Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Let the tenant-farmers of the nation ponder his words.
"Small traders of little capital in country towns are waiting the
moment to make investment in farms." Waiting what moment? Why, the
moment, gentlemen, when you are ruined, and are to be driven, with
your wives and families, from your homes. Any sentiment more bitterly
unfeeling, or more mockingly cruel, was never vented within the walls
of Parliament; and, to our taste, it was made more loathsome by the
oily compliments to English farmers with which it was garnished. The
ex-Minister, however, is evidently deceiving himself, and he will find
that retired shopkeepers are not such simpletons as he fancies. The
"small traders in country towns," that _very section_ of the mercantile
community who are _notoriously_ suffering _most_ from the inroads of
Free Trade, are to invest their remaining capital in farming, _that
particular business_ which has received the _deepest_ wound from Free
Trade! And this is the sheet-anchor of Sir James Graham's hope; and
this is a sample of Free-trade wisdom from the lips of its greatest
champion! No doubt there may be small traders with little capital
in the commercial world who are fools; but we begin to believe that
there may be great _traders_, with little principle, in the political
world, who, wily though they be, may reveal the cloven-foot, and defeat
their aspirations after place and power. Let us be thankful, whatever
befalls us, the English O'Connell with his threat of rebellion cannot
harm us, and the fate of the Grahamite faction is sealed! The retired
shopkeepers, instead of adopting the disinterested advice, will more
probably purchase snug villas; thus indulging their passion for the
pleasures of a country life more innocently than by waiting for the
ruin of the farmers; and thus we believe, too, that their "little
capital" will be as safe as under the self-suggested guardianship of
Sir James Graham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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