lor of the Exchequer could not reduce it, let the Ministers put him in that Right Hon. Gentleman's place, and he would reduce it twenty millions. As for public property, he wanted to have a slap at all public properties; and after that he would compromise with the public creditor on the best terms he could, but so that every person should bear his fair share of the public burdens. He wanted to see the energies of England relieved from the pressure on them, so that she might not silently suffer the aggrandisement of other Powers. He should oppose the amendment; and he hoped they would now unanimously petition against the duties on malt and beer; he hoped, too, that they would succeed in getting them taken off; and that next year he should meet them to petition for the abolition of some other taxes. (Bravo, bravo.) its expenditure, to lay its taxes on equally, and To the Honourable the Commons of the Sir WILLIAM INGLEBY, the other county Member, then offered himself to the notice of the meet ag, and was received with some marks of approbation. He was glad to meet the county on any terms, but he thought it not very liberal in the Sheriff to refuse to call a County meeting. It was not perhaps a regular County meeting, in the absence of the Sheriff; but he felt much gratitude to the magistrates who had signed the requisition for the meeting, and under whose guidance they had as-sands of virtuous, and industrious, and frugal sembled. He had been sorry to hear, on a recent occasion, when he had met a body of his constituents at Graptham, that they were in so bad a state and since that time, he had busied himself in finding out some plan to give them relief. He had drawn up something which he should probably submit to the meeting, if he were not afraid of interfering with the results of that day's proceedings; and if that were the case, he should propose it at some other and more suitable opportunity. What they wanted was, a great reduction of taxation, which at present was enormous in its amount. If they could get the malt and beer duties taken off, that would be one step, one point gained, and they might afterwards gain an ether. He hoped he should meet the county at tome future time to submit his propositions to the freeholders. The distress in Lincolnshire was very great, but it was not so great as in those parts of the kingdom where manufactures were established; and he had lately been residing in one of these, where he knew that the people were almost starving at his own dr. Even in Lincoln, the distress was greater than he was aware of; till he had met some of the agriculturists at Grantham, a few days before, he could not know it to be so great as he had found it to be without attempting omething for their relief. As to what had been said about the Government not reducing the taxes, and not touching public property, he knew that the taxes had for some time past been Paid out of the capital of the farmer. If not taken ut of the capital of the farmer, he was sure that they could not come out of their profits, and he did not know why they should be ruited to enrich the tax-gatherer and the fundholder. If the country was in such a bad state that its resources were no longer equal to its wants, the Government was bound to reduce "SHOWETH,-That your petitioners are plunged into distress absolutely intolerable: that in a county so highly favoured by nature, all the proofs of decline, decay, poverty, and misery,are seen in their strongest colours; that farmers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers, are become one mass of insolvents; that thou families are either ruined, or are on the verge of ruin; and the consequent want of employment amongst the labouring classes has led to a state of want and misery such as no people on earth, much less English people, ever be fore had to endure. That your petitioners ascribe this disgraceful and fearful state of things to the changes in the value of money, arbitrarily made by your Honourable House, and unac companied with a reduction of the taxes; because, by that change, the taxes have, during the last fifteen years, been more than doubled in amount. "That your petitioners, therefore, pray that your Honourable House will cause to be made a great and immediate reduction in the taxes; and that you will be pleased to begin by totally abolishing the burdensome and cruel taxes on malt, hops, leather, soap, and candles, (laughter,) all of which are intolerably oppressive to farmers, to labourers, and to all the tradesmen and others depending on the cultivation of the land. "And your petitioners will ever pray." It went a little beyond the requisition, as the meeting would have seen. The distress, as he had described it, was intolerable, though he might possibly have used too strong language. (It is correct.) The Hon. Baronet concluded by saying, that he hoped to see the time when the repeal of taxation, such as he prayed for, would be carried into effect. (Applause.) A Sir ROBERT HERON begged to set the Hon. Baronet right as to county meetings. county meeting was legal when called by the magistrates as well as when called by the Sheriff or by the Lord Lieutenant, and that was as much a county meeting as if the Sheriff had presided. aware of the true situation of the country. He also expressed his satisfaction at the respectability and great numbers of the meeting. Mr. T. SMITH said a few words to recommend Parliamentary Reform to the attention of the meeting, but the cold had made the farmers so impatient, and their usual dinner hour having nearly arrived, they cut Mr. Smith very short. He said that they could not expect any reform in the expenditure as long as the Parliament was unreformed, and he therefore hoped they would next petition for Parliamentary Reform. Before the meeting broke up, Colonel SIBTHORPE proposed that they should consider the propriety of calling another county meeting, to discuss the question of the general distress. (Bravo.) Colonel JOHNSON would readily agree to the proposal, but he hoped the meeting would not be called till the weather was warmer. The CHAIRMAN then read the petition and the amendment, and afterwards put them to the vote, when the amendment was rejected, no person but the mover, that we could see, holding up his hand for it; and the petition, as at first proposed by Col. Johnson, was unanimously agreed to. Col. JOHNSON stated, that the petition would soon be ready for signature, and he hoped the people would sign it numerously. It would subsequently be sent round to the different market towns, and would lie there for signature. Mr. CHOLMELEY differed from the Hon. Baronet in not thinking the country in such desperate circumstances as he seemed to suppose. He might, indeed, think our circumstances desperate if he could not trace the measures which caused our distress; but every measure which had produced evil, was distinctly known, so that the steps which it was necessary to retrace, to restore our prosperity, were plainly before us. There was no cause to despair, though he, for one, must say that he thought the agriculturists had partly been the cause of their own distress. ("How, how?") They had partly caused it by their extreme apathy. Like charity, they had believed and hoped, and suffered all. The reason why the Ministers had not taken off the taxes on malt and beer was, that they, like other people, were ready to attend to the most clamorous. The Ministers had given relief to those who had been constantly and steadily asking it of them. Now, the agriculturists could hold out no longer, and, as had been said, the contest was soon coming between the fundholders and the landlords. If the agriculturists did not take care of their own interests, they might be sure the Ministers would pass them over. He formed this opinion from the eagerness be noticed in several weekly and daily journals, to decry the agriculturists; and in particular there was one journal which he noticed because of its great influence, but which displayed most lamentable ignorance on all questions connected with the agricultural interest. Its sentiments, too, were those of wishing to destroy that interest. It seemed to think that the gentlemen of that part of the country were born under a fenny atmosphere, and could not comprehend their own interest. But he would add, that the meet ing would regard him as thick-witted if he did any more than touch on such a topic in such weather. He wished to see the malt and beer duties repealed, but he was afraid that Mr. HANDLEY, in the name of his brother this would only be like a drop in the ocean. magistrates and in his own name, returned There were many other taxes which must be his thanks to the meeting. He congratulated repealed; many other laws which must be the persons present on the propriety of their amended; and there were many other causes proceedings; he was pleased to see so numerof their distress of more importance than these ous and respectable an assembly; he was glad duties, to which he could not even allude. of their unanimity, and he sincerely trusted There was the currency also, which had added, that the next time they met he should have to as they all knew, one-fourth to all their congratulate them on the success of their excharges, and had increased the value of all ertions, and on having obtained the object they public taxes and salaries. By an arbitrary had then met to petition for. He hoped, with and most unjust change, by violent operation, Col. Johnson, they would cease to see the extheir property and the property of all the inciseman walking through the land, or standing dustrious parts of the community had been altered in its value. (The meeting expressed some impatience at being detained.) Mr. Cholmeley therefore concluded by expressing his satisfaction at the respectability of the meeting, and declared, though he had not very sanguine hopes of attaining their object, yet the consequence of that meeting would be important, and it would not, he hoped, be without some effects on the authorities of the country. Mr. HEALY extressed his satisfaction at hearing what had fallen from £ir W. Ingleby, as he had been one of the Hon. Baronet's tutors, and had taken some pain; to make him Sir W. INGLEBY moved the thanks of the meeting to the gentlemen who first signed the requisition for calling a county meeting, and also to the magistrates who had, on the Sheriff's refusal, called the county together; and also to Mr. Haudley, one of them, for his able and impartial conduct in the chair. Sir C. F. BROOMHEAD seconded this motion, which was carried by acclamation. in the streets. He hoped, too, that the brewers' monopoly would be done away; and that he would sell most beer who brewed it the best and cheapest. (Great applause.) Mr. Handley then declared the meeting dissolved. Long before this period the people had gone away in considerable numbers, under the influence of the cold and damp ground, it being covered with snow. In a few minutes the Castle-yard was entirely clear, every body ap pearing anxious to get into warmer quarters. VOL. 69.-No. 5.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30TH, 1830. [Price 7d. landowners; and it shows at once the alarm and the imbecility of their minds. "Your petitioner knows, as well as he "knows that fire burns, that if your Honourable “House pass this Bill, without greatly reduc❝ing the taxes, you w... plunge the nation "into a state of distress absolutely insupport"able."-Mr. Cobbett's Petition to the House of Commons, February, 1826, when the Bill for abolishing the Small Notes was in progress through the House. TO MR. WESTERN, On his Third Letter to the People of To the Gentry, Clergy, Freeholders, and I endeavoured in my last letter to explain to you the difference between Low price, the consequence of abundance, and low price, the effect of a scarcity of money and I proved to you, at all events, that misery, that famine and low price, MAY exist together; and that high money; price and plenty and happiness may also exist together: I think I have done more; I think I have proved that Low price, when it arises from a scarcity and high value of money, a LESSENING of the quantity of money, as Mr. Locke calls it, is always productive of misery; and I at this moment dread the final catastrophe which he describes as too probably consequent Ripley Castle, 22d January, 1830. upon it. Mr. Locke says: "The peoVARIOUS reasons induce me to insert " 'ple not perceiving the money to be in my Register your very long, very gone, will be jealous of each other, fedious, and very stupid third letter to" and each suspecting another's inequayour "constituents," as you call them," lity of gain to rob him of his share, who may well be called your Essex-" will be employing his skill and power calves, and who deserve all that they "the best he can to retrieve it again, are now getting, and a great deal more," and bring money into his own pocket for having chosen you to represent them," in the same plenty as formerly; but while there were men like me in the "this is only scrambling amongst ourkingdom. My principal reason, how-"selves, and helps no more against our ever, for publishing your letter is, that wants, than the pulling of a short I may have it on record. I remember" coverlet will, amongst children who when you abused me, in one of your "lie together, preserve them from the harangues to your CALVES; and I re- "cold; some will starve, unless the member how the beasts bellowed out" father of the family provides better, applauses upon you. You are both and enlarges the scanty covering. properly punished now; and your pu- "This pulling and contest is usually nishment gives great satisfaction to me. "between the landed man and the mer Before I go further, I shall insert your "chant, for the labourer's share, being letter: and when I have done that, I "seldom much more than & bare subshall make some remarks upon it. I "sistence, never allows that body of beg my readers to muster up their men time or opportunity to raise their patience, and to get through the whole; "thoughts above that, or struggle with for, confused mass as it is, it expresses" the richer for theirs, unless when some the shuffling opinions and feelings of "common and great distress, uniting the cowardly and greedy part of the" them in one universal ferment, makes F see also the following extract from a letter of Geo. Beaumont, to the editor of the Leeds Patriot, of December 26, 1829, which will give you an idea of the sentiments which distress has helped to give birth to in that portion of the community : "them forget respect, and emboldens | by whose labour the whole are sup"them to carve for their wants with ported and fed; or when we see men "armed force, and then sometimes they actually fainting and maddening under "break in upon the rich and sweep all the deprivation of their proper suste"like a deluge. But this rarely hap-nance? Is that the way to give secupens but in the mal-administration of rity to those who derive all their neglected or mismanaged govern-wealth, all their share of the common "ment." The whole of this passage is stock, and so large a share from the marvellously descriptive of our present labour of men who are thus oppressed? unhappy state, and of the danger that See the accounts of the Huddersfield awaits us. I ask whether, from the meeting of manufacturers and operafirst moment of the LESSENING of the tives; from which it appears there is too QUANTITY of money by Peel's Bill (and much reason to apprehend that the trathis lessening has been ADMITTED to be gedy of Ireland in 1822, will be exone-fourth, but I say, one-half), the hibited in that and other manufacturing jealousy of one another, which Mr. towns, and there is in their present situ Locke so strikingly describes, did notation too close resemblance now: and take place, and if it does not exist to a great degree now? The landed man and the merchant, the manufacturer, the different traders, masters and men, landlords and tenants, and their labourers, are all pulling against each other; but this scrambling amongst ourselves, as he says, helps nothing against our wants. "Sir, I can assure you, the geneThe father of the family must give us a "rality of labourers consider that all sufficiency of covering, or some will" wealth flows from them. Visit them starve; and many are starving, I am "in their wretched abodes, they will convinced, for the want of it, and they" soon tell you that labour is the source have suffered, and are suffering to such" of all wealth;-they will tell you that an extent, that statesmen must be blind" the miner explores the bowels of the if they do not see that the people will "earth in search of the richest treasoon forget respect, and want will emsures; the stone that builds the manbolden them to carve to their wants" sion, as well as the polished marble with armed force, and break in and that beautifies the temple, is the re sweep all like a deluge. I am amazed "sult of labour; the ploughman breaks they do not see that any alternative is "the sturdy turf to extract the fruits preferable to the course they are pursu-" of the field, and the weaver in tating. They must know, I think, that "tered rags produces the firm fabrie the distress is owing to the insufficiency" that decorates the pampered lord. of the currency necessary for the affairs" Sir, it is high time to be honest if of the country; at least they admit that" one dare; the truth has been too they have caused a contraction of the " long concealed, nay, were the real currency, and that such contraction has "sentiments of the operative manufacoccasioned a great pressure upon the "turers made known to the public, it INDUSTRY of the country, though they would alarm the most callous and indeny the extent of it. BUT WHY IN-" different. It would fill the minds of "the wealthy with terror." FLICT AT ALL A GREAT PRESSURE upon. the INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES? What is the use of having a contracted currency, a smaller quantity of money in circulation? Does it add to our security when it throws all the industrious classes into difficulty, when it almost destroys that portion of the community It does appear to me an infatuation that nothing can account for, that, in spite of all this misery before their eyes, and such proof, such ADMISSION of the cause, our statesmen still go on LESSENING the quantity of money, and pluming themselves upon what they ΠΕ વ ider of call cheapness; though they ought to they must be REAL low PRICES, and not know, the fact is demonstrable from Low prices from the high value of their own admissions, that such cheap- MONEY; the REAL LOW prices are those ness is only dear money, an actual which are comparatively Low, arising SCARCITY of money; and I may fairly out of the superior skill and industry of apply that term to the total inadequacy the producers, and the facilities they of our present currency to give a suf- enjoy; if the prices become low, in ficient money-price for the products of consequence of the high value of money, industry and the wages of labour. They the weight of taxation must be felt do all they can to deceive the people proportionably heavier, and the preswith the term CHEAP, as applied to sure upon industry so much more se bread or manufactured goods. I am vere. Now, the statesmen, authors of bound to believe they deceive them. Peel's Bill, want to make us believe selves first, they certainly do all they that the present Low prices are the can to deceive the people, as the peo- effect only of skill and industry, and of ple will, however, soon find out. The cheap raw produce; at least such ap people, I say, will soon discern that PEARS to be their object, for the fall in CHEAP BREAD means only DEAR money, price consequent upon the increased and that such cheapness and starva- value of the currency, is always kept tion are constant attendants upon each out of sight when subjects are discussed, other, and that such CHEAP manufae which ought to induce a careful discritures and ruin are no less constant mination of the several causes of low allies. What matters it that bread is price. I say such statesmen are singuat a low price, if the man's pocket is larly mistaken, or else they are in the empty of money; or what matters it habit of doing what, I believe, some that a manufacturer or merchant sends politicians think perfectly justifiable, cheap manufactures abroad, if his ven- but which I certainly do not, and which, ture ends in loss instead of profit? Iat all events, must be bad policy in the AM CONFIDENT THAT NEITHER MANUFAC end. I mean, that in order to carry a TURER NOR MERCHant will makE ANY great question, such as, in the estimate PROFIT TILL MANUFACTURES RETURN A of some people, the perpetuity of Peel's HIGH MONEY PRICE; NOR WILL WORK- Bill, they think they may employ their MEN AND LABOURERS OF ANY DESCRIP- eloquence to confound instead of enTION HAVE COMFORT AND PLENTY TILL lighten their auditors; to confuse and THEIR LABOUR BEARS A HIGH MONEY perplex the subject, instead of to clear PRICE; NOR WILL ANY TRADE PROSPER and simplify it. TILL ALL PRODUCTS OF INDUSTRY FROM THE PLOUGH, THE LOOM, and the SAIL, BEAR A HIGH MONEY PRICE. This seem REAL Mr. Huskisson said, the other day I may call it, in the House of Commons: "What would this country have been, ing paradox grows out of our peculiar" if the prices of our manufactures had situation. A rise in the MONEY price," continued at the same amount as durWould be in effect no advance in the "ing war? We are now the greatest price, either of commodities or "manufacturers in the world. Would labour, but would operate in a direct" that have been our situation if we had Contrary manner. It would be a dimi-"not been able to compete with our nation of taxes, by diminishing the value" foreign rivals in the market of the of the money in which taxes are paid; "world? It was to the change of price bat this will appear more and more "that we owed this advantage of our clearly as I proceed. And here I en"" present situation, in being able to sell ter the list with some statesmen, "6 our woollens and cottons abroad, the upon a point on which they consider "price of which was regulated by the themselves strongest, and on which" price at home." Now it is evident, many think they are strongest. They that his argument and statement here say, if you have not Low prices foreign would lead his auditors to believe that ers will undersell you: so say I, but the low price he spoke of, was the sole |