derstood, that several petitions are to be presented to Parliament against the cornlaw, by the large cities and towns; and as the law arose from the petition of the farmers, and was supported chiefly by the land-owners, I cannot refrain from making here a few remarks, which I think will tend to convince the farmers and landlords, that the law cannot produce any beneficial effect to them. Indeed, if they are satisfied with my arguments upon the principle of the law, a very little reflection will teach them to make this application. Yet, it may not be altogether unnecessary to point out here, in detail, some circumstances, which would have interrupted and encumbered the discussion of the principle.---It is well known, that the first law (passed in 1688) granting a bounty on the exportation of corn, "was passed with a view to give a "premium to the country-gentlemen, in "order to obtain their consent to the im"position of the land-tax." The present bill has been, by some persons, attributed to a similar motive; while the Edinburgh Reviewers, who seem to be quite willing to go as far as possible in approving of all your measures, are inclined to ascribe the bill, to a motive still less worthy of a statesman, namely, party politics. "The success of "such topics" (say they, after quoting a passage from the report of the corn-trade committee) "might not, perhaps, have been equally great, if the Master of the State" (These men have certainly been touched with the finger of ministerial grace!) "had already "been fixed upon that vantage ground, from "which he may now dictate a policy more "congenial to his former system. Amidst "the arrangements of foreign policy and of "war which may be supposed to absorb his "mind" (Can they be serious, Sir!), "the "humble and less precarious plans of do"mestic legislation may be forgotten." What they add is well worthy of your serious attention. "But the minister who "tampers for a present purpose, with his "own maxims, and indulges individuals in "their frivolous fondness for making laws, "instead of opposing, to temporary inte"rests, the spirit of a general policy, can"not be true either to his own fame, or to "the lasting prosperity of Britain." These critics should, however, have done you the justice to observe, that the bill did not originate with you, nor during your influence over your predecessor. It was one of his pretty little presents to the nation; and you are to be blamed only because you adopted it. It might, or it might not be intended by him as a sort of compensation for the new Income Tax; but, whoever takes time to say And that it is not worth the seed;" but, one sack rates for the maintenance of the agricultural poor, the disproportion which is, by a rise in the price of corn, created between that price and the price of the labourers' wages; viewing the farmer in this light we shall find, that the rise in the price of his corn is a very serious injury to him; for, the labourer, once upon the parish, once degraded, is but too apt to give up all exertion, and to be strongly inclined to live upon the farmer without any labour at all. This is, I am afraid, a very prevalent effect of the high price of corn, and a more fatal one cannot possibly be produced.Nor is the landlord a gainer by the high price of corn, from whatever cause it proceeds, and, of course, not by a high price proceeding from a bounty on exportation. "The real effect "of the bounty," says Smith, "is not so "much to raise the real value of corn, as "to degrade the real value of silver; or to "make an equal quantity of it exchange "for a smaller quantity, not only of corn, "but of all other commodities. Though, "in consequence of the bounty, the farmer "should be enabled to sell his corn for four "shilling the bushel instead of three and "sixpence, and to pay his landlord a money "price proportionable to this rise in the money price of his produce; yet, if in conse quence of this rise in the price of corn, "four shillings will purchase no more goods "of any other kind than three and sixpence “would have done before, neither the cir"cumstances of the farmer, nor those of "the landlord, will be in the smallest de 66 gree mended by this change. The far"mer will not be able to cultivate better: the landlord will not be able to live better." Suffer me to express my surprize, Sir, that you should have completely rejected this doctrine of your great master, when you have, in so many instances, followed him too closely in those matters where the warlike or diplomatic statesman should have soared above the cold political economist !As I am fully persuaded, that the petitioning farmers and landlords will, by this time, begin to perceive, that they have made a very great mistake as to the effect of a bounty-law; I cannot help flattering myself, that, their minds being once open to conviction, I shall be able to convince them, that, in another point of view, such a law must be injurious to them; always keeping before us the fact, that the bounty on exported corn will raise the average price of cor?? - -If the bounty on exported corn, raise the average price of corn, the next consequence is, as Smith observes (and as, indeed, we needed neither ghost nor Smith to tell us)" to de "grade the value of silver;" that is to say, to depreciate the currency of the country (it is not silver now-a days) further than it is at present depreciated. And, Sir, can the landlords and farmers, above all men living; can the landlords and farmers, whose common interest it is that money should depreciate as little as possible, in order that the one may grant and that the other may ob tain as long leases as possible; can this description of persons; no, they never can, wish for any law, by which the depreciation of money must necessarily be accelerated! Upon this part of the subject, Sir, I beg your attention to a passage from the writer referred to in the former part of my letter. "Is it not strange," says he, " indeed, to "observe a law made for the encourage ment of agriculture, on a principle, ob"viously problematical, and demonstratively "unjust, in a country pretending to be en"lightened, where a practice remains un"challenged, which opposes an absolute "barrier to all improvement, and which is daily gaining ground; the practice, we "mean, of refusing leases to farmers, and compelling them to cultivate on the tenure "of a single year? In almost every one of "the agricultural reports of the different "counties, this is complained of as a grow. "ing evil "I am sorry," says the secre "tary to the Board of Agriculture, in his "General View of the Agriculture of Hert"fordshire," I am sorry to observe that a 66.66 prejudice against the granting of leases, ""increasing daily, will, if not checked by ""the goods sense of the landlords, injart, be""yond any calculation, the agriculture of ""the kingdom." That inteligent agri"culturist, Mr. Kent, in his Agricultural "Survey of Norfolk, says: "that leases ""are the first, the greatest, and most ra "❝tional encouragement that can be given "" to agriculture, admits not of a doublin 66 66 my opinion. But of late years there are very strong prejudices entertained against ""them. In many counties," continues "he, "the prejudice is so strong, that an ""owner would as soon alienate the fee simple "" of his estate as demise it for a term of years. It grieves me," says he again, ""to go into a country, which I often do, "" and find it almost in a state of nature, " "because the soil being wet and expensive "" to cultivate, the tenant cannot afford to ""do it without encouragement, and the ""owner's insurmountable objection to leaser 65 66 keeps him from granting the sort of encouragement which is essentially necessary." Another of the best informed " and most judicious writers on this im "portant subject, Mr. Middleton, says, in "his View of the Agriculture of Middlesex, It is, without doubt, a most un"reasonable prejudice which many proprie ""tors entertain against granting leases of ""their estates; for the with holding these ""certainly operates as a most powerful ""bar against every improvement." And "after a long discussion of the subject, he "adds, "leases appear to me to be of so ""much importance, as being perhaps the ""most powerful and rational means of ""promoting improvements in agriculture, ""that I hope I shall stand excused for ""having entered so fully on this branch ""of the report." Do we then indeed ""suffer the folly and ignorance of landlords "" to with-hold the first, the greatest, and ""most rational encouragement of agri""culture, &c. &c."". -Mercy! mercy! good Sirs! why treat the landlords so cruelly? It is a very plain matter-of-fact question that they have to decide; and, as it is evident that they cannot hope to gain any thing by preventing their own land from being well cultivated, I should be very much disposed to trust to their judgment without any inquiry into the reasons upon which it is founded. Let us, see, however, Sir, if we cannot, in the sole circumstance of the rapid depreciation of money, find a reason more than sufficient to wipe away all these heavy charges against the landlords.-Leases of farms were, previous to the commencement of your administration, and, I believe, so late as the year 1795 or thereabouts, generally granted, for twenty-one years; some for fourteen years; some for eleven; some, but, comparatively, very few indeed, for a term so short as seven years. Now. Sir, you yourself did, during your speech upon the Civil List, last June, acknowledge, that, since the year 1786, a space of only eighteen years, money had depreciated 60 or 70 per centum. You might have said more than 100 per centum, as I shall, upon a future occasion, amply demonstrate. But, suppose the depreciation to have been only 70 per centum, and that I had, in 1786, let a farm, for a 21 years' lease, at the yearly rent of 170 pounds, should I not now most sensibly feel, that my income was reduced to 100 pounds a year? Should I not perceive, that, before the 21 years were expired, I should have, perhaps, very little left, seeing that out of the 70 per centum of depreciation during eighteen years, 50 per centum, at least, has occured since the year 1796, that is to say, in the space of seven years? This is the most important circumstance; that, within this last-mentioned space, the depreciation has been so much more rapid than formerly, so much more rapid than even during the former part of your administration; and, accordingly we find, that it is only till "within these late years" that the " pre"judice" against granting leases has prevailed. Indeed, that landlord who does not now perceive, that, to grant a lease of 21 years, would be nearly the same thing as to alienate the fee simple of his estate," must be "nature's fool," and not yours. And are landlords then to be blamed, to be thus harshly censured, to be abused, to be called "prejudiced, foolish, ignorant," and what not, because they do not voluntarily set their hands and seal and irrevocably bind over themselves and their descendants to ruin and beggary, while others are wallowing in riches upon their estates!. "Strange prejudice," indeed, that should make men dislike dying in a work-house and making over their children to live upon. alms drawn from his own estates! What disaffected and disloyal rascals they must be, too, not to do this rather than thus expose the consequences of your papermoney-system!-I was just going to propose some means of coming at them by the way of law; but I see that one of these agricultural surveying gentlemen (some of whom, be it well remembered, had the merit of being the first to recommend the seizure of the tythes and the stipendizing of the clergy) has some thoughts of the propriety of not "suffering the folly and 66 ignorance of landlords" to with-hold leases! Really, Sir, I should like to know, whether the effects of a papermoney, not convertible into specie, ever entered these men's heads? And yet, ore would think it quite impossible that it should not. That ARTHUR YOUNG, too, the Secretary to that profound body, the Board of Agriculture; the correspondent of the "American Cincinnatus;" that Arthur Young, who had travelled through a country of assignats; that this oracle of agriculture and political economy, who puts F. R. S. at the end of his name; that he, too, should be " Sorry to observe that a prejudice against the granting of leases "is increasing daily! Daily! The gentleman must have been very constant in his inquiries! But, where must he have lived ? Had he never heard talk of the bank-restriction law? Had he never heard that the bank was no longer obliged to pay their notes in cash; while, at the same time, these notes were, as to every practical pur pose, made a legal tender in discharge of 66 rent? I shall, in good truth, begin shortly to suspect, that a man may put F. R. S. at the end of his name, and yet be no conjurer.--But, Sir, not to trouble you with any more of these conjectures, I will now dismiss this Postcript with pointing out a practical advantage that may be drawn from the facts stated by these Agricultural Surveyors. They are represented, and, I dare say, very truly, as persons of unimpeachable veracity; and they assure us, not upon hearsay evidence, but upon the result of their own personal inquiries and inspection, that, "of late years," (please to mark the phrase) a strong and un"conquerable prejudice" has existed, all over the kingdom to the granting of farming leases; and that, this prejudice is carried to such a length," that a land-owner "would as soon alienate the fee-simple "of his estate as let it for a term of years." Such is their first fact. The next is that this prejudice" injures agriculture beyond "calculation; that it is more injurious to "it than all other disadvantages put to"gether; and that, to remove this prejudice "would be the first, the greatest, and most rational way to encourage agriculture." After which I need only add, that this prejudice evidently arises from no other cause than the rapid depreciation of money occasioned by the present paper-money system, leaving it to you, Sir, to determine, whether a much more speedy and effectual measure for encouraging agriculture might not be adopted than that of passing long bills about the prices of corn. TO THE READER. The matter which would have presented itself under the head of Summary of Politics, must be postponed till next Number. The essays in the present Number will be found interesting in the extreme. The letter on the Incapacity of Henry VI; the letter, p. 900, addressed to Mr. Pitt on the claims of the Catholics of Ireland; the two letters, in p. 905 and 911, upon the repeal of the test laws; the letter in p. 914, upon the subject of Sir James Craufurd's Parole; that, in p. 919, upon the effects of paper money in times of scarcity; all these letters I beg leave to recommend to the attentive perusal of the reader. Upon the two latter some remarks will hereafter be offered. PUBLIC PAPERS. FRENCH CIRCULAR NOTE.--- Circular Note from M. Talleyrand, French Minister for Foreign Affairs, to all the Diplomatic Agents of his Majesty, the Emperor of the French.-Dated, Aix-la-Chapelle, Sep. 5, 1804. (Continued from p. 820) In every country, and at all times, the ministry of diplomatic agents was held in veneration amongst men. Ministers of peace, organs of conciliation, their presence is an omen of wisdom, of justice, and hap piness. They speak, they act but to termi. nate, or prevent, those fatal differences which divide princes, and degrade a people, by the passions, murders, and miseries, which are the offspring of war. Such is the object of the diplomatic ministry; and it must be said, that it is to the observance of the duties it imposes, it is to the generally respectable character of the men who exercise this sacred ministry in Europe, that it owes the glory and the happiness it enjoys; but these happy effects torment the jealous ambition of the only government which makes itself an interest in the ruin, the shame and the ser vitude of other governments. They wish that diplomatic ministers should be the in stigators of plots, the agents of troubles, the directors and regulators of machinations, vile spies, cowardly seducers-they order them to foment seditions, to provoke and to pay for assassination; and they pretend to throw over that infamous ministry the respect and inviolability which belong to the mediators of Kings, and the pacificators of nations.Diplomatic ministers, says Lord Hawkesbury, ought not to conspire in the country where they reside, against the laws of that country; but they are not subject to the same rules with respect to states at which they are not accredited. Admirable restrictions! Europe will swarm with conspirators, but the defenders of public right must not complain. There will always be some local distance between the leader and the accomplices. The mi nisters of Lord Hawkesbury will pay for the crimes they cause to be committed; but they will have that prudent deference for public morality, not to be at once the instigators and the witnesses. -Such maxims are the completion of audacity and hypocrisy. Never were the opinions of ca binets and the consciences of any people made game of more shamelessly. His Ma jesty the Emperor thinks that it is time to put an end to the disastrous career of principles, subversive of all society.-You are ordered, in consequence to declare to the government where you reside, that his Majesty will not recognize the English di plomatic corps in Europe, so long as the British ministry shall not abstain from charging its ministers with any warlike agency, and shall not restrict them to the limits of their functions.The miseries of Europe proceed from its being deemed obligatory every where to observe maxims of moderation and liberality, which being just but by reciprocity, are only obligatory with respect to those who submit to them. Hence governments have as much to suffer from their own justice as from the iniquity of a ministry which recognises no law but its ambition and its caprice. The miseries of Europe proceed also from public right being considered under a partial point of view, whereas it has life and strength only from its integrity. Maritime Right, Continental Right, the Right of Nations, are not parts of public right that can be considered and preserved in an isolated manner. The na tion that pretends to introduce arbitrary rules into one of those parts, loses all its claims to the privilege of the whole. The systematic infractor of the Rights of Nations places himself out of that right, and renounces all interest founded upon the Maritime Right, and the Continental Right. -His Majesty the Emperor regrets his having to order measures which are a real interdiction pronounced against a State; but, all reflecting men will be at no difficulty to see that in this it is only necessary to ascertain facts. The English ministry, by the generality of their attacks, have placed coasts, isles, ports, neutrals, general commerce, in a state of interdiction; in fine, they have just proclaimed the prostitution of the most sacred and most indispensable ministry, to the repose of the world. Majesty thinks it his duty to excite the attention of all governments, and to warn them, that without new measures, adopted under the conviction of the present danger, all the ancient maxims, upon which the honour and independence of states rest, will be immediately annihilated.- -(Signed) CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. His ORDER TO ARREST SIR G. RUMBOLD. -Extract of Letter from the Minister General of Police at Paris to Marshal Bernadott.-Dated 10th Oct. 1804. (After stating that M. Rumbold is following the system of Messrs. Drake and Smith, and that the British minister has avowed a plan of conspiracy and plots which is "proved, besides by the conduct of Mr. "Taylor, and the original papers in my "hands," Fouche proceeds in the following terms:)-In consequence of these new and subversive principles, his Majesty the Emperor has caused it to be declared, that he will not recognise any diplomatic character in the English agents, who have been placed by their own government, out of the law of nations and the common law of civilized nations; they desire then, that M. Rumbold be considered as any other English individual who should adopt criminal practices, and be seized if it be in your power to do it, taking every measure to secure his papers. I invite you, Marshal, to take all the necessary steps to accomplish this object. I have the honor to be,—(Signed)→ FoUCHE. FRANCE AND RUSSIA. - Nole from Mr. Talleyrand, French Minister for foreign Af fairs, delivered to Mr. D'Oubril, Russian Charge d'Affaires at Paris. Dated 29th July, 1804.--N. B. The substance of this note was given in p. 758. The undersigned minister for foreign af fairs has submitted to his Majesty the Emperor, the note of M. D'Oubril, Charge d'Affaires from Russia, (of the 21st July, 1804). The undersigned has received orders to declare, that whenever the Court of Russia shall fulfil the articles of its treaty with France, the latter will be ready to execute them with the same fidelity: as Russia must naturally think that the treaty is equally binding upon the two contracting powers. If the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh is of opi nion, that it has some demands to make in consequence of the articles IV. V. and VI. of the secret convention of the 18th Vendemiaire, year 10, France also claims the execution of the 3d article of that treaty, which is expressed in the following terms: "The two contracting parties, desirous to the utmost of their power. to contribute to the tranquillity of the two respective governments, engage not to suffer their respective subjects to maintain any correspondence, direct or indirect, with the enemies of the two states, or to propagate principles contrary to their respective constitutions, by fomenting any disturbance whatsoever; and that in consequence of this agreement, every subject of one of those powers inhabiting the states of the other, who shall do any thing contrary to its safety, shall be removed from the said country, and transported beyond its frontiers, without having any claim to the protection of his own government. This article, framed with as much precision as wisdom, declares the very friendly dispositions which bound the two powers at the time of forming this treaty. France, therefore, did not expect that Russia wou'd grant its protection to French Emigrants, by accrediting them to the neighbouring |