This was the cause of that distress which led to the present Corn Bill. The disease occasioned by the preparations for cash-payments, has been brought to a crisis by Mr. Peel's Bill, which has, in effect, doubled, if not tripled, the real amount of the taxes, and violated all contracts for time; given triple gains to every lender, and placed every borrower in jeopardy. _Kensington, Friday, 4 Jan. 1822._ Got home from _Battle_. I had no time to see the town, having entered the Inn on Wednesday in the dusk of the evening, having been engaged all day yesterday in the Inn, and having come out of it only to get into the coach this morning. I had not time to go even to see _Battle Abbey_, the seat of the Webster family, now occupied by a man of the name of _Alexander_! Thus they _replace them_! It will take a much shorter time than most people imagine to put out all the ancient families. I should think, that six years will turn out all those who receive nothing out of taxes. The greatness of the estate is no protection to the owner; for, great or little, it will soon yield him _no_ rents; and, when the produce is nothing in either case, the small estate is as good as the large one. Mr. Curteis said, that the _land_ was _immovable_; yes; but the _rents are not_. And, if freeholds cannot be seized for common contract debts, the carcass of the owner may. But, in fact, there will be no rents; and, without these, the ownership is an empty sound. Thus, at last, the burthen will, as I always said it would, fall upon the _land-owner_; and, as the fault of supporting the system has been wholly his, the burthen will fall upon the _right back_. Whether he will now call in the people to help him to shake it off is more than I can say; but, if he do not, I am sure that he must sink under it. And then, will _revolution No. I._ have been accomplished; but far, and very far indeed, will that be from being the _close_ of the drama!--I cannot quit Battle without observing, that the country is very pretty all about it. All hill, or valley. A great deal of wood-land, in which the underwood is generally very fine, though the oaks are not very fine, and a good deal covered with _moss_. This shows, that the clay ends before the _tap_-root of the oak gets as deep as it would go; for, when the clay goes the full depth, the oaks are always fine.--The woods are too large and too near each other for hare-hunting; and, as to coursing it is out of the question here. But it is a fine country for shooting and for harbouring game of all sorts.--It was rainy as I came home; but the woodmen were at work. A great many _hop-poles_ are cut here, which makes the coppices more valuable than in many other parts. The women work in the coppices, shaving the bark of the hop-poles, and, indeed, at various other parts of the business. These poles are shaved to prevent _maggots_ from breeding in the bark and accelerating the destruction of the pole.