Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Mr J. ALLIN WILLIAMS, of Wiltshire, seconded the resolution. He stood
before them that day as a Wiltshire farmer, second to none in the
kingdom in his loyalty and attachment to the throne and his love of
the constitution of old England. (Cheers.) Moreover, he stood before
them deputed by the farmers of the county of Wilts, for the purpose
of protesting against the treatment to which the occupiers of the
soil of Great Britain, as a class, had been subjected by the measures
of her Majesty's Ministers and by the House of Commons. (Cheers.)
He wished he could think that those measures and their consequences
had been properly considered and contemplated by their framers
before they were brought forward. Despite the remonstrances of the
defenders of the agricultural interest in the House of Commons, and
of the noble duke in the chair, and of other noblemen in the Upper
House of the Legislature, her Majesty's Ministers persisted in those
measures which must ultimately reduce the tenantry of England to
beggary. (Hear, hear.) An individual, whom he would not name, as his
name appeared to grate upon the ears of every honest farmer in this
country--(cheers)--but whom it was impossible to forget, as he had
laid down maxims which they felt obliged to take up and consider--a
few years ago that individual laid down, as a rule, that the British
farmer could not grow wheat in this kingdom under 56s. per quarter.
(Hear, hear.) And upon the faith of that statement many of the men
that he saw before him, himself included, had entered into agreements
with their landlords for the purpose of occupying their estates for
a certain period of years. (Hear, hear.) He himself had taken a
lease for 14 years. What, then, must be the condition of the farmers
of those estates when they were obliged to sell wheat at 36s. per
quarter? The consequence was, that all, or the greater part of those
who were similarly situated with himself, must be ruined. Upon the
same figures was also based the Tithe Commutation Act; and by that
act, which, as they too well knew, was ruled by a septennial clause,
last year, when they were selling their wheat at the price of two
guineas per quarter, they were compelled to pay after the rate of
54s. 10d. per quarter as the tithe of their produce; and this year,
when they were selling their wheat at from 36s. to 40s. per quarter,
they had to pay upon an average of 53s. (Hear, hear.) It was on that
account that he came there to proclaim that her Majesty's Ministers
had done the farmers a great piece of injustice, and that they had in
fact emptied the pockets of the British farmers by their legislation.
If there had been a necessity for the late Free-trade measures, (and
he denied that there was any such necessity,) he contended that every
portion of the community ought to have been made to bear a fair share
of the burdens which had been placed upon the agriculturists. But
what was the fact? He maintained that the industrious classes, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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