in taxes as a million in price of corn, kept up by a restrictive statute; and, you have not heard me say one word in favour of the restrictive part of the proposed measure; for, my opinion is, that there should be no restriction. Let sugarcome to the still, loaded with no heavier duty than barley is loaded with, and let them run a fair race. But, if a law exist to prohibit the use of sugar in the distilleries, or if duties are laid amounting to such prohibition; then is the price of corn kept up by statute, and then are the people taxed in their loaf to the amount of whatever money the government raises from corn through the means of keeping sugar from the distil. Jeries Besides, Sir, taking the question as one of mere revenue. I should suppose, that the sugar, which now lies rotting in the storehouses, has, as yet, paid no duties; and that, of course, the drawing of it forth will cause duties to be paid upon it. At any rate, the committee, who seem not to have lost sight of revenue, and who, as you say, were occupied, with great zeal, solely in discovering truth, have given it as their opinion, that the revenue will experience no diminution from the adoption of the measure proposed; so that an objection, upon this ground, cannot fairly be considered as of any great weight.- Mr. Young is quite ready to grant the West India planters relief out of. the taxes. So am not L. I am for suffering no company, or set of men, to come to the purse of the nation, to come and knock at the door of the labourer, and say, contribute towards making up to me the losses I have sustained in my calling, and to support me in that opulence which I have hitherto enjoyed. When the common tradesman fails, though from the effects of war or any national measure, which he could not have averted, he descends to the rank of journeyman, without any one proposing to relieve him out of the taxes. When a farmer is ruined by the rot amongst his sheep; or by the united effects of the kill-calf and the glander, he becomes a labourer, and the taxes remain untouched by him. This is not only the lot of man, but it is right that it should be so; fo, otherwise, who would rise early and eat the bread of carefulness, seeing how easy a matter it is to ascribe to misfortune what is the effect of negligence, extravagance, or avariciousness? Nothing but the deepest of political corruption, rendered familiar to the minds of a nation, can ever make it listen with patience to a principle so unnatural, so abominable, as that upon which relief of this sort is proposed. No. I would rather see the West Indians ten thousand times more impoverished than they are, than see them buying boroughs, in order to secure votes for the minister of the day, in return for the grants made to them out of the public money. The West Indians have plenty of sugar. All they ask, is, to be suffered to make this into the drinks, which we now make out of corn. And as good a right they have to this (as long as the colonial system exists) as the Norfolk farmer, has to sell his barley. We compel them, observe, to pur chase all their wearing apparel, their tools, and their household goods, from us. We compel them to bring the produce of their lands to the mother country; and, would she not he a pretty sort of mother, if she were to say to them, your produce, which is to pay for the goods that I have made you buy of me, shall lie here and rot, lest the use of it should lessen the gains of those, who have derived. a profit from selling food to the persons employed upon making the goods which you have bought? Commend me to such a mother, if you wish the child to revolt, even at the hazard of its own existence ! →→→MR. WAKEFIELD's letter contains little more than a repetition, under a new form, of his former arguments, yet there are some few points which ought not to pass unnoticed, particularly as he takes occasion to speak in praise of the opinions of Mr. Young.He says, that he never expressed his sorrow at the foreign supply of corn being cut off. Mr. Young expressed his alarm at it, and Mr. Wakefield's letters were calculated to shew the reasonableness of that alarm, by gi ving us details of the large average importation. In answer to my observation, that we heard no out-cry against the importation of 500,000 quarters of corn annually, he says, that there was an opposition to that importation; that there have been reports and petitions against it; but, last year, for instance, how came we to hear nothing against it? The cry has been raised all of a sudden; and that, too, at a moment when the country had, by these very gentlemen, just been alarmed for its safety, in case of a short crop. Well, but what was the ohject of Mr. Wakefield, in giving us am account of our average imports? He says, to induce those who had the power to make such laws or regulations as should insure to the farmer a better price for his corn. How? By the way of premium, paid out of the taxes? That would have been too absurd. How then? By allowing an EXPORT? Good Lord! Whither? To what country, except to the West Indies. But, this, surely, is jesting. In answer, however, to my observation, that if the West Indies could supply us with 300,000 grs. of corn, in . kind, in place of supplying us with it in the shape of sugar, there would have been no objection to it, he says: "I for one, "would have objected," That's boldly said, at the moment when Mr. Young was terrifying me out of my wits with the anticipation of a short crop or a week's mil"dew;" but, it is fairly said,' and it is consistent; though Mr. Wakefield will, I am sure, allow, that he has said this from hard necessity and not froni choice. I endeavoured to keep up the drooping spirits of my readers by telling them, that the same cause which kept corn from coming into the country would bring hands from those pestiferous prisons, the manufactories, to raise more corn in the country; but, Mr. Young said, no. "We must have a general "enclosure bill; for the lands now in "cultivation are no more at our disposition than lands in the moon." Why del not Mr. Wakefield fly to my Register at that moment of distress? Why did he not, when some of my correspondents were accusing me of a want of feeling for my fellow-creatures, come boldly forward, and say, that if there were 300,000 quarters of corn in one of our colonies, he would, for one, object to its being imported? Why did he not throw his shield between me and Mr. A. B. (or Alexander Baring) of the Morning Chronicle, who had like to have crushed me with the threat, that we should, in future, get no corn from America? 1 laughed at the threat, to be sure; but I, though not apt to be daunted by popular opinion, had never the boldness to assert, that, when all the other corn ports in the world were shut against us, I would object to the importation of 300,000 quarters of corn, if I could find it in one of our own colonies. To this, however, I repeat it, Mr. Wakefield has been driven. The importation of 300,000 quarters ofcorn would, he could not deny, have precis ly the same effect upon the farnier here as the importation of sugar to supply the place of that quantity of cora; and, as he had made up his mind to the rejection of the former, he was compelled to reject the latter. Huched, tn, be all your fears, ye scarcity alarmists! For here is a gentle man, who has made the means of national subsistence his study; who has collected -together an account of the resources and wants of the country; who was one of the persons selected by the committee of the House of Commons to furnish them with information and opinion; and he tells you in so many wards, that, if, at this moment, there were 300,000 quarters of 66 corn to spare Jamaica, or Antigua, he would not, if he could have his will, suffer the said corn to be brought into England!- In answer to my question, "what "difference would there be between importing 300,000 grs. of corn from the West "Indies and importing sugar to supply the place of that quantity of corn ? "Mr. Wakefield says, "there would be this ma "terial 'difference, we could have the corn "to eat, and not distill it." Very true; but, this is no answer to me. I did not ask what difference it would be to the nation, but what difference it would be to the farmer; what difference it would make in the corn market; what difference i would make as to the inducement to raise corn, that being the point at issue.—Mr. Wakefield, in pursuance of his laudable resolution to be consistent, and profiting, perhaps, from the cruel embarrassment of Mr. Young, speaks with becoming diffidence of the effect of new enclosures, and even of improvements, though, as the reader has, doubtless, observed, he is as fond of "cropping". as any other member of the agricultural clubs. According to my idea," says he, "of en"closures and improvements, they will not operate against the chances of the seasons, "unless the additional produce of them be. exported, or luxuriously consumed at "home." Well, then, unless we had added to the distilleries, or set about an exportation, or thrown corn into the rivers, Mr. Young's notion of security from scarcity to arise from sew-enclosures was shockingly erroneous. Who shall decide when these agricultural doctors disagree?" This discussion, if it has no other effect, will, I should think, set at rest the question about a geneLal enclosure bill.. I am a decided opponent of new enclosures, until we have more hands to till the land; and, I must confess, that I jumped for joy to find that Mr. Young had given his opinion against the distillation from sugar; because, without hearing his reasons, I was certain that none could be used which would not equally well apply against new-enclosures, supposing such enclosures to add to the quantity of corn now produced in the country.Mr. Wakefield persists in his notion of a granary to arise out of a surplus produce; and, therefore, let us take a parting view of this same granary. -I had, in my last, put a case of a little nation consuming 1000 quarters of corn-annually, growing 1,500 and exporting 500, which, in case of a half crop, would always leave the quantity to be eaten the same. But, I asked, where the labour, and fertility (which, indeed, is only another name for to turn their hands to agriculture, but it i next to impossible for agriculturists to turn their hands to arts and manufactures. Hence the distress, described in the letter of Mr. Pickering, now felt in America; and hence the commotions, the confiscations, and the pillage, which, if the embargo long conti nue, will inevitably ensue. And yet, there. is plenty of corn, Mr. Wakefield; and yet America has realized to your haud that de lightful theory, of, which you seem so ena monred.By this time, Sir, I think you must begin to doubt of the facility of "setting the seasons at defiance, and taking a bond of fate. A nation may be so situated as to be able to set the seasons at defiance, with respect to corn; but, clothing is as re cessary to life as food is; and, with respect to both, the seasons are not to be set at de fiance by any nation, that is not the absolute mistress of all other nations. America is sure to have more corn than is necessary for her consumption; and, as this granary arises from a stoppage of export, that stoppage may be made when she pleases, but it may also be made when she does not please it is dependent upon the will of other nations, a to its duration as well as its commencement, and, it does really appear to me, that this sort of dependence is the most dangerous.that can possibly exist, with the sole exception of a total dependence upon an import of corn-For these reasons I stand by my opinion before expressed, that, the only granary, safely to be relied on, is in the bosom of the earth, and in that intuitive wisdom, which teaches the seller to be tardy in the supply, and the consumer to be sparing in the consumption. As for England, I am more afraid of her experiencing a scarcity of corn than Fam of her experiencing a scarcity of rain. There may be, and will be, oce casionally, short crops and high prices; but, the evil is not of long duration, and it only tends to quicken our industry,, to teach us frugality, and to remind us of that depen- .. dence, which we partake in common with all other living creatures, Far be it, from mie to hold out the idea, that a distillation from sugar instead of corn will prevent, or at all, tend to prevent,, a scarcity of corn in England and Scotland It would be a shame indeed for me to pretend to entertain such a notion, when I know, that, for this kingdom, 300,000 quarters of barley scarcely is enough food for one single meal, out of the 1,095 meals which we eat in a year. It is troly a drop in the bucket; it is, considered labour) were to come from? I said, that this would, indeed, be to " set the seasons "at defiance; to take a bond of fate." "Yes," says Mr. Wakefield," and that "is precisely what I wish to do." But, Sir, do take the pains to think a little further upon this matter; and, then, I am strongly disposed to think, that you will not again assert, that such a theory " is reducible to practice." In the first place, you will allow, I suppose, that, if a nation export half as much corn as it raises, that nation must receive some articles of real value and utility in return. Well, then, if it cease, from whatever cause, to export its corn, there must be a cessation in the receipt of those articles, whence, it is evident, that very great distress must arise; and, observe, that, as this receipt would be entirely dependent upon the seasons, there could be very little comfort or solidity in any business supported by such a traffic. Besides, though it does not appear to have occurred to you, that the importation of corn might happen to be stopped by other causes than those of a scarcity at home, yet, you have only to open your eyes to perceive, that, if we had, previous to last year, been a nation exporting half as much as we consumed, we should, at this hour, have been so glutted with corn as to cause much of the land, now in cultivation, to lie fallow. How would you have found out a remedy for this? You must, then, actually have thrown the corn into the.. sea; for, as to distilling it, there would, from such an operation, have been liquor enough for the people to swim in; and, if you let it rot, it would turn to manure, and that would only add to the evil by producing more corn. This was a case that you do not seem to have foreseen, and yet you might, if you had but looked. to America, which, at this moment presents you an example of the practice of that delightful theory, which has, it seems, taken possession of your mind. America fears no scarcity of corn, but she feels a real scarcity of shirts and coats and stockings and blankets and sugar and coffee and of many other things, almost as necessary as corn, even to the. support of life. Do you not hear the wailings of the Americans, at the end of a two-month's embargo? What would be their situation at the end of a year? One third part of the produce of the land being annually exported (for that, I should think, was much about the proportion), a stoppage of the export necessarily throws a great number of persons out of employment; and, in such a state of things, this is attended with peculiar disadvantage; for, it is easy for manufacturers or artizans as no a preventive of scarcity, nothing. A have let fall no word, that would lead th reader to suppose, that it was my opinion, that the nation would derive any degree of security against scarcity from the adoption of the proposed measure; but, I know, that to the West Indians, the advantage would be very great, and they have a just claim to a share of the market, to which they are compelled to bring their produce; and, on the other hand, in proportion as the measure would be inefficacious as a preventive of Scarcity, it would be little injurious to the farmer. All the farmers together supply us with 1,095 meals of victuals in a year, and, surely, they need not be alarmed, that the West Indians are about to be allowed to Supply us with one single breakfast, and that, too, only at the rate of about 4d; a head! Men talk about millions very glibly; but, the longer I live the more firm does my conviction become, that there are few minds, comparatively speaking, capable of fully embracing the idea, else we should not hear them talk of a granary to feed millions of people. Stop the distilleries, what have you? A breakfast at 4d a head; and this, supposing the doctrine to be sound, is the mighty resource the distilleries afford us! Three hundred thousand quarters of corn make a huge heap of sacks; but, after all, I repeat, that it is but, one breakfast for twelve millions of people. And this is to spread ruin amongst the farmers! This is the cause of all this alarm and petitioning and speechmaking and these endless nou-describeable fooleries! Here I put an end to what I have to say upon this subject, which was of the greatest importance as relative to the West India planters, and also as it became connected with the agitation of facts and principles relating to national subsistence. If either or both of the gentlenen, upon whose letters I have been commenting, think it necessary to publish any thing by way of explanation of what they have already adr vanced, I shall gladly insert it; but, as to, any thing further, I am sure it will not be expected. I have no desire to have the last word; and, unless upon the debate which may take place in parliament, I shall certainly not write, at this time, any thing more upon the subject.Just as I was about to send off the above, I received a letter from a gentleman in Essex, who expresses his regret and surprize at seeing me take that side of this question which I have taken. You know," says he," full well, how much fa"your has always been shewn to the monied 64 of and commercial interest, at the expence that interest, which you have always looked up to as the salvation of the country." I am very sorry to differ in opinion from th's most respectable person, and I assure him, that his frankly telling me of what he considers as my errors, or my faults, so far from requiring an apology, merits and receives my thanks. But, in the present case, I really cannot see that I am siding with a monied or commercial interest. The sugarcane planter is only an agriculturalist of ano. ther description; and, I wish not to encourage him at the expence" of any one. All my partialities are on the side of the landowners and land-tillers of England. If I had thought that their interests were likely to receive injury from the proposed measure, I will not assert, that my mind would have been free from an undue bias; but, after having given to the subject all the attention I am capable of, I am convinced that this will not, and cannot, be the case. It sometimes happens, that one is prepossessed by conversation upon a subject. One gets committed upon certain points, either by hasty declaration, or by tacit admission. To this subject my mind came like a sheet of blank paper; for, until I had begun writing my article, which appeared in the Register of the 23rd of April, I had never spoken nor heard a word relating to the propriety or impropriety of the intended bill; and, until I bad finished it and sent it to the press, I had spoken with no person except Mr. Wakefield; and it was not likely that I should imbibe from him any impression in favour of the bill. Indeed, until the morning of the day, où which that article was written, I had never even read Mr. Wakefield's letter against the bill, which letter appeared in print on the Saturday preceding; and, it was not until I saw the article in the Morning Chronicle, that I thought of looking particularly into the let ter. That article appeared to me to contain such wild doctrine, that I was tempted to notice it; when I came to look at the debate, in the House of Commons, there appeared to be a necessity for doing it without Inss of time. After my article was written, Isaw, for the first time, an account of meetings in the counties, to prepare petitions against the proposed bill; and, as it was then too late to make an addition to what I had said, in the Register, I wrote my letter to the Hamp shire freeholders, and immediately sent it off for insertion in the Salisbury Journal and in several other newspapers. So little was I in the knowledge of what had passed, that, until after this letter was written, I did not know that Mr. Young had been examined before the committee. Never, therefore, was any man's conduct more free from undue bias than mine was upon this occasion. I saw what I regarded as a popular delusion likely to prevail, and I did all in my power to prevent it. The reader will easily suppose, that there must be a few persons, at least, with whom I might have some influence as far as opinion gues; but, to only one person have. I written a word upon the matter; to no one have I spoken; and my wish now is, that, if I am in error, the opinions of my opponents may prevail in the approaching discussion and decision; but, then, it is also my wish, that clamour may be completely set at defiance. . LOCAL MILITIA.This is about the twentieth scheme for raising such a force within the kingdom as shall be able to defend it in case of invasion; whether it will succeed better than any of the former time will very soon enable us to judge. As to the number of the men to be raised; that point is not yet fixed, and, perhaps, it will be left to the option of the ministers. The outline of the plan is this: a certain number of men, to be ballotted from the militia lists, are to be assembled a certain number of days in every year, in order to be drilled, and to be held in readiness to march in case of invasion. They are to be placed under the command of officers appointed by the king; while assembled, or called out, they are to be made subject to all the provisions of the mutiny act; and, of course, may be flogged in pursuance of the judgment of officers appointed by the king. This would be no more than what is done in case of the present militia; but, this new scheme allows of no substitutes. All those who are balloted for this militia are either to pay a fine, or to serve in person; and, every man who pays the fine is obliged to swear, that he does not derive the means of so doing from any other source than that of his own private purse. The words of the clause are these That every person liable "to the payment of any fine under this act, "for not appearing to be enrolled in the Lo"cal. Militia, who shall refuse to declare upon oath, that he hath not, directly or "indirectly, by any policy, premium, or "promise of any premium, or by any en"gagement insured himself against such fine, "or any part thereof; and, that no person " or persons, hath, or have, directly, or indirectly, undertaken, or engaged, or ❝ promised, in any way, to indemnify him "therefrom, or from any part thereof, or to repay to him, or to any person or per-"sons in his behalf, or for his use, benefit, "ar advantage, the said fine, or any part "thereof; shall, in every such case, forfeit "the amount of sach fine, and be compel"led personally to serve in the said Local Militia for the full term of years," Upon this bill Sir Francis Burdett is, present be offered to the nation without "insult! But now, the moment when civi "lization was at its acme-when England "hosted her generosity and her spirit, be "could not describe the indignant sensation. "which he felt at beholding the minister of "the day dare to stigmatize the representa ❝tives of the people by offering such a mea "sure for their adoption, it required audacity to propose what folly only could imagine ef"ficient, that the reluctant conscripts of our "oppressed population should be marshalled "under the scourge of tyranny, and pre"sented to the nation as her defence. "What! did the noble Lord suppose that "the people would endure, or the army "bend beneath, the sanguinary, remorse"less, and ferocious despotism, which even slaves would turn upon? Did he suppose "that the lash of tyrauny- -the insults, "the contumely, and scorn of over-weening power- -the "foedum signum ser " vitutis," would be suffered by a free peo-' ple with impunity! He was far from "wishing to indulge in declamation; for "he thought, that, at a moment like the present, when our very existence was at stake, all bands and hearts should form a common bulwark round their common treasure, strong from its union, and in"vincible in its resistance!-(hear, hear.): -But, he added, when you want men "for your defence, offer them a post fit for men to enter on; when you propose a military code, let it be fit for Englishmen "and freemien. He was not disposed to "thank the noble lord for his ingenuity 66 nor could he consider it creditable, how ever characteristic. The features of th "offspring intuitively bespeak the parent Atro as with the appearance of the fasces musi "be associated the idea of the lictor. "cious ineasures must be expected in age "from him whose youth had been familiar"ized to executions; and when the author "of this bill had wrung the heart-strings "of his own country, little delicacy could "be expected from him for the dignified, feelings of another. That infatuation, however, was amazing, which disdained to benetit by the lesson of experience; and he thought the fate of such levies as "this bill proposed to raise, ought to have acted as a sufficient admonition. We had |