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REFLECTIONS
ON
THE PROGRESSIVE DECLINE
*
OF THE
B R ITISH E MPIRE,
AND
THE NECESSITY OF
PUBLIC R E Fo R M.
ºt
ſº-
ADDRESSED TO
The Right Honorable the Earl of Liverpool.
BY HENRY SCHULTES.
LONDON,
Printed for the Author, and Sold by all Principal Booksellers,
1815,
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REFLECTIONS &c.
My Lord,
It is an incontrovertible truth, founded upon the
experience of ages, and confirmed by the united tes-
timony of all historians who have written on the
subject, that the prosperity and duration of every
political constitution, must depend on the wis-
dom of its laws, aided and supported by an unani-
mous concurrence of design in its component mem-
bers.-If there be a strict and conscientious adhe-
rence to the welfare of society;-if justice, whether
commutative, vindictive, or distributive, be execu-
ted with impartiality and vigour, and every indivi-
dual protected in the enjoyment of his peculiar
privileges, it will flourish and be happy; but on the
tº contrary, when by means of corruption, licentious-
mess and luxury begin to prevail, the public morals
degenerate; and in proportion as the state itself
sinks-into debasement and contempt, its members
are plunged into the depths of misery.
A
3
It is the fixed and unerring law of destiny, that
states should emerge by regular gradations from
obscurity, and when they have attained the zenith
of their glory, to run to decay. If they rest on the
pillars of temperance and patriotism, they will
indeed stand for ages, but it is impossible in the
nature of things, that they should remain for ever
in a course of uninterrupted greatness. Nations,
like the fabled phoenix, have arisen to celebrity
and power, from the dissolution of preceding ones,
whose manners, customs, and causes of extinction,
have been uniformly made known by tradition, or
through the medium of literary men, to those
which succeeded. Political corruption has always
been the means of political declension ; but though
it destroys one state, it generates another, and the
act of reproduction still goes on. Yet notwith-
standing succeeding nations, have thus known the
various circumstances, which contributed to the
elevation or overthrow of former communities, they
have invariably adopted similar measures of perni-
cious policy, which have in their turn accelerated
their destruction. To counteract the influence of
national corruption, has in all ages exercised the
endeavours of many wise and good men, whose
legislative improvements have augmented the glory
of their country, and oftentimes prevented its im-
mediate decline. But though the best contrived
scheme of human policy cannot be rendered infalli-
ble or immutable, yet so long as it is protected
3
against the inroads of corruption, its duration is
less liable to be contracted; and as it is certain that
corrupt measures and degeneracy of morals, will
hasten the subversion of any government, and in-
volve its subjects in premature ruin, it becomes the
imperious duty of individuals to check the progress
of such evil, and avert the impending disaster, by
every possible means of counteraction.
Great Britain having already attained the meri-
dian altitude of her political splendour, and now
hastening to decay, it becomes necessary to stimu-
late men's minds, too much enervated by a long
acquiescence in error, to an active and a vigorous
exercise of those means, which may prevent the en-
tire loss of their social comforts, and the annihila-
tion of their long preserved civil liberty.
The object of the following pages, is to lay be-
fore your Lordship and the public, the real situation
of the country, in order that, should its present
evils be irremediable, by your Lordship and your
colleagues, the suffering multitude may be the bet-
ter prepared to meet worse calamities, and be less
exposed to the seductions of error by the delusions
of those fallacious and sophisticated reasonings
with which artful and designing men would per-
suade them, that the nation is wealthy and prospe-
rous, when at the same time her commerce is dimi-
mished, and nearly half her population insolvent.
The task is unenviable, for few have inclination to
examine that which induces pain by the anticipa-
4
tion or prospect of misfortune; but it is indispu-
table that the miseries of human life are less severe
in their infliction when they have been anticipated,
as it is true, that in expected assaults on the human
body, it is less susceptible of pain, by being predis-
posed to receive the blow.
The national debt at this moment is above nine
hundred millions. The annual national expendi-
ture is above one tenth of that enormous sum.
Duriug the last 20 years, our public, as well as
domestic expences, have been rapidly increasing:
our gold has disappeared and paper has supplied its
place ; one person out of every five throughout En-
gland receives parochial relief, and the proportion
of the poor of late years, has been equal to the in-
creased general population;–and yet we are told
with unblushing effrontery by some men, that we
are a flourishing and happy people, because we in-
crease and multiply. Miserable sophistry ! Popu-
lation is not the criterion of national prosperity
or happiness, unless individuals can maintain them-
selves comfortably by their respective avocations.
Nor can that population be considered a blessing,
where two millions of individuals are necessitated to
supplicate eight millions for relief. Such a people
may be said indeed to exist, but surely not to live
Whilst some thus attempt to deceive by their
panegyrics on our numerical strength, others sing
the praises of our extensive commerce. — Let us
therefore examine what mighty cause we have
for exultation on this head.
5
In 1813, the number of vessels employed in the
mercantile service, were 23640 the tonnage
2,478,799. tons; and the number of mariners em-
ployed were 165,030.
For the year ending 5th of January, 1812, the
official value of the imports, as laid before the House
of Commons, was 28,626,580l., and of the exports,
32,409,671 l. The value exported will appear there-
fore to be only 3,783,019/., and out of the imports
the incredible sum of thirteen millions is paid to
government for custom duties alone.
- According to the financial accounts of Great Bri-
tain, ending 5th of January 1814, the average annual
excess of the export of all merchandize, both British
and Foreign, for the two years ending 5th of January
1812 and 1813, was only 9,215,418l. The average
annual excess of import of foreign merchandize
within the same time, was 18,472,810l., and the
average annual value of the whole British produce
and manufactures exported, was only 27,688,228l.,
making the balance as before stated, 9,215,418l.
As therefore the export of all the British produce,
and all the British manufactures, amounted in
value only to a little more than 9 millions, what
an admirable counterbalance this appears to be to
the account of the total actual public expenditure
of Great Britain, for the year ending the 5th of
January 1814 (including however interest, loans,
subsidies, and so forth), amounting to 1 13,968,610l.
16s. 10; d.-eheu ! -
6
Admitting this to be true, some however may
solace themselves with the soothing reflection that
our boasted palladium, public credit, is still pre-
served inviolable. Be not deceived.—Public credit,
as applicable to the circulating medium of bank
notes, is a kind of equivocal term : credit implies a
voluntary confidence in another's integrity; but how
can bank notes be the subject of voluntary confi-
dence, so long as a compulsive act of the legislature
enforces their payment. Now, though I admit that
notes may for some time serve the purposes of local
or internal negociation, credit must, with respect to
foreign commerce, emanate from an actual capital
of universal value, I mean of gold and silver, which,
by the unanimous consent and agreement of civilized
nations, are considered the properest medium of
reciprocal traffic.—But instead of our reserving
such a capital, we have profusely squandered the
precious metals of this country in subsidies and
foreign payments of various kinds, and under the
sanction of government, the real bullion has been
ingeniously substituted by paper notes, or as Seneca
called them, the vain images of possession ; Inania
habendi simulachra; as if it were expected, that an
implicit faith in the operations of this shadowy re-
presentative of dissipated wealth, would like the
passing of St. Peter's shadow, virtually renovate the
exhausted strength of the country, and alleviate the
despondency of the public mind. -
A question was once proposed by one of the great-
7
est political writers on the continent, many years
before the notable discovery of transmuting old
rags into money, whether, supposing a man to find
out the secret of the philosopher's stone, that is the
art of converting with little trouble, the meanest
materials into the richest metals, he ought to com-
municate so rich a discovery It was answered in
the negative, because it was alleged, trade would be
ruined, inheritances would lose the value they bear
in society, and the whole method and decent
orders of life would be changed into endless tumults
and confusion. -
Seriously then, is it not a shameful violation of
public justice, that men in superior stations, being
delegated guardians of the people's rights, should
exercise every art of ingenuity, to lull the nation
into the waking slumber of hope by specious pro-
mises and predictions of future good, when they have
neither the inclination or power to perform or ve-
rify them 2 And is it not unbecoming the dignified
character of a British statesman to imitate the in-
sidious subterfuge of the Emperor Aurelian, who
induced his subjects to assist him in an enterprize,
by promising to bestow on them crowns of two
pound's weight, and craftily fulfilled his promise by
distributing amongst them crowns made of dough,
which they expected would have been of gold 2
The example which the bank of England affor-
ded of circulating paper instead of specie, was soon
followed by a new race of adventurers called country
,3
bankers, who looking to the governor and company
of that establishment as their archetype, contrived,
by the adoption of similar measures, to help en-
gender and establish the great political contagion of
paper credit, which has enabled a few speculators by
the greatest facility, to monopolize corn, goods and
land, and then to enhance the price of all kinds of
provision. Hence gold currency has been lost,
property is got into fewer hands,-small farms have
been consolidated into large ones,—the poor rates have
increased,—tradesmen have become bankrupt, and
universal misery has pervaded the inferior classes
of society. Thus by these innovations, the dike
of our commerce has been broken down, and we
have become inundated with a flood of mischief,
which has desolated the country.
Although it is confessedly no great consolation to
the wretched, to contemplate the happiness of past
times, and to look back with emotions of regret on
brighter scenes, yet it may be satisfactory, and
perhaps ultimately useful, to trace by a comparative
statement, the uniform progression of our political
evils, and to shew how far a torpid insensibility to
approaching dangers, occasions their accumulation
and recurrence.
In the year 1700, the national debt was only about
twenty millions. The number of paupers was about
565,000, and the poor's rate was about 700,000l.
The proportion of poor to the general population
was not quite a tenth part. The average price of
9.
wheat, according to the Eton standard, was five
shillings per bushel of nine gallons. The arable
lands produced more corn than the people could
consume, and during the ten succeeding years, the
exports of wheat and flour were annually the average
quantity of 101,116 quarters, and the imports only
216 quarters, leaving an excess of 100,960 quarters
exported. -
From 1710 to 1720, the average quantity of wheat
and flour annually exported, was 112,020 quarters.
The entire quantity imported during the whole ten
years, was only 36 quarters, a plain proof that
England wanted no assistance from foreign powers,
and the average price of a bushel of wheat was 5s. 7d.
From 1720 to 1730, the annual average excess of
export was 104,267 quarters. The average price of
the bushel of wheat was 5s. 3d. -
From 1730 to 1740, the annual average excess of
export was 289,206 qrs. The average price of wheat
was 5s. 7d. per bushel, and during this period the
population had increased nearly half a million.
From 1740 to 1750, the population had increased
about 400,000, yet the average annual import was
only 109 qrs. whilst the annual average export was
378,452 qrs., and the average price of wheat was
4s. 2d. per bushel. -
From 1750 to 1760, the population had increased
about 369,000. The annual average excess of ex-
port was 256,654 qrs., and the average price of
wheat was 5s. 3d, per bushel.
R
**
10
At this time, the new improvements in agricul-
ture were little known ; only 142 inclosure bills had
passed within a period of sixty years, and it was
supposed that at this time nearly one third of the
kingdom was in an uncultivated state.
From 1760 to 1770, being the first ten years of
the present reign, the tide of commercial fortune
seemed to ebb against us ; for during this period the
average annual imports were five times greater than
before, but there still remained an excess of export
of 106,636 qrs. The population within this period
had increased 692,000 and the average price of
wheat was 5s. 11d. per bushel.
From 1770 to 1780 the population had increased
above half a million, being at this time altogether
7,953,000. The population of the poor still remained
at about one tenth of that number, not having much
varied that proportion within the last 70 years. The
average annual imports now exceeded the exports,
leaving an excess of import of 28683 qrs. The ave-
rage price of wheat was 6s. 11d. per bushel, and
within the last 20 years 1090 bills of inclosure had
passed. -
From 1780 to 1790, the population had increased
700,000; the average annual excess of import was
64,531 q1s., and the average price of wheat was
7s. 2d. per bushel.
From 1790 to 1800, the population had increased
nearly half a million, and the annual average excess
of import now amounted to the immense quantity
| 1
of 425,693 qrs. The ministry at the commencement
of this period, began to find that things did not go
on quite right, and therefore thought proper to de-
vise some scheme that might tranquillise the minds
of the people, and divert their meditations from po-
litics to any other pursuit. To this end, they esta.
blished the board of Agriculture, which was to per-
form wonders, to enrich the nation with new disco-
veries, and enlighten it with experimental know-
ledge. The theories suggested were so plausible, that
Parliament itself was dazzled by the delusion, and
granted every aid for carrying them into practice.
But alas! who can dispel the dark mists of futurity,
- or impede the advancement of political corrup-
tion. Notwithstanding the superior illumination
of that society, though many inclosures had
taken place, though the most permanent advan-
tages were promised to result from the various
systems adopted for propagating and improving
the breed of cattle, the poor human race de-
rived no kind of benefit from them ; for, on the
contrary, the poor's rate augmented to about two
millions and a half, the poor increased to about
955,000, the average price of wheat was 8s. 8d. per
bushel, and one glorious consequence of the new
light now bursting with irresistible splendour upon
the nation, was the alteration, in many parts of
England, of the contents of the bushel, from 9 to 8
gallons measure, a base and contemptible artifice to
veil the gradual incroachments that were making
12
upon the scanty substance of the middling ranks of
society. Truly, my Lord, these demonstrations of
perspicacity in such a ministry, aided by the intui-
tive genius and prescience of their various assistants,
remind me of the proverb common among the
Chinese, that they themselves only have two eyes,
the Europeans only one, and all the rest of the
world are stark blind. The free and generous spirit
of the British nation, was not however sufficiently
humiliated by previous oppression, it was therefore
thought proper to render this a memorable era of
degradation, by the imposition of the Property Tax:
a measure originally established, not by the illus-
trious PITT, but, as your Lordship knows, by the
execrable triumvirs, after the proscriptions had
nearly extinguished the last scintillations of expiring
liberty in ancient Rome. -
From 1800 to 1814, the general population had
increased above a million, and within the same
calamitous period, the population of the poor in-
creased also above a million; the increase of poor
thus keeping equal pace with the increase of the
general population, or, in plainer phrase, every new
born subject became a pauper. The poor were as
one to five of the entire population. The poor rates
rose from three to sixteen millions. The average
price of wheat was 11s. 9d. per bushel of eight
gallons, being above 350 per cent dearer than it was
in the first year of the present reign; and though
fourteen or fifteen hundred inclosure bills had lately
H 3
passed, the annual average excess of import of
wheat and flour for the consumption of the country,
considerably exceeded half a million of quarters,
and the average yearly number of gazetted bank-
ruptcies for the last ten years was above 1300, being
five times greater than the average of the first ten
years of the present reign, -
Upon reference to the reports of the parliamentary
committee on the late Corn Bill, it appears that
during the 30 years succeeding the year 1782, (ex-
cept in one single instance, namely in the year 1789)
there has not only been an uniform annual excess
of import of corn of all kinds, but the imports
upon the average have been more than ten times
the amount of the exports. The import of flour
and meal was six times the quantity exported, and
the import of oats and oatmeal above 27 times the
amount exported. The average annual value of
the excess of import of corn, grain and meal from
foreign countries (exclusive of Ireland) from 1792
to 1812, was nearly two millions and a half.
From this outline, Great Britain may be com-
pared to a man, who, having a good estate and living
upon its produce, becomes a trader in wares; he
purchases commodities from one country, and sells
them again to another at a large profit. By economy
and frugality at home, he is enabled to dispose of
the superfluous productions of his own estate, and
to exchange them for the produce of other soils.
By judicious and careful management, he in-
14
creases his capital, extends his commercial dealings,
and in a few years becomes rich. Thus prosperously
circumstanced, he becomes inflated with his good
fortune, and conceiving wealth to be only a solitary
blessing without the insignia of honor and title, he
seeks an alliance with a titled though impoverished
neighbour. A new arrangement now takes place; his
trade is conducted by agents, who speculate with
his ready money; he becomes surrounded by un-
thrifty servants, who waste or purloin his effects,
and by evil counsellors, who persuade him to pur-
chase foreign possessions: his family become expen-
sive and profligate; they embarrass his affairs, and in-
crease his expenditure beyond his income; his titled
but poor relations beg or steal his specie, and this
combination of evils eventually obliges him to
mortgage his estate. To keep up his commercial
pursuits, he feels himself constrained to solicit loans
of his friends, and borrows specie on his promissory
notes: with this specie his agents and factors buy
goods upon false and speculative views; they over-
stock his warehouses, and then they sell at prices
inferior to prime cost. His imports exceed his ex-
ports; he gets involved in a law-suit in respect of
his foreign possessions; embarrassment overwhelms
him, and he ultimately becomes a bankrupt.
If a trader buys one article for a determinate sum
and sells another of equal value for a less sum, or
if the profits on his exchange of merchandize are
insufficient to discharge all his domestic and
15
commercial expences, it is evident he cannot thrive
in trade. He may import commodities from the
remotest parts of the world, but if the resale of his
imports is not equivalent to his expenditure, the
result must be ruin.
England was in her glory when the profits of her
commerce exceeded all her national expences, and
when the produce of her soil was adequate to the
wants of her population.
Having thus shewn into what a condition of misery
and thraldom we are involved, almost without the
power of resistance and escape, I shall proceed to in-
quire into a few of the causes of the consumption of
the immense quantities of agricultural produce raised
in and imported into this kingdom, because it will
be necessary to be informed whether the whole is to
be attributed to the increased population or not. I say
not, for about the year 1770 when only two thirds
of the lands in the kingdom were in cultivation, the
general population had increased to the number of
seven millions and a half, and yet our average annual
excess of export of wheat and flour was more than
100,000 q1s., which furnishes an irrefragable de-
monstration that the population was abundantly
supplied at home at that time.—Now observe, from
that period till 1812, there has been an increase in
the general population, of two millions and a half.
If therefore two thirds of the cultivated lands in
1770 were sufficient to sustain seven millions and a
half of inhabitants, and yet leave a surplus for
16
exportation of one hundred thousand qrs., as before
shewn in the comparative statement, it is clear as if
it were written with a sunbeam, that if by any spe-
cies of cultivation or improvement in tillage, such a
quantity of corn could be subsequently produced as
should bear an equal proportion to one third of
the original quantity of land then in cultivation,
such quantity of corn so produced, must have
been adequate to the requirements of the sub-
sequent two millions and a half of increased popu-
lation, and therefore there could have been no occa-
sion for any importation on that account. It there-
fore remains to ascertain whether such a quantity
has been produced, and this can only be inferrible
from a general calculation. The honorable and in-
telligent secretary of the board of agriculture, in his
examination beforethecommittee of the house ofcom-
mons on the late Corn Bill, estimated an acre of ara-
ble land upon an average to produce 24 bushels of
wheat,that wheatland was one fifth of the arable, and he
considered the popular consumption as equal to one
quarter of wheat for each person. Other eminent agri-
culturists referred to for information on the same
occasion, were of opinion that by inclosure the pro-
duce of land must be prodigiously multiplied. There
having been therefore above 3,000 inclosure bills
passed since the year 1770, it is fair to conclude,
upon an ordinary computation, that in consequence
of such inclosures, such a quantity of land has been
brought into tillage or improved cultivation, as must
17
have produced corn fully commensurate to the sub-
sistence of the increased population.
During 70 years of the last century, although
the population had increased two millions, the
country was progressively increasing in its exports,
and it is therefore convincing enough, that it was
then superabundantly supplied from its own re-
sources. If the late importations were necessary
for the subsistence of our increased population, then
the most serious consequences may be expected to
ensue from the late legislative measures restraining
them. If, on the other hand, such importation
should be always necessary, then we must always
be at the mercy of other powers. I think I have
however sufficiently shewn, that the produce of the
soil is amply sufficient for the natural and reason-
able wants of the people. At the same time I can-
not help expressing my suspicion, that much corn -
has been clandestinely introduced into this country
as foreign produce, which had previously grown on
our own soil. - -
A considerable exhaustion of corn is unques-
tionably attributable to the distilleries; but the
diminution of food occasioned by them, is but of
little importance compared with the evils they
introduce into the community.—Let us only look
to the immorality of the metropolis. Here, besides
thousands, that are unable to procure subsis-
tence by any other means than thieving, there are,
C
} 8
according to the estimate of an intelligent and a
humane magistrate, above fifty thousand unfortu-
nate women of the town, and throughout England,
the aggregate number is above half a million. It
might well be observed by the sagacious Montes-
quiou, that in a popular state, public incontinency
may be regarded as the last of miseries, and the
certain forerunner of a change in the constitution.
But mark ] how subservient this species of moral
delinquency is to the public service. It is well known
what enormous quantities of spirits these proscribed
victims annually consume; and how can it be other-
wise, when a thousand temptations are sanctioned to
decoy and seduce individuals from the principles of
sobriety and virtue. Nearly the fifteenth part of
the inhabited houses within the bills of mortality
are licensed victualling houses or gin shops; more
than 24 millions of gallons of spirits are annually
distilled in London or its vicinity, and above ten
millions of money are yearly paid to the revenue
by the consumers of beer and spirits, and the ma-
terials from which they are manufactured. And
hence arises the general depravity of merals through-
out the kingdom, and villainy in all its ramifications
is silently countenanced. Thus under the influence
of corrupt example, the property of individuals
is subjected to general spoliation without propor-
tionate control, and whilst one trembling miscreant
is ignominiously executed, a bolder depredator raises
19
himself to honor, or, as the Roman satyrist has
well expressed it,
*...— “ Mukti
Committunt ea dem diverso crimina fato,
Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, bic diadema.”
Surely this demands Reform
What security have we on the event of a scarcity,
against the hostile attacks of such a desperate mul-
titude as the whole aggregate number of the unem-
ployed poor and profligate, urged to the commission
of crimes by want and degradation, by love of
plunder, or desire of revenge? Let it be remem-
bered, that by such as these, the Revolution in France
began, and it is impossible to banish from reflecting
minds, the contemplation of the possibility, that a
similar convulsion may subvert the dearest interests
of this country.
But though the distilleries consume a vast quan-
tity of corn, a much greater consumption is occa-
sioned by the horses kept within the kingdom,
which are not far short of two millions. . The horses
kept within the bills of mortality consume as much
meal as would very nearly supply the whole popu-
lation of the metropolis with nutriment. The
yearly maintenance of a horse, when kept at home,
costs above forty pounds. A farm horse is supposed
to consume the produce of four acres,—brewers’ and
distillers' horses consume the produce of six acres,-
and the stage coach horses are estimated to con-
2O
sume annually the incredible quantity of 25 quar-
ters of corn each.
Why should there not be laws of restraint on
these luxurious indulgences 2 The poorer a state is,
(and this of our's is poor indeed!) the sooner it is
ruined by its relative luxury, and consequently the
greater occasion it has for relative restraining laws.
Besides it is painful to remark, that whilst the rich
in this country, are indulging themselves with every
delicacy that human ingenuity can devise, the la-
bouring poor, from whose exertions the rich derive
their affluence, are subsisted upon bread alone, the
parochial allowances not enabling them to purchase
flesh of any kind.
Thus, my Lord, you may perceive, that our imagi-
nary and unsubstantial acquisitions have only tended
to introduce amongst us, the lust for voluptuous and
artificial gratification, unknown to, and abhorred by
our free and heroic ancestors.—Like the Carthagi-
mians we have remained too long at Capua;-we have
already enervated our strength, and the difficulties
we must encounter will soon paralyze our actions.
We exhibit vigour abroad, but we are ruined at home
by constitutional imbecillity. The progressive beg-
gary and distress of the nation, will eventually excite
a spirit of revolt in men's minds, and render the rich
and poor obnoxious to each other. Our present
policy, if obstimately persisted in, will first create
disaffection towards the government;-contempt
for the laws will ensue, and rapine and intestine
21
war will afterwards consummate the national catas-
trophe.—This is not merely hypothetical reasoning,
it is moral truth.
In the present circumstances of our constitution,
there is, alas! little else to be esteemed in it but
the contemplation of its former excellence, and, as
Quintilian somewhere observed, that there was no-
thing to beloved in an old woman but the memory
of what she was, the same observation may be applied
to Great Britain under her present counsels. Poli-
tical alterations ought always to be made conform-
ably to the political state of things. They were
occasionally adopted with the happiest effect, by
those sublime models for the imitation of legislators
and rulers, the virtuous Roman Consuls; and is
our political or moral rectitude arrived at such per-
fection, that we must disdain the retrospect to
actions which were universally applauded by an
admiring world R — Similar causes will produce
similar effects. A dereliction of the Roman Senate
from public virtue and justice, caused the prevalence
of licentious manners among the populace, and was
the prelude to the subsequent commission of the
most horrible atrocities.
How then are these predicted evils to be avoided?
I answer:—By the adoption of a rule of conduct
diametrically opposite to that which has thus, as it
were, solicited their approach; by our returning to
the original paths of virtue from which we have so
incautiously strayed.—Let those who govern us,
22
exercise the administration of their power agreeably
to the principles of our constitution, which the
wisdom and experience of former generations have
collected and combined together.—Revive the con-
fidence which the people were accustomed to place
in their governors and rulers, and see that these be
not petitioned and supplicated to perform an act
of justice. Then, and then only, will the people
taste the sweets of national felicity, and the king-
dom become transcendantly great.
Let the paper system be annihilated with all its
concomitant evils; for it is an Ignis fatuus that has
decoyed the vessel of state into the most dan-
gerous abysses. Make a noble effort to save the
country, though at the expence of the whole
national debt, and though one half of the nation
should lose their visionary possessions; for it is
infinitely better that they should lose such deceit-
ful wealth, than their existence or their liberty,
Who, in a tempest, would hold a falling rock to
save their lives, when a plank is near : Why should
those errors remain unreformed, which are obvi-
ously undermining the glorious fabric of the
British Constitution ?—We grasp at the infernal
shadow, whilst Heaven points out the substance.
The reform of public measures is certainly a
difficult thing to be accomplished, because most
men had rather continue in error, and dispute and
contend in defence of an opinion which they have
once cherished, than examine the subject of it im-
partially and dispassionately.
23
It is the example of the great that ºust edd
strength and vigour to public discipline; for by
their example, and not by their power, the manners
of the whole state will be regulated. What sig-
nifies the physical power of a country, where there
are no virtuous counsels to direct its energies 2
Force without wisdom counteracts itself by its own
operation. It is from liberal and virtuous men
that we can alone expect protection of our civil
rights; for as long as wicked men have the power
of gratifying their ambition, they will never want
the inclination to indulge it, or cease to pursue the
means of accomplishing their projects.
With regard to government, it is certain that no
man is inclined more by nature to one form than
to another, neither does it signify any thing whether
he lives in a popular, or in an aristocratical state of
society: it is natural however that every one should
conceive that form the best which tends most im-
mediately to his own particular advantage, or
whereby individuals may meet with the greatest
comfort in their social relations with each other.
We cannot admit that the government is inca-
pable of its own reformation, but when indeed it
arrives to that degree of corruption as to be totally
incapable of reforming itself, it cannot lose much by
being new modelled. Athens often declined, and
often regained her political exaltation; Rome re-
mained longer than any other nation in an uncor-
rupted state, but when she fell, she rose no more.
24
To effect reform, such retrenchments must be
made in public and private life, as will be at first
very obnoxious to a multitude of men, because it
will operate to separate them from the possession
and indulgence of some favorite luxury. We shall
find few willing, as in the virtuous times of the
Roman commonwealth, to leave the helm of state
and take the plough.
Supposing this political change to be really
effected, our agriculture and fisheries will then
claim our attention, as the sources from which our
immediate wants are derivable. Our manufactures
will be multiplied, and our commerce being exten-
ded and unshackled, will supply us, through the
medium of barter and exchange, with the products
of other nations.
The uncultivated lands in this country, by being
brought into tillage, will more than subsist a dou-
ble population. The farms ought to be of such
magnitude, that farmers might be rendered indepen-
dent of other classes, and whoever covets more land
than is necessary to sustain himself and his family,
ought to be degraded as a violator of the law of
human society. Their determinate size might be
regulated by circumstances. They should be pro-
portioned to the size of the family who are to be
supported by their cultivation ; for although it can
make no difference in regard to the mere employ-
ment of men, whether farms are large or diminutive,
inasmuch as a determinate number of men will be
25
Tequisite to till a determinate number of acres, yet
the object to be attained is principally not to em-
ploy a specific number of men, but to render specific
families capable of maintaining themselves without
incumbering the community. This good will re-
sult from the establishment of small farms, that the
produce will be brought into the market as it can
be manufactured and sold for ready money. This
evil will ensue from large farms, that a great part of
the produce may be withheld from the mar-
ket, and whilst the inferior farmer may be obliged
to sell his corn for 70s. or 80s. a quarter, the larger
farmer may, by with holding his supplies, raise the
price to 90 or 100s, by which the community may
suffer an injury proportioned to one fifth of the
value by this speculation.
Does is not happen at this moment that an
opulent farmer can gain credit and acquire advan-
tages, from which the inferior farmer is debarred :
If a poor farmer has occasion for money, he must
take his corn to market, and sell it for what he
can get. The opulent farmer requiring money,
has nothing to do but apply to his neighbour
the banker, give his draft payable at two months
after date, and he obtains without trouble, the re-
quired sum in provincial bank notes, for which he
pays only a trifling discount, and at the end of the
two months gains probably 20 per cent by a rise in
corn which by these means, adopted by many, is
thus artificially enhanced in price.
D
26
As the populace of a country must derive their
subsistence from the soil, and as an increased quan-
tity of land will be of necessity required to give
employment to people as they multiply, and to
supply their necessary wants, it will follow that the
people in general have a just right to have so much
land cultivated as shall be amply sufficient for that
purpose, because every person is by nature as much
intitled to all the land he can cultivate for his sub-
sistence and use, as he is to the air he breathes, for
he can no more live without the one than the other.
Ought the waste lands to remain unemployed and
unfruitful, when a nation is starving, merely because
it is the pleasure of their pampered owners that
they should be so? Grotius lays it down as a
standard maxim, that a thing possessed in peculiar
when another man's life cannot be saved without it,
is turned again into common, by the law of neces-
sity, and even the common law of England in some
instances recognizes this principle.
Supposing under any government, provision is not
made for persons in want, and that the covetous tem-
per of rich men cannot be prevailed upon to adminis-
ter relief, and that a man is not able by any means
to assist his necessities, must be therefore perish
by famine Can it be expected that any human
institution can bind him with such a force, that
in case another man neglects his duty or the exer-
cise of his compassion towards him, that he must
rather die than recede from the ordinary and re-
27
gular way of acting? It is impossible for a man
not to apply his utmost endeavours in his own pre-
servation, and therefore we cannot easily conceive
such an obligation upon him as ought to counter-
balance the desire of his own safety; indeed nature
is too violent and powerful for any discipline.
What stronger proof have we of the irresistible
operations of such incentives, than that recorded
in holy writ, where David took possession of the
consecrated bread? I should therefore propose, that
as all land in this kingdom was under the feudal
system derived from the crown, under an implied
condition that it should be managed in the best
possible manner for mutual benefit, that the crown
should resume all the uncultivated wastes as for-
feited property, and regrant them to the poor, which
would effectually relieve the country from their op-
pressive burthen. -
Our fisheries may be considered as an inexhaus-
tible mine of national wealth, by their means the
Dutch became the most powerful nation in the world,
and the same measures which they adopted, if imi-
tated by us, would unavoidably secure to us equal
benefits. The treasures derivable from our own
territories are immeasurable, and under a free and
liberal policy, would elevate us to the highest sum-
mit of human greatness. -
Our trade should be carried on by the ancient and
laudable method of barter and exchange, or selling
one commodity for another. Formerly there was no
28
other way of maintaining commerce but by that modé.
The Dutch almost within our own memory, began to
raise themselves as a commercial people by barter-
ing fish for foreign commodities, and perhaps their
ancient temperance, industry and mercantile habits,
would be still the best examples for our imitation;
or instead of seeking to aggrandize ourselves at the
expence of our public virtue, we might proceed to
set bounds to our own extravagance, by which
means we should learn that there is more gain and
profit in a peaceful competency, than in an anxious
pursuit of abundance.
Thus terminate my observations, which, if well
improved, would greatly contribute to the general
advantage, and which I hope your Lordship will
not think less true in politics than in ethics. Should
your Lordship and your official colleagues act upon
the principles inculcated by them, your characters
would be immortalized by a grateful nation as bene-
factors of society, otherwise we must be prepared to
meet the worst, and to sink under that common ruin
which threatens to overwhelm the country.
I am &c.
*
H. S.
*~~~~~
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