588

Letter from an American Farmer.

in all sorts of charities, at best of
very doubtful advantage. There is
now building in Philadelphia a Col-
lege, with a marble front, for me-
chanics' and labourers' sons.

I think your political economists
are going mad, out-heroding Herod.
It seems that men in the possession
of supreme wealth and power, ob-
tained by superior intellectual, sci-
entific, and mechanical improvement,
can be as wild and heedless as those
in the possession of supreme and un-
controllable political power: both
forget that they may be overturned.
When the Italians were living in
palaces, the English lived in huts,-
the huts have long since disappear-
ed, and the palaces are now falling
into ruin. I really believe that you
think the agricultural, manufactu-
ring, and naval resources of Eng-
land, quite unassailable by any other
country. Do not deceive yourselves.
You must stick fast to your prohibi-
tory system, or you are gone, and
instantly. Even this will not serve
you. You forget that your present
wealth, superiority, and consequence,
are forced and artificial. The poli-
tical and intellectual weaknesses of
other nations have made your
strength. This is neither a sound
nor durable state of things. It is
not at all warranted by the extent
of your territory, natural resources,
population, or climate, when these
are considered in reference to other
countries. Go on with your free-
trade system, and let other free Go-
vernments get fairly under weigh,
(this country is now in part so,) and
again I say you are gone. You must
be content to take your station in the
world as Islanders above the 50th,de-
gree of northern latitude. I will give
you some proofs of it: almost every
day is bringing to light additional
evidence of the inexhaustible mi-
neral resources of this country, of the
first qualities, and fit for every pur-
pose. These seem all to be upon the
same vast scale with the land, rivers,
and forests. Iron and salt-works are
rapidly increasing, and coal is be-

-

[May

ginning to take the place of wood. These mines are most extraordinary : the coal is quarried out in large masses, in open day, like the stone The seams of coal are 100 feet deep of Craig-Leith and Salisbury Crags. and more, quite free from water. Some of these coal-mines, 12 years they are now selling for 400 dollars. ago, sold for 62 cents per acre: Agriculture is increasing rapidly; and, to bring all these resources into action, the New York canal, 365 miles in length, was begun in 1817, and is now finished. Below it another is to be begun forthwith by and Lake Erie to Philadelphia, which, that State, running from the Ohio for 300 miles, will pass through a country full of coal, iron, copper, salt springs, timber, &e. A large canal is now making, to unite the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay; another is to be made between the Chesapeake and Ohio, besides various others, making and to be made, supplying many thousands with employment. To detail all that is going on would fill a volume. The progress of the State of Ohio, particularly, is very remarkable. Fifty years ago there was not a white man ago. The population is now near in it. It was thinly settled 30 years 1,000,000. It is full of handsome considerable size, and a few approachtowns and villages, some of them of ing to superb. In this short period they had to clear the land of the heaviest timber, build all their counpublic buildings, churches, bridges, try houses and barns, their towns, and steam-boats, make roads, &c. &c. Last year, for the first time, a native. born Ohian came into their legislature; this year three have been returned. By the last census, in 1820, the respective populations of Ohio same, but there were upwards of and Massachusets were nearly the 60,000 more children under 10 years of age in the former than in the latter. During their progress they have stagnations of trade, and in the prices had several violent fluctuations and

Every intelligent reader will see reasons for differing with this and several other opinions of our Trans-Atlantic friend. Our free-trade system, besides being the most advantageous that could be adopted in any circumstances, has been forced upon us by the altered circumstances of the iimes. We could not avoid it, unless we chose

to act the part of madmen, and put an end to commerce entirely.-ED.

of produce-serious evils and heavy drawbacks in all countries. These things were mainly caused by your forced and overgrown monopoly, and its consequences. Wheat has been sometimes as low as 25 cents. per barrel, and Indian corn 124 cents. ; yet what is this State now doing? making canals to the extent of about 300 miles, upon which about 2500 men are employed. Woollen and other manufactures are carried on here to a considerable extent. What will be their condition fifty years hence at this rate? Your Edinburgh Reviewer, speaking of the Corn Laws, makes two fatal mistakes; amongst others, he builds his theory in part in favour of their abolition, upon the prices of wheat and quantities exportable in this country, down anly to 1816; the prices and increase of production since that time, and, above all, what this country is capable of producing, he has wholly overlooked. With the same system of farming (with modifications) as is established in many parts of Eng. land and Scotland, (and there is nothing to prevent it, but, on the contrary, it is going on,) the Ohian farmer could afford to sell his wheat for 2s. 3d. tols. 4d. per barrel. Those who are ignorant of this country, and of the immense advantages and superiority of that remarkable crop, Indian corn, may doubt and deny the truth of this statement; but one acre of this corn is worth two acres and more of turnips in England, the system of farming being the same. Last year, hot and dry as it was, I had 30 and 35 barrels of wheat per

acre

on land which was far from being restored to its original fertility. I am confident that land in England, in the same condition, would not have produced more than 20 or 21. I manured the stubble immediately after harvest, and sowed Swedish turnips, and had as good a crop as I ever saw grow on similar ground in England. You could not stand against this with your climate, weeds, wet and cold summers, rents, tithes, taxes, game-laws, &c.; of course, I had Indian corn for my stock, beside the turnips, after wheat. The chief and almost only expense here is labour, which is any thing but an evil; though nominally high, it is, in

reality, cheap, owing to the climate
We do
and other circumstances.
not require so much as half the
labour the farmers do in England;
and our men being better paid and
fed, and more contented, do a great
deal more work than the English.
I am quite satisfied that I am cor-
rect in both these statements, as I
speak of the general state of the case
in both countries. There are idle,
worthless, and inefficient workmen
everywhere. We do not incur the
same risk of storms in hay-time and
harvest as you do; if the drought
injures us, which is but seldom, and
which may be greatly counteracted
by good farming, no additional ex-
pense occurs, but the contrary. I
purchased my farm four years ago:
the first year I had 45 barrels of
wheat, the land was miserably ex-
hausted; last year I had 5221, and
every thing else in the same propor-
tion. The first year I had 30 acres
of Indian corn; last year 14 acres,
and more grain than the first year.
In four years more, I am confident
I can make more than double this,
and others can improve in the same
degree.

If your Government persist in their free-trade system, you may rely upon it, your farmers will soon be overwhelmed, your manufacturers and ship-owners will then follow. Coarse cotton goods could even now be sent to Manchester, if permitted. In the year 1840, the population of this country will be upwards of 25,000,000,-in 1860, upwards of 60,000,000; and long before this period, the grain, timber, iron, coal, copper, salt, &c. of the interior, will be brought to the coast at a trifling expense. Your ships can then be driven from the ocean without a shot being fired. Your economists should look to the future, and not build their theory upon the present state of things. Your writers, ministers, manufacturers, and merchants, may distort and disguise this question as they please, and hold up as many lures as they think fit, to mislead their own people and others, but you cannot give up your present system. You do not intend it,-you dare not. There is more in the free-trade business than meets the eye, I suspect. You have as yet only thrown out a

few hints, apparently intended to induce other countries to continue to exchange their raw commodities for your manufactures, and to lead them away, and prevent them from attempting to manufacture their cottons, and other raw produce, &c. where it is fittest to be manufactured, at home. As long as you can do this, you may still continue to keep the greatest part of the world under contribution, without the aid of an army to force it. Your manufacturers and others must be aware

that they hold their present commanding station by a very precarious tenure their skill and machinery only, aided by restriction at home, and ignorance and unskilfulness abroad. They will, of course, move heaven and earth in all sorts of ways to beat down manufactures abroad, and prevent them from taking root in foreign countries. All natural advantages here, and artificial ones, in part, are fearfully against you; and you have many heavy political

MR JACOB'S REPORT ON THE CORN TRADE OF NORTHERN EUROPE.

WHATEVER difference of opinion may exist as to the policy of our Corn Laws, it was desirable by all parties to have a correct and authentic statement of facts relative to the condition of those countries from which the chief supplies must come, on the supposition that our ports were wholly or partially opened to the importation of foreign corn. With this view, Mr Jacob was sent by Government, in the course of last year, to collect accurate information in Poland and Prussia, and in the adjoining countries, for the purpose of enabling Administration to judge of the condition of these countries in reference to their supplies of corn, and the effects likely to be produced in our own market, if our Corn Laws were repealed or modified. The information which Mr Jacob has brought home is varied, curious, and in a high degree valuable. It will tend to dispel the calculations of ignorance and imperfect information relative to these granaries of Europe which he visited, and, if we do not grievously mistake, it will change the opinion of the majority of that class in our country, who adhere, with such determined obstinacy, as was evinced lately in Parliament, to a system of Corn Laws which seem devised to enrich one small portion of the country namely, the land-owners, and to impoverish, to brutify, and to starve all the other classes in the community. It will be found, from this Report, that the corn-growing terrorists in this country need be under no apprehension that they will be driven from the market, and reduced to ruin. It will be clearly seen, that even with the present deplorably low prices of corn in Poland and Prussia, we could not obtain wheat from thence at a lower price than from 45 to 48 shillings a quarter, and that, on the supposition that a regular demand existed for a considerable quantity of grain for this country, prices would rise so high abroad, that little, if any, advantage would arise to our corngrowers from an unrestricted importation. On the other hand, our manufacturers will now be more satis

fied than ever, that, even with the utmost liberty of importation, it is impossible for this country to obtain large and steady supplies of foreign corn at a price much lower than what we pay at this moment for corn of home-growth. To these conclusions, it is apprehended, that every person must come who takes the trouble of perusing this invaluable Report. According to the scale of ruinously-low prices of corn which now prevail among the northern nations, there would, no doubt, be a great hazard in admitting the quantity there to be found without a duty into our market; and it would be the height of injustice to those persons who had invested large sums of capital in agricultural operations, to destroy, by an immediate retrograde system of legislation, the whole of that capital which had been laid out on inferior soils. We are satisfied, therefore, that Ministry have acted most fairly, under existing circumstances, both to the land-owners in this country, to the merchants who hold foreign corn, and the community at large, when they have carried through a measure for the release of bonded corn at a fixed duty of 12s. a quarter, and obtained the leave of Parliament to permit, conditionally, a considerable additional quantity of foreign corn to be imported into the country during the recess. This, we are satisfied, was a wise suspension of the present system of Corn Laws,-a suspension called for, both by the unhappy state in which the manufacturing part of the population are now placed, and by the probability of its being of great use to corngrowers in this country themselves, by keeping the market at a steady rate. Still, however, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, which daily experience is making plainer, that, with prices of corn so fluctuating and so high as they frequently are in this country, we shall, ere long, see our dealers in manufactured produce undersold in the general markets of the world. What is the chief element that forms our labourers? The answer undoubtedly must be-corn.