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whether in or out of parliament, on the relative wealth of the agricultural and manufacturing sections of the nation. In fact, the documents on which even a proximately correct judgment can be formed, are of very recent date; and the general mind has been so long possessed with a notion of the paramount importance of agriculture, in the scale of national production, that the true significance of those documents is understood by few. The magnificent visions of M'Queen,* dedicated to the Duke of Wellington, and not unoften quoted in parliament by men who, if they had looked even most cursorily into their own blue books, would have seen the utter absurdity and statistical transcendentalism of their authority, have, indeed, had their day; but his successor, Mr. Spackman, is only a degree more sober and real than M'Queen, and he is far more dangerous, because his railway statistics have given him some standing as an authority. It can be no matter of surprise, that the representatives of the protectionist class should treat with such undisguised contempt and arrogant insolence, the representatives of the manufacturing classes; when, in addition to the prestige of aristocracy, they feel the proud consciousness of representing a property, in land, of £2,316,922,940 (a sum, the more magnificent and sublime, because to most of them it would be unreadable; and if it conveyed any distinct idea, that idea would be infinitude) against the miserable pittance of £201,000,000, represented by the despised statists of Manchester and Glasgow! Even supposing that Mr. Spackman's more moderate estimate had supplanted M'Queen's absurdity, how contemptible must these men appear to the Bentincks and D'Israelis, whilst they contemplate the glowing picture of agriculture, as giving employment to three quarters of a million of able-bodied persons, on whom eighteen and three-quarter millions more are dependent; making a total of twenty-two out of twenty-seven millions, dependent on agriculture: that agriculture, too, which, in Mr. Spackman's grandiloquent phraseology, pays three-fourths of the entire taxation of the country, feeds and supports the poor, maintains the church, is the great bulwark of the throne, and embodies in it all the elements of national strength, wealth, and prosperity.' It is a pity to disturb so bright a vision, but truth compels, and we must.

The occupations-return of the Census Commissioners, and more especially the preface to that return, in which it was shown, that in Great Britain, 2,039,409 males, above twenty years of age, are engaged in trades, manufactures, and commerce, whilst 1,215,264 only are engaged in agriculture, was as vinegar to the teeth,' to these worshippers of agriculture; but the return of real property chargeable to the income

• Statistics of the British Empire, 1836.

tax, obtained in 1843, to which our readers' attention is particularly directed, revealed quantities and ratios which are even as smoke to the eyes.' Mr. Spackman, indeed, has laboured hard in his recent work,* to invalidate the classification of the Census Commissioners, and to replace his idol, agriculture, on the pedestal from which they had, with rude and sacrilegious hands, cast it down; but he very wisely eschewed the return under the income tax of 1843, though he enumerates it as one of the documents consulted by him. It will hardly be credited, that, whilst that document exhibits the rental of land at less than 50 per cent. of the entire rental of real property in Great Britain, chargeable to the income tax, Mr. Spackman should represent that ratio as 68 per cent., on the authority of a return made in 1815! But we must give the substance of the former document without further preface. It is entitled

'Abstract of a return, showing the total annual value of real property in Great Britain, assessed to the Property and Income Tax, for the year commencing April 5, 1842, and ending April 5, 1843, distinguishing that on lands, houses, etc.

The following is a summary of heads; the details under each, showing the amount for each county, separately:

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Adding to the rental of lands, the rental of tithes, manors, and fines, we have an aggregate of a little more than an half of the whole; but taking the same items for England alone, to which our investigation will be directed, we have a total of £40,123,314. 16s. 4d. as the rental of lands, tithes, etc. etc., and £42,213,701 as the rental of dwelling-houses, quarries, iron works, mines, railways, etc. It is not an unfair supposition, that these sums indicate respectively-the first, the annual income of the landed capitalists, and the second, the annual income of the manufacturing and commercial classes, so far as • An Analysis of the Occupations of the People, by W. F. Spackman.

that consists of receipts from real property. It is, indeed, quite true, that the landowners are also owners of houses, but SO are the commercial and manufacturing classes, of land. We think these may be equal quantities. This is, of course, conjecture,-not so, that out of thirty-five millions, the nett rental of dwelling-houses in England alone, Middlesex and Surrey have £11,592,202 1s. 3d., and the five counties of Lancashire, York, Chester, Warwick, and Stafford, £10,206,273 8s. 5d. more than three-fifths of the whole, showing that the seats of manufactures and commerce, hold the principal part of the real property in houses, etc. It is not essential to the argument we shall urge for a redistribution of the representation, that we should make this positively clear and certain, that argument resting on the simple principle of apportioning the representation in the ratio of the rental of real property, without regard to the incidence of ownership.

We will now show how this principle would work, as regards the relative number of representatives for the manufacturing and agricultural counties respectively. The most natural division seems the following: - metropolitan, mining, manufacturing, and agricultural counties. Maintaining the county representation intact, or distinct from the borough, and not disturbing the number of representatives of each class, we have the following table, showing the rental of land, tithes, manors, and fines, the present number of county members, and the number of members proportionate to rental, for each of the four divisions named; together with the excess or deficiency of the present number of members:

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*The proportions are given in all the tables in centesimal parts, and are as close

as that scale allows.

It would appear by this table that the actual county representation of England, bears a close relationship to the true ratio, property being taken as the basis. There would be a slight gain to the manufacturing counties, of which the West Riding of York would take 8 as its share, and Lancashire 2; the counties of Warwick and Cheshire losing the difference betwixt 8.79 and 10; and Staffordshire being entitled to four members, its present quota.

Turning now to the borough representation, the following statement will exhibit the results of an apportionment of representation, according to rental. Table showing the rental of houses, quarries, mines, iron works, railways, etc., in four divisions of the counties of England, the present number of members, the number to which each is entitled proportionate to rental, and the excess or deficiency of the present scale of representation; together with the number of members to which the present parliamentary boroughs are entitled, the excess or deficiency of such representation, and the number of members for which new constituencies would have to be provided :—

COUNTIES.

2 Metropolitan Counties 3 Mining Counties

5 Manufacturing Counties... 30 Agricultural Counties

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1,820,470 19 3 17 13.96 3.4
11,959,810 18 11 63 91.81
15,091,418 16 2 225 115.62 109.38)
42,213,701 18 5 324 323.79 112.42 112.21 206.11 179.81 61.92 117.68

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4.10 12.90 54.52 8.48 65.57 158.43

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Before commenting on the many startling results exhibited in the foregoing table, we would enunciate a principle, which appears to admit of no contradiction. Leaving out of sight, for the present, all considerations as to the qualifications of the parties who vote, we submit, that the number of members chosen by each section of voters should be in the ratio, either of the number of such voters, the population which they represent, or the rental of real property, for their respective districts. It is a matter of comparative indifference to our argument, which standard is taken; we shall be able to show that the results of all three methods are closely accordant; but we presume no sane man

would think of denying the correctness of one of these modes of determining the ratio of representation, if the whole matter were now to be determined de novo. We shall deal with the arguments in defence of the existing anomalies and inequalities of the representation, in the sequel. We now turn to the table.

It is apparent at a glance, that the thirty agricultural counties, in addition to their undisputable and unapproachable majority of seventy-five county members, over the three other sections (and which, under the system of re-distribution contemplated, would still be seventy-two,) have a preponderance of 109 members, to which they are not entitled; and which number is within three of the number of which the metropolitan and manufacturing boroughs are unjustly deprived, under the present absurd system. But this is not all. But this is not all. The boroughs which actually return the 225 members, are not entitled to return more than sixty-five members; so that they have 158 members more than their share. Nor even is this all. Fortytwo of these boroughs (returning sixty-nine members, a number which more than neutralizes the united voice of the five manufacturing counties,) are, more or less, under the influence of the landlord and aristocratic classes. There remain 156 members, which the united voice of the metropolitan and the mining counties, say thirty-six votes, leaves still a majority of 126 borough members. Now, if to this majority be added the majority of seventy-five county members, it is clear that the thirty agricultural counties have a majority of 201 votes. Let us see how they would stand under the proposed adjustment :— Thirty agricultural counties,-county members 109 borough ditto 115

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The agricultural counties would be in a minority of nineteen, in place of a majority of 201! Aye, but of what complexion would the new members for the manufacturing and metropolitan counties be? That is the rub! Be it so. We will answer the question, and show, we hope, that the idea of adding

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