FIVE LETTERS

ΤΟ

LORD SHEFFIELD,

ON HIS SPEECH AT LEWES WOOL FAIR, JULY 26, 1815.

(Political Register, August, 1815.)

LETTER V.

Intended to show, that the Situation of England compared with that of America, is such, and the inducements to Emigration so great, that, in order to preserve our Manufactures, not only ought there to be no Tax upon Wool imported, but that the Corn Bill ought to be repealed.

MY LORD,

The situation of England, compared with that of the United States of America, is such as to induce every man to emigrate to them, who professes any degree of knowledge in the making of machinery and manufactures, or, indeed, who possesses enterprise in any art or science, and who is not bound to England by ties which cannot be broken. The number of the former is very great. There are always a great many persons, who wish to better their lot; who aspire to something more than fortune has given them. And the number of these, in agriculture as well as in arts and manufactures, must be greater now than ever, seeing the general depression, which at present reigns in England, with the most gloomy prospect for the future.

Taxes, no matter by what part of the community paid, in the first instance, or in what shape collected, produce, according to their amount, a diminution of the means of living in all those who do not share in them after they are collected. The mob, both high and low, are eternally backing on the Government to tax what they call luxuries. Just as if the taxes on wearing hair-powder, on armorial bearings, and on sporting dogs, did not descend, through the hair-dressers, powder-makers, seal-cutters, dog-breakers, and game-keepers, to the bakers, butchers, chandlers' shops, tailors, shoemakers, farmers and labourers. We have an additional tax on Bachelors. "Oh! aye! tax them as much as you please," exclaim the ripened spinsters. But, my good ladies, do you think, that the taking away of a part of their fortunes will quicken their disposition to indulge in that greatest of all luxuries, a wife? Do you not see, rather, that what is taken from the bachelor produces a ramification of privations, some of which reach even you, my dears, who so loudly applaud the tax? Such notions as this, as they have had their rise amidst a belief in hob. goblins; amidst all sorts and sizes of superstition; so they will vanish for ever, when common sense shall indignantly kick down the last jug of

Holy Water, and scatter the last manuels of stupidity and deception to the winds.

Taxes are necessary, in some shape or another, to pay for their services, those who carry on the public affairs, in which I include the business of the public defence. But, if they be carried to an enormous amount; if the book-keepers, the over-lookers, &c. of a manufactory, for instance, take away so much that the working people are reduced to half allowance, the former may cut a brilliant figure, but the concern must languish and decay; and the working people will, the moment they are able, endeavour, by a change of place, to better their lot.

This is the state in which England now is, including amongst the working-people, all those who receive no share of the taxes; because they who live upon the proceeds of their private incomes suffer in the same degree, according to their wants, as the poorest labourer suffers. That which is now taken from the people in England forms so large a part of the produce of the estates and labour (including that of professional men), that every one feels the hardship to be most pressing. And, we all know besides, that this pressure is not now to be of temporary duration. We all know now, that the pressure is to last for ever, unless, which is little less appalling, the burden be shaken off by a total overthrow of the

funds.

It is frequently said, with what folly or impudence we shall soon see, that the trade and navigation of the country have kept pace in their increase with that of the taxes. The best way will be, not to show, by reasoning, the utter absurdity of this; but, at once, to go to the Government's own documents, laid before Parliament, and, from them, to prove its falsehood. In order to take away all pretext for saying, that I am comparing a state of peace with a state of war; that I am reckoning the heavy expenses of the present, or late, years, as if they were to last for ever, I will take in no taxes, at present, but such as are to last for That is to say, the taxes on account of the debt, the capital of which, as all the world now sees, never can be paid off, or diminished, without a sponge. Well, then;

ever.

In 1789, the taxes raised on account of the debt amounted to £9,000,000 In 1814 .. to £43,000,000

Now, if the exported produce and manufactures, if the imports, and if the number of men and boys employed in the merchant service, in 1814, were nearly five times as great as in 1789, I should be ready to say, though I see the people sinking every where under the taxes, there is some reason to doubt even the evidence of my own senses. But, the following table, which I take from the accounts laid before Parliament, and for the correctness of which table, I am answerable in the eyes of a public who have these authentic documents in their hands, will show what sort of pace the trade and navigation have kept with the taxes demanded by the debt. I have taken three periods; but with regard to the first period, I have in my possession no amount of exports and imports.

N.B. The account of Exports for 1800, embraced produce and manufactures of Great Britain only, while that for 1814, included those of Ireland also -The Imports from China and the East Indies are not included in either year, because they are omitted in the account for 1814, in which account it is stated, that the time, allowed by law, for presenting an account of those Imports was not arrived. -The merchant scamen include many thousands employed in the Transport Service.

Now, to make good the assertion, that the navigation and trade have kept pace with the taxes paid annually on account of the debt, from 1789 to 1814 inclusive, the number of merchant seamen in 1814 ought to have been nearly 544,810 instead of 172,786. And, to have made good the same assertion, as relating to the period from 1800 to 1814 inclusive, the Exports ought to have amounted, in the latter year, to rather more than 78,942,4167., instead of 36,092,1671.; and the Imports ought to have amounted to rather more than 51,282,106,, instead of 30,091,8017.

This shows how ignorant, or what cheats, those men are, who would persuade, and who do persuade, this "MOST THINKING nation in the world," that the ability of the country keeps pace with the demands of the Government.

Here, however, before I proceed to compare our situation with that of America, I must observe, that a deduction ought to be made from this fearful amount on account of the depreciation of our currency. We pay in paper, which is now in fact, a legal tender. It sometimes requires more, and sometimes less, of this paper to buy a guinea, as bullion is more or less plenty in the market. But, as the average price of a guinea of full weight is about 28s. in paper, let us take the depreciation at a third. Then we pay on account of the debt, in the money of 1789, only two-thirds of 43,000,000l.; or 32,000,000/., leaving out the thousands. But this is more than 3 times what we paid on account of debt in 1789; and, therefore, for the navigation to have kept pace with the taxes on account of debt, from 1789 to 1814 inclusive, there should have been in the last-mentioned year, 381,367 merchant seamen, instead of 172,786; and, if we a little mend the matter by this deduction, what a blow do we give to the concern on the other side? For, if we insist on a depreciation in the paper to the amount

of a third, for the sake of lightening the burden of the taxes, common honesty calls upon us to deduct a third from the value of the imports and exports.

Thus, it does not signify much how we turn the thing about. On every side it presents a permanent increase of burden without any adequate increase of ability to bear: the certainty of decline thus far, of present distress, and the most gloomy prospect as to the future.

Compared with this situation of England, how stands that of America? But, before I make any observations as to what that situation is, it may not be amiss to remind you of what, in 1783, you foretold she would be. In that year, just after the conclusion of the first American war, your Lordship wrote a book, the three principal objects of which appeared to be, to keep up the spirits of his Majesty under his recent loss of dominion; to keep up the spirits of the nation by causing them to believe, that America was not at all likely to become a manufacturing and commercial country, or a naval power; but that, in order to prevent the latter, we ought to employ all the means in our power, amongst which means was the withholding of all protection of American vessels FROM THE BARBARY POWERS, and the inducing of the other great maritime powers to do the same.*

I will not attempt to characterize this last sentiment, the mind that could have given birth to which must have received appropriate punishment in seeing this same America, not asking protection from any of your "great maritime powers;" but sending a squadron of ships of war across the Atlantic, and chastising the Pirates, as far as regards her, into a submission to the principles of humanity.

America has taxes and a debt too. But, this is not a debt that must necessarily last for ever, or be wiped off with a sponge. It is a debt, at this time, of 27,000,000l. sterling, or 108,000,000 of dollars.

The following has been published (Aug. 19) in the London newspapers, as the list of the American Flect, employed against the Algerines:

N.B. It was stated in the London Prints about three weeks ago, that our Prince Regent had made the Dey of Algiers a present of a frigate, completely fitted out with rigging, guns, &c.—It would be mortifying enough if this should have been the frigate, which Commodore Decatur is said to have captured from his Majesty of Algiers.

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The capital of our debt (of Great Britain, for Ireland has her debt too, in an equal proportion), is now a thousand millions, laying aside odd hundreds of thousands, and out-standing debt. Suppose our population, even now that the foreigners are all gone away, to be 10 millions, here is a debt of 100l. a soul, taking in babies, paupers, gipsies, beggars, soldiers, sailors, sepoys, prisoners in jails, and convicts on board the hulks; yea all, from those who feast on strawberries at five guineas a pint, down to the troops of ragged and squalid wretches, whose Sunday's dinner consists of rumps and burrs from the skinners, or of bullock's liver from the slaughter-house. The population of America is now, to your great surprise, eight millions; and, therefore, the capital of her debt amounts to not quite 31. 10s. a soul. Whether the skinners and tanners in that country have now any customers for the fragments of flesh, that have been left by the butcher, is more than I can say; but, if she adopt our system of poor-laws, and couple with the institution a suitable proportion of cant; if she suffer, in any degree, however small, the quantity of relief of the distressed to be regulated by the quantity of godliness professed by the object of that relief; if she do this, or, in the most trifling degree, lean towards it, she will soon find, that a premium for misery and hypocrisy will operate, as all other premiums do, to increase the quantity of that on which it is bestowed. She, when it is too late, will find, to her sorrow, that fleshy bits of skin, and sheep's trotters, and bullock's liver, are not things to be thrown to the dogs. If her people should live to see that day; if they should live to see pauperism established by law, they will see all hospitality, all real charity vanish; all the paternal, and filial, and fraternal offices of life exchanged for those of the poor-house; and, instead of an erect and independent race of labourers, proud of their rights and liberties, they will see a crawling, fawning, canting herd, knowing not the meaning of such words, and, like the beasts of the field, caring for nothing but the satisfying of their hunger, without the smallest regard as to the means. If the people of America should live to see that day; if they should be so foolish as to draw over them, though by slow degrees, this blistered shirt, they will wish, that, as in the days of their bold and hardy forefathers, their country were a howling wilderness.

However, as yet, this greatest of all calamities has not made any very considerable progress in America, and it will be the fault of the people if it ever does. There are no common beggars, no gipsies, few soldiers by profession, at present few unproductive sailors, no sepoys, the prisoners in jails are few, none in hulks. But, be there what there may of these several descriptions of persons, the capital of the debt of America amounts to only 3 pounds sterling a soul, while that of ours amounts to more than 100 pounds sterling a soul.

Let us now see the progress of the debt in America. The latter had the misfortune to start with a debt; to set out in the world with a debt upon her back. It was a misfortune, and a very serious one, because it gave rise to a spirit of speculation, of adventure, of gambling, which has been productive of lasting and very mischievous effects. The debt, at the outset, or in 1790, amounted to 72 millions of dollars; and, before the last war, it was reduced to 40 millions of dollars. That war has brought it up to 108 millions of dollars, or 27 millions sterling. But, in the meanwhile, she has purchased LOUISIANA, so necessary, as we have seen, from the affair at New Orleans, to her security. And, she has,