them, by a fallacious statement, into an acquiescence in a measure for making corn dear; that being the undisguised object of the writer.— Before I proceed to the main points, let me notice the insinuation, that objections to a Corn Bill have been owing to the "industry of faction." What then, is OLD GEORGE ROSE become the leader of faction? He, who wrote a pamphlet to convince the people of England, that, if they did not quietly pay the war-taxes, the French Republicans would deprive them of the blessed comforts of religion? He has, indeed, been very industrious upon this occasion: but has his been the "industry of faction?" Have the petitions of "the loyal" of Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, and hundreds of other cities and towns, proceeded from" the industry of faction ?" Oh, no! this will never do. The promoters of the measure cannot now raise a cry against the Jacobins. That humbug is over for ever.-Who told this writer, that any body ever said, that revenge against the farmer was the object of the opposers of the measure? This is pure invention. It is an invented fact, whereon to build a fallacious argument.-But, we are told here, that the high prices arose from causes, over which the farmers had no control, that is to say, in part, at least, from the war. It is not true (though it has nothing to do with the point at issue) that the farmers were wholly innocent here; for, they were notoriously amongst the foremost to uphold PITT in making war and in carrying on war, against the Republicans of France. That has been accomplished, which they tendered their lives and fortunes to accomplish. The republic of France has been destroyed; the Bourbons have been restored; liberty has been nearly put out in that country; and, really, if our farmers were to suffer in consequence of what has taken place, they certainly would come in for their full share of meriting that suffering. Now we come to the subject:-The argument is this that, unless corn is dear, the English farmer cannot grow it, because it would not bring him enough to enable him to pay wages of labour, keep of horses, repair of waggons, cost of seed, and rent to the landlord.-Now, how fallacious is this! Is not the corn which the horses eat, and which is sown for seed cheap, if corn be cheap at market? Are not the wages of labourers, the prices of wheelwrights, and the rent of land cheap, if the corn be cheap at market? Why, then, should not the English farmer be as able to grow cheap corn as dear corn? And what becomes of all the terrific statement about dependence upon foreign nations, about the extortioning of the foreign farmer, about scarcity, about the ruin of the labourer, and the like? Is it not notorious, that wheat used to be 5s. a bushel in England? Nay, is it not notorious, that it used to be 2s. a bushel? How did the farmer live in those days? Was the labourer starved in those days? On the contrary, is it not notorious, that the paupers have increased with the high prices? Will any man have the confidence to deny this? And if this cannot be denied, what reason is there to be alarmed at the prospect of continued cheapness? What reason is there to suppose, that the farmer will be unable to raise cheap corn, seeing that his labourers, his smith, his wheelwright, his collar-maker, his seed, his rent, will all keep pace with the price of his corn? If these items amount to a hundred pounds ayear when wheat is 40s. a quarter, and to two hundred pounds a year when wheat is 80s. a quarter, is not the farmer as able to raise the forty-shilling wheat as the eighty-shilling wheat? How came this writer to be so indiscreet as to mention horse-feed and seed amongst the outgoings of

the farmer? These must be at a low price, if his market corn is at a low price. They consist of the same sort of corn that he has to sell. How, in the name of common sense, then, should he have to complain of the amount of these outgoings, and, at the same time, complain of the cheapness of his corn? But, the truth is, that the absurdity of these positions arises from a very material omission in the enumeration of the farmer's outgoings; to wit; the TAXES! which, direct and indirect, amount to more, aye, to double as much, as his labour, horse-feed, seed, implements, and rent, all put together. The direct taxes are upon his land, his property, his horses, his house, his windows, his gig, his dogs, his man-servant, and to these must be added his poor-rates. He pays about 17s. a bushel tax out of every 20s. which he lays out in salt; and, in a large farm-house, the Salt tax amounts to about 10l. a year. He pays more in tax upon malt than his barley, of which the malt is made, amounts to. He pays a tax upon the soap and candles, and tea and sugar and wine and spirits used in his house. He pays a tax on the leather and iron used in his implements and his harness. And, be it observed and remembered, that he pays a tax upon the beer, the gin, the tea, the sugar, the salt, the soap, the candles, the shoes, the tobacco, used by his labourers. For every quart of beer drank by the ploughman, at a public-house, the farmer pays about 4d. in tax. The brewer and maltster first pay it; the publican pays it to them; the labourer pays it to the publican; the farmer pays it to the labourer; and, as the farmer must be repaid, he must, of course, charge it in the price of the next corn that he sells.-Here, then, is the real cause of the necessity of high prices. It is the GOVERNMENT, and not the FARMER, who stands in need of high-priced corn.-Oh! ye Cokes and Westerns, be not; be not, I pray and supplicate you, made the tools of the taxing system! I know well that neither of you wish for high prices in order to increase, or keep up your own incomes. Your wish is to protect, to secure the well-being of, a description of persons, as to whose pursuits you are laudab'y enthusiastic. But the real tendency of your exertions is to protect and promote the taxing system, and thereby to enable the Government to keep up, during peace, a standing army and all those means of patronage, heretofore unknown in England, and the keeping up of which tends to the total extinguishment of even the great country gentlemen, the little ones having all been swallowed up long ago.

Stand here, I pray you, and reflect, before you proceed another inch. You perceive, clearly, that the writer, whom I have quoted, under pretence of protecting the farmer, and promoting agriculture, aims at keeping up the taxes, that is to say, an immense military establishment and patronage, which it is your interest, and the farmer's interest, and the country's interest, to see reduced to nothing, seeing, that we now want no standing army any more than our forefathers did.

I have read a long letter of Mr. WESTERN to show, that it is just and The reasonings of that necessary to pass a Bill to protect the farmer. very able letter are unanswerable, if we admit, that the taxing system must remain in full vigour, which the author seems to admit, and which I wonder that he should have admitted. It is clearly shown, that the English farmer will not grow corn, unless he is put upon as good a footing, at least, as the French farmer. But, then, it is not shown, that this cannot be accomplished without a Corn Bill; and yet, this ought to be shown, and clearly shown, by those, who, in open hostility to the com

mon feeling of mankind, propose such a measure.-The farmer, and the prosperity of agriculture, do not depend upon the price of corn alone: there are the hides, the skins, the wool, and the flax. All very great articles of produce. These are, in great part, wrought into articles of dress by our manufacturers, and thus they are exported. Make the corn dear; make the food of the manufacturer twice as dear as the food of the manufacturer in France, America, and elsewhere, and who will purchase the dear manufactures?-But, take away the taxes that support the army, the ordnance, a great part of the navy; abolish the new military schools and all their enormous expenses; return again to cheap and peaceful government; lay aside the bayonet and the broad sword, and be content with the old-fashioned sheriff's wand and constable's staff. Do this, and there will be quite enough left to discharge the just debts of the country, and to support the Crown with sufficient splendour, though wheat should again fall (as I hope it will) to the old five shillings a bushel of JETHRO TULL; and agriculture will flourish and farmers will thrive as much as they have done for the last twenty years; and, what is still of more im. portance, pauperism will almost disappear, hospitality will revive, and honesty, the constant companion of competence, will curtail the long and dismal lists of crimes, commitments, convictions, banishments, and executions, which now fill the mind with horror and dismay. "Here," say the writers, 66 we take our stand." The English farmer cannot grow corn, unless, by an importation duty the foreign farmer be made to bear part of the English farmer's taxes."--But, he will not bear part then; for, he will not bring his corn, and it is meant that he should not. Here I take my stand. Reduce the taxes of the English farmer, and then he will grow corn enough without the aid of foreign supply; and the manufacturers, eating cheap food, will be able to sell cheaper than the manufacturers of other nations; and, thus, all will thrive together; make corn dear, by continued heavy taxation, and all will decline together, except the military and naval official part of the community, who will, in the end, obtain a predominance, such as they possess in the Austrian, Prussian, Russian and German dominions; and English freedom, and English manners, and English morals, and English tastes, and English learning and eloquence, will take their flight for ever to the other side of the Atlantic. I hardly think it possible that such men as Mr. Coke and Mr. Western should be the partisans of a measure having such a tendency. They may doubt, whether it be practicable, without injury to the fundholders, to reduce the taxes so as to enable the farmer to sell wheat at 5s. a bushel. For my part, I have no doubt at all upon the subject; but, before I give myself the trouble of proving, and my readers the trouble of reading what I have to say upon the subject, let the advocates of a new and odious measure give us their arguments to prove, that the measure is indispensably necessary to the discharge of the just debts of the country, and to the support of our Government, agreeably to the constitution. It is for those who propose such a measure to show, that it cannot be done without; and this they must show before any just man will give his consent to it.-The measure would be no protection to the farmer; it would do him no good; it would do the landowner no good: what it gave in prohibition it would take away in tax, and give it to the military, naval, and official part of the community, the tendency of which must inevitably be to give these a predominance over all the peaceful arts and professions, and to produce all the lamentable consequences which I

have above described - For these reasons, I, who am a farmer by taste as well as in fact, and who am deeply interested in the prosperity of agriculture, detest and abhor, from the bottom of my soul, the idea of any measure tending to raise, or keep up, the price of corn; and, if there be but one man in all England found to petition against such a measure, I will be that man. WM. COBBETT.

CORN BILL.

TO THE PEOPLE OF HAMPSHIRE.

(Political Register, February, 1815.)

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY," who hold their meetings at Winchester, have framed a PETITION to Parliament for a Corn Bill; that is to say, for some law to prevent corn from being brought from abroad, until the price of English corn, is higher than it now is; or, in other words, This petition they have puba law to make corn dearer than it now is. lished in the County papers, and, it appears, that they have sent blank Petitions to the several Market-towns in the County, there to be signed, for the purpose of being presented all together. For the greater part of the gentlemen, who have adopted this measure, I entertain respect; and those whom I do not know, are, I presume, equally entitled to the respect of their several neighbours. The motives, too, of these gentlemen, I suppose to be laudable.-But, I am convinced, that they have taken an erroneous view of the matter, and that the measures they recommnend would be injurious to the people at large and to landowners and occupiers themselves. Therefore, if any sufficient number of persons are willing to stand forward in opposition to the abovementioned petition, by means of an open Meeting of the County, I shall be happy to join in such opposition.-In making, however, this proposition, it will be justly demanded of me that I state the reasons, on which the opposition is to be founded; and this I shall now do in as clear a manner as I am able consistent with brevity. The Petition states, that all the expenses of a farm are nearly as The latter is correct; high as ever, and that the taxes are full as high

the former is not. Our wages at Botley were from lás. to 18s. a week : they are now from 10s. to 12s. a week. Bricklayers, Carpenters, Smiths, Wheelwrights, have all come down one-fourth in their prices. Horses have Timber has fallen in an equal fallen in price a full third, if not a half.

proportion. The food for the horse and the seed for the land must always be in price upon a perfect level with the market corn.--Well, then, what are the other expenses of a farm? The rent and the tithe. The latter must keep pace with the price of corn, seeing that the tithe-owner always takes his tenth, whether it be of cheap corn or dear corn; and, as to the rent, if the tenant has now the worst of it, the landlord has had the worst of. it, and will have the worst of it again, if corn should become dear

from causes other than bad seasons.-Besides, the real great cause of the present low prices, is, the three abundant and dry harvests which we have had in uninterrupted succession; for, though in some parts, the wheat was much blighted last year, the deficiency of crop was far from being general, and it was the wheat only that was not a most abundant crop, and of that grain there was a prodigious quantity on hand of the crop of the year before. Now, when a farmer grows five quarters upon an acre, is it reasonable for him to expect as high a price per quarter as when he grows two quarters and a half? Are not the five quarters at 40s. a quarter as good as two quarters and a half at 80s. a quarter ?—The consequences of making corn dearer than it would be, are first, the making of all other food dearer: second, the ruin, in a short time, of many of our manufacturers, because it is impossible to believe that we could expect goods as cheap as those which would be made in countries where food is to be had for a third part of the price of that which would be eaten by our manufacturers, and amongst the articles of our manufacturers, the raw materials for many come from our own soil, as wool, skins, flax, lead, iron, tin, copper and coals; third, persons of fixed incomes, who are great consumers of our produce as well as employers of our tradesmen, would go to France and to other countries, where they could live upon cheap food, in cheap houses; and have cheap servants, horses and carriages; and, soon after these would follow many of our manufacturers, and these the most clever and enterprising; fourth, our commercial shipbuilding would follow the fate of the manufactures, and also the employment of our ships as carriers, seeing that the ships of other countries, particularly of America, would be built so much cheaper and would also sail so much cheaper.-These are only a part of the consequences to be apprehended from any measure, calculated to make corn dear; but they are quite sufficient to induce me to oppose such a measure. If I am asked, how the English farmer is to contend with the French farmer, while the former has so many and such heavy taxes to pay, of which the latter knows nothing, I answer, take off English taxes, till the English farmer is able to contend with the French farmer; and then I'll warrant it, that we beat the farmers of France, that we undersell them, and that our manufacturers live as cheap, and sell cheaper than any manufacturers in the world. I am clearly of opinion, that taxes may be taken off to this extent without any injury to the credit, the safety, or the peace of the country; but I must be very plain upon this head, and expressly say, that with those who do not think that this ought to be done, I wish not to join in any petition against a Corn Bill; because I am certain, that it is impossible for MORE THAN ONE-HALF OF THE PRESENT TAXES TO BE RAISED, UNLESS THE PRICE BE KEPT UP, ON AN AVERAGE OF YEARS, TO ABOUT 120s. PER QUARTER OF GOOD WHEAT. To reduce the taxes one-half, the whole of the standing army must be disbanded; the Horse-Guards must lose its brilliancy and power; the Navy must come back to its state of 1788; and a vast reduction must be made in the Civil List.—I am for THESE REDUCTIONS and for NO CORN BILL. With persons who are for no CORN BILL and are AGAINST THESE REDUCTIONS I cannot join; because it would be joining in senseless clamour and popular delusion.-There is yet another point of great importance to mention. During the late war, several laws were passed restricting the liberty of the Press and of public discussion. I will join in no Petition, which does not include a prayer for the repeal of