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1821.] Report of the Select Committee on the State of Agriculture.

If the weight of the public burdens of a country be considered in reference to its population only, then (with the exception of Holland, perhaps) England is the most taxed portion of Europe: but if it be measured by the aggregate of national capital, or income arising from capital, divided by the total number of people among whom that capital or income is distributed, it may then be doubted whether, upon such an average, the proportion of tax to the income or capital of each individual, be not less in England than in several states of the Continent, or even in Ireland; but whilst they are desirous of correcting the mistaken opinion, that the depression under which our agriculture now labours is either exclusively or principally to be attributed to taxation, they cannot disguise from themselves, that the weight of the public burdens of the country, their nominal amount remaining the same, must be more severely felt, in proportion as the money incomes derived from trading, farming, and manufacturing capital and industry are diminished. No exertion, therefore, should be omitted, to endeavour to reduce those burdens, as nearly as circumstances will permit, in the degree in which such incomes may have been reduced; for, in considering this subject, it is important to have in mind, that the general amount and real pressure of taxation have been positively increased, in the proportion of the improved value of our currency. Your Committee cannot conclude the observations which they have found it their duty to submit to the House, without observing, that most of the petitions referred to them, complain of the inadequate and injurious operation of the present Corn Law, and pray generally for protection, not for grain only, but for all the productions of our agriculture, equal to the protection given to the manufactures of this country.

Within this principle, the petitioners appear to be friendly to an open trade; but, in the application of it, as expounded in some of the petitions, and illustrated in the examinations of some of the witnesses, your Committee cannot but apprehend that the duties which they contemplate, would be altogether prohibitory.

It cannot be necessary to enter into any statements, to shew, that, practically, this would be the result, in all but seasons of scarcity, of a fixed duty

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of 40s. a quarter upon wheat. When the trade in corn with the Continent was open, subject to the scale of duties imposed by the Acts of 1773, 1791, and 1804, and in force till 1815, there never was an importation of foreign corn to any amount during the short intervals when the high duties were demandable; and yet those duties at no part of the time exceeded 24s. 3d. per quarter. To this fact they will only add, that what is proposed, in addition to the amount of the duty, namely, that it should be permanent, "whatever may be the price," is a proposition which your Committee are confident the Legislature could never entertain, nor any considerable portion of the community ever countenance.

The suggestions with respect to duties equally prohibitory on every other article the production of the soil of this country, all come under the same principle, and are open to the same objection. The principle would, in fact, go far to annihilate commercial intercourse altogether; and is, moreover, founded, as it appears to your Committee, upon a mistaken statement, as well as an erroneous view of what is deemed protection to our manufactures.

But the main grounds upon which your Committee are disposed to think that the House will look with some mistrust to the soundness of this principle, is first, that it may be well doubted, whether (with the exception of silk) any of our considerable manufactures derive benefit from this assumed protection in the markets of this country. Secondly, that there exists this most essential difference between the effect of protection given to the manufacturer (even if he did not enjoy from natural causes a preference in the home market), and the attempt at a similar protection and monopoly to the produce of the soil-that in all employment of capital, either in trade or manufactures, profits are limited by competition.

Another wish expressed is for the repeal of that clause in the last Act, which allows the warehousing in the United Kingdom of foreign corn when it cannot be taken out for home consumption.

The grounds upon which this alteration of the law is suggested, for the relief of the British grower, are twofold. First, That the foreign corn absorbs the capitals of the dealers which

would

would otherwise be employed in speculating in corn of British growth; and, secondly, That it enables them to hold, in the warehouses of this country, a large stock of foreign wheat, the notoriety of which depresses the markets, from the dread of its being poured in so soon as it is set free by the prices rising above eighty shillings.

The first objection proceeds upon two assumptions, both of which appear to your Committee doubtful: Ist, that the capitals of the dealers are absorbed in this foreign speculation; and secondly, that, if not so employed, they would speculate with them in British corn. Your Committee conceive, that there is no fixed amount of capital assigned to this trade, and that it is governed by the same principles which stimulate the application of capital in all other branches of foreign or domestic commerce. The value of all the foreign corn now in this country, which cannot be sold for home consumption till the price shall, for some weeks, have exceeded 80s. a quarter, is probably less than one million sterling. British corn, by the last return, was about 53s. per quarter. Can there be a doubt, if an impression prevailed generally, that it would rise to 79s. before next harvest, that abundant capital would be found for speculation? and is not the want of it, at this moment, rather to be received as evidence of an apprehension that, in the event of another productive harvest, the present low prices would not be improved?

Upon the second objection, your Committee have only to remark, that it is unquestionably true, that the present accumulation of a great quantity of foreign corn, the surplus of the two or three last harvests on the Continent, would have a considerable influence upon the prices here, in the event of the ports being opened in consequence of a deficient harvest. But the question is, whether that influence would not be nearly, if not altogether the same, under that contingency, if that accumulation were altogether at the shipping ports of Holland, or other parts of the Continent, instead of being divided between them and the warehouses of this country? the ports of Flanders and Holland being as convenient for the Thames, as most of our own ports from which corn is shipped for London.

Having stated the grounds upon which your Committee are of opinion

that the expectations which have been entertained of advantage from the repeal of this clause, are not likely to be realized, they conceive that the views in which it was introduced, of making this country a deposit of foreign grain, from which either our own occasional wants, or those of other nations, might be supplied, are, independent of other considerations, too much in unison with our general warehousing system, from which this country derives such important commercial advantages, to be abandoned, without further proof of their prejudicial effects to our agriculture, than any which your Committee have been able to collect from the evidence.

It is material to observe, also, that the warehousing of foreign corn in this country has this great advantage, that it places the supply of our wants, to the extent of the quantity warehoused, out of the reach of foreign States, putting it out of their power, in a season of scarcity, to aggravate the pressure of those wants, either by prohibiting the export of corn, or by imposing a heavy duty upon that export. fact of upwards of 100,000 quarters of wheat having been recently sent from the warehouses of this country to the Mediterranean, further shews that this facility of deposit is not a matter of indifference to the commerce and navigation of this country.

The

An impression prevails in many quarters, that large quantities of corn, imported since February, 1819, have recently been introduced into home consumption. This could only have occurred by a fraudulent evasion of the law. Of the existence of this practice to a great extent, your Committee have received many intimations. They appear, however, to rest upon vague rumours, which the parties, when called upon, have not come forward, or not been able to substantiate, except in one instance, the particulars of which your Committee forbear to state, as it is understood that the persons concerned in the attempt are now under prosecution. They will only observe, that the quantity stated to have been withdrawn was inconsiderable, and that it appears to them, if further security be requisite against the recurrence of this fraud, that regulations for that purpose may easily be devised and introduced into the Bill, now before the House, for better ascertaining the averages.

NEW

NEW PATENTS AND MECHANICAL INVENTIONS. Reported by CHARLES BLUNT, Draughtsman of Machinery, and London Agent to Patentees and the Authors of Inventions who desire to secure them by Patent.

N exhibition, called walking on

A water, has been exhibited by Mr. Kent, at Glasgow. The apparatus is represented in the engraving; where a b c are three hollow tin cases of the form of an oblong hemispheroid, connected together by three iron bars, at the meeting of which is a seat for the exhibitor. These cases, filled with air, are of such magnitude that they can easily support his weight, and as ab and a care about ten feet, and b c about eight feet, he floats very steadily upon the water. The feet of the exhibitor rest on stirrups, and he attaches to his shoes, by leather belts, two paddles, de, which turn on a joint when he brings his foot forward to take the stroke, and keep a vertical position when he draws it back against the resisting water: by the alternate action of his feet, he is thus enabled to advance at the rate of five miles an hour. To GEORGE VIZARD, of Dursley, for a new Process or Method of Dressing and Polishing goods of Woollen manufacture.

The Patentee proposes to introduce the substance called pumice-stone, as a substitute for teasals or wire-cards, in the dressing, smoothing and polish ing operations of the woollen manufacture. His organization of the improvement consists in a box or case of wood, about sixteen inches in length, four in width, and two deep, on which pieces of pumice-stone are fastened by glue or water proof cement. He renders this arrangement of the material used, level on its upper surface or working face, by rasping, and allows the piece to project above the sides of the tray about half an inch.

These sets of stones thus prepared. are attached to the cylinder, gigmill MONTHLY MAG. No. 357.

and other arrangements used for dressing woollen cloths; and the patente e reserves by his specification, the usual right of choice of materials for his cases or boxes, and the mode of fastening or securing the pieces of pumice

stone.

To ROGER ARNOLD, of Chigwell, Essex, for an Improved Expansion Balance for Chronometers.

This balance is composed of a bar compounded of steel and brass, a bar of steel which has a smaller bar or strip of brass attached in its whole length to the steel bar by melting. At the ex

tremities of the compound bar are weights, which are adjustible as to their distance from the centre or point on which the balance oscillates in the plane of oscillation. Near the extremities of the compound bar, but a small distance within the extreme length, are also other weights adjustible on arms projecting downwards at right angles to the plane of oscillation. The weights adjustible in the plane of oscillation, regulate the mean rate of the balance, those adjustible at right angles to that plane, afford the regulation for temperature. The action of the balance is conceived by supposing the two sets of weights described, to be so adjusted that the balance shall beat mean time, at a given temperature. Now under any increase of that temperature, the brass portion of the compound bar being of quicker expansion than the steel bar on which it is attached, is elongated and bends itself and the steel bar with it in a curve, which is convex on the upper side of the balance, and which therefore will bring the arms and weights which project from the under side of the balance inwards and nearer to the centre or oscillation, and the tendency to a slower vibration from the expansion of the balance by the increased temperature will be compensated by the radius of the arc of vibration being thus shortened. If on the other hand the temperature decreases; the brass portion of the bar will contract, causing the whole to bend in a curve, concave on its upper side, and so producing the divergence of the same projecting arms and weights, in which case although the compound bar is contracted, the radius of the arc of oscillation is increased, the oscillation becomes

H

slower

slower by the proper compensating quantity.

To WILLIAM KENDRICK, of Birmingham, for a Combination of Apparatus for Extracting tanning matter from Bark.

The patentee exposes the fresh or waste oak bark, or other material from which he is to obtain the tanning matter, to the action of steam, or of water heated considerably above the boiling point. His apparatus consists of a boiler capable of generating them at an elasticity, that its pressure shall be not less than from eight to twelve pounds upon the square inch; and from this boiler or steam vessel the steam is conveyed into a vessel containing the bark or substance from which the tanning matter is to be extracted. The steam

IT

from the steam-conducting-pipe is equally diffused in the vessel of bark, by a pipe which reaches nearly to the bottom of the vessel, and pierced with small holes in every part of its length.

Observations. In this patent, (which we have no doubt is effectual as to its general object) there are gross and striking incongruities, which it is the responsible duty of a reporter to notice in the way of caution to others. The title of the patent is for an apparatus, for extracting, &c, the specification explains no apparatus, but gives a general account of a method or process, and in the description, of which there is not precision enough to enable an inexperienced person to effect it without a course of experiments of his own.

VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL, Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domestic and Foreign.

T is a fact interesting to science and important to the progress of aerostation, that the Balloon which ascended from the Green Park, on the day of the Coronation, was filled with ordinary coal-gas, or carburetted hydrogen, instead of gas prepared from sulphuric acid and zine, or iron filings, by the usual tedious and expensive process. A pipe was laid on to the main which supplies the street lamps, and the balloon was filled without solicitude in a shorter time than the same operation was ever performed before, and at the expence of £5. Taking the gas at .555 and the diameter at 32 feet, the power of ascension exceeded 7 cwt. Of course the machine acted well, and the ascent was one of the most beautiful ever beheld since the first ascent of Lunardi, in 1785. The varied currents of air in the atmosphere were strikingly exemplified. The wind was nearly east; but, at a certain height the balloon was wafted northward, the eastward; and it fell at the distance of only thirteen miles after making traverses of nearly fifty miles in forty-five

minutes.

Another novel, under the title of THE PIRATE, is preparing by the prolific Author of "Waverley."

Mr. BELLCHAMBERS will soon publish a corrected edition of the Life of COLLEY CIBBER, the dramatist.

Mr. CHARLES MARSH, late M.P. for Worksop, is preparing Memoirs of the late Mr. Windham, drawn up from his own Papers.

A History of Rome, from the Accession of Augustus to the Death of Antoninus the Younger, will soon appear, from the pen of Mr. W. HAYGARTH. It fills up the chasm between Hooke and Gibbon, and, if well executed, will prove a desirable work.

A History of Brazil, with numerous engravings, is in preparation, by Mr. JAMES HENDERSON.

Some of the best poets of the day have been engaged to versify the Psalms of David, with a view to their being introduced into the Church Service. United to the Sacred Music of Mr. Gardiner, they will effect a desirable reform.

Mr. HANSARD, the Printer, is employed on a History of his Art, with an account of the various improvements lately made in Great Britain, for the use of printers and others, with numerous engravings in wood.

Mr. BoswELL is preparing a new edition of Malone's Shakespeare, with improvements.

Mrs. TAYLOR, of Ongar, is engaged on a tale in verse, called Temper.

The

In the notice of Sir RICHARD PHILLIPS's Essays, in our last, the word Phenomena was, by mistake, omitted after the word material, an error which may be corrected with the pen. title of the proposed volume is "The Proximate Causes of Material Phenomena, and the true principles of universal Causation considered and illustrated."

A Dictionary

A Dictionary of the Chinese Lan. quage is now publishing at Macao, to consist of three parts; first, Chinese and English, arranged according to the Radicals; next, English and Chinese; and lastly, Chinese and English, arranged Alphabetically. Dr. R. MORRISON, the author of the above Work, has directed his attention to the collection of materials for it during the last thirteen years. The Honourable East India Company has generously undertaken the whole expence of printing and paper for an edition of seven hundred and fifty copies. The Chinese language, whether viewed in itself, its peculiar structure, or with respect to its antiquity, it having been for nearly 4000 years the language of so large a portion of the human species, and it still being the written medium, in private and in public life, in literature, in arts, and in government, of the most extensive empire on earth, seems to deserve the attention of every inquisitive and curious mind.

The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan, are about to be printed, in four volumes, octavo, with Memoirs by his Son.

Mr. BEWICK, the celebrated engraver on wood, has been for some time past engaged in preparing for the press, a Supplement to his work on British Birds. The edition printed in 1805 comprises descriptions of sixty-four species wanting figures, and in the subsequent editions but few additions have been made. The third volume of Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, published in 1813, contains thirty birds which were not known either as permanent inhabitants or temporary visitants of this kingdom, eight years previous to that period, making in all ninety-four species, or strongly marked varieties, of which no very accurate representations are to be met with, except a few scattered through the Linnæan Transactions and Sowerby's Miscellany, or included in the first number of Mr. Selby's splendid publication. Of these, Mr. Bewick has already delineated thirty-two with that accuracy of outline, truth to natural habit, and delicacy of execution, which render all his works so highly interesting to the naturalist.

The Miscellaneous Tracts of the late Dr. Withering, F.R. S., with Memoirs of the Author by WM. WITHERING, Esq. &c. &c. embellished with a portrait, are nearly ready for publication.

In a few days will be published A Poetical Essay on the Character of Pope, by CHARLES LLOYD.

Mr. HAIGH, of the Classical School, Kitt's End, near Barnet, has a new work in the press, entitled, the Theory and Practice of Latin Inflexion, being examples in the form of copy-books for declining and conjugating Nouns and Verbs: the words being arranged systematically, and changed at each case of a Noun and cach person of a Verb.

The Rev. JOHN CAMPBELL, Kingsland, London, is about to publish a second volume of Travels, containing an Account of his Second Visit to South Africa. He was occupied two years and a half in the journey, during which he travelled upwards of three thousand miles, through a country a great part of which had never been explored. He has been particularly careful to describe the manners and customs of the natives-their agriculture-arts and manufactures-food, clothing, and occupations, &c.—their rites and ceremonies-form of government-the power of their kings-the influence which the chiefs or captains possess in the administration of affairs, and the manner in which they exercise it in their meetings for public business

their mode of carrying on war, &c. An account is also given of the cities of Mashow, and Marootzee; the former consisting of twelve, and the latter of sixteen thousand inhabitants. The work will also contain a map of the country through which he travelled— engravings of some of the towns, aud drawings illustrative of the dress, manners, &c. of the natives.

An institution having been formed in GLASGOW, for the purpose of promoting the Arts of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, &c., an Exhibition will be opened on Monday, the 6th of August, in which Artists resident in the United Kingdom may be Exhibitors, and works of deceased British Artists will also be received for Exhibition and Sale.

The first volume of Mr. A. T. THOMSon's Lectures on Botany is almost ready for publication. It will contain the descriptive anatomy and physiology of those organs which are necessary for the growth and preservation of the plant as an individual; and will be illustrated by more than one hundred wood-cuts and ten copper-plates. It is intended to form the first part of a complete System of Elementary Botany.

Dr.

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