The difficulties of CHAP. you have brought

X.

1821.

were considered a fair remuneration. the country, then, arise from this, that back your currency to its former value, so far as regards your income; but it remains at its former value, so far as regards your expenditure." Weighty, indeed, are these remarks, which subsequent events have so fully confirmed, and which came then from the first merchant in the world, ! Parl. Deb. iv. 1318, who afterwards conferred honour on, instead of receiving 1323. it from, the title of Ashburton.1

1

103.

demand for

of taxation.

The increased weight of debts and taxes, coinciding with the diminished incomes arising from the contracted cur- Vehement rency, produced its natural and usual effect in inducing a reduction an additional pressure on Government for the reduction of taxation. Mr Hume brought this subject before the House of Commons, and the whole finances of the country underwent a more thorough investigation than they had ever previously done. His labours embraced chiefly the expenses of the offices connected with the army, navy, and ordnance departments; and there can be no

* The returns obtained by Mr Hume presented the following comparative statement of the British army, exclusive of the troops in India, in 1792 and 1821 respectively, viz. :-

X.

1821.

CHAP. doubt that he rendered good service by exposing many abuses that existed in these departments; and a committee was appointed to inquire into the subject. In consequence of the universal complaint of agricultural distress, Mr Western brought forward a bill to repeal the malt duties, which was carried, on the first reading, by a majority of 24, the numbers being 149 to 125. It was thrown out, however, on the second reading; and so productive is this tax, and so widely is its weight diffused over the community, that its repeal has never yet been carried. The majority on the leave to bring in the bill, however, was an ominous circumstance, characteristic of the depression of the agricultural interest; and members 1 Ann. Reg. were so impressed with it that they deemed it expedient to yield on a subordinate point, and the agricultural horsetax was accordingly repealed this session.1

1821, 84,

100.

104.

ral commit

the con

sumption

of articles of luxury.

The committee on agricultural distress presented their Agricultu- report on 18th June. It was a most elaborate and valutee reports, able document, as it bore testimony to the fact estaband state of lished before the committee, that "the complaints of the petitioners were founded in fact, in so far as they represented that, at the present price of corn, the returns to the owners of occupied land, after allowing growers the interest of investments, were by no means adequate to the charges and outgoings; but that the committee, after a long and anxious inquiry, had not been able to discover any means calculated immediately to relieve the present distress." "* It is by no means surprising that it was so; for as their difficulties all arose from the contraction of the currency, it was impossible they could be removed

*So far as the pressure arises from superabundant harvests, it is beyond the application of any legislative provision; so far as it is the result of the increased value of money, it is not one peculiar to the farmer, but extends to many other classes. That result, however, is the more severely felt by the tenant, in consequence of its coincidence with an overstocked market. The departure from our ancient standard, in proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of money, and persons dependent on a fixed income, was a benefit to the active capital of the country; and the same classes have been oppositely affected by a return to that standard. The restoration of it has also embar

X.

1821.

till that contraction was alleviated, a thing which the CHAP. great majority of the Legislature was resolved not to do. It is remarkable that at the very same time Lord Liverpool demonstrated in the House of Lords, that the general consumption of the country, in articles of comfort and luxury, had considerably increased in the last year.* This fact is important, as affording an illustration of the observation already made1 as to the eternal law of nature, 1 Ante, c. that the division of labour and improvement of machinery, i. §§ 41, 42. capable of indefinite application to manufacturing indus- 2 Ann. Reg. try, have no tendency to cheapen the production of the 1821, 73; subsistence of man, and consequently that the first and Report the last to suffer from a contraction of the currency, and enhancement of the value of money, are the classes engaged App. in the cultivation of the soil.2

rassed the landholder, in proportion as his estate has been encumbered with mortgages, and other fixed payments assigned on it during the depreciation of the currency. The only alleviation for this evil is to be looked for in such a gradual reduction of the rate of interest as may lighten the burdens on the landed interest. At present the annual produce of corn, the growth of the United Kingdom, is, upon an average crop, equal to our present consumption, and that, with such an average crop, the present import prices, below which foreign corn is by law altogether excluded, are fully sufficient, more especially since the change in the currency, to secure to the British farmer the complete monopoly of the home market. The change in the value of our money is virtually an advance upon our import prices; and the result of every such advance, supposing prices not to undergo a corresponding rise in other countries, must but expose this country to greater and more grievous fluctuations in price, and the business of the farmer to greater fluctuation and uncertainty. Protection cannot be carried farther than monopoly, which the British farmer has completely enjoyed for the last two harvests-the ports having been almost constantly shut against foreign imports during thirty months."-Commons' Report, June 18, 1821; Parl. Deb., v. 81, Appendix.

Commons'

June 18,

1821; Parl.

Deb. v. 79,

CHAP.

X.

1821.

105.

This long-continued and most severe depression in the price of agricultural produce, coupled with the reiterated refusals of Parliament to do anything for their relief, at Increase of length came to produce important political effects. It for reform spread far and wide among the landowners and farmers, agriculture who in every age had been the firmest supporters of the

the desire

among

ists.

throne, the conviction that they were not adequately represented in Parliament, and that no relief from their sufferings could be anticipated, until, by a change in the composition of the House of Commons, their voice was brought to bear more directly and powerfully upon the measures of Government. Everything was favourable; all the world was at peace; trade had revived; the seasons were fine; importation was prohibited, and had ceased. Nevertheless prices were so low that it was evident that a few more such years would exhaust all their capital, and reduce them to beggary. Reform had become indispensable, if they would avoid ruin.. Now, accordingly, for the first time, the desire for parliamentary reform spread from the towns, where it had hitherto prevailed, to the rural districts, and gave token of an important change in this respect in the landed interest; and the ablest of the historians of the time in the Radical interest has borne testimony to the fact that, but for the change in the currency, the alteration of the constitution never could have taken place.*

*“In the beginning of 1822,” says Miss Martineau, " every branch of manu facturing industry was in a flourishing state; but agriculture was depressed, and complaints were uttered at many county meetings, both before and after the meeting of Parliament. These incessant groanings, wearisome to the ears, and truly distressing to the hearts, were not borne idly to the winds. The complainers did not obtain from Parliament the aid which they desired, but they largely advanced the cause of parliamentary reform. If the agricultural interest had been in a high state of prosperity from 1820 to 1830, the great ques tion of reform in Parliament must have remained much longer afloat than it actually did, from the inertness or opposition of the agricultural classes, who, as it was, were sufficiently discontented with Parliament to desire a change. Extraordinary as this may appear, when we look only to the preponderance of the landed interest in the House at that time, we shall find, on looking abroad through the country, that it was so. Such politicians as Cobbett pre

X.

1821.

106.

of George

Lord Castlereagh, to whom the mutability of the CHAP. populace was well known, had prophesied, at the close of the proceedings against the Queen, that "in six months the King would be the most popular man within his Coronation dominions." This prediction was verified to the letter. Iv. The symptoms of returning popularity were so evident, July 19. that his Majesty, contrary to his inclination and usual habits, was prevailed on by his Ministers to appear frequently in public, both in the parks and principal theatres, on which occasions he was received with unbounded applause. This favourable appearance induced Government to determine on carrying into effect the coronation, which had been originally fixed for August in the preceding year, but had been postponed in consequence of the proceedings against the Queen, and the disturbed state of the public mind which ensued. Her Majesty, who was not aware that her popularity had declined as rapidly as that of her royal spouse had increased, was so imprudent as to prefer a claim, both to the King and the Privy Council, to be crowned at the same time as QueenConsort. The Council, however, determined that she was not entitled to demand it as a matter of right, and that in the circumstances they were not called on to concede it as a matter of courtesy; and her demand was in consequence refused. Upon this the Queen applied to the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl-Marshal of England, and

sented themselves among the discontented farmers, and preached to them about the pressure of the debt, a bad system of taxation, a habit of extravagant expenditure, and of a short method of remedying these evils by obtaining a better constitution of the House of Commons. It was no smail section of the agricultural classes that assisted in carrying the question at last; and it would be interesting to know how many of that order of reformers obtained their convictions through the distress of these years."-MARTINEAU's Thirty Years of Peace, i. 267. At that period the author, whose head was then more full of academical studies than political speculations, frequently stated it in company as a problem in algebra, easy of solution, “Given the Toryism of a landed proprietor, required to find the period of want of rents which will reduce him to a Radical reformer." He little thought then what momentous consequences to his country and the world were to ensue from the solution of the problem.