1814.]

course of nations, would. leave the relations between labour and the neces saries of life, simply that of the productive powers of their soil. As it is in the same parish, so would it be in the same nation,and in all nations. But how numerous are the circumstances and municipal regulations which disturb these general laws!-How many custom-houses must all articles pass through between nation and nation! How many restrictive and prohibitory laws must they encounter!-How arbitrary is the creation of that currency which is the measure of their price!-In fine, how differently is every article of produce and manufacture presented to the consumer from its exhibition by nature, on the spot which gave it existence !-Yet as often as it suits our humour, or interests, we endeavour to break through all the fences, laws, and regulations of society, and to exhibit particular articles to the consumer just as they come from

the hands of nature!

Whether, in England, the farmers or manufacturers are better paid for their respective labour, skill, or capital, is a point which introduces much personal feeling into the discussions relative to the Corn Laws; but, in truth, is a question of little ultimate importance in the calculations of well-informed economists, The simple and unerring test of the condition of every branch of useful labour is the condition of the labourers. If the agricultural labourer is better paid in proportion to his skill than the mechanic, if the farmer gets more than the shopkeeper, or if the landlord is better paid for his capital than the merchant, the fact is to be discovered in their relative appearance and means of living. And so it is in every particular branch of trade. If we wish to know whether it is more desirable to be a smith than a carpenter, a lawyer than a physician, a manufacturer of broad cloth than of cutlery ware, other things alike, we must look to the fire-sides of the several classes.

But if great differences arise from any accidental causes, and one class rears its bead above another, the remedy, if no bad laws intervene, is simple and universal, namely, those who are engaged in a branch of labour for which there is no

demand, employ themselves in that for

which there is one. The increase of hands

keeps down the high price which scarcity would otherwise occasion; and when the produce begins to exceed the demand, competition lowers its value, the labourer sinks below the level of other labourers, and he then turus his attention as before

417

to some other employment which pays him better, the same causes producing the same effects under every variety of circumstances.*

If therefore the manufacturing were on this occasion to prevail over the agricultural interest what would be its ultimate gain? Not only would agricul tural labour and capital be instantly di rected towards 'trade and manufactures, so as to increase the competition and diminish the profits, but the taxes, which could not then be borne by the agricul

* Labour in society is, in truth, like water in nature, and will always find its own level if unobstructed. It seeks, like the motion which vivifies all things, to be constant in its quantity, whatever be the variety of its laws which seek to confine men in casts, purposes. How monstrous then are all that although a man's trade has failed from classes, or particular trades! Which say, the caprice of fashion, or public policy, he

'shall not be allowed to exert his best skill in another which wants labourers, and in which he may earn a subsistence! It is forgotten that this feature of the economy of labour obeys the general law, and will find its own level; that no man will turn his attention to a new trade in which there are already a superfluity of labourers; that he who has served a regular apprenticeship is likely to possess more skill than he who has not, and therefore must enjoy a preference; that the injustice of the principle would be intolerable if universally applied, and if the manual labourer were to be protected from the intrusion of decayed mechanics, just as particular mechanics are now protected from the intrusion of labourers or other mechanics; and that, as the benefit of free employment would be universal, it would be reciprocally enjoyed by all, in the degree in which their health, wants, taste, and genius, might render a change desirable.

In regard to the industrious classes of society, this system of monopoly is a sinking one, because if a man's trade fails, he is prohibited from pursuing another however analogons to his own, or agreeable to his taste; but he must sink at once to the workhouse, go for a soldier, or employ himself as a mere manual labourer. This seems to be a hardship imposed on mechanical labourers, by the apprentice laws, which must be often felt, and be produc tive of much complicated misery: while they secure no advantages of corresponding worth which can be considered certain or verity in a country where so much labour permanent; operate with aggravated seis affected by fashion or foreign connections; and violate all those principles of general policy which best promote the welfare of every part of the community by meeting the wants of the whole.

tural

tural interests, would fall wholly on the manufacturing interests.

If it be objected that it is the high rents of land which produce the effect on bread, it is not duly considered that an increase of rent of a pound an acre adds but 5s. or 6s. 8d. to a quarter of wheat, or only 3 farthings to the quartern loaf; and that if rents are double, the general effect of a war-system, of paper money, and of taxes, has been to treble the price of all commodities, so as to leave the landlord, not so well off with a double income as he was before the war.

And if it be urged that the grazing system is still open to the farmer, and that we may eat our corn at the Polish and American price, and our meat at the English price, it is not duly considered that one sort of food bears a regular proportion to the price of every other that consumption is proportioned to price, that meat regulates the price of labour as well as bread,--that if meat is sold in an undue proportion to corn,its consumption would be lessened, while by turning the arable land into pasture the quantity would be increased, and the eventual destruction of the agricultural interest be equally certain.

Or, if it be conceived that the same causes which oppose a free trade in corn operate in like manner on manufactured produce, it should be remembered that there is no Polish or American price for many important articles of our manufactures, and that we at present enjoy a monopoly in our ingenuity, arrangements, connexions, and capital, which it is to be hoped will continue till we have disengaged ourselves from our burden of debt and taxes!

It is therefore manifest that at this crisis we cannot remove these public difficulties by removing their cause; consequently our statesmen, if they act wisely, will pursue, in regard to the body-politic, the analogous course of experienced physi. cians, when they encounter a similar complication in the body-natural. These have recourse to palliatives; they en deavour to relieve pain wherever it takes place; and they assuage exasperated symptoms as often as they appear, leaving the cure to nature and the chapter of accidents! This is all that human foresight and power can in such cases effect; and it is all that reasonable patient can desire. He will, however, expect, that his physicians should, on every indication of amendment, use the most efficacious meaus to prevent a relapse; and in this feature of their prac

tice, our political physicians ought also to pursue the analogy, and to take such measures as shall secure the constituti onal representatives of the people of England from again becoming the dupes of passions, which were excited by the stimulus of malignity, and kept alive by the spirit of avarice.

At this moment, the only question is one of PRICE, and this question of price is a consequence of the difference of the value of money, occasioned by wars, undue expenditure, debt, paper money, and taxes. Of these causes the primary one is removed, and time and perseverance may perhaps remove the others. We shall then be on a level with other nations, or in the situation in which we stood before the first crusade against liberty in America, and we may then grow corn and make bread on the terms of other nations, and may freely import or export as suits our pleasure. But till the causes of the disease are removed, it is 'absurd and useless to expect or desire a radical cure, and we must be content with palliatives, such as those recommended by the committee of the House of Commons, which simply oppose one change of price by another.

As a bonus to the English farmer, it is proposed, that all foreign wheat, (and other grain in proportion) shall be liable to a duty of 24s. when the average price of the maritime districts exceeds 63s. and that as the price advances 1s. the duty shall be reduced 1s. and when above 87s. shall be only 6d. per quarter. Foreign grain can, however, be always brought into the English market on paying the duty, while our own cultiva tion is protected against advanced prices. by a fine of 24s. per quarter, when the price is under 63s.-thus, if our price is 54s. and the Polish or American farmer can afford his wheat at 30s. he is still at liberty to import it in any quantity.* The first propositions' of the committee

were

* The following resolutions were passed by the House of Commons on the 5th of May.

1.-Resolved. That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is expedient, that the exportation of corn, grain, meal, malt and flour, from any part of the United Kingdom, should be permitted at all times, without the payment of any duty, and without receiving any bounty whatever.

2.-Resolved. That it is the opinion of the several duties now payable, in respect this committee, that it is expedient that of all corn, grain, meal and flour, imported

inte

1814.]

were to make the price 105s. and they afterwards reduced it to 84s. both of which alarmed the country; but the graduated scale from 63s. to 87s. is a middie measure which is not calculated to excite particular jealousy, if it answer the purpose. It cannot be doubted, that we ought to grow wheat in England, but this cannot be done, unless the grower meet with fair remuneration for his labour and capital, and is protected from low foreign prices by some judicious laws. Whenever circumstances leave us only a choice of difficulties, the only benefit to be derived from experience and wisdom, is to choose the least.

The source of the disease being evidently in the war system, and in the expenditure during the last twenty years of a thousand millions beyond the public income, the radical remedy would be to remove the debt, and with it the taxes raised to pay its interest. God forbid, however, that this should be done by any means inconsistent with the good faith which ought always to characterize the conduct of debtors towards creditors. Time alone, and a more pacific spirit can cure this evil. We must cease to be the dupes of wicked newspapers; and we must not allow ourselves to be excited to projects of revenge, aggrandizement, or conquest, either against the Americans, Norwegians, or any other people who are asserting their rights and liberties, by de moniacal writers who seek only to gratify

into the United Kingdom, should cease and determine; and that the several duties in the following schedule shall be paid in lieu thereof.

When imported from any foreign country, except the province of Quebec, or the other British colonies or plantations in North America.

419

their hellish spirit, or their insatiable avarice. JUSTICE must govern the mind and actions of the nation; and then peace, freedom from debt and taxes, plenty, prosperity, and true glory, will be the consequence of her ascendency.

of

On this subject of domestic discord, excited by the mutual jealousies the landed and commercial interests, the people of England should peruse the fable of Menenius Agrippa, delivered on the occasion of a similar dispute to the people of Rome; and in regard to their foreign policy, they should never forget that a nation which seeks glory, prosperity, or advantages, from the chances of WAR, is like a man who has recourse to DRAM DRINKING to keep up his spirits; who goes to LAW to protect his peace, rights, and property; and who frequents the GAMING TABLE for the purpose of bettering his condition.

COMMON SENSE.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

WAS very glad to see in your 247th

number, page 311, Dr. Shaw's scheme of the seven duplicate vowels. I have for some time been convinced of the truth of that system, but I have looked in many a grammar and spelling-book without ever having had a glimpse of it in print. I must, however, beg leave to correct (as it seems to me) the Dr. in a point or two. In the first place, I think the Dr. wrong in considering the ô to have a short sound. Every other vowel has a real and perceptible difference between its long and short quantities, but in pronouncing this ô with the utmost attention, I cannot perceive any dif

ference.

Closest palatal
Palatal
Vowels

Labial sol Saul a

Vowels no known o Closest labial pull pool

00

There is indeed a small difference between ô final, and ô followed by a consonant, (as in the scheme) but this difference arises from this-that when ô is final, the mouth having nothing more to pronounce, falls into the position for pronouncing oo, and thereby the o final is slightly tinged with the sound oo; but when is followed by a consonant, the mouth does not fall into that position, but proceeds immediately to pronounce the consonant That this does not constitute a short quantity, is evident from

the vowel a, which has the like difference with respect to i, as bay-bane, and yet it has another sound which is the real short sound, as Ben.

I conceive that u has a long sound, for instance, pronounce hut and hurt without the r, (as we Londoners generally do) and the difference will be strikingly

obvious.

Although the Dr's remarks apply closely to the English tongue, yet I think he should not have extended them to other languages, some of which may, and do have more than seven vowels. For instance, the French language has two vowels, (four reckoning the short sounds) above the seven, and which are wholly wanting in English. I do not mean the nasal vowels, as they are called, which are nothing more than common vowels with the consonant n, imperfectly pronounced after them; but the vowels û, in flûte; and eû, in jeune, (see Levizac's grammar, page 17.) It is true, that these, though simple vowels, are not simply but complexly formed; that is, the mouth is in two positions at once in pronouncing them, and it may be this that restricted the Dr. to seven; but I do not consider this a sufficient reason, for though there can be but seven simply formed, yet there may be a number of other equally real vowels, formed in a complex manner. And here I shall end, only premising that I am as unwilling as the Dr. that this should degenerate into mere controversy, and as willing to give and receive information.

W. W.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

OUR correspondent, Mr. Beck, You says, (page 31 of your last volume,) "Indignation always arises in my bosom, when I view in the Royal Exchange the statue of that most profligate monarch, Charles II." adding, "that he was a drunkard and a profligate, and that he sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV. of France."

I may truly say, I have a thousand times felt disgust and astonishment at seeing the statue above-mentioned; it was taken down a few years ago, and I. was in hopes it would never have been replaced. Excepting that the Royal Exchange was built in the reign of Charles II. a statue of Wat Tyler might, in my humble opinion, with equal propriety have been placed in its centre.

When, in the parliament,that voted the restoration of the royal fugitive, Mr.

Hale, (afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench,) rose to move for a committee to examine into the causes of the late civil war, and to form a digest of the rights of the crown, and the privileges of the people, the majority of that parliament, smitten with the mania of loy alty, stifled, as it were, by acclamation, every attempt of the discerning few, who would gladly have promoted an enquiry, with a view to prevent the recur. rence of similar misfortunes.

"O!" (said they,) "the Prince has suffered so long and humiliating an exile, he can never fail to be grateful and just!" Whereas, if parliament had done their duty at that favourable conjuncture, much future mischief would have been prevented, and even the revolution of 1688 might perhaps have been rendered unnecessary.

Regardless of his oaths, Charles II. treated the Scotch covenanters with great barbarity; he destroyed several of those who were accused as regicides, although he had pledged himself to pardon; and he repaid the services of the presbyterians with persecutions.

When a bill had passed both houses of parliament, to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts, so far as respected protestant dissenters, it was stolen, while it lay with other bills to receive the royal assent; and before another bill could be passed to re-place it, the king prorogued parliament, and did not assemble another for several years; nay,

his most strenuous endeavours were exerted to exercise a despotic power, by governing without ever calling for the advice or assistance of parliament.

He acted with unjust severity, sometimes even with cruelty, to those whom he regarded as his enemies; yet his friends had occasion to complain of the most contemptuous neglect; and among others, he treated his avowed and steady supporter, the Earl of Clarendon, with the basest ingratitude.

Charles II. violated his engagements with the creditors of the crown, by shutting up the Exchequer, a measure which ultimately formed the germ of that mighty debt, that now threatens to involve us in one extensive ruin. For something like droits of admiralty, that monarch went to war with the Dutch, chiefly with a view to plunder them. He was a traitor to his country, by being a pensioner of France. In fine, surrounded by the H- -'s of that day, he lived a profligate and died a papist, "vainly. hoping to secure a passage to the realms

of

of bliss, from the merits of a submission extorted by the terrors of an affrighted Conscience."

Those who caused a statue of this princely ingrate to be erected in the centre of the city of London, surely did not know that he suspended the charter of the city, which was not restored till after the revolution; they must have forgotten his meanness and utter disregard of his father's memory, by accepting a sum of 1noney for defraying the expence of his unfortunate parent's funeral, which he (being the constant dupe of his amorous inclinations) expended in licentious gratifications.

The following correct, but disgust ing picture of Charles II. was drawn by Bishop Burnet, viz. "That he had enormous vices without the tincture of any virtue to correct them; that under the appearance of gentleness, he concealed a cruel and unrelenting heart; and under the mask of sincerity, the highest degree of hypocrisy and dissimulation: that he was void, not only of every princely but of every manly sentiment; that he was incapable of friendship as of integrity; that he considered power and the trust which accompany it, in no other light than as the means to gratify the criminal and selfish passions; that he acted as the foe, rather than the protector of his people; and that it was lewdness, -indolence, and the love of ease, which were the single correctors to that rage for absolute power, which infests almost all princes; and which, but for the predominancy of less exalted passions, Charles would have pursued with a vigilance equal to the importance of the undertaking; and which, notwith standing the indolence of his temper, the depravity of the times had, in a great measure, enabled him to effect." Islington, Feb. 8, 1813.

AN OLD LIVERYMAN.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

IN

SIR,

N your Magazine for March, is a plan proposed by Common Sense, and urged with great force and elo. quence, by which, from a slender begin ning, immensely beneficial effects will certainly ensue. This plan, so striking and splendid, will no doubt make an impression on the public; and will not, like many others, be viewed as an amusing novelty and then forgot. It is not only plausibly argued by this indefatigable writer, but clearly demonstrated, that, 17. deposited at birth, will produce to survivors at sixty, an annuity of 20. MONTHLY MAG. No. 255.

421

Such an idea, by brightening the pros pects of the labouring poor, and remove ing from old age the horrors of poverty, may be said to disperse at once half of the evils of human life.

At the same time I will not deny, that there may be some difficulty at first, in accomplishing this grand plan to its full extent. The sum of 17. small as it is, will not be easily afforded by working people at the birth of children, when their family expenditure is increased. That the parish should disburse it is not to be wished, as it will cause an undue pressure on the present generation; and, although it may at a distant period tend to annihilate, it will at present enlarge the boundaries of paupery. This degrading principle is extremely conta gious; when a benefit can be procured gratis, (as was seen in last winter's charitable distributions) almost every one will eagerly grasp at it, rather than resort to parochial assistance; it were better, I think, that the universality of the plan be not at first insisted on. When once it was commonly practised by the more respectable class, few of the poorer sort but would exert themselves to place their children on an equal footing; and no doubt, associations for this purpose would be formed among them. I have mentioned what will be thought the greatest objection to this excellent plan, not with any view to obstruct it, but because I think it will be the most effectual way to promote its introduction. Bedford Row, May 10, 1814. W. N.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, subscribed Common

paper

Tsense, your interesting publication for March last, will,I trust, ineet with the attention which it so well deserves, The enlightened benevolence and practical good sense which it discovers, toge ther with the beautiful and imposing alle gory by which the subject is illustrated, place it in the very first rank of useful and interesting communications. A very principal advantage resulting from the proposed toutines for old age is that of their superseding, to the extent of their influence, the present degrading system of parochial relief; a provision, contem plated by the more virtuous classes of the poor with that mixture of dread and aversion which is always associated with the prospect of infamy and dependance.

Of two plans suggested with reference to the employment of the funds of tone times, the one the ordinary operation of compound interest, the other the planting 3 I

r