expected, for then, for the first time, I remembered that during my long sleep I thought that I knew, that days and months, and years, were rolling over me in rapid and noiseless succession.

No sooner had this idea seized my mind-no sooner did I conceive that I had indeed slept that I had indeed lain in silent insensibility, until wood, and rock, and river, had dried up, or fallen beneath the hand of time-that the moon and the stars-and, prepared as I was for wonders, I started, as at that instant I instinctively turned towards that part of the heavens in which the sun was to make his appearance; prepared as I was I started when I beheld this huge round bulk heaving slowly above the barrier of rocks that surrounded me. His was no longer the piercing ray, the dazzling, the pure and colourless light, that had shed glory and radiance on he world on which I had closed my eyes-he was now a dark round orb of reddish flame. He had sunk nearer the earth as he approached nearer the close of his career, and he too seemed to share with the heaven and the earth the symptoms of decay and dissolution. * When I saw universal nature thus worn out and exhausted-thus perishing from old age, and expiring from the sheer want of renewing materials, then I thought that surely my frail body must likewise have waxed old and infirm-surely I too must be bowed down with age and weariness.

*

*

*

*

I raised myself slowly and fearfully from the earth, and at length I stood upright. There I stood unscathed by time-fresh and vigorous as when last I walked on the surface of a green and beautiful world-my frame as firmly knit, and my every limb as active as if a few brief hours, instead of many and long years, had witnessed me extended on that broad platform of rock.

At first a sudden gleam of joy broke on my soul, when I thought that here I stood unharmed by time that I at least had lost nothing of life by the

Then despair and dread indeed laid hold of me then dark visions of woe and of loneliness rose indistinctly before me-thoughts of nights and days of never-ending darkness and coldand then the miseries of hunger and of slow decay and starvation, and hopeless destitution-and then the hard struggle to live, and the still harder struggle of youth and strength to die-Dark visions of woe, where fled ye? before what angel of light hid ye your diminished heads? The sum of my miseries seemed to overwhelm me-a loud sound, as of one universal crash of dissolving nature, rung in my ears-I gave one wild shriek-one convulsive struggle-and

awoke- -and there stood my man John, with my shaving-jug in the one hand, and my well-cleaned boots in the other his mouth open, and his eyes rolling hideously at thus witnessing the frolics of his staid and quiet

master.

By his entrance were these visions dispelled, else Lord knows how long I might have lingered out my existence in that dreary world, or what woes and unspeakable miseries had been in store for

χ β.

They may

THESE were the opinions of an excellent practical farmer, a statesman of the first class, and an individual pre-eminent for knowledge, experience, and wisdom. In commencing our remarks on Agriculture, we strongly recommend them to the attention of our readers.

If it be at all times necessary to listen to the cry of the people in cities and towns touching this subject with caution and distrust, it is doubly so at the present moment. That which bears the name of Political Economy, but which ought to bear a very different one, has given to the ignorance and selfishness of such people with regard to Agriculture the garb of science. A body of lecturers and newspaper writers, who perhaps never saw a green field, and who could not distinguish a pod of beans from an ear of barley, oracularly proclaim that they are infinitely more knowing in agricultural matters than the most experienced agriculturists. They have drawn up a string of pretended theorems and demonstrations; which they assert to be unerring, and by means of which every inhabitant of a town believes himself to be consummately qualified for giving judgment on the Corn Laws. The city barber can show, while he is taking off a beard, that the farmer is an utter stranger to his own interestthe draper's apprentice can demonstrate, while he is measuring a yard of tape, that to plunge the farmers into ruin, and strip the landlords of income, would prodigiously benefit the nation. All this is held to be matter of proof. There is an authority to refer to, which may not be disputed ;-it is a fundamental maxim of Political Economy, that if our own producers can

not supply us at so cheap a rate as foreign ones, we ought to be supplied by the latter; and who shall dare to call its truth into question?

Has wheat then

Of course, the cry of the people of cities and towns is no longer prompted by hunger and high prices. Up to a recent period, manufactures and commerce have been in the most flourishing condition; the masters have made good profits; the workmen have had very high wageshave enjoyed greater abundance than ever before fell to their lot, and greater abundance than has been enjoyed by very many people who rank as gentlemen. Generally speaking, the inhabitants of cities and towns have enjoyed unexampled plenty and prosperity, and yet they have continually kept up a cry for the reduction of the prices of corn. been unreasonably dear? No! it has not fetched two-thirds of the price that it frequently fetched during the war; and it has not been higher than it often was centuries ago. Have the farmers and their servants been in a better condition than the masters and workmen in large places? No! they have been in a much worse condition. Why then has the cry been raised? Because corn has been ruinously cheap in various foreign countries. It has not been inquired whether our farmers could afford to reduce their prices, or whether they could produce at as cheap a rate as those of other nations. No notice has been taken of the fact, that in these foreign countries the low prices have plunged agriculture into deep distress. Political Economy needed no such knowledge. Corn was cheaper in Poland, Germany, America, &c., than in England; this was all

that was necessary to be known, and this formed the sole scientific and conclusive reason why the price here ought to be reduced.

A cry like this, when those who raise it-taking into calculation the difference in profits and wages-buy their bread in reality at a cheaper rate than the producers of corn, cannot surely be entitled to much consideration. Another cause that renders it the less deserving of notice, is, the Economists who guide and mature it are as dishonest as they are ignorant. Their grand object is, not the benefit of commerce and manufacture, but the promotion of their own wishes as a political faction. In the words of Burke-" Knowing how opposite a permanent landed interest is to their schemes, they have resolved, and it is the great drift of all their regulations, to reduce that description of men to a mere peasantry for the sustenance of the towns, and to place the true effective government in cities among the tradesmen, bankers, and voluntary clubs of bold, presuming young persons; advocates, attorneys, managers of newspapers, and cabals of literary men.' They care no more for the interests of the merchants and manufacturers than for those of the agriculturists; they wish to crush the latter, merely that they may gain a triumph for Republicanism.

In better times, a cry for cheaper bread, set up by the inhabitants of cities and towns amidst prosperity and abundance, would have received from the Ministry and Parliament the most marked reprobation. It would have been put down at once, not more from its un-English character, than from its being hostile to the best interests of its authors. But we live in times when every cry is thought rational and just that demands change and innovation-when it is thought to be idiotcy to act upon old principles, and to be satisfied with existing things. Hitherto the theoretic projector has been laughed at; now he alone is to be trusted: it is the man of practical knowledge who must not be listened to. Every one is the master of any business save his own. The lawyer takes upon himself the management of foreign politics-the newspaper writer draws up laws for agriculture-the lecturer lays down systems for trade and the surgeon regulates the relations

between master and servant. In proportion as a man is a stranger to a subject, in the same proportion is his opinion on it attended to. Who, in these enlightened days, would pay any regard to the opinion of the agriculturists on agriculture, of the silk manufacturer on the silk trade, or of the iron-master on the iron trade? No one. The opinion would be dictated by experience, and therefore it would be scorned. Not many months since, some of the Ministers declared in Parliament, that they knew they were right in opening a trade, because, although they were opposed by those engaged in, and perfectly acquainted with it, they were sanctioned by men engaged in other trades, and utter strangers to it. The primary directors of public affairs have lately been closet visionaries-men thoroughly destitute of experimental knowledge, and having a character for anything rather than ability and wisdom. The Ministry and Parliament may have carried into effect, but these menthe Humes-M'Cullochs, and Benthams-have formed the plan and laid down the principle. If the affairs of an empire like this can continue to be thus managed without injury, the science of government is certainly a very different thing from what we believe it to be. The year 1825 will be long memorable in the annals of England. The worst of its projectors have not been those of the new companies; the most fatal of its bubbles have been blown elsewhere than in the money market; these have not yet all burst, but burst they will, and fearful will be the consequences.

The political bubbles, as well as those of a different character, have injured most seriously, some of the better feelings of the community. A clamour is kept up in favour of liberality-of a liberal system of trade. What, in plain English, is this liberality? Do our merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen, stand forward like honest, generous, straightforward men, and say-We have too much trade-we have more than we desire -we are willing to give a portion to France, Holland, &c., without an equivalent? Does any one of them intend that his liberality shall subtract in the least from his property or income? No! all who cry up this liberal system of trade expect to make it an in

strument of profit. One shilling is to be given, that two may be receiveda gudgeon is to be thrown away, that a whale may be obtained. It is declared that this liberality will be amazingly beneficial to every one, there fore it is popular and fashionable. It is, in fact, neither more nor less than cold-blooded, disgraceful avarice. This avarice has made one interest seek the destruction of another throughout the country. The trade which cannot be touched by the foreigner readily supports what will ruin that which can, for the sake of the profit; the cotton or woollen trade, is willing to gain extension by the sacrifice of the silk or glove trade. While the different mercantile and manufacturing interests thus fight against each other, they combine for the ruin of agriculture. When this boasted liberality is stripped of its gaudy disguise, it is hideous, loathsome, guilty, and dangerous beyond description.

These things ought to make every one regard the clamour against the Corn Laws with distrust, who wishes to judge correctly. When he hears these laws called odious, hateful, disgraceful, &c., and finds that enmity to them is to be used as a test at the approaching election, let him turn from their slanderers to examine their operation. Let him rigidly scrutinize their fruits from their birth to the present moment. Let him ascertain what scarcity they have producedwhat trade they have ruined-and what degree of want and suffering they have brought upon the inhabitants of large places. If he find-as find he will-that, in the period in which they have raised corn the most, trade has been in the most flourishing condition, the merchants and mauufacturers have enjoyed the highest prosperity, and the working classes of cities and towns have been blessed with such abundance as they never before possessed then let him think, as he ought, of the clamour and the clamourers.

In our remarks on Agriculture, we shall not array it against Commerce and Manufactures. We feel equal friendship for the three, we believe them to form a whole; and in throwing our shield over the one in its danger, we conceive that we likewise throw it over the others. If we occasionally turn our weapon against VOL. XIX.

Commerce and Manufactures, it will be merely to disarm them in their unnatural and disgraceful war against Agriculture, and to prevent them from working their own destruction. There are, we know, very many merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen, who wish to judge correctly on the question-who are willing to act on the maxim, Live and let live-who seek not to distress their agricultural fellow-subjects-and who are anxious for the weal of the whole community. Let all such attend to us; we will not intentionally attempt to mislead them, and they will still be free to follow their own opinions. If there be one whose grovelling, despicable soul can regard neither countrymen nor country, can never look beyond the circle drawn by its own cupidity, and can sigh to gather wealth through the ruin and misery of his fellow-creatures, if there be one such pitiful wretch in the British nation, let us be listened to even by him. We may say some thing that will gratify his avarice and benefit his pocket.

We must begin with dividing the community into two great bodies-the one comprehending the Agriculturists, and the other, the Merchants and Manufacturers. The first body, strictly speaking, comprehends, not only all who draw employment from the land, but all who draw income from it. The great landlord is as much a producer of corn, as the great manufacturer is of manufactures, or as the great merchant, calling the latter for the occasion a producer, is of merchandise. His tenants are practically his junior partners; with every one he finds the chief part of the capital, and, if he do not attend daily to the business, he lays down the plan for its management, and keeps it under his general superintendence. His income arises from it, and fluctuates with the profits which it yields, like that of his tenants. The agricultural body includes the nobility, the country gentlemen, and great part of the clergy, with their servants. The uni versities, numberless corporate bodies, and various public institutions, have large possessions in land, and all whom these possessions maintain belong to the agriculturists. A vast number of the regular inhabitants of towns derive their income wholly, or princi

20

pally, from land, and these belong to the Agriculturists. If the ministers, ambassadors, judges, &c.; the army and navy; those who are employed for the collection of the revenue; the fundholders; in a word, all who draw income from the public-purse, are to be classed at all, a vast number of them are paid by, and of course belong to, the agriculturists. Taking all this into calculation, and looking at Britain and Ireland as a whole, the agriculturists include at least half of the aggregate population.

Under the terms merchants and manufacturers, we will here include all tradesmen, mechanics, &c. The grocer is practically the co-partner of the importers of tea, sugar, &c. The tailor is a garment-manufacturer; the different tradesmen, mechanics, artizans, &c., are connected with the leading merchants and manufacturers, in fitting for use, and distributing the goods of the latter. Our readers will therefore bear in mind, throughout this article, that by the terms merchants and manufacturers, we mean not only those who commonly bear the names, but all the members of the community who cannot be classed with the Agriculturists; all who draw employment, directly or remotely, from commerce and manufactures.

The commodities of these gigantic bodies are, as every one knows, perfectly distinct, and they reciprocally give employment to each other. The Agriculturists employ the merchants and manufacturers to suppply them with merchandise and manufactures; and the latter employ the former to supply them with food and various raw articles to trade with, or manufacture. Every one can see that the agricultural body depends solely on the trading body for the sale of its surplus produce; every one, we say, can see this, and therefore it is not made a matter of dispute. But that the trading body depends, in any material degree, for the sale of its surplus commodities, on the agricultural one, seems in these days to be denied by almost all. It appears to be imagined that it depends principally for employment and a market on foreign nations: the doctrine, which a fool ought to be ashamed of believing in, is maintained by every one who thinks himself individually wise, that, the less the Agriculturists obtain for their produce, the

greater will be the trade and profits of the merchants and manufac

turers !

The agricultural body raises all its produce at home from its land. The trading body buys its commodities, or the raw produce from which it fabricates them, chiefly abroad; and it buys them principally with foreign raw produce, or its own manufactures. This buying and selling between the latter body and foreign nations, in which neither the former body nor its produce appear to take any share, from the main source of that ruinous delusion which prevails on the question, and we must therefore ascertain what regulates their extent, and keeps them in existence.

If the Agriculturists could not sell their surplus produce, they could still subsist, although very miserably; they could still raise food for their own consumption, and manufacture for themselves from the produce of their land. With the merchants and manufacturers the case is different. The latter subsist by buying and selling; they do not grow their commodities, or the raw produce from which they are fabricated; if they cannot sell their commodities they cannot buy them; they cannot procure food; they cannot procure these commodities for their own consumption. It is solely from their sales to the Agriculturists that they are themselves enabled to consume, not only food, but merchandize and manufactures; that they are enabled to buy of, sell to, and employ each other. The Agriculturists give an order for cottons to the cotton-manufacturer, and this enables the latter to employ the cotton-merchant, the maker of machinery, the dyer, the coal-merchant, &c., and to wear cottons himself. Without this original order, none of these could be employed, or could wear cottons.

In primitive times, the Agriculturists contented themselves with the produce of their soil; and then no merchants and manufacturers could exist. When the former began to have surplus produce to dispose of, then the latter came into being; in proportion as their produce increased in value, in the same proportion merchants and manufacturers multiplied. If we look through the world at this moment, we find, that where the Agriculturists have no surplus produce,