by speculators and money-jobbers, must soon deprive the provinces of all circulation, and tend more and more to lower prices. But now it appears that, in addition to all former causes of difficulty, are superadded the drains to foreign nations in the shape of loans, resulting from the glut of money in London. The provinces, therefore, must continue to suffer a deprivation of currency; and, if wheat averages but 35s. this year, it will average but 30s. or 25s. next year, if grown at all. Never did ignorance and cupidity conspire in the same manner to ruin an industrious and flourishing people! We refer for details of these reasonings to our Number published Aug. 1. An Account of the Value of all Imports into, and of all Exports from, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during each of the Three Years ending Jan. 5, 1822, ca'culated at the Official Rates of Valuation, and stated exclusive of the Trade between Great Britain and Ireland reciprocally. Imports und Exports of Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland. An Account of the Unfunded Debt and Demands Outstanding, on the 5th Jun. 1822. ....... 805,598 FRANCE. The unhappy persons who engaged in the late premature conspiracies in France have all been put to death, save two, who, in the tenderness of ministerial favour, are (if such power last so long) to suffer fifteen and twenty years' imprisonment! Death would have been more charitable! These parties could not wait, like their copatriots, for " La Cloche de Notre Dame," which is now the popular toast in France. Decrease on the Quarter During the mouth, Mr. BOWRING, an English merchant, whose liberal principles are well known, was arrested at Calais, his letters and papers taken from him, and his person closely imprisoned. Most other Englishmen in France might be arrested for as valid reasons! Sir ROBERT WILSON, too, who was on an excursion of pleasure in Paris, has been ordered away at a few hours' notice. In short, between the insults to which unknown English are exposed from the French people, as supposed participators in It is no satisfaction to such persons to know, that the French are as closely watched as they arc,-that a countryman must have a permit to go and return from market; that a gentleman in Paris. MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 375.] DECEMBER 1, 1822. [5 of Vol. 54. ears GRAY'S CHURCH-YARD AT STOKE, NEAR WINDSOR. MR. GRAY wrote his beautiful "Elegy on a Country Church-yard," and others of his classical poems, while he resided at Stoke, and he was buried on the spot which his genius has immortalized. Elderly people lately living in that village remembered his retired and secluded character, and they shewed a tree, in which he was accustomed to indulge in reading and meditation. The church and church-yard possess more interest than commonly belongs to such places, from the above associations, and their retired and picturesque situation. Nearly adjoining is the park of Mr. Penn, from which the above view of Stoke Church has been taken; and on the same site that distinguished scholar and amateur has erected a splendid monument in honour of the poet, with the following inscription :-" This Monument, in honour of Thomas Gray, was erected A.D. 1799, among the scenery celebrated by that great lyric and elegiac poet. He died in 1771, and lies unnoticed in the adjoining church-yard, under the tomb-stone on which he piously and pathetical recorded the interment of his aunt and lamented mother." 1 consideration of rate of exchange, to the treasury in London, and we all know that this is done half-yearly, to an amount of forty millions per annum. I then appealed to facts in regard to the distribution of the half-yearly twenty millions, and proved that fifteen of them are paid over to public annuitants resident in or near London, or abroad; while only a small portion is slowly returned by round-about channels into the country for agricultural produce; the remainder being expended in foreign luxuries, in exalting the price of the funds, in foreign loans, and in all the means by which cupidity employs capital. And I inferred, as a consequence of these premises, that, though capital super-abounds in London, the country is nevertheless drained of all circulating medium. That to raise it to meet the prevalent payments of rents and taxes, farmingstocks and estates are obliged to be sold one after the other at any price which they will produce, and, consequently, that universal pauperism threatens the yeomanry, proprietors, and agricultural interests, as well as all the handicrafts and branches of trade dependent upon them. I then solved the enigma of diminished and constantly diminishing prices, by shewing, that price depends on the local circulation at the place of sale; that, if the circulating medium left in any district is constantly drawn off, the actual prices in the market of that district must be proportionally reduced, with little practical reference to prices in other markets; and that the prices in Smithfield are governed by those in the five hundred other markets scattered over the empire, because high prices in any one market would produce such an excess of supply as would reduce its prices to the level of 'all others. I shewed, too, how prices were kept up during the war by the expenditure of loans in the purchases of contractors, by whom the demand was constantly kept equal to the supply. In support of these important doetrines, I appealed to the known state of the country and that of Londen, shewing, that, in the former, the meJancholy circumstances were such as the causes were calculated to produce; and that, in London, every feature of excessive capital was evident in splendid improvements, in vil lages converted into towns of elegant mansions, in the ready discount of bills, in the reduced rate of interest, in the progressive rise in the funds, (every one per cent. in which absorbs two or three millions of capital,) and, finally, in foreign loans, at which the Jews, and other monied interests, grasp as means of employing the money drawn from the labour and misery of the people of England. While all these circumstances, arising from taxation, are aggravated by modern manners, which lead the greater proportion of landlords to spend their rentals in town-houses, at watering places, and in foreign countries. Such being the evils, I now proceed to discuss the remedies. The disease is desperate, and the remedies cannot consist of palliatives. They are of a radical kind, which threaten the dissolution of the body-politic, and the remedies must be equally radical. Shifts, temporary expedients, and words, will be of no avail. Sacrifices must be made by all. We must give up half to save the remainder, just as we consent to suffer the amputation of a mortified limb. The fund-holder may at present hug himself in his fancied exemption from the general misery, but this exemption can only be temporary. With the means of the country, the means of paying his interest must cease, and he will then become the most abject and helpless of paupers. One of two things is necessary :either less must be drawn from the country by diminishing the interest of the public debt; or by enacting regulations, by which the sums collected may be re-expended at the place of collection. Public faith or personal liberty must be violated. There is no alternative. In the choice of evils, which is the least? It must, at the same time, not be concealed, that the abatement of interest which would relieve the country must be considerable, if non-residence among the payers is tolerated; for the principle itself of non-resident receivers, in whatever degree it exists, is injurious. Such a class as a body of state-annuitants is a social phenomenon which never before existed in any country; and, if to this monstrosity be superadded the fact, that they herd in one town, and its vicinity, it will be obvious obvious that they cannot continue to exist under such circumstances, and society prosper. In every view of the subject, it appears to me, that to enforce local residence of the receivers among the payers is the only effectual remedy; while, at the same time, it would probably be more palatable than any adequate reduction of income: but both plans may be combined. For the sake of conferring clearness on the details, I will reduce my views to distinct propositions. 1. Let the amounts of taxes collected and paid in every hundred and wapentake of the kingdom be determined. 2. Let the proportion of that amount to the amount of the interest of the debt be determined. 3. Let the head-borough, or other appointed officer, be nominated receiver of so much of the taxes as equals the share of interest of the debt for his district. 4. Let him be authorised to pay their full dividends to as many persons as can prove their residence in that district through at least nine months of the year. 5. Let him pay over half the balance to the county receiver or treasury, and remit so much of the taxes on his district in the following year. 6. Let the non-residents receive the half of their dividends at the Bank of England, in the present form. 7. Let proprietors, as well of land as houses, be obliged also to attest to the same officer their residence in like manner; and, if non-resident, be subject to a tax of twenty five per cent. on their rentals, the amounts to operate as an abatement of other taxes on the district. This is my remedy for the relief of the country under its present amount of taxes. Subject to such regulations, the amount might even be increased; for, if the money received from industry were expended on the spot, industry would constantly be re-vivified, and even the annuitants and landlords themselves might be eminently useful in promoting civilization and local improvements, by means of their superfluous capital. The remedy may savour of severity; but the disease must be cured, and there is really no other alternative. To seek to diminish the value of annuities by renewing a paper circulation, would be to plunge into a vicious circle, and into an abyss from which there could hereafter be no retreat. What, exclaim the thousands of public annuitants,-compel us to receive half, or reside in some barbarous district, remote from the society and gaiety of London! Fair expostulation! yet what is the alternative? It is not a preference of benefits that can be offered, but a CHOICE OF EVILS: the parties are in a dilemma either to conform or lose all, from which dilemma there is no ultimate retreat. The deleterious effects of the nonresidence of the receivers is palpable. The circulation or blood of social industry is periodically withdrawn from the provinces, while rents, taxes, and other imposts, remain in full amount, and the deficiency of local circulation has in successive years reduced grain from 120s. to 100s. 80s. 60s. 50s. 40s. and 30s. Every shilling below 70s. has been a diminution of the capital of the farmer, and every shilling below 50s. has operated as a reduction of the rent of the landlord. These numerous and once respectable classes are therefore silently and gradually ruined,— utterly beggared and pauperised! From such a population the interest of the debt cannot continue to be raised; and to pay it till now the boasted Sinking Fund has been absorbed, and every shift of financial ingenuity has been resorted to by Mr. Vansittart. He has adroitly kept it going; but, no doubt, has trusted to the chapter of accidents, or to the elasticity of society, for an escape. The chances, however, have been uniformly against him. He might have hoped something from colonies; but these, owing to a combination of circumstances, are not in a better state than the mother country. He might have calculated on foreign trade; but the eyes of rival nations have been opened to the secret of our strength, and ukases, decrees, and custom-house regulations, have limited our valuable exports; while it is notorious that the United States successfully compete with us in every market. Commerce, too, is of a fleeting character; as we have witnessed in the Hans towns, in Genoa, Venice, and Holland. In short, the chances increase every year against the acknowledged talents of Mr. |