Having thus recognised the important objects which are so clearly attainable by a proper and enlightened application of capital to agriculture, the inquiry immediately starts up, what are the perceivable causes or impediments, which, amid keen and restless commercial enterprise, have produced and retained this signal and notorious imperfection in our culture of the most essential, the most healthful, and most naturally pleasant all arts. A wide field here stretches out, and we shall just alight upon a few of its more prominent points. The land, in the first place, is under the control of " an order" too little distinguished in general, except by haughtiness, ignorance, and an extraordinary ambition to become legislators. The privileged situation of our landowners has made the most of them ignorant men; and they who are not so, have been bribed by it to become perverse. Our Entail Law exerts the natural influence of inducing the incumbent to overlook the permanent improvement of his estate in comparison with its monetary or annual return, and therefore to act towards it, during his whole life, after the exact fashion of the vindictive tenant before quitting a farm. Entail is not universal, but prevalent circumstances give the general tone; and we attribute to this pestiferous regulation, by far the major part of the destructive and most blind policy we are now to unfold.* It has of late been the object of the landlord, not so much to secure his rent, and to take care that none of his rent shall pass into the farmer's pocket in the shape of profits, as to devise and execute means for the draining away into his own ravenous coffers the whole capital possessed and employed by his tenantry. Thousands of beggared and broken families, families who once were happy, and who, if virtue and prudence, and honourable industry, did in our favoured land ensure worldly advantages, ought to be happy still, are at the present moment living and sorrowing testimonies of the maleficent success which has waited upon these endeavours. If the object in view could be best attained by the granting of no lease, no lease was granted; but if a lease could allure well-feathered capitalists into the net, the blood-sucker saw his chance, and acted upon it with surpassing skilfulness. By the action of hypothec, the tenant who sits under a lease, is, in nine cases out of ten, reduced to complete dependence upon the honour and moral feelings of his landlord. The full operation of this notable "protection" is not commonly understood. It is generally looked upon

author of this work was a party in recommending restrictions on the importation of foreign corn, he was so with the design of ultimately lowering the price of corn. He stated at that time his objects to be, first, to prevent the injury which would arise from peace suddenly opening the ports to foreign corn; and, secondly, to promote such an increased application of capital to tillage in Ireland, as would bring out the powers of that country to supply Great Britain with so large a quantity of corn, as would make the prices as low as if foreign corn were imported. He sees no reason for believing that his expectations were unreasonable, for he is convinced that if the measures of Catholic Emancipation, and of a commutation of tithes had been passed, when the Corn Bill of 1815 was passed, the increase of tillage in Ireland, in consequence of security of property and relief from tithes, would, before this, have reduced the price of corn to what it would be if the ports were open to foreign corn. But, in consequence of so much having of late been written to make the subjects of rents, prices, and profits better understood, he is now fully convinced that the right policy in regard to corn is a perfectly free trade."

There are incidental effects of the Entail Law not here alluded to. We shall allude to one-the continuance of tithes. Having virtually disinherited the younger sons, it creates a moral necessity for paternal care to provide for them; and what better or more genteel than a sinecure Church with its handsome appanage?

as a mere apology for cheating the commercial trader; and cheat him it certainly does, as well as every capitalist to whom the unfortunate farmers may be in debt: but its worst influence is upon the tenant himself.* It is its first and immediate effect, to remove the amount of the land. lord's rent from being determined by competition amongst honest and responsible men: it allows of contracts without regular security, and, of course, upon the most disadvantageous terms possible to the contractor ; and, it has thus uniformly acted in keeping rent at a rack-amount, and making the nominal value of a farm the very highest sum which it could bring under the most favourable circumstances. The market being so thoroughly deranged, no lease can be got on terms making the least allowance for bad crops, and the other thousand casualties to which agri.. culture is still subject; and the tenant, as we have said, is thus thrown at once upon the mercy of his landlord. When a bad year occurs, the nominal rent must either be abated, or the landlord will pocket what is not rent, but a portion of the farmer's capital. True economy would doubtless decide without hesitation which is the preferable course. The abatement would best serve the permanent interests even of the proprietor, for it would guard the powers of the cultivator from injury; but, as the proprietor seldom or never looks to permanent interests, he proceeds relentlessly with his murderous exactions. Thus is capital effectually deterred from flowing towards agriculture; and thus has the greater part of that once employed in it been violently and forcibly torn away. Will it be believed that the men, who have been the prime agents in this destructive draining, pretend to stand out before the country as the only supporters of agriculture, and fill the whole atmosphere with frantic imprecations against political economy, because, as they say, it hazards the safety of farming capital? Strange as it may seem, the fact is even so; and what is stranger still, many an agriculturist to this hour believes them his friends! Truth, however, is spreading, and the imposture will soon be unveiled. The people of Great Britain will not much longer be abused by words; and it is fast becoming apparent that the protection" which we mainly need, is protection from injustice at home. Were capital allowed free ingress into the bosom of the soil, and its safety, while there, secured; were the agriculturist efficiently protected from Almack's, and Crockford's, and Doncaster, and no longer obliged to pay from his own funds the expenses of my Lord John's contested election; we should indeed, as we have shown, be tolerably independent of the foreign grower, and our countrymen might yet eat cheap bread, raised upon their own dear island. When the legal reforms necessary to permit this are accomplished; and the farmer can exercise his calling in that perfect security, and on those free principles which are the neces sary substructure of all enterprise, he may indeed care little in the mean.

The extent of territory, so to speak, over which the landlord contrives to levy black-mail, is almost amusing. By the Corn Law, he taxes us all in the gross; by his sinecures, colonial appointments, &c., he does the same thing through the medium of the budget; by the Entail Law, he defrauds his own creditors; by hypothec, he taxes in the first place every trader whom the farmer can take in, for all the spoil goes to his pocket; and, in the second place, every farmer, by the rack-rent which he is thus enabled to exact! Verily, it is no wonder that the galled jade should have begun to wince!

+ If Mr. Gillon wishes to be a just, a popular legislator, he must revise his notions about hypothec. One of these months we shall give him some information upon the subject.

time for external competition; but it does not hence follow that the ports should be forcibly shut, or that high protecting duties would do no harm. The farmer must not only be put into a situation in which he can cultivate well, and do the country justice, but he must also be put into a situation to ensure the country that he will cultivate well. Our friends must allow us to remark, that there is still a certain character about them as a body, not altogether consistent with success in commerce. Practical improvements of the most obvious benefit, (steam thrashing-mills, for instance,) are not always adopted by agriculturists with the alacrity we witness in the case of an improvement in manufacturing machinery; and there is inherent in the class altogether, a sort of stiffness and immobility which at present is no slight obstacle to their due consideration of new and enlightened ideas. We should indeed" stand upon the old ways" in matters of faith, but it will not do in matters of commercial enterprise. Vigour, watchfulness, alertness, are the grand characteristics of a well-formed commercial mind; and whatever may be urged to the contrary, there is nothing in the mere pursuits of the agriculturist to make his psychology a necessary exception to the law. Doubtless the late state of farming has been most dispiriting, and doubtless, also, a fuller flow of capital to its employments, a rise in the rate of profits, and the substitution of briskness for uncertainty, and prosperity for threatening ruin, could accomplish much to awaken his slumbering energies ; but something more may yet be done, and we dare not neglect any aid. A phenomenon recently occurred in the commercial world, which illustrates precisely what we mean. Previous to Mr. Huskisson's acts, our silk manufacture was a disgrace to us. Old machinery, antiquated plans, slovenliness, contented ignorance: these were what an observer saw when he inquired into its state. When a change was proposed from the prohibitive policy to an ad valorem duty, the manufacturers screamed in agony, and demanded 100 per cent. Upon the footing on which they went, viz.-the actual condition of the manufacturer, they were rather too low than too high, for French silks would have beat them out at almost any price; but Mr. Huskisson looked upon the matter differently. He made up his estimate, not from what the home manufacturer did, but from what he might and ought to do, and fixed the duty at 30 per cent. The consequences of the change are well known. Activity suc.. ceeded to sloth-energy to ignorance; and we can now rival the best French fabrics. Our moral is, that a similar policy with regard to the farmer would produce an effect equally salutary upon the whole frame of his mind. Place him under the effect of an adequate, and ever-impending foreign competition, and we shall soon see a stir after improvement. The opportunity is ample throughout the whole kingdom, as, even in our most skilfully cultivated districts, there still want improvements of vast moment-improvements principally in the art of cleaning, without fallow or unprofitable crops, all of which are just now beyond the reach of Pole, Russian, or any poor nation; and which might, and undoubtedly would, in a few years, enable our home agriculture to surmount, in the most triumphant style, any apparently bad effects consequent on that friable reduction of price which would follow from the free admission of foreign corn.

If the important subject of which we treat were thus thoroughly looked at, and examined in all its bearings, how salutary would be the political endeavours of the agriculturist, and what an amount of terror would be saved him! Distrust in the energies and capabilities of a

country like this, is the height of absurdity, and almost a traitorous cowardice. With monopolists, however, it is always so,—the mists which congregate around them are never dissipated until the sun has risen high. On the conclusion of our paper let the tenantry of the kingdom, in the mean time, ponder well. The foremost practical inference is, that they must instantly dissolve all connexion with the Conser vatives, and deliver themselves from the thraldom of men who are their worst enemies, as well as ours!

THE SPY SYSTEM; OR, "TIS THIRTEEN YEARS SINCE.

IN the month of December, 1820, the Whigs and Reformers of Edin. burgh, after a long period of gloom and depression to the friends of freedom, took advantage of the favourable crisis which followed the trial of Queen Caroline, when the Ministry of Castlereagh and Sidmouth had become utterly odious and detestable to the nation, to hold a public meeting, at which, among other resolutions, the following were adopted:― "That they (the ministry) have for many years persisted in a course of most improvident, and wasteful expense; and, in times of unexampled distress, have obstinately rejected every proposition for effective retrenchment and economy."

"That they have struck an alarming blow at the morals of the people; and have invaded the private security of every class of subjects, by employing, encouraging, and protecting an unprecedented number of spies and informers; who are proved in many cases to have been themselves the instigators of those disorders for which others have been exposed to prosecution and punishment."

It is foreign to our purpose to notice the other resolutions. An Address and Petition to his Majesty, praying him to dismiss his Ministers, were founded upon them; and were intrusted to the Duke of Bedford, Earl Grey, Lord Holland, and Lord Erskine. Sir James Moncreiff was president of the meeting at which the resolutions were passed; and among the gentlemen who moved or seconded them, were Mr. Jeffrey, now the Lord Advocate, Sir James Gibson Craig, and all the leading Whigs and Reformers of the time. It is to the last resolution, passed only a few months after the execution of Hardie and Baird, the martyrs of the affair of Bonnymuir, that we shall have occasion to advert.

The intrigues and diabolical system of instigation and espionage, to which these unfortunate men fell victims, might form suitable passages in the history of the Inquisition, or of France, while governed by Mazarine or Richelieu. But this same infamous system had prevailed, both in England and Scotland, for some years before these deluded individuals became its prey; and we are greatly indebted to a little work which has recently appeared in Glasgow,* which enables us to trace its birth, and develop its working, till the iniquity was consummated in blood, and in the suspension of liberty. The first of the brotherhood of the Castles and Olivers that figured at this time, in the west of Scotland, was Richmond, a more plausible and clever knave than any of them, and, therefore, just so much the more dangerous. This man had been bred a weaver, and had come into contact with Messrs. Jeffrey and Cockburn, when indicted to stand his trial for being engaged in a combination to

Exposure of the Spy System. Glasgow: Muir, Gowans, & Co. 8vo.

raise wages. They advised him not to risk a trial; and he fled and was outlawed, but returned to Pollockshaws in great poverty, and addressed his former counsel, soliciting pecuniary aid. Mr. Jeffrey was moved by his condition, and was kind enough to interest himself in behalf of the man. He wrote to Mr. Kirkman Finlay, and Mr. Henry Monteith, to see what could best be done to assist Richmond. Mr. Kirkman Finlay appears at this time to have been chokeful, ready to burst, with a mighty "State secret," intrusted to his prudence and loyalty by Lord Sidmouth. This was nothing less than an extensive conspiracy to overthrow the Government, of which Glasgow and its environs was the principal seat. Mr. K. Finlay may be very zealous and loyal, and he might also be of the order of men who naturally feel disappointed if a mighty "State secret," intrusted to their keeping by a Lord and a Secretary of State, were found to be all humbug ; and if it were discovered to be a mouse of which their own mountain was in labour. Of the plot being a very good plot, he never seems to have doubted ; and, at his need, the devil sent Richmond, a man, for the purpose on hand, among ten thousand. Their first meeting, in consequence of Mr. Jeffrey's introduction, was held ostensibly to arrange the entrance of Richmond into the employment of Mr. Owen at New Lanark. It led to a most confidential communing. Mr. Finlay was particularly desirous for proofs of the conspiracy, and Richmond was the very person to obtain them for him. When rogues fall out, honest men get their own, saith the proverb. In a few years after this, when the rogues did fall out, Richmond, in a curious printed account of the whole affair, asserts that, when solicited by Mr. Finlay to act as a spy, he wished to consult his benevolent patrons, Messrs. Jeffrey and Cockburn ; and he adds—yet who can believe one word that he says, for which there is not other proof-that to this proposition Mr. Finlay decidedly objected, as was to be foreseen; they were, he allowed, both honourable men, but not the sort of persons to be intrusted with Lord Sidmouth's IMPORTANT STATE SECRET, confided to Mr. Richmond on a few hours' acquaintance. These high contracting powers, Finlay and Richmond, appear to have first met about the 10th of December, 1816. On the 22d of that month Richmond had so well acquitted himself, by bringing intelligence, that he states, that his employer, Mr. Finlay, who had made him vague offers of reward, was now "authorized by Government to offer me a respectable permanent situation, if I would lend my assistance to suppress the conspiracy." The loyalty and patriotism of Mr. Richmond, prompted by that of Mr. Finlay, could no longer refuse the wished-for aid; but to detect a plot, or suppress a conspiracy, it is necessary that one should first exist; and this, an article at that time of the first necessity to the Government, Richmond set himself to hatch with all dili.. gence. Subsequently a plot was really formed; but when the wretched and infamous affair was developed and traced, the ingenuity of the whole possé of Scottish Crown lawyers, sheriffs, and the myrmidons never behind in such cases, failed to obtain a vestige of proof of any oath, bond, or asso.. ciation, existing prior to the middle of December, that is, a few days after Richmond's first interview with Mr. Finlay. The whole object, as their rascal spy acutely stated, after they dismissed him, was to get up an alarm "to quash the demand for Reform, then so generally made." And this is true, if a worse than Richmond had said it. Besides Finlay, who must be presumed to have acted gratuitously, and from pure patriotism, in this very dirty affair, and whom we are rather inclined to class among those shallow persons whose understandings infallibly miscarry under the