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for Europe the mass of the people of Spain are uncorrupted by wealth and manufactories. Attachment to their native country remains in full force. High principles of honour and independence are felt by all. ranks, and the result will be as glorious a struggle for liberty, as was ever made by any nation at any period of the world. But one sentiment can be entertained by any British subject ;-if Spain falls a sacrifice to the enemy of the peace and happiness of Europe, Great Britain cannot long hope to pursue her freedom.

It is possible our external commerce may be diminished, and yet our internal wealth and strength increased.

We possess the staple of various kinds, which are absolutely requisite for other countries to be supplied with, and which they can obtain no where else, such as salt, coals, iron, lead, copper, wool, fish, the carrying trade, &c. these will suffice to procure all that is necessary from other countries, and we have, besides, so long as we can keep possession of our colonies, their surplus produce likewise to barter.

Were the objects of luxury, the produce of other countries, less within the reach of the community at large, I do not know that the ultimate happiness or prosperity of the nation would be affected by it. In the present state of the country, there are supposed to be, of commercial population, four millions three hundred and twenty thousand;-of agricultural, three millions six hundred and eighty thousand,

Should the circumstances of the times make the agricultural population preponderate as much as it is

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now below that of commerce, the physical strength of the nation will gain by the change. The agricultural population being a more hardy, industrious, and sober race, and supported with a fourth less than what is requisite to maintain a manufacturer. A nation of agriculturists will of course be considerably more populous than a manufacturing one, unless they place their reliance for food on foreign countries, in which case they must be a dependent people. The mandates of a foreign despot may overturn such a government, but a nation which depends on its own resources, and has thirty millions of people, has nothing to fear whilst it is true to itself. Such a nation as Great Britain may be, if she pursue her real interest--the cultivation of her land. To be able to make a just estimate of foreign commerce, we ought to take into the account the whole internal trade of the empire, to be added to the hundred and seventy-four millions for necessaries; and estimating this at treble the above amount, and calling it five hundred millions, the loss of foreign commerce will be about one-tenth of the trade of the united empire, including our colonies, which may be a third of the whole.'

That trade has in general preceded agriculture is certainly true. Till luxury gave birth to wants, a stimulus was required to call men into exertion. Flanders affords a strong example of a country losing its commerce, and yet retaining its population, and superiority in agriculture, to all the rest of Europe. The same quantity of land will not maintain the same number of persons employed in manufactories as in agriculture.

agriculture. This, I conceive, is fully proved by the state of population in China. When speaking of trade, I would always be understood to mean foreign trade. A country cultivated and inhabited to the utmost extent, must have an immense internal traffic. The empire of Great Britain, with a population of thirty million, would have a trade to the amount of 250 million, without any reference to foreign luxuries.

I think little doubt can be entertained, by unprejudiced persons, of the advantage which must result from restoring a due balance between agriculture and commerce. That this can be effected without considerable difficulty, I would by no means insinuate. We have the experience of the last half century of the be nefits that resulted from it; and this justifies the wish that the experiment should again be made. The continuance of our national greatness and our commercial prosperity appear absolutely to depend upon it.

I very much question the policy of importation bounties on corn, as a general principle, however necessary under particular circumstances: the policy and wisdom of exportation bounties are ascertained by the experience of eighty years, and appear amongst the many proofs of the wisdom and sagacity of the legislature of those times.

Could the nation be fully apprised of the danger of our situation, and our growing dependence on foreign countries for bread, and reflect on the difficulties we have so recently experienced, as well as the enormous drain of wealth that we have sustained in consequence

of it, they would cheerfully concur in the re-establish. ment of that system, which not only procured abund, ance to the kingdom, but enabled it to export grain to the amount of six hundred thousand pounds annually; a sum little short of a million of our present money.

It is doubtless the interest of every member of the community to have grain cheap, and subject to as little fluctuation in price as possible. To have it of British growth appears the most rational way of accomplishing these desirable objects: but this cannot be looked for, or expected, unless the prices of grain be such as will enable it to be grown extensively with a fair prospect of profit to the farmer.

It will scarce be denied, should the spirit of agriculture diffuse itself through every part of the united empire, that Great Britain will very soon be able to supply grain sufficient, not only for her present, but for any increase of population; the inevitable consequence must be, that large tracts which are now cultivated to supply her wants in the North of Europe and America, must be turned to other purposes. Grain beyond the demand for internal consumption, or for certain exportation, will not be grown by any country. It is not a commodity which can be stored and kept without great loss and expense. In case therefore of a year of failure of crops much public calamity would be felt; to prevent which it might, and I conceive would be a matter of good policy to have public stores in various parts of the kingdom. The expense would not exceed the average charge of bounties; but if it even should, no reasonable person would repine at an ex

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pense which was to give security for the possession of plenty such stores might prevent in years of plenty the grain falling too low, or rising too high in times of scarcity.

The prejudice which naturally arises from the predilection with which trade and manufactures have long been viewed in this country, induces the very general belief that the agricultural and commercial interests are so united, that they must stand or fall together; to restore and maintain an equal balance between them appears most conducive to our national prosperity.

As a matter of speculation, I should contend, that the landed interest had ultimately more to apprehend, from the high prices of grain, than the manufacturer; and that any material fluctuation of price does more immediately affect its interest.

It must be allowed, that agricultural wages are regulated in a great measure by the price of the prime necessaries of life: the late high prices of grain advanced wages forty per cent. In the years of plenty which have succeeded, it has been found impracticable to reduce them; various other articles having also advanced, over which the fall of grain has no controul.

The labourer's scale of expense has kept pace with his wages, and he is as little able as ever to provide against any additional pressure; so that should an advance take place in grain above the standard of common years (and his employer refuse a still further increase of wages), his family must have recourse to pa

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