pily blown over; and her Majesty has accepted the fifty thousand pounds a year, voted her by parliament. A new death has occurred in our Royal Family, by the decease of the infant daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. The Queen has patronized a charitable concert at the Mansionhouse, which she honoured with her presence; and his Majesty has, for the first time since his accession, visited Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres, at both of which he was very well received. He afterwards commanded an Opera at the King's Theatre, which has opened since our last, under the direction of Mr. Ebers; and also attended the concert of Ancient Music. He has during this month held the first drawing room of the reign. His Majesty's determination to visit his subjects in Ireland seems confirmed, and the excursion it is thought will be very splendid. Two courts are to be held in Dublin, at which it is expected the Foreign Ambassadors will attend; and a notification has been given to the principal nobility, who have been in the habit of personal attendance on his Majesty, that their presence on the occasion will be expected. Great preparations are making in Dublin for his reception, it being the first Royal visit to Ireland for upwards of a century, and the first ever made by any reigning branch of his family; the Duke of Clarence, who accompanies him, was there many years ago as a midshipman in the navy. A bill has been introduced into the House of Commons by Lord Holland, for extending to Ireland the provisions of the act of William III. concerning treason,and misprision of treason. By this statute, two witnesses are required in England to establish an overt act of treason; but, strange to say, in Ireland this humane provision has been hitherto unknown, and one is sufficient. Several petitions have been presented to the House of Commons, complaining of the great pressure upon the agriculturists of England. The Catholic petition has been introduced into parliament by Mr. Plunket, the member for the University of Dublin, and leave was given him to bring in a bill of relief founded on its prayer. By this bill it is proposed to give various offices

to that sect, from which they have been hitherto excluded; and to guard the constitution from any danger, by imposing restrictions on their clergy, and placing them under the pay of government. This bill has been read a second time, after two long debates, and stands for committal on Friday, the 23d of March. Mr. Grattan once got a Catholic bill thus far, but it was lost in the committee. Several resolutions were moved in the House of Commons by Dr. Lushington, praying the removal of Mr. Ellis, the member for the city of Dublin, from his office of Master in Chancery in Ireland, on the ground that its duties were, on Mr. Ellis's own oath, incompatible with a residence in England -these resolutions were negatived by a majority of sixty. A motion was made by Mr. Western for a repeal of the increased malt duty, and leave was given to bring in a bill to that effect, with a view to relieve the agriculturists. Mr. Canning, who had resigned his office as President of the Board of Controul, in consequence of his dissenting from the conduct of his colleagues on the subject of the Queen, has returned from France, at the request of the friends of the Roman Catholic bill, for the purpose of aiding the progress of that measure. The Duke of Northumberland has ordered twenty per cent. to be returned to his tenants, in consequence of the depressed state of agriculture. A gentleman of the name of Hayes, lately deceased, has bequeathed no less a sum than 61,300l. in the funds to various public charities in London. Amongst the melancholy catalogue of suicides in England, we recollect few more singular than that of Mr. Dalrymple, of Manchester square: -he had dressed himself for church, and suddenly changing his mind, retired to his apartment, and blew out his brains with a pistol. It was supposed to proceed from grief for the loss of his wife, who had died twenty years ago. He gave directions in his will that his heart should be taken out, and that the picture, which he always wore, should be tied round it, and thus buried ; which was done. He left property behind to a considerable amount. The architects appointed to report upon the practicability of

widening the arches of London bridge have pronounced it impossible, and have recommended the erection of a new bridge; the expense of which they estimate, independent of the approaches, at the sum of 450,000l. An unfortunate Frenchman, named Lewis Cautre, has flung himself into the crater of Mount Vesuvius; the first instance, we believe, since Empedocles. The army estimates for the present year have been printed; the total number of men now on service amounts to 101,367. A dealer in cheap bread, in the Borough, has been convicted of having an immense quantity of pounded soft stone in his possession, intended for the adulteration of his bread! The Recorder of London is about to retire, on a pension of 500l. a year, from the more active duties of his office; and is to be succeeded by the Common Serjeant, as officiating Recorder, assist

ed by Mr. Arabin: both gentlemen to have proportionate salaries. A bill for the creation of county courts has been brought into parliament by Lord Althorp, the object of which is to render justice cheap to the poor; it appears that eighty judges, and an equal number of clerks, criers, and bailiffs, are to be appointed by it. The Noble Lord, in introducing the bill, gave, as an instance of the frightful expense at present attendant upon litigation, the case of one gentleman, who sought to recover 17., and whose bill of costs amounted to 561., while that of his adversary amounted to 15. T. Ferrimond, the Secretary to the York Traitorous Association, was capitally convicted at this spring assizes, and sentenced accordingly. This unfortunate man had a son who pleaded guilty at the previous assizes, and whose sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

On Tuesday, March 7, in the House of Commons a motion was made by Mr. Gooch, member for Suffolk, "that the several petitions which had been presented to the House, respecting the present state of agriculture, be referred to a Committee to enquire into the allegations thereof, and to report thereon to the House." The Committee was granted, and the following gentlemen were named as the members :Mr. Gooch, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. F. Robinson, Lord Althorp, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Brougham, Mr. Huskisson, Sir E. Knatchbull, Mr. S. Wortley, Mr. Baring, Sir H. Parnell, Mr. Wodehouse, Mr. Western, Mr. H. Sumner, Mr. Estcourt, Mr. S. Bourne, Mr. Tremayne, Sir W. Rowley, Mr. Callthorpe, Mr. H. Blair, Mr. Irving, Sir T. Lethbridge, Mr. Littleton, Mr. Ald. Bridges, Mr. N. Callthorpe, Mr. Ricardo, Mr. Curwen, Mr. D. Browne.

This list comprehends many of the ablest men in the kingdom, both from the Ministerial and opposite side of the House. From their deliberations and from the different views which the several members of the Committee are known to entertain of this difficult subject, and which they will of course be solicitous to support by evidence, it is to be expected that a powerful light will be thrown upon the question. At present we should say, both from the numerous publications and from the debate, that no one mind had yet taken a luminous or comprehensive view even of the elements.

Ministers were nearly all silent. Mr. Robinson, the President of the Board of Trade, indeed spoke; but he appeared simply to wish to defend himself from the charge of inconsistency, in having last year so firmly denied the investigation he is now so ready to concede. The explanation by which he endeavoured to palliate the change in his opinions, and which was drawn from the more urgent representations of the distresses of the agricultural interest, was, however, coupled with the admission of the necessity for the fullest examination of all the parts of this momentous enquiry. This most important concession is perhaps the sentence of the greatest value in the entire discussion, for the debate consisted merely of desultory opinions and unconnected assertions. It is indeed truly surprising, and proves the aversion which there is to profound thought, and patient toilsome investigation,-that not a single member, not even the honourable opener himself, notwithstanding the long interval and the intense interest of the matter, had prepared any thing approaching to a digested exposition of the several parts of the subject. The speeches of Mr. Curwen and Mr. Ricardo are the most full of fact and argument, but they touch very lightly indeed upon the bearings.

We would solicitously guard our readers against expecting any thing from direct legislative provisions, since the great evils that now threaten to overwhelm the landed

interest, we are fully convinced, have chiefly arisen from the expedients hitherto resorted to, with a view to sustain the natural and artificial elevation which prices had attained, during the impediments and restrictions incident to a state of warfare. It is from considering such elevation as the necessary standard, both as relates to cost and price, that the losses of the tenantry have sprung. At the peace it was obvious that a new ratio must take place, and that the level must be found from our intercourse with the world at large, not from mere domestic regulations. Such a ratio must either become the basis of our future transactions, or the country must be insulated from foreign connexions, to which consideration might be also appended the certain consequence, that an incalculable emigration would be sure to follow a high price of subsistence. The error, therefore, has been in not at once promulgating the general principle on the conclusion of peace; for the farmer had then in reserve his substantial gains during a series of uncommonly profitable years, to balance and provide him against whatever loss he might sustain in returning to the regulations that always have taken place, and always must take place, during peace. But instead of this indispensable preparation, in the very first apprehension of loss, it was attempted to persuade the country that the depression was temporary, and might be repaired by such expedients as the inefficient Corn Bill. Rents, tithes, poor's-rate, and taxes, were, therefore, permitted to absorb the farmer's capital, and every slight and partial rise of price was hailed as the incipient symptom of what was falsely represented as renewed prosperity. At length this access and recess has been repeated so often, and the bulk of the tenantry have been exposed to losses of greater and greater severity, that neither the true causes nor the fatal effects can be longer concealed or palliated, though the remedy yet lies in the same dark obscurity that has hitherto surrounded the subject. At this particular crisis, it may not then seem wholly useless to state our own views of the disease and its cure; because we think the rescue of the farmer's property, which still remains to him, depends mainly upon his perceiving how impossible it is to maintain his present contracts, and how erroneous a notion it is to hope relief from any power which Parliament may be supposed to possess, of raising the price of

corn.

The situation of the landed interest, if it were reduced to the level of 1792, by a depression of the elements of expenditure and of price, would be the same as at that flourishing period, except in so much as it is affected by the increase of taxation and of the poor's-rate on the one side, and by improved cultivation on the other. These

We observe by the same document, that the poor's-rate amounts to a sum of 497., or something more than one-tenth part of the farmer's whole expence. The same law that governs the effects of indirect taxation, must also govern the effects of a poor's-rate, increased as the poor's-rate of England appears to be since 1792, in the proportion of six to one; and as this estimate is taken from a country parish, where the burden is by no means so heavy as in manufacturing towns, the rate is probably far below the real average of the kingdom.

In order to understand clearly the effects of taxation, we must consider the total amount imposed in its relation to the total amount of production (from the soil, manufactures, or whatever source), since in point of fact the gross sum gathered in taxes is so much abstracted from the general income. When, therefore, we reflect upon the immense quantity of waste land brought into cultivation,-upon the vast improvements in the practice of agriculture;--when we compute the amazing accumulations of capital, together with the advance of scientific power, and the stimulus universally imparted to intellect and enterprise ;-when we see the enormous augmentation of our exports and our imports, we think there is strong reason to doubt, whether the increase of taxation has so far outgone the increase of natural production as is generally supposed. And this our suspicion is supported by the fact, which is corroborated by the statements of the ablest statistical writers, that the taxation is to the production of England as one to nine; while the taxation of France (which stands in the predicament of a new country as it were) is as one to ten -a difference so trifling as to be quite unimportant.

To relieve the land owner from the bur

den of his peculiar and direct taxation, would therefore be a means, but not a very effectual means, of alleviation; and it seems to us yet undecided, whether improved cultivation and increased growth are not already nearly a compensation for this especial cause of suffering. With respect to poor's-rate, the case is different. There is a heavy, and intolerable, and growing evil, for which a remedy must be found.

It should seem, that since 1792 rent and tithes are increased, nearly as two to one; the price of wheat has risen per coomb from 228. to 338. 9d., and barley from 12s. to 268. If then we take the same grounds for our computation as we have hitherto taken, there can be no reason, why rents and tithes should not be brought to the level of 1792, except the effects of taxation and parochial rates. And when subsistence is reduced in the degree that it should seem it must fall to, by the depreciation of the price of corn, the power of living cheaply would counterbalance, in a measure, the weight of taxation upon all orders of the state. It must not, however, be forgotten, that as the particular object of depression is agricultural produce, the landholder and the farmer will suffer in the highest degree of any class, should their proportion of taxation remain nominally the same in amount, but really greater; in consequence of the increased power of money to command a greater quantity of commodities.

The grand object, it is then obvious, must be to take off the weight of taxation generally, and of the poor's-rate; because these being removed, all the rest will find a natural level. The remedy for the first lies in the remedy for the second. Wealth is the production of labour, set to work by means of capital. Now we have super abundant capital, superabundant labour, and waste soil, and unexplored seas, to an extent that, with reference to our immediate wants, may be truly termed, indefinite. If these elements could be combined, the production of the classes, now not only idle, but consuming what the labours of others raise, would not merely add so much to the general total of wealth, but would call into being, from the very nature and law of exchanges, the production of other labourers. It is clear, then, that some measure to give a direction and impulse to those principles is alone wanting; and in a great and perilous crisis it is, we say, imperative

on the Government to do what the energy of individuals fails to effect. A rule is good only so long as it is operative. Thus "leave trade alone" was good while it balanced demand and supply, and furnished employment. But a succession of years has proved, that this general law has no longer its accustomed force. Trade is affected by continual and ruinous fluctuations, employment is no longer steady, and even the use of capital is become extremely uncertain. It, therefore, behoves the Government to originate some measure for the impartment of that impulse which is indispensable; and it appears to us, that no means are so feasible as the application of the poor's-rate, or a portion of the poor'srate, to the purpose of raising a capital to give vigour and action to the idle, and which might be commuted for those real, or imaginary claims upon parishes and upon society at large, now so heinously abused. Whatever amount should thus be added to the whole production would lighten, according to its proportion, the burdens of taxation and of the poor's-rate; and at the same time would compensate the reduction in nominal value, occasioned by, the depreciation which must of necessity fall upon agricultural commodities. When we say must fall upon them, we refer to the dilemma raised by the question of our foreign supply. If such a supply be at any time reverted to, we have shown in a former report, that no imaginable duty can raise the average price of wheat much above 56s. per quarter. If on the contrary, as Lord Liverpool avers, the domestic growth exceeds the demand, it is not easy to say, how low the price may fall. But as such a surplus would soon be reduced by the transfer of capital to more profitable employment, we can but consider the average price of foreign corn as the true standard, to which ultimately this country must be brought, not only by its commercial intercourse and its occasional wants, but by the additional and strong fact, that a price of subsistence much above that level would infallibly exile so important a proportion of the capital and the industry of the country, that the ruin of the state would be involved in the elevation of price. These are the reasons which induce us to believe, that the relief of the agricultural distresses must be looked for in the depression of rents, tithes, and expences, rather than in the exaltation of the

price of agricultural produce: and we couple this expectation with the hope of some national measure for the employment of the idle, and the increase of production; because it is no less obvious, that unless the defalcation occasioned by the fall of price be compensated by fresh augmentations of the national wealth from new sources, the same burdens cannot be borne, and the engagements with the public creditor cannot be fulfilled. Such are our views; and it will be seen that we treat the subject in its simplest forms, and reduce it, we hope, to plain and intelligible premises, unencumbered with the complications it derives from commixture with the question of the currency, and other political considerations which may affect the justice of present contracts between individuals; but which cannot, as we conceive, interfere to preclude the adjustment of the national interests upon the grand basis we have ventured to lay down.

have gone in admirably, and barley is generally sowing to great advantage. Indeed, the benefits of early sowing are now universally acknowledged. The cultivation of Talavera wheat has much increased this year, in the belief that barley will be an unprofitable crop. The knowledge of the drill system, too, is extending almost universally; and some of the most intelligent agriculturists have published their belief, that nothing could have upheld them against the late severe seasons of loss, but the adoption of this admirable system. Turnips have held out so well, that they may be purchased in many parts for less money than they could three months ago. The dry time has been favourable for sheep; and lambing, in consequence, could not have gone on better. The wool trade for long fleeces has been a little brisker, since the last report. In the midland and northern counties, both fat and lean cattle, and sheep, and also fat hogs, are very plentiful, and prices are declined; but in Scotland, it appears, fat stock is in request; but lean is lower, and in slack demand. The prices of all sorts of grain remain nearly the

same.

Since our preceding report, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has brought a bill into the House of Commons to enable the Bank of England to return to payments in specie, at an earlier date than formerly fixed by the legislature. Deep and general interest is justly excited by this measure, which must necessarily have a powerful influence on the commerce of the empire. The agitation of the question, and the measures taken to lead to a resumption of cash payments, have deranged the mercantile affairs of the country. There has been lately no measure of value; the consequence has been, that the greater proportion of articles of native production, and of foreign import, have declined far below the value at which they can be brought to market, and of course under their natural price, and what they must ultimately attain; and it is confidently expected that an established currency, which is to measure the value of all articles of traffic, will immediately be followed by the revival of trade, and the general prosperity of the country. It may also be observed, that the effects of this important measure will not be confined to Great Britain, but extend widely on the continent: all countries feeling the drain of specie to England, which makes the circulating medium scarce, and of course prevents the usual buying and selling. It is hoped the VOL. III.

Bank of England note will still continue a legal tender in the country; otherwise the bankers in the principal towns would be put to serious inconvenience, by the large sums they would necessarily have to keep in specie, to answer the demands which might be made upon them.

The reports respecting war on the continent have as yet had little effect on the commerce of the country: extensive exports of foreign grain have taken place, and the prices of saltpetre have advanced: with these exceptions, there has been no alteration in the markets, and no improvement in the prices of articles which are generally in great demand, and rate high during a

war.

The committees on foreign trade, and on the agricultural distress of the kingdom, are proceeding in their labours. Whether the result of them will be such as to point out any means of relieving the distress complained of, to the extent that some persons anticipate, may be fairly doubted; but a great mass of valuable information cannot fail to be accumulated, which will furnish important data for future legislation.—We are happy to learn that a considerable improvement has taken place in the manufacturing districts, as Manchester, Glasgow, Paisley, &c. On the other hand, the unfavourable alterations in the Russian Tariff have had the effect of depressing the 2 M