provided that his other outgoings were reduced in the same proportion. This arrangement applies very well to the tenant, but how is the landlord to live? Again, how can any such arrangement apply to those who farm their own estates ? In the Isle of Thanet, Mr. Pettman tells us, it is conjectured that two-thirds at least of the arable land are held by proprietors. A general reduction of rents can only be a partial and therefore an ineffectual remedy; and the same remark may be made as to tythe. The clergyman, we know, can never take more than a tenth of the gross produce; and a tenth is a tenth all the world over, be the price of wheat six pounds per quarter or only two. True: but it is a very different thing to the farmer whether he parts with one-tenth of his produce when the value of the other nine-tenths enables him to live comfortably, to pay the interest of his borrowed capital, and to meet the various expences of carrying on his business; or whether he gives up that one-tenth when more than the whole of the other nine-tenths is absorbed in paying poorrates, taxes, and laborers. The utmost practicable reduction of tythes, therefore, must likewise be inadequate as a remedy for the evil, whatever palliation it may afford; - and here we gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity to declare that, as far as our own knowlege and information extend, the clergy, with that liberality which their education, cultivated feelings, and station in society, would naturally have led us to anticipate, have in a vast number of instances made great personal sacrifices: they have sympathized with the altered fortunes of their parishioners; and they have made abatements, where compositions had been previously settled, not indeed larger than the necessity of the case required, but much larger than any decision of law would have enforced. It is with pride that we reflect on the superior efficacy of a moral over a legal appeal. To a great and judicious reduction of taxes, to a more equal and equitable distribution of the burden of maintaining the poor, to relief from all peculiar and exclusive charges on land and its produce, must agriculturists look as the only means of permanent prosperity. Notwithstanding Mr. Webb Hall's authority, and Mr. Pettman's opinion, we venture to say that if they rely on high protecting duties they will be deceived. Those protecting duties, as they are idly called, ought not in justice to the rest of the community to have in view the securing of a "remunerating price" to the farmer; they ought only to equal the amount of tythes, poor-rates, and the excess of taxation which is imposed on the British grower, beyond the amount of taxation imposed on the foreign grower. In the uncertainty of seasons, years of dearth may succeed to years of abundance, and times may recur when we shall be glad to resort to foreign countries for a great part of our supply: but we may apply in vain if we have driven those countries to neglect the cultivation of their lands, by refusing to receive the products of them into our markets. The British farmer can have no permanent protection and assistance, nor is he intitled to any, beyond that which is necessary to counteract the advantages which the foreign farmer enjoys in bearing lighter burdens than himself. Other countries have richer soils and softer seasons than we have, but our science and skill, capital and industry, are qualities which counterbalance these advantages. Let us, then, aim at the diminution of our own burdens; let us equalize among all classes those which must be borne, and remove all those which are unnecessary, and ought not to be imposed. If we but stand on level ground with the foreigner, and unshackled, we may laugh at his competition. Surely we are not exposing ourselves to misconstruction from the freedom with which we have frequently expressed our dislike of the complex system of bounties, drawbacks, and duties on the importation of corn, Some of us, at least, are personally too deeply engaged in agriculture not to feel an anxious interest in its prosperity: but our brethren of the plough have been misled, and we wish to bring them back into the right track. If the agriculture of the country should perish, which it will do unless speedily and effectually relieved, our commerce and manufactures will not long survive the destruction: for where is the merchant or the manufacturer to look for his market at home, when the cultivators of the soil, and those who now depend on them for subsistence to the number of many millions, are impoverished, and have nothing to offer in exchange for their wares and merchandise? or where is he to find his market abroad, if we refuse to admit into our ports those products which other countries can alone offer in exchange for the manufactures which we produce? Art. 18. Remarks on the Declaration of the Allied Powers from "Vis tamen illa mali postquam consumserat omnem 14 Ipse Ipse suos artus lacero divellere morsu (Metamorph. viii.) Despotism has always some ministers ready to pamper its insatiable appetite for dominion Poscit:" - "quod pontus, quod terra, quod educat aër but the monster, from the very destructiveness of its voracity, may at last be driven to devour itself. The Remarks before us are very well written, and creditable to the feelings and spirit of the author. NOVELS. Art. 19. The Confederates: a Story. 12mo. 3 Vols. 17. 1s. Boards. Hookham. 1823. Some good touches of character will here be found in the delineation of Mr. Cothelston and his daughters; and, though the book is so far uninteresting as it is nearly filled with the rude dialogues and unintelligible schemes of smugglers and swindlers, yet, with plans and personages better chosen, we think that the author would prove an agreeable writer. Art. 20. The Actress; or, Countess and no Countess. By Caroline Maxwell, Author of "Malcolm Douglas," &c. 12mo. 4 Vols. 16s. Half-bound. Sherwood and Co. 1823, The various events here narrated are connected with each other rather ingeniously, but they are highly improbable; and Mrs. Harcourt is represented as pursuing her course of guilt more successfully than is consistent with a moral example. Many words and phrases might be noticed as incorrect: for instance, vol. i. p. 2., we feared he grew thin, and was very positive he was much paler; p. 23., after the last distressing rights (rites) were paid,' &c. &c. The four volumes, also, might very comfortably have been comprized in two. MISCELLANEOU S. Art. 21. Details of the Arrest, Imprisonment, and Liberation, of an Englishman, by the Bourbon Government of France. 8vo. pp. 160. 4s. sewed. Hunter. 1823. The case of Mr. Bowring, here detailed, has been amply brought before the public, but he deems it right thus fully to state it under his own authority, and supported by the various documents belonging to it. We need not now eulogize the talents or the spirit of Mr. Bowring, which have been rendered apparent on several occasions, and are conspicuous on this: but we join with him in lamenting that no satisfaction was obtained, either personally or nationally, for the insult and the injuries inflicted on him by the French government; for which, he emphatically declares, there never was the shadow of foundation, and none indeed was attempted to be proved. Even the grounds of collateral suspicion asserted against him, as connected or co-operating with other individuals, dividuals, he affirms to be wholly false. If, therefore, he makes his acknowlegements to Mr. Secretary Canning for the individual attentions throughout manifested by him to Mr. B. and his family, he avows his regret that through him the country has been contemptuously insulted, without redress or apology: while he states that the inhospitality and severity of our laws against aliens were alleged in extenuation of any harshness shewn towards him; a feeling, he observes, which is common on the Continent, and has often been brought forwards against Englishmen, equally to their shame and their injury. The only specific allegation against Mr. Bowring that was made, and could be established, was that he had private letters in his possession, which should have been sent by the post: but this point the government did not chuse to press. We may recommend these details to the public as in themselves interesting and not unimportant, but particularly as applicable to English travellers in France; who may behold in Mr. Bowring's case the dangers to which they are all exposed in that country, and in his conduct may find an example which they may imitate in bearing and exposing such proceedings. Art. 22. The Pyrenees, and the South of France, during the Months of November and December, 1822. By A. Thiers. 8vo. 6s. sewed. Treuttel and Co. 1823. It appears that M. Thiers took the resolution of quitting Paris in October last, with the intention of visiting the two great chains of mountains which cover the frontiers of France,' and ' determined to collect some particulars' respecting the countries through which he passed. He has accordingly presented us with a variety of information relating to parts of the Continent which now excite especial attention; and he seems to be a lively and observant traveller, contemplating the contest already begun with feelings awake to the real interests and most important rights of mankind. - Our news-papers have made so free with the work by inserting quotations from it, that we can scarcely offer to our readers any of the best passages in it that will probably be new to them: but we must not be entirely excluded by the daily critics, or reporters of new books, who now usurp and forestall so much of our duty. His course was first directed to Geneva, whence he passed into the French Alps, which enclose the rich and patriotic Dauphiné; which border the South, so little known and so ill appreciated; and which should now give so much hope to the friends of civilization and knowledge.' He then descended from the last slopes of the Alps to the plains of Languedoc; and again ascended to the Pyrenees, the last bulwark of continental liberty; the Pyrenees, threatened by so many storms, and the scene of such remarkable events, that their bold and interesting beauty is but an accessory incitement to the curiosity of the traveller.' M. Thiers gives but an unfavorable account of the disposition of the people of Marseilles, who have indeed often made themselves notoriously conspicuous. He says that it is the most de mocratic mocratic city in France:' but he denies the truth of the conjecture which ascribes this circumstance and the frequent commotions there to the ardent southern temperament of its inhabitants.' He assigns other causes, which we have not room to detail: but to which, he says, it must be added that Marseilles receives into its bosom the wretches who have been condemned for various crimes in the cities of the Mediterranean, and that it thus becomes the sink of the vices of Italy, Spain, and the Levant. It is this class of unprincipled vagabonds which has at all times excited tumults in the city, and aggravated them by pillage and assassi nation.' Having described his first interview with some of the army of the Faith, the author observes that the miserable groupes which he had seen were specimens of the state of a great part of Spain. Industry having made no progress, he says, all classes of the inhabitants seek in the mountains that occupation which they cannot find in the towns.' This ignorant, violent, lazy, and poor people, must be employed and fed, until they become sensible of the advantages which industry procures; but until they acquire a home and the means of regular subsistence, they will fly with joy to the first signal which is given them from the mountains. We need not therefore be at all surprised at the facility with which the Regency of Urgel has drawn some villages into insurrection. But if insurrection is easy, the case is otherwise as to its success and duration. In fact, when the Regency thought proper to appoint ministers and Generals, and to attempt a regular campaign, it was beaten. It will be said that it might have done against Mina what the Cortes of Cadiz did against Bonaparte. To this there is but one reply. These guerillas, who have risen for a moment in the Pyrenees, are good for nothing against their own countrymen, in whom there is nothing to excite their passions; on the contrary, the sight of a stranger, differing from themselves in language, dress, and countenance, animates them even to fury. These differences are unpardonable in their eyes, and they pursue them with extreme inveteracy. Add to this the fine uniforms, handsome arms, gorgets, and brilliant buttons, to pillage from foreigners; and there are more than sufficient reasons to make them fight in every defile in Spain. Besides they have an advantage over the enemy which they have not over their countrymen, sobriety, and a perfect acquaintance with the country and its localities. These guerillas, who are so weak against Mina, will therefore be very formidable to foreigners. Providence seems to have ordained, that when it gave men a country, they should be able to preserve it, and with that view to have given them an irresistible force on their There is a great deal of meaning in the fable which says, that a giant on touching his mother-earth acquired from it new and terrible strength.' own soil. The writer's meeting with the Regency of Urgel is thus related: At this time, the wind instead of raising the sand and pebbles, was driving before it thick snow and little sharp icicles, which ad hered |