15. Little did they dream of the approach of a state of things like this, when they were calling upon the government to suppress your petitions, and were representing you as bent (under pretence of seeking for parliamentary reform) upon the overthrow of all law and the destruction of all property. Those whom they then called upón' for laws to shut you up in dungeons, have now given them laws to their hearts' content; and as to property, they have left them. nothing but the name; not a man of them having one single shilling, on the permanent possession of which he can rely, as a resource for his family.

16. Since I left London, on the 8th of March last, I have been from London to the mouth of the Thames; from the mouth of the Thames I have been to the mouth of the Humber; from the mouth of the Humber I am come to the mouth of the Severn; I have ridden more than a thousand miles; I have walked about three hundred and fifty miles; I have made fifty-four speeches; I have been in commercial towns, manufacturing towns, agricultural towns; I have conversed with merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, operatives, artisans, and labourers; and, every-where in every county, town, and village, I find the same tale of deep distress amongst all those who do not live on the taxes. Those of the sufferers who besought the government to put you and me into dungeons, have, however, one great consolation; namely, that it is not Jacobins and Radicals that have brought these calamities upon them; that, if they be made beggars, as the greater part of them will be, they have, at any rate, the happiness to know, for a certainty, that the beggary has not been occasioned by those "evildisposed," "designing" men, whom the Prince Regent expressed his noble determination to put down.

17. Yes, my friends, when these base villains, these greedy and cowardly and barbarous and stupid slaves, were exulting over our sufferings; when they were joining CANNING, the insolent and empty Canning, in laughing at the excruciating tortures of poor OGDEN; when they were making sport of the bowels being forced out of his aged body; when they were making a jest of the groans of so many innocent victims of their malice; when they were applauding the works of Sidmouth, Castlereagh, Canning, Parson Hay,

Oliver, Castles, and Edwards; when they were shouting at the fall of every head that came tumbling from the block; when they were praising Burdett for his abandonment of us and our cause; when they were singing triumph at my flight across the seas: then, my friends, they little thought" of beholding times like these, times which we foresaw, times for which our minds were duly prepared, and times in acting our part with regard to the consequences of which we shall, I trust, not be found wanting.

18. I will, now, first endeavour to describe to you the state of the country, and then speak of the causes of that state. The final consequences will then appear to you clear enough; and you will be duly prepared for those consequences. The state of the country is this: That all the industrious and useful classes, from the attorney and the surgeon and physician, down to the mechanic and the labourer, are suffering loss, privation, embarrassment, and distress; while the idlers, and all who live on the taxes, are living in luxury; that merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen, all find the profits of their callings diminish daily, and, generally speaking, themselves on the eve of insolvency; that shopkeepers do not sell half the quantity of goods that they used to sell, and that even those they sell to little profit; that the farmers are, if possible, still worse off, as their produce sells for, on an average, not more than the half of what it ought to sell for to enable them to pay their rents, and to pay wages sufficient for the due sustenance of their workpeople; that the working classes, those whose labours create all useful things, are, therefore, in a state of halfstarvation, and are covered with miserable rags, instead of that good and decent clothing with which their forefathers were covered.

19. Such is a general description of the state of the country, the parliament of which, Sir JAMES GRAHAM tells us, is "the noblest assembly" on the face of the earth. And now for an instance or two of the wretchedness of this state. I have lately passed through the cloth-making part of Gloucestershire, and a part of Wiltshire, where the same business has, until lately, been carried on. Of all the countries that God, in his goodness, ever made for the enjoyment of man, even in this the most favoured land, this seems to

be the most delightful, and, for its extent, the most valuable. Rich land, beautiful woods, water bubbling from the hills in all directions, coal in abundance at a short distance, stone and slate the substratum of the soil, and a fine corn and dairy country, in every direction, as you look from the hills that bound these winding and ever-varying valleys, where the climate is so mild, and the gardens so early and so blessed with products. Yet this spot, under the management of the famous 658, has become the abode of gaunt hunger and raving despair, saying to the beholder, "These are the effects "of that system of sway, the upholders of which call it, the of surrounding nations, and the admiration of the

envy "world!""

20. The innumerable cloth-mills in these valleys seem to be generally deserted; the drying-grounds on these pretty slopes, which, a few years ago, I saw so many closelyshaven and beautiful lawns, have now the long grass standing to be cut for hay; and the railings, or frames, for hanging the cloth on, have no marks of footsteps near them, and seem to be gradually rotting down; while the farmers in the neighbourhood are, from the want of employment for the manu facturers, so loaded with poor-rates, that many of the farms are let for no rent at all, the only condition being that the farmer pay the rates; and even this he is unable to do without loss. At Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, where there were two cloth-mills, one is turned into a grist-mill, and the other appears to be nearly at a stand. At CALNE, in that county where there were two mills, both (and very fine mills) are shut up, and the grass growing in the walks and paths, before kept bare by busy footsteps. This, for many miles round, is a country alike famous for corn and for cheese; it is literally "a land flowing with milk and honey;" and here human anxiety and misery reign supreme! Here, where God has been so bountiful, the 658 step in, and say that enjoyment and innocence shall be supplanted by want and by crime!

21. The farmers sell that cheese for 40s. a ton (2,240lbs), which they used to sell for 80s. Their wheat, notwithstanding two successive half-crops, is at less than half the price that it used to be some years back. They have no stock on hand; their stocks of all kinds are becoming smaller and

smaller; their land is daily becoming worse cultivated; their teams of horses worth less and less; their harness and implements of all sorts more and more shabby, and of less and less value; their clothing, and that of their families, more and more mean; and as to the labourers, their bodies' are clad in disgraceful rags, and their bellies, when filled at all, with miserable potatoes, and this amidst all this corn, and meat, and milk, and butter, and cheese! Amidst this misery, crime stalke abroad in open day; the jails have been augmented four-fold in the space of a few years! At the Assizes the criminals are so numerous that barristers are appointed to assist judges; no moveable property is safe out of the security of locks and bars; and the immoveable is incessantly in danger from the hand of vindictive hunger; which, in many cases, has produced the destruction of horses, oxen, and other animals, by poison!

22. Such, such taxation and paper-money and gamelaws, are your desolating works! Such are the effects of a Parliament that "works so well," and that stands in need of no reform! Such are the hitherto results of that system, for having prayed for a change in which we were driven across the Atlantic, crammed into dungeons, and otherwise punished and ruined. Such, my friends, are the natural and unavoidable consequences of a system that gives the people at large no share in the making of the laws which impose taxes upon them, and which dispose of those taxes.

23. But, now, as the chief object of this work is to explain to the people at large How IT IS THAT THEY ARE MADE POOR, I must begin to show the manner in which the system works to produce the above-described effects; in other words, to show what are the immediate causes of a state of things so unnatural, so contrary to what reason and nature seem to prescribe with voice irresistible. This immediate cause is, ENORMOUS TAXATION co-operating with laws making CHANGES IN THE VALUE OF MONEY. Let me first speak of the taxation itself; and afterwards show how the effects of that have been aggravated by the changes in the value of money. If, with regard to these matters, I succeed in laying down the principles well and clearly, it will then be easy for me to show you why the taxation is imposed, who it is that profits from it, and how

we ought to go to work to cause it to be reduced so as to put an end to the present evils, and effectually to guard against the like in future; for, unless these objects be effected, is there a man in his sober senses who does not fear that the end must be here similar to that which took place in France? An end which it is the duty of us all, low as well as high, to endeavour to prevent.

24. But, to lay down those principles in the manner that I could wish, and in a way to make all reference to them easy and of great and constant avail, would require more room than is afforded me in this present Number. I shall, therefore, leave the subject to be concluded in my next, when I shall again address myself to you, your public spirit and honest perseverance meriting that mark of respect at the hands of your faithful friend and most obedient servant, WM. COBBETT.

PRIVY-COUNCILLORS AND CONSULS.

66

25. THESE are called "right honourable;" Lord Coke describes them as a noble and reverend assembly ;" and the new treason-law makes it high-treason to compass, that is to say, to imagine, their death; and under this law Mr. THISTLEWOOD, INGS, BRUNT, and TIDD, were executed as traitors, in the year 1820, soon after George IV. became king. To this reverend assembly belong HusKISSON, HERRIES, GOULBOURN, CALCRAFT, SIDMOUTH, and others, to the amount of one hundred and thirteen in number, leaving out the members of the Royal Family. Now, on the 14th of May last, Sir JAMES GRAHAM made, in the House of Commons, which he called "the noblest assembly in the world," a motion "For an "humble Address to his Majesty, for an account of all "salaries, profits, pay, fees, and emoluments, whether civil or military, from the 5th of January 1829 to the 5th of January 1830, held and enjoyed by each of his Majesty's "most hon. Privy Council, specifying, with each name,