THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 332 
 B875 
 
 V/8

 
 I 
 
 THE ^ 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 TRIBUTARY 
 
 TO FRANCE; 
 
 THE 
 
 REAL CAUSE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DISTRESSES OF THE COUNTRY : 
 
 DEMONSTRATED IN A 
 
 JLttttx 
 
 RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL, 
 
 FIRST J-ORD OF THE TnEASURT. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1820.
 
 A 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 &c. 
 
 ( 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 .1 HAT the distresses of the country continue rather to increase 
 than to diminish, is a fact which seems to be admitted on all sides ; 
 and it is equally evident that there is no public confidence, either 
 that the cause of these distresses has been satisfactorily ascertained, 
 or that any of the various remedies proposed will remove the evils, 
 of which there is so much reason to complain. In the Houses of 
 Parliament, the subject, in some shape, is almost daily adverted to ; 
 and members, of diiFerent interests and opposite politics, are 
 actively and eagerly engaged in discussing those questions, which 
 are supposed to affect our national prosperity. The Poor Laws, 
 the Corn Laws, Cash Payments, Liquidation of the Public Debt, 
 Depression of Trade, Ruin of Agriculture, or Reform in Parlia- 
 ment, are the daily topics of senatorial eloquence. Session after 
 session, since the decisive battle of Waterloo, have the talents of 
 the first men of the age been exercised on various subjects relative 
 to the situation of the country ; and nothing has been done, or 
 rather, no cure has been effected. Year after year passes away, 
 and our difficulties augment as we go on. Remedies seem to be 
 proposed and adopted before the cause of the disease has been 
 accurately defined. For the two or three first years after the 
 peace, the sudden transition from war, and the revulsion, as it was 
 called, of commerce, were said to be the causes of all our calamities ; 
 that we were suffering a temporary evil, which would very soon cure 
 itself. Certainly a change from war to peace must affect many 
 thousands of individuals, but it cannot for a moment be admitted 
 to be a national calamity, even of short duration. This opinion
 
 3] The United Kingdom, ^c. 525 
 
 does not now prevail. Experience has taught that it is not true, 
 and people seem to be at a loss to what to attribute the distresses 
 of the country. It is indeed inconsistent with common sense to 
 suppose, that a nation can be in a state of less prosperity in peace 
 than in war ; that poverty can be the consequence of diminished 
 expenses with undiminished means ; and that a free com- 
 merce to all parts of the world can be productive of less 
 profit to the nation than the confinement of it under severe 
 restrictions, expenses, and dangers, to particular countries, as 
 was the case during the war. These things cannot be ; they 
 are utterly at variance with common sense. It is not, therefore, the 
 peace which has produced the evils of which we so loudly com- 
 plain. There must then be some other cause for our distress. - 
 Enlightened statesmen, political economists, and writers of various 
 descriptions, all admitting the fact, have assigned to it different 
 causes ; — The disciples of Mr. Malthus hint at a redundant Popu- 
 tion ; — Mr. Tierney says it is Paper Currency ; — Mr. Brougham, 
 excessive Taxation ; — Mr. Baring, restrictive Trade ; — Sir Francis 
 Burdett, want of Radical Reform ,• — While others attribute all the 
 calamities of the country to the Poor Rates. 
 
 I will endeavour to prove that these causes, jointly, or separately, 
 are not sufficient to account for the great stagnation and poverty 
 which cover the face of the land j and first I will show that it is not 
 a redundant Population. 
 
 A nation cannot be said to be over-peopled if sufficient food be 
 generally produced for the consumption of its inhabitants. I 
 believe that in the United Kingdom a sufficiency is generally 
 produced, and that it is only in bad seasons that we are compelled 
 to seek the aid of foreign countries : if we had only one half our 
 present population, we might still be sometimes under the neces- 
 sity, if the seasons became worse, of importing food from abroad. 
 That we do so occasionally is therefore no proof that there are too 
 many people in the country.' 
 
 ' I admit that there is a redundant Population in the educated parts of 
 society, which occasions much misery to that portion who have to maintain 
 themselves by the exercise ot" mental talent. The competition in the pro- 
 fessions, and in the middle ranks of the trading community, is dreadful. It 
 is the source of much wretchedness to many thousands; and it is our 
 misfortune that these men, of all others, are the least fit for emigralioji. 
 The consideration of this subject will be well worthy the attention of the 
 public, and may tend to discourage that spirit of educating ail ranks of 
 people, which seems to be very much the fashion of tiic day. I do not, 
 however, believe that redundant Population, generally bpeaking, is the cause 
 of our distress.
 
 5S6 The United Kingdom \4t 
 
 Secondly, Paper Currency. — A great deal too much gloomy con- 
 sequence has been attached to this expedient, which was highly 
 beneficial to the country when adopted, and can only be made in- 
 jurious by our own folly. Money being useful merely for the 
 purpose of an interchange of commodities ; of what consequence 
 is it, whether that interchange be made by paper or gold ? There 
 may be some danger of persons in power supplying the market 
 with more than the public necessities require, which would imme- 
 diately produce a depreciation in the value, by raising the price of 
 commodities, and thereby injuring those who were holders of pa- 
 per money before the depreciation took place. But even this evil 
 (I mean an over-issue of paper money, which has not yet taken 
 place,) could not create permanent distress. A paper currency is 
 generally received and paid at the same value. It cannot affect 
 national riches or prosperity, which depend not on the species or 
 quantity of its currency, but on the produce of its soil, and its 
 arts and manufactures. Substitute gold or silver for every bank 
 note now in circulation, and will any one contend that our mise- 
 ries are at an end } 
 
 Thirdly, Excessive Taxation.— I am aware that it will be diffi- 
 cult to dispose of this question, as not touching the distresses of 
 the country. In fact it must be admitted, that taxation does ma- 
 terially contribute thereto, though I think it does not produce that 
 overwhelming ruin which some people are apt to imagine. The 
 effect of taxation, and particularly such a taxation as ours, the 
 bulk of which goes to pay the interest of the National Debt, is 
 simply this : — It enables a certain number of persons (creditors of 
 the State) to live by the labors of others ; but it does not so ma- 
 terially affect the national prosperity— that is, the productions of 
 the soil, or the industry of the people— because it neither increases 
 nor diminishes those productions in any great degree. It may be 
 said, indeed, in one way, to increase the national wealth, by sti- 
 mulating the people to industrious exertion, to enable them to pay 
 the taxes ; while, on the other hand, the creditors of the State, 
 being themselves with their servants and dependants, idle and un- 
 productive, in proportion to their numbers, must diminish the re- 
 sources of the country. In making this calculation upon the effect 
 of the National Debt, I presume that the mass of the fundholders 
 are Englishmen, and that they expend in this country the amount 
 of their dividends. It makes every difference if the money arising 
 from the dividends were to go abroad ; in that case, it would 
 have the effect, as I shall soon show, of a contribution to a fo- 
 reign State ; it would impoverish and exhaust us ; but spent a- 
 mongst ourselves, it is money taken out of the pocket of one and 
 given to another, and again to another, and no value actually
 
 S"] tributary to France, <5'C. 527 
 
 goes out of the country. The nation loses nothing but the waste 
 or consumption of the individual fundholders, who in numbers are 
 too inconsiderable to create national distress. 
 
 That restrictive Trade occasions our present distresses can hard- 
 ly be supported, because restrictions have existed in the most 
 prosperous times of the country, and in some instances in a greater 
 degree than they do now. 
 
 The Edinburgh Review has lately put forth an article condemn- 
 ing the policy of our Corn Laws, and endeavouring to prove that 
 they operate as an excessive Poll Tax upon the people. This doc- 
 trine does little credit to those, who are supposed to be very pro- 
 found in matters of Political Economy. The price of corn does 
 now, as it always has done, with certain exceptions arising from 
 accidental causes, regulate the price of every species of labor, 
 and it signifies not to the laborer whether he pays 405. or 8O5. 
 per quarter for his corn, if his wages be in like proportion. All 
 trades and professions are governed by the same principle. Since 
 the price of corn became 80s, per quarter, are not the physician's 
 and the lawyer's fees double what they were when the price was 
 only 4-Os. per quarter ? The same argument prevails generally 
 with regard to all persons whatever, except fundholders who 
 lent their money when corn was SO5. per quarter, and who alone 
 would benefit by the reduction of the price to 405, In the latter 
 case they would command double the labor they could have done 
 when they lent their money. This would not be justice to the rest 
 of the community, and I therefore maintain that it is the interest 
 of all (fundholders excepted), that the price should continue not 
 less than 8O5, This price will enable the farmer to pay his rent 
 and taxes, and to clothe his family ; and it will enable the landlord 
 to employ manufacturers and mechanics in the supply of his wants, 
 which for a considerable time he has in many instances been un- 
 able to do, by the non-payment of his rent : thereby leaving liis 
 neighbouring tradesmen in a state of idleness and starvation. Is 
 it for the interest of the laborer or manufacturer to pay 405, per 
 quarter for his corn with not half employment, or 8O5. with his 
 hands full of work ? Ask the men themselves for an answer to 
 this question ! It is not, therefore, restrictive commerce, nor a high 
 price of corn, ' which occasions our present calamities. 
 
 ' The (inly argument entitled to consideration respecting the consequence 
 of a high ]irice ot corn, i.>, that it incrt-ases the price otlu-bor, and conse- 
 quently Uie price ot ^^oodsji;/- crpo/tuUuu, enabling thereby other nations to 
 i-upply the same goods at a clieaper rate. But our advantages in mac hincry 
 and skill will mfiniteiy more tlitn countcrbiiLmce a price of Libwr 50 per 
 cent, higher than it is now, and we should incur no ri:.k of losing the supply 
 of foreigners witli the same quantity of goods ihac wc do at prcseut, by 
 th«t ciicutntiauee.
 
 528 The United Kingdom [6 
 
 I now come to Radical Reform : and I think it incumbent upon 
 the advocates of that nostrum, to show that a House of Commons, 
 constituted upon the principle of Universal Suffrage and Annual 
 Parliaments, would have the power of the steam engine in the 
 operations of productive labor, before they call upon us to ex- 
 pect that the adoption of that measure will remove poverty and 
 misery 
 
 That the Poor Rates occasion our distresses, cannot for a mo- 
 ment be maintained. Pauperism is the consequence, not the 
 cause, where the laws are properly administered, and where impo- 
 sition is guarded against. 
 
 Having now, I trust, satisfactorily proved that it is neither 
 redundant Population^ nor Paper Currency^ nor excessive 
 Taxatiouj nor restrictive Tradcy nor the want of Radical Re- 
 form^ nor the Poor Rates, which occasion the miseries and 
 distresses of the people, it behoves me to point out some other 
 cause, the exposure of which will, with irresistible force, 
 at once carry conviction to the mind. What then will be 
 the feelings of Englishmen, if I prove to a demonstration, that this 
 country is now, after the termination of a glorious war, and the 
 accomplishment of an honorable peace, in precisely the same 
 situation, as to national prosperity, as if we had been a conquered 
 people by Napoleon, and rendered tributary to his superior power? 
 We are actually tributary ; not forcibly, but voluntarily so. We 
 remit annually 36 millions of the productions of the soil, or the 
 industry of the people, to foreign nations, principally France and 
 Italy, to support Absentees. This is the source of " all our 
 woe. ' Let the Absentees come home. Let the 36 millions be 
 expended in this country ; let us obtain from those foreign nation* 
 the *» Quid pro quo,' and all will be right again. We can bear 
 excessive taxation : sinecures and pensions are a drop in the 
 bucket. Industry and the use of machinery are equal to all this ; 
 but thirty-six millions, earned by the sweat of our brow, and hand- 
 ed over to foreign nations without an equivalent, is more than 
 can be borne. As the principle of Solar gravity is constantly, se- 
 cretly, and imperceptibly operating to the preservation of the uni- 
 verse ; so does the expenditure of Englishmen in foreign countries, 
 imperceptibly to common observation,^ undermine the prosperity 
 of their own. It is this, that creates misery and fosters discontent ; 
 it is this, that swells the ranks of the Radicals, and will continue, 
 while the evil exists, to increase their numbers. I take the sum 
 at thirty six millions, because the number of absentees, with their 
 servants and dependants, is computed at 1 00,1)00; and from their 
 rank in life, they must, upon an average, expend one pound each 
 per day. Let the consequence of this be calculated, although not
 
 7] tributary to France^ S^c. 529 
 
 the same in a direct manner to individuals, with regard to the 
 nation, and to individuals indirectly, it is the same as if a tax of 
 thirty-six millions were levied upon this country for the use of 
 France. Englishmen, burning with indignation, will exclaim — Is 
 this possible ? It is true; and we have allowed it, hitherto for years, 
 quietly to be done. It may be contended, th.it people have a right 
 to spend their money where they please. I am a strenuous advo- 
 cate fur personal liberty ; but the country must not be impoverished 
 to ruin. I deny the right. I am not a Spencean ; but I deny 
 that they have by natural justice — which ought to be law in all 
 countries, and is acknowledged to be so in this — any such right. 
 A landed proprietor is a trustee for the benefit of the public ; he 
 has a right to all the advantages and gratifications which his 
 property can afford him in his own country. As, from the physi- 
 cal nature of man, those gratifications must necessarily be, in most 
 cases, limited in proportion to the produce of his land ; so he has 
 no right to dispose of the renvainder of that produce, in a way to be 
 of no benefit to the sons of the soil. It surely will not be contend- 
 ed that a landlord is so completely the owner of his estate, that he 
 would have the right, if he had the inclination and the power, to 
 throw it into the sea ; neither has he the right to give the productions 
 of it to a foreigner; but this is done, and in the way that I have set 
 forth, not precisely in the actual produce, but generally in money 
 or in manufactured goods obtained in exchange for that produce. 
 I will not involve the subject in mazes similar to that of the bul- 
 lion question, or in the intricacies of the arguments as to foreign 
 exchanges. The simple matter of fact will be better illustrated 
 by the following example : — A man of 1,000Z. per annum landed 
 property in England, chooses to reside in the charming and salubri- 
 ous climate of the south of France ; he orders his agent to remit 
 to him his rents. At this period, an English merchant sends 1,000/. 
 value in goods to Bordeaux. The agent wants a bill, to remit the 
 landlord, and the merchant wants payment for his goods. An 
 agreement takes place between the parties ; the latter receives the 
 amount of the rents in exchange for a draft upon the consignee 
 of the goods, which draft is remitted by the agent to his employer, 
 and thus the matter is settled to the accommodation of both parties, 
 and without apparent or direct loss to either. But mark the con- 
 sequence to the nation ! The value of the goods wrought by the 
 industry of England, is appropriated to pay in France the expenses 
 of the English gentleman, and not one farthing of it ever returns 
 to this country in any shape. If the landlord resided at home, he 
 would expend his 1,000/. amongst his neighbouring tradesmen, and 
 the merchant would get payment for his goods in money or some 
 commodity of France, which would, of course, increase the wealth 
 VOL. XVII. Pam. NO. XXXIV. 2 L
 
 530 The United Kingdom [S 
 
 and the means of England. This statement must be intelligible 
 to every understanding, and proves that all money expended by 
 Englishmen abroad, is an absolute drain or tax upon the people 
 at home, and is, moreover, the means of enriching our natural ene- 
 mies, and furnishing them with the sinews of future war. It is a 
 vulgar and a most erroneous notion, that a man of great income 
 enjoys any great portion of his wealth in his own person. It is 
 said that the Duke of Northumberland has 150,000/. per annum. 
 What a small part of this immense wealth does he himself con- 
 sume ! His stewards, his tradesmen, his servants, and various 
 other persons, get nearly the whole of it. Perhaps in his own per- 
 son he does not waste or injure the country to the extent of 50/. 
 per annum. Even his food and his clothing are almost all profit, 
 in some shape, to others ; but suppose the 150,000/. per annum 
 were expended in France : what labor, what industry would it 
 require to produce property to such an amount to export abroad, 
 and for which no return would be made P what, too, would become 
 of those persons in this country, who were themselves supported, 
 and were the support of others, by means of the Duke's income ? 
 Thousands, aye tens of thousands of tradesmen and persons in 
 different classes of life, derive benefit by the circulation of this 
 property here, which sent abroad, would leave them to press for 
 support upon other portions of society ; thereby injuring, to a cer- 
 tain extent, the whole body, and producing the very calamities 
 which we all now so feelingly deplore. It is to be hoped, when 
 the consequences of non-residence are made perfectly clear to 
 our countrymen abroad, they will return without compulsion j but 
 it is the paramount duty of the government to enforce the resi- 
 dence of all those who derive their means of living, either from 
 the soil or the funds of this country. A tax upon absentees has 
 sometimes been talked of : but a tax will not do ; it will only re- 
 medy the evil in proportion to the per centage, which cannot be 
 very considerable. Let them be recalled. Queen Elizabeth would 
 not allow any person of consideration in her time to reside out of 
 her dominions without a special licence, which was not easily ob- 
 tained, nor without good cause shown. In the present day, such a 
 restraint would be considered a great infringement upon personal 
 liberty ; bict the country must he saved. By adopting the example 
 of his great predecessor, George the Fourth might incur the cen- 
 sure of hundreds, but he would have the praise and gratitude of 
 millions ; and even the few would have no rational ground of com- 
 plaint — they would only be deprived of a privilege which is not 
 permitted even to the monarch himself. What ! are we to be 
 worse off in peace than in war ? Are we to lay by no resources 
 for future hostilities ? Are we to throw into the lap of France
 
 9] trihutdry to France, ^c, 531 
 
 the produce of our industry and our soil, and to receive nothing 
 from her in return — and all this to gratify the taste or caprice of 
 a few individuals ; (I do not mean those abroad on public or private 
 business, or invalids, to whom the indulgence, upon proper proof, 
 ought to be allowed.) No, no ! The mass of the people will ne- 
 ver allow this, when cause and effect are made clear to their com- 
 prehension. They have hitherto borne their privations, which high 
 and low have suffered with patience, ignorant of the precise cause, 
 but willing to hope for the speedy termination. Alas ! that ter- 
 mination they will not see, unless the remedy here proposed be 
 adopted. Year after year, they will find their means diminish, till, 
 driven to despair, even the well-disposed will listen to the delusive 
 language of the Radicals. Let the government and the legislature 
 take care that this necessity is not forced upon a people, who are 
 sufficiently enlightened to be determined to assert the right of enjoy- 
 ing the fruits and the industry of their own country. 
 
 That the number of idle absentees who are spending English mo- 
 ney abroad, consists of not less than 100,000, and that their daily 
 expenses upon an average are twenty shillings each, seems to be 
 generally admitted by those best informed on the subject. There 
 are now 20,000 at Paris, 3000 at Boulogne, 2000 at Calais, 2000 
 at Brussels, 2000 at Tours, 2000 at Bordeaux } several thousands 
 at Rome and at Naples ; and they are spread more or less in eve- 
 ry town and village in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, 
 and Italy. In September, 1818, there were nine English physi- 
 cians at Paris, whose practice was entirely with English patients. 
 If this statement be not correct, let measures be taken to ascertain 
 the truth ; and if it be established, I will ask those who may be 
 inclined to discredit the conclusions which I have drawn therefrom, 
 why France is now enjoying a high state of prosperity, acknow- 
 ledged by all who have been there, and admitted to be unknown at 
 any former period of her history ; and why this country is labor- 
 ing under a degree of distress — not partial or confined to particular 
 districts or classes of the community, but, fundholders excepted, 
 general throughout the kingdom — amongst the agriculturists, mer- 
 chants, and manufacturers, landlord and tenant, master and ser- 
 vant; on all sides, from the Land's End to the Orkney Islands. It is 
 supposed, and very properly supposed, that poverty and misery are 
 the consequences of war. Have we then had more war than the 
 French during the last thirty years ? Has our trade been more 
 confined or less successful ? Is our capital inferior ^ Are the 
 laws respecting property less efficient or protecting ? Are the arts 
 and sciences, and use of machinery, not so well understood here as 
 in France, and are the divisions of labor not so complete ? In 
 short, is our progress not so advanced as that of the French, in all
 
 532 The United Kingdom, ^c. [10 
 
 those circumstances that constitute the wealth of nations ? The 
 contrary in each of these particulars is well known to be the fact. 
 The French have had more foreign war than ourselves, in addition to 
 civil war (from which, thank God ! we have been exempt) with all its 
 horrors, and its sure accompaniment, destruction of property. How 
 comes it then, that there are thousands of our lower classes without 
 employment and in a state bordering on starvation, while there is no 
 such thuig in France ? It is said the people there, of all ranks, are in 
 comfortable circumstances: this comes home to my argument. The 
 French keep within themselves their own resources, and they receive 
 the voluntary contributions of other countries. Let us reverse the pic- 
 ture. Suppose the whole of our countrymen now abroad were to re- 
 turn, and that certain rich foreigners were to think fit to reside in 
 England, expending the enormous sum of thirty-six millioiib sterling ; 
 would not the whole of our population be in a state of complete 
 prosperity, enjoying the riches (productions) of other countries as 
 well as the whole of our oison? Discontent would be banished from 
 the land, and England would be in temporal prosperity and hap- 
 piness, as superior to other countries as she is in refinement, in 
 commerce, and in all her charitable, moral, civil, and religious in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 I have the honor to remain. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 &c. &c. &».