peace, and the real liberties of the people. If, on some points, especially in matter of financial economy, they might possibly, with safety have proceeded farther in the path of improvement, let it be recollected, on the other hand, how many powerful reasons there are for the observance of caution in the reform of this delicate branch of public administration, under the existing circumstances of the country; and yet how decidedly they have proved, at the same time, by the retrenchment already effected, that they are determined not to be the bigotted slaves of that caution. The disfranchisement of a corrupt Borough, and the transference of its delegated representation to the largest county in England, together with the salutary and extensive inquiry set on foot into Irish Revenue abuses, have proved that Parliament is disposed, at least in cases of flagrant misconduct, to be its own reformer, and to exercise also a severe legitimate controul over the Officers of the Executive Government; whilst its able and laborious examinations into the peculiar complaints of Agriculture and Trade, have disclosed principles of the most enlightened policy-principles which, combined with the circumspection recommended in their application, promise to act hereafter most beneficially in extending the resources, and settling upon a permanent basis the prosperity of these two great interests of the nation. It is true, indeed, that the Legislature has hitherto rejected, almost with scorn, the poisonous remedies for imaginary evils offered by certain selfconceited and mischievous reformers; and also declined the suspicious aid of newly raised sciolists in financial economy, who would put to hazard the whole body politic, to gain a little personal popularity by saving a trifling part of the expense of its maintenance. But this conduct, whilst it furnishes a favourite topic for the ever-ready slander of sedition, is assuredly considered by all the right-minded part of the community as a most consoling ground of confidence in that Legislative wisdom and firmness, which must ever be the only stays of national security, amidst the frequent agitations, of a free and inquiring people. Against' this wisdom and this firmness the most inveterate partiality of the Parliamentary democrats, superficial as they are in talent, deservedly powerless in cha

racter, outrageous in visionary declamation, scanty in numbers, and equally well appreciated and despised by the true friends of freedom and order, will never be able, as far as we can judge from the past, to effect any thing alarmingly dangerous to that constitutional tranquillity under which we have still the happiness to live.

The late imposing ceremony of the Coronation of our most gracious Sovereign, at the same time that it revived, in a salutary manner, the deep impressions which the ancient inaugural solemnities and the religious sanctions of the occasion were calculated and intended to produce, gave an opportunity for the display of that universal burst of loyalty through the land, which completely wrecked the hopes, then most strongly excited, of every revolutionary disturber. The strength and depth of root of the true old English feeling were then displayed by all classes of our countrymen, in a manner never to be forgotten in this part of the empire; and in the progress which our benevolent and noble-minded monarch has since made to other portions of his dominions, he has been received with still superior manifestations of loyalty and attachment. In Ireland, indeed, the extreme pressure of personal privation has, since the Royal visit, driven a few districts of a wild and undisciplined people to the perpetration of lamentable excesses; but the appointment of a popular and highly-gifted Viceroy, the firm and judicious administration of law, the vigilance of an active military police, together with general measures of conciliation and real relief, will, we doubt not, ere long bring back the deluded pea santry to submission and order. In closing this rapid and imperfect retrospect, we can safely assure our readers, that if we see much in some late events which does violence to our best feelings as Englishmen, we can draw many more conclusions from the past, of an opposite and cheering ten dency.

The two great component elements of all public happiness, to the state of which every political observer of the times should mainly direct his enquiries, are the tone and spirit of the public mind, and the general amount of individual comfort and competence in the nation. And he should do this with the greater con* Bb

fidence, because these elements are intimately allied in their constant influence upon each other. Generally diffused habits of sobriety, industry, religion, and respect for the laws, will necessarily tend to limit the extent, and to mitigate the evils of poverty; whilst alarming civil disturbance never can happen in any free and wisely governed country, whilst the people are in the aggregate, well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well educated. In drawing, then, all our conclusions, as to the future, let these summary points of view direct our judgment as to the character of the past; and if we observe them steadily, we shall at once acknowledge them to be, on the whole, bright and animating. Clouds there are, certainly, and black as we have seen, at times, flitting across the horizon, and occasionally throwing their shade over the prospect; but the sun of hope is far too powerful for their unsteady and transient gloom. We have seen the most alarming and anti-social excitement of the popular mind subsiding rapidly into a comparatively contented tranquillity; we have seen the vast majority of our population placed, for the first time during many years, within reach of all the necessaries, and many of the comforts of life; we see an improved tone of religious feeling pervading all the most influential classes of the community; and above all, we see the education of the lower orders of our fellow-subjects, in sound rational principles of civil and religious order, making rapid strides every where around us. At the same time also we believe, that we can see speedy and substantial remedies for our only severe national embarrassments, within the power of a firm and equitable Government; and the immediate sufferers themselves from those embarrassments have ever been found too deeply embued with English feelings and attachments to allow themselves, for a moment, to be set generally in array against the Constitution and peace of their country. Under these circumstances, then, may we not rationally hope to see, in spite of the incessant and wicked labours of those,

who are striving to pervert the illuminating power of the press into a power of darkness, the golden days, the "saturnia regna" of England ere long returning upon her? We know, indeed, too well, that she protects in her bosom degenerate sons who take delight in every throb of her pain, and triumph in every expression of her distress. We know also, that they rashly desire to see the puny and deformed creation of their own weak political fancies elevated on the throne, which has, for so many ages, been filled with her mild, and dignified, and venerable form. But the sad day of this second dissolution of England's honour and greatness is not yet approaching. She still maintains within herself, in all the glow of native vigour, the stamina of glory, of defiance, and of power. The few titled and more favoured apostates among her children, who are admitted to her councils, may endeavour to kindle the torch of discord upon her altar; her many low-minded, and ignorant, and malignant revilers may howl extravagantly around her sanctuary; but she will eventually laugh all their efforts to scorn, enshrined securely in the affections of a grateful and devoted people. These are our feelings and these our anticipations. We glory in the free expression of them; and are ready to make any sacrifice usefully to testify their sincerity, or to assist in the realization of their hopes. our character of public Journalists, the light of these principles shall ever be the beacon to guide and animate our labours. We believe, that it is a light, which will warm indigenous sympathy in every honourable breast; and we trust, that it will, at all times, throw a blaze of detection over every political imposture, every specious intrigue of faction or disaffection; whilst, we feel convinced, that in proportion only as its rays illuminate the land, cherishing and invigorating the old national feelings of loyalty, and sound civil and religious attachment, will Britain ever advance in real happiness at home, or maintain her proud pre-eminence among the nations of the world.

A GUARDIAN.

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THE REVENUE.-STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

OUR readers cannot have forgotten the very flattering prospect of financial prosperity, which a comparison of the last October quarter with the same portion of the preceding year, held out-and what à sound basis of public prosperity appeared to be grounded upon those documents. We ourselves recapitulated them minutely, and deduced from them this important and cheering result-"That the taxation of the country was increased by an increase of domestic and internal,

comfort:"-in other words, "that the surplus of taxation, arising from no new taxes, was of course indicative of growing consumption." Without entering upon the various changeable appearances of the four minor periods, which the accounts of trade present, in the case of our East and West India importations; we shall confine ourselves to a review of the present and past year; but, in endeavouring to ascertain the seeds of permanency, which our national resources contain, we may find it necessary to retrace many circumstances of the preceding years.

Upon a balance of the net produce

of the revenue of the year ending 5th Jan. 1822, with that of the preceding year; there is a small turn in the scale of £181,712.

Of twenty-five sources of exciseable revenue, fourteen have increased, and eleven have decreased: but the fourteen which have increased, are more immediately connected with internal consumption. By far the greatest portion of such increase has arisen from the consumption of tea, and the manufacture of barley into malt. The expenditure of the last quarter, from 10th Oct. 1821 to 5th Jan. 1822, falls short of the income in the sum of £1,397,252, -and there is upon the current account, a deficiency charged upon the growing produce of the consolidated fund of no less a sum than £8,962,984. This is the brief but exact outline of the state of the revenue and expenditure of the country. Still, the annual surplus, however small in this year beyond the preceding one, is the more highly to be valued, because it is a surplus arising at a moment, when the distress of the first interest of the community is still loudly complained of-and it may most fairly be argued, that if during such a state of internal difficulty, any surplus at all is attained, that there must be some sound spring of renovation, some certain ground of hope, in our national resurces. It ought not, however, to be concealed, that a taxation collected in a currency unaffected by the fall of price in every commodity, must and does press proportionally harder upon the community. Yet again, the moderate rate of subsistence, being one of the means which enables taxation to be more easily borne, the evil is not unaccompanied by a balance of alleviation.

So able and comprehensive a Pamphlet on THE STATE OF THE NATION has appeared, that we shall avail ourselves of a selection from its pages, upon the very point we ourselves had been prepared to enter; but the facilities which the writer of this exposé has had, appear to be so great, and to afford him such vantage ground of information, that we lay aside our less complete review for his demi official

statement.

"In considering the sources of the country, the most obvious order appears to be the funds of production. The heads of these funds, are the commerce, the navigation, the manufactures, the internal trade, and (so far as respects

the interests of the revenue, and as affording proof that the general means of consuming are unimpaired) the national consumption. A very brief and general view of our national sources in these their main channels, will afford the most satisfactory answer to the question-whether the main sources of national revenue and public wealth, are in their actual state, entire and unimpaired ?"

"Under the head of Commerce, the first is the comparative state of imports, through the successive years for 1817 downward. Now as regards the bearing of the amount of imports upon the question of our national resources, these imports naturally distribute themselves under three classes

the first, the imports connected more immediately with manufactures and foreign trade, than with the consumption of the country; and therein by their increase or decrease affording an unequivocal proof of the growth of that trade or manufacture of which they form the materials. The second, imports in part consumed, and in part affording materials of foreign trade.— The third, the imports entirely consumed

"The principal imports of the first class are, flax, hemp, raw and thrown silk, and cotton. It is not our purpose to exhaust the patience of our readers by exhibiting the columns of figures under these several heads. So far as respects the point in question, namely, the integrity of all the funds of produce, the result of this comparison may be shown in a few sentences. In 1817, the official value of flax and hemp, the materials of our linen manufacture of all kinds; and therefore a more just criterion of the state of these manufactures than the quantity of the manufactured article, was in round figures £700,000. In 1821, the official value of the same articles was one million two hundred thousand pounds. In raw silks (an article of the first consequence, inasmuch as it is the material of a manufacture now about to become one of the staples of the kingdom, and to push aside its former rivals, the silks of Italy and Lyons) the state of our imports through the above successive years has been equally promising. Without going through the minute detail of figures, it will be sufficient to add, that from 1816 to 1822, the amount of raw and thrown silk im

ported has increased from about half a million to nearly a million and a halfthat is to three times its former amount. This increase of importation is of so much the more consequence, inasmuch, as it is the increase of a manufacture now rising amongst us, from its former subordinate state, to the condition of one of our staples.

"In cotton, the comparative state of our imports is equally promising within the same period of years; our importation of cotton, now the leading manufacture of the kingdom, and destined, doubtless, to become the clothing of the world, has increased from three to five, and in the year now closed (1821) will exceed six millions. Thus-in these three main articles of our manufactures, our cotton, silk, and linen staples; the first has nearly doubled itself within about five years; the second has trebled itself; and the last, in despite of the German manufactories, and their peculiar facilities of supplying the continent by their internal navigation, has likewise nearly doubled in amount.

"Of the imports in part consumed, and in part affording articles of foreign trade, the principal are, sugar, rum, tea, and tobacco. Under all these heads there has been an increase in the importation. From 1817 to the present time, our importation of sugar has increased from three millions and half cwis. to four. The official value of the importation in 1821 was five millions and a half, a sum equal to the last year of the war. The importation of rum exhibits a still more flattering increase. From 1817 to 1821, the importation of rum has nearly doubled; in the former year the value being £348,000. and in the latter £618,000. In tea, our importatation has augmented within the same period by nearly the amount of one million in value, and exceeds, by one million, almost any year of the war. The import of tobacco has greatly increased from 1817 up to the present time. In all these articles, therefore, having this mixed character of home-consumption and the materials of foreign trade, there has been this large increase within the last five years of the

gradual increase in the Customs and Excise upon these imports. Suffice it to observe, that throughout all these articles there has been an increase proportionate to their several amounts, which though too small upon each article singly to justify a separate statement, ascends upon the whole to an increase of at least two millions upon almost any year of the war. To exemplify this observation in one instance only, the import of brandy from 1815 to 1821, has augmented from one hundred and twenty thousand pounds value to nearly three hundred thousand. Such is the state of our national resources as regards our principal imports.

The principal exports connected with the sources of our national prosperity are our cotton, woollen, linen, and silk manufactures; our iron and steel work; our tin, pewter, and plated goods, glass and refined sugar.—To which may be added our colonial exports of coffee, rum, sugar, indigo, and India piece goods.

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Under all these heads, it will be seen that our fund of commerce and industry exist in the same vigour and integrity as during the war. From 1817 to 1821, the value of our cotton manufactures exported, rose from sixteen millions to twenty-one millions. But in no year of the war had the value of these exports exceeded eighteen millions. When the accounts shall be made up for the year now current, namely, to Jan. 1822, the value of our cotton exports will be found to exceed twenty-three millions. Under this head, therefore, which in value exceeds one half of the to al amount of all our exports of British manufacture, the resources of the country are not only entire, but exceed by nearly one-fourth, the average of the last three years of the war.

"Our next manufacture is our woollen. The average value of this export, during the war, was between five and six millions annually. Under the effect of the foreign wool-tax, the value of the same export, in the year 1821, was reduced to four millions and three quarters; in the year now closing, it will much exceed five millions.

Our linen manufactures have risen, between 1817 and 1821, from one million and a half to two millions, being double the amount of the same exports during either of the three last years of the war, 1811, 1812, 1813.