dif
ficulties under which the country laboured, would have been a
tribute to general feeling, far more acceptable to the many,
than the pleasure bestowed upon the few, by the splendor of
the spectacle. Moreover it was alike regarded as a tax upon
the court and upon the country, while the calculations of the
expense exhibited to parliament were obviously insufficient
and delusive.
The same reasoning applies to the king's progresses, to Ire
land and to Hanover. Already indeed have the marvellous
effects of the temporary conciliation passed away. That
island is divided into two principal religious distinctions, the
protestant, which numbers at least two-thirds of its people, and

51
the catholic, which includes' the rest. The imagined necessity
for coercing the latter has now for a long period given the rod
of power into the hands of the former faction ; and they have
used it like men who love and enjoy the exertion of authority.
It was no wonder then that the catholics hailed even the
appearance of its suspension by the royal presence with joy
and satisfaction. But even the brief operation of the personal
influence and amiable intentions of the king is already past, and
signals for the revival of the old rule have been since given
with impunity, even in the face of his majesty ; and as if to
leave no possible ground for hope, the earliest opportunity has
been seized for pushing forward the same offensive demonstra
tions at the late publie dinner of the corporation of Dublin.
But could ministers anticipate any long duration of the joy so
favorable to their views, unless they were prepared to follow
up the king's visit by some amelioration of the condition of
Ireland ? What is the nature of that amelioration ? Time alone
can discover. But it may be instantly perceived, that unless
some prominent and considerable measure of conciliation- and
of redress, be designed and acted upon, the king's visit will be
regarded only as another expensive and profitless means of
amusing and directing the royal mind from the distresses of
his subjects, with a show of that regard which all of them are
ready to pay to his person, but from whence no other result
can flow than to lower the estimation of the Government, of
which he is the supreme head.
Concerning the unhappy death of the queen, which took
place at the moment of preparation for this grand scene of na
tional joy, nothing should have here been said, but for the
corroboration, the pretext of ceremonious adherence to her
majesty's last desires*, and the miserable catastrophe which
followed in the manslaughter of Honey, and the murder of
Francis, together with the dismissal of Sir Robert Baker and
Sir Robert Wilson, afford of the principles of government
adopted by ministers. If to permit an attack of the soldiery
* How will the Earl of Liverpool reconcile the disgraceful scuffle over
the coffin of the queen, to prevent the inscription directed by her majesty
being affixed, with the desire to conform to the provisions of the will so
punctiliously maintained in respect to the time of the funeral ?

52
upon the people, without the sanction of the civil authority,
expressly recognised by the constitution in its general pro
visions, and specially ordained by law in the riot act — to dismiss
a civil magistrate from his office, ostensibly, because he showed
too yielding a disposition and too humane an attention to the
avoidance of strife and bloodshedding between the soldiery
and the populace; if to discharge from the army a military
officer of high rank, and eminent for his long services, and
thereby endeavouring to attaint his character, confiscating his
property and blasting his prosperity, without even the forms
of a charge or a trial ; if to do and to suffer such acts be not
the signs of an arbitrary rule, it would be difficult to produce
sufficient instances. Besides these acts, there is the connexion
and relation between them and the former aggressions upon
civil liberty : there is the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
act— the immense military establishment — there is Manchester
— there is the endeavour to punish libel with transportation
— there are the five bills — there is the sudden prorogation
of the House of Commons— ^there is the discrepancy between
the declarations and the actions of the British Government,
with regard to Naples. These later acts are only corrobora
tions of the preference to power over law, which admi
nistration has afforded too much reason for suspecting they
entertain. Thus, reader, we have gone together through the narrative
of the designs and acts of ministers since the conclusion of
peace. The relation has been plain and succinct, inflated by
no declamation, appealing to reason, not to passion, stating
facts and deducing effects from causes in a natural order. It
now remains only to show the remedies which the constitution
of England places in the hands of the subjects of England.
The House of Commons is the legitimate organ of the
people, that organ by which the democracy offers its advice to
the sovereign, controls the vices or corrects the ignorances of
his ministers. When the constitution limited the duration, or
ordained the natural death of the House of Commons, (as at
the succession of a new monarch), it had regard to the power
and the interests of the people, and they are thus invested with
the valuable privilege of choosing for their representatives,

53
men known for an honorable attachment to the welfare of their
constituents. There is then a time when the authority returns
to the people, and when the exercise of their franchise may be
sufficiently powerful in itself, to correct whatever abuses may
have been introduced by time or circumstances into the con
duct of public affairs ; nay, even to repair any changes that
may have happened in the constitution itself.
That abuses have crept in we have shewn from facts ;
and if we had failed in our proofs, the state of the country but
too manifestly demonstrates the errors of misrule and the dila
pidations in the edifice of the public safety.
The spirit of the constitution clearly is, that the representation
in the House of Commons should emanate from the people ; from
the unbought and unbiassed sense they may entertain of the
character of the person who aspires to be their representative.
It is, however, now acknowledged, that owing to the decay of
towns, the shifting and increase of the population, and other
causes, one hundred and fifty individuals return three hun
dred and fifty members of parliament. It has also been un-
blushingly told by one of his Majesty's ministers, that it is as
notorious as the sun at noon-day that seats are bought and
sold ; and in the later debates, parliamentary influence thus
obtained has been declared to be indispensable to the carrying
on of the Government. Now this is neither more nor less
than to pronounce that truth and probity are insufficient se
curities to an administration. The essence of the constitution
is control; its efficacy lies in the provision of a system of
checks and balances; its very virtue is to preclude the ex
ercise of injustice by a series of dependencies from the highest
to the lowest departments of the executive, the legislative, and
the judicial functions.
This controlling power is nowhere more to be observed than
in the choice of the representatives of the people. To assert,
then, that a purchased influence is necessary to Government, is
to take away that control and what is still more nefarious, to
agree to the support of a system which corrupts alike the go
vernors and the governed.
Another argument in favor of this abuse is, that the machine
ft works well." How far this argument might have availed in

54
former times may be disputable ; but at present, the condition
of the country, not less than many of the votes of the House,
declares the effects of this ominous abuse. What stronger
proofs can be required than the late vote of new taxes, drawn
from the comforts and necessaries of the lowest classes — the
diversion of the sinking fund — the decisions against inquiries
into the affair of Manchester, and those upon the agricultural
petitions, contradictory as they were? These things must
carry conviction to every mind, that the sure escape from the
power of any profligate administration, determined to cling to
power, can be provided only by a reform in parliament, while
such patronage remains in their hands as is now vested in a
ministry, through the management of the public debt, the
collection of the enormous taxation*, the appointments in the
church, and the consuming military and naval establishments.
For the last place, then, we have reserved that sacred duty
which is the right of Englishmen, and that invaluable privilege
which they enjoy through the exercise of their votes : by that
franchise it is committed to the people constitutionally to offer
their advice to their king, constitutionally to control the follies
or the vices of his ministers ; because they then appoint the
guardians of their rights, and the arbitrators of their welfare.
The sovereign has no means of justly estimating the sentiments
of his people, but by the constitution of the House of Com
mons: if then the .people, by voting for the supporters of
ministers, send back only minions or tools, they forge their
own fetters, they perpetuate their own slavery, they are the
authors of their own ruin ; for how can the people expect an
incorrupt administration of affairs, when they are themselves so
easily corrupted ? How can they expect that he who buys
should resist the temptation that rank, power, and pay may
hold out to him to sell them ? If there be not in the electors
* Let those who doubt that the collection of revenue is sedulously and
systematically made a means of patronage, inquire into what is now going
on with respect to that branch called " the preventive service." Stations are
erecting, and officers and men employed, all round the coast, with an
improvidence and , tabsurdity alike disgraceful to its authors and con
ductors. Mr. Hume will find this (if it has escaped his penetrating
mind) a fertile source of reformation, we assure him.

50
themselves the sense and virtue to reject, whenever,
shall offer, the assistants in all the mass of evil
witness, there is an end of all hope, except thail
excess of misery and abuse carries in itself.
Regard, then, countrymen ! Regard stedfasthj
and their consequences — a cabinet divided against its
almost all the grander measures which the altered conil
society and of the empire demands — a revenue, not
equal to any sufficient provision for the vast obligations
state, but daily falling away, while it presses with double
severity on decreased production and decreased value — the
expedients of finance drawn from the demoralization of the
people, and from the ill-understood suggestions of abler oppo
nents, and rendered inefficient by the mutilations of the financier
himself — new taxes imposed, yet adding nothing to the old —
agriculture reduced to desperation — commerce uncertain, per
plexed, and paralysed by contradictory laws — manufacture
exposed to ruinous fluctuations, the causes of which have
neither been apprehended nor understood by the Government
— the public funds bolstered up by the want of more profitable
employment for capital ; yet still stultifying, by their fall or
stagnation, the predictions of the minister of finance — the cost
of maintaining the poor, even in a time of cheap subsistence,
raised to an amount unparalleled in the annals of the world,
though private benevolence was never so universal nor so active
— the public mind alarmed and exasperated by the display of
naked power, and by the array of faction — the two orders of
the people (for the middle class is almost extinct) steeped in
luxury, or sunk in poverty and privation : these are facts
notorious to all men, and not denied by the friends of ministers
themselves. Who, then, shall say, that these results can pro
ceed from any other cause than the want of a directing wisdom
and virtue ? " By their, fruits," saith the Scripture, "shall
ye know them : " apply this rule to ministers, and to their
friends. But remember, also, countrymen ! that " As ye sow,
so shall ye reap;" and if you have not yourselves sense
enough to discern, and uprightness enough to support men
who have your welfare, and your welfare only, at heart ; if,
on the day of election, when it is allowed you to choose your

56

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08866 1112

fis and your own arbitrators, if you still adhere to
and abettors of all the mischief and disorder you
I, in a word, you choose the friends of the present
tion,— you consent, nay, you prefer your own ruin
ment— you sow the seeds of your own destruc-

ber 10, 1821.
Date Due
All books are subject to recall after two weeks.

JUL

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