support 466 labourers' families at | dish of tea; but, in an account 301. a family. To enumerate all laid before parliament in 1808,

striking thing of all is, that, for

the instances of public money, or (since which time there has been taxes, bestowed in this sort of none) the wife of Lord Grenville, way, and in pensions and sine- one of the uncles of our Duke, cures, would fill twenty such stands with a pension of 1,5007. pamphlets as this. The very tax a-year settled on her, to comthat you would have to pay on mence at her husband's death, the pamphlets would cost more and to continue for her life. But than a month's tea and sugar on in this account (which is hardly the scale of the Buckingham Bill grown less bulky) there are of Fare. But, I cannot help hundreds of ladies, young and mentioning Mr. William Huskis-old, and some little girls, penson, abovenamed, who, in 1801, sioned out of the taxes that we obtained a pension for life of pay.. But, perhaps, the most 1,2001. a-year, always to be paid him, except when he should hold many years past, for 12 years at an office of 2,000l. a-year. This least, 100,000l. a-year has been affectionate husband took care of voted by our parliament out of his wife too, Mrs. Emily Huskis- our taxes, to assist the " poor son, who had a pension of 6001. Clergy" of the Church of Enga-year settled on her, to commence land! So that this enormously at her husband's death. It has rich Church, several scores of pleased God to spare this loving the Clergy of which are rolling husband to enjoy a fat place, and in wealth, must, besides all the to tell the farmers that they tithes and glebe, have these imwant nothing but bad crops to mense sums given it out of the relieve them! Mrs. Emily Huskis- taxes, in order to relieve its " poor Clergy!"

son would, I suppose, not much relish a dish of tea according to the Buckingham Bill of Fare! And, yet, it would be hard to show, that she has a better right to a good dish of tea than you have. You have already thought, perhaps, that the Grenvilles have taken care to provide for a good

"the poor to their ancient con- pauper or to starve, and no man "dition of earning their own will die of starvation, if he can get "bread, instead of living on the at food. The taxes, therefore, 66 country as annuitants." Now, which take so much away from the what a slap in the face is here to farmer, and out of the wages of all the above fine persons, who labour itself, make the paupers; certainly do "live on the coun- and this we see clearly proved in try!" Oh! my lord Duke, I'll the fact, that, now the taxes are tell you the measures to adopt, four times as great as they were and the first is, to take off all the in 1790, the poor-rates are also pensions, sinecures and grants, four times as great. When a which now take away as much as farmer now breaks (as thousands would, if not raised in taxes, put, do) is he not made a poor man by in great part, an end to the pau- the taxes? And, when he becomes perism. He says nothing about a pauper, is it his fault, or the giving such immense sums to fault of those who have imposed relieve the parsons' wives and such ruinous taxation? To blame children, but the wives and chil- the labourers is horribly unjust. dren of the labourers; these are Take off the taxes, and they will called annuitants, living on the no longer be paupers, any more country! What are all the ladies, than their great grandfathers were. old, young, and little girls, on the To them no part of the blame pension-list? Are not they an- belongs. They did not lay on the nuitants," living on the country?" misery-making taxes; nor have And who is "the country? Those who work to raise the food and raiment, or those who eat and wear them in idleness?

.

they had any power to cause them to be taken off. Some of them have attempted to effect this; and their reward has been dread

It is the taxes, and (wherever ful abuse and more dreadful they exist) exorbitant rents and punishment. Your husbands have tithes that make paupers. The had some power; but, that power farmer, pressed by the tax-they have used to keep taxes

gatherer (and by the landlord and on, and not to take them off.

When the labourer receives nine shillings, four at the least

the parson if rent and tithes be too high,) has not a sufficiency to give in wages. The labourer, for this are for the taxgatherer; for reason, is compelled to become a nothing can be wear or swallow

that is not taxed, unless he dress that is the law of God, forbids to in fig-leaves, eat dirt, and drink muzzle the ox while he is treading water. It is five shillings, there out the corn, a command which fore, and not wine, that he re-shows how careful we ought to ceives; and yet he is now told, be to be just, considerate, kind, that he ought to earn his bread, humane, and even grateful toand not be an "annuitant living wards all those who perform the on the country!" He lives on toils of the community. Base is nobody; but enough live on him. the man who can be happy, who His toil keeps enough of others in can enjoy himself, while he has idleness; and, surely, he is to reason to suspect that he owes have as much food as will barely any part of his enjoyments to the keep him alive! Long enough, unrequited toil of another; and, and too long, have we heard far-what must those be, who can mers inveighing against the poor. wallow in wealth and luxury, Everlasting out-cry against the procured them by the labour of poor-rates; but none against the others; who can see those others taxes that cause the poor-rates. perishing with hunger and naked- › Bitter invectives, loud reproaches, ness, and condescend even to on the defenceless and broken-notice them only for the purpose› hearted labourers, without whom of covering them with insult! farmers are nothing; but, nothing The middle class of society but civility towards the taxgather- have a wrong and blind bias ers and tax-eaters of all descrip- whenever they lean to the higher rather than the lower. The lower Upon every principle hitherto are their natural allies. Without known amongst men, "the la- these they are nothing. If the bourer is worthy of his hire," that labourer be degraded into a slave, is to say, according to the evident the farmer's turn comes next. meaning of our Saviour, worthy And, if the labourers of England of an ample sufficiency of food had not become miserable pauand raiment. The law of nature pers, and been nick-named the tells us, that, of the food and "peasantry, the population;" if raiment raised from the land or their bill of fare had not long caught in the chase, the first por- been potatoes and water, we tion belongs to the husbandman never should have seen two ounces and the hunter. Moses' law, of red sugar set down as the daily

tions.

treat of the farmer of four hundred satisfy the demands of taxation acres and his wife. But (and without practising much of frugality themselves; Oh! then they

were the " yeomanry," the "enlightened yeomanry," the " sound part of the country;" but now, that the unsparing hand of taxas tion is grasping at their capital,

mark it well) if two labouring boys are to have neither tea, sugar, nor beer of any kind, from one year's end to the other, then two ounces of red sugar is too great a luxury for the farmer and his wife! Let this sink deeply into and they begin to cry out in their your minds. The thought of see-turn; now one calls them " · popu ing you brought into this state of lace;" another appeals from them degradation has entered one man's to "the education of the country," mind, at any rate; and the thought a third bids them "put on smock has, too, been openly, and even frocks," and a fourth allots to ostentatiously, avowed. each family of “ enlightened yeomanry" two ounces of sixpenny sugar a day! Let this be a warning to the farmers: let them see, before it be too late, that there is no safety, no chance of escape for them, but in conjunction with the mass of the people.

This never would have been the

case; such a thought as this never would have entered the mind of any man in former times, before English labourers were bowed down to the earth, as they have been within the last thirty years especially. In this work of de

Nay, it is the same thing with gradation the farmers have had regard to the greater part of landtheir part; and, the consequences lords also and even of tithe-oware before us: an innumerable ners. Mr. WESTERN says, that host of pampered and insolent the Sheriff's officers (much more tax-eaters; and a yeomanry," efficient men in this way than each of whose families is to be Radicals) are going round to the regaled with two ounces of six-farmers of Essex as fast as they penny sugar a day! While the can. The farmer's capital goes farmers were efficient for all the first; but it is only the precursor of the rent and the tithe. So that, landlords and parsons, as well as farmers, have no hope but in the

purposes of taxation and of rent and tithe paying too; while the

high prices and the depreciated money enabled them to wring mass of the just and loyal people. from the labourer a sufficiency to How quickly would a reform take

t

place if any considerable body of you sufferings that are unknown landlords and yeomen came for- to the common pauper, who, with ward in the cause! How efficient mind habituated to degradation would their remonstrances be, and without knowing what hope seconded, as they every where or emulation means, seeks only would be, by the undivided voice for what is requisite to satisfy the of the mass of the people! But, calls of hunger. Those, who, it is for them now to call on the after a lon career of prosperity, people the people have long have had, in days of decline and enough, and much too long, called misery, to experience the effect on them in vain. At any rate, if of blandishments and caresses exthe landlord, from his false pride and true baseness suffer his last acre to be taken away, do you take care that your husbands' last shilling be not first taken away by the landlord.

:

To you, the farmers' wives, it belongs to do much. A man is

changed for neglect and scorn; those, and those only, can anticipate the sufferings that await you and your children, unless you instantly resolve to do all that in you lies to save something from the wreck that awaits every farmer's family not already dashed to pieces.

coward indeed, who is insensible Fling from you with disdain the to the reproach of lack of spirit, vague hope, unsupported as it is coming from a female tongue. by reason or experience, that You should consider, that even those at the head of affairs must the Buckingham Bill of Fare is" know best, and that, surely, they luxury to what awaits you and will not let you be reduced to your children in the poor-house." beggary." If they must know And at what stage short of the best, how come you in your prepoor-house are you to rest, unless sent state? If they must know the hand of taxation relax its best, why have so many thousands grasp? But, how much worse off of farmers' families already had than ordinary paupers will you the beds taken from under them? and your family be? The recol- If they must know best, why is it lection of past prosperity, though that all their plans have failed, it were unembittered by any con- that all their expectations have sciousness of cruelty or injustice been disappointed, that all their towards the poor, would inflict on predictions have been falsified?