which a part of the foreign corn, upon the ports being opened, might find its way hither. But this difference would not be considerable, the ports of Flanders and Holland being as convenient for the Thames, as most of our own ports from which corn is shipped for London.

Having stated the grounds upon which your Committee are of opinion that the expectations which have been entertained of advantage from the repeal of this clause, are not likely to be realized, they conceive that the views in which it was introduced of making this country a deposit of foreign grain, from which either our own occasional wants, or those of other nations, might be supplied, are, independent of other considerations, too much in unison with our general warehousing system, from which this country derives such important commercial advantages, to be abandoned, without further proof of their prejudicial effects to our agriculture, than any which your Committee have been able to collect from the evidence.

It is material to observe, also, that the warehousing of foreign corn in this country, has this great advantage, that it places the supply of our wants, to the extent of the quantity warehoused, out of the reach of foreign states, put ting it out of their power, in a season of scarcity, to aggravate the pressure of those wants, either by prohibiting the export of corn, or by imposing a heavy duty upon that export. The fact of upwards of 100,000 quarters of wheat having been recently sent from the warehouses of this country to the Mediterranean, further shews that this facility of deposit is not a matter of indifference to the commerce and navigation of this country.

An impression prevails in many quarters, that large quantities of corn, imported since February 1819, have recently been introduced into home

consumption. This could only have occurred by a fraudulent evasion of the law. Of the existence of this prac tice to a great extent, your Committee have received many intimations. They appear, however, to rest upon vague rumours, which the parties, when called upon, have not come forward, or not been able, to substantiate, except in one instance, the particulars of which your Committee forbear to state, as it is understood that the persons concerned in the attempt, are now under prosecution. They will only observe, that the quantity stated to have been withdrawn was inconsiderable, and that it appears to them, if farther security be requisite against the recurrence of this fraud, that regulations for that purpose may easily be devised and introduced into the bill now before the House, for better ascertaining the averages.

Instead of expressing doubts with respect to the remedies which have been suggested by others, it would have been far more satisfactory to your Committee, to have been enabled to conclude their labours by pointing out some immediate measure of alleviation, which would have been efficacious at once to mitigate the distress, and to allay the alarm which prevail among the agricultural classes of the community.

If such an expedient could have been found, even in a temporary departure from any sound and recognised principle of general policy on this subject, or in any modification of the existing law which could now be attempted, they might have been disposed to submit it to the favourable consideration of the House; but when, after a long and anxious inquiry, they have not been able to discover any means, which, in their estimation, are calculated immediately to remove the present pressure, they know too well

their own duty to the House, and feel too much respect for the manly character of that class of the community, whose difficulties have been the object of their investigation, either to attempt to disguise the view which they have taken of the origin and nature of those difficulties, or to recommend that specific plan of relief pointed out by the suffering parties, which, however sanctioned by the arguments and prayer of their petitions, appears to be founded in delusion, and likely, therefore, to lead only to disappointment.

So far as the present depression in the markets of agricultural produce is the effect of abundance from our own growth, the inconvenience arises from a cause which no legislative provision can alleviate; so far as it is the result of the increased value of our money, it is one not peculiar to the farmer, but which has been, and still is, experienced by many other classes of society. That result, however, is the more severely felt by the tenant, in consequence of its coincidence with an overstocked market, especially if he be farming with a borrowed capital, and under the engagements of a lease; and it has hitherto been farther aggravated by the comparative slowness with which prices generally, and particularly the price of labour, accommodate themselves to a change in the value of money.

From this circumstance, combined with other causes, the departure from our ancient standard, in proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of money, and persons dependent on fix ed incomes, was a benefit to the active capitals of the country; and it cannot be denied that the restoration of that standard has, in its turn, been proportionally disadvantageous to many individuals belonging to the productive classes of the community, and especially to those who had engaged

in speculative adventures, either of farming or trade.

That restoration must also be accompanied with embarrassment to the land-owner, in proportion as his estate is encumbered with mortgages, or other fixed payments, assigned upon it during the period when land and rents were raised to an artificial value, in reference to the impaired value of the money in which those encumbrances were contracted.

From the cessation of public loans, the probability of large accumulations of capital, and the constant operation of such a sinking fund, as, in the present state of our finances, may, henceforward during the continuance of peace, be regularly appropriated to the reduction of the public debt, your Committee trust that the rate of interest of money may, in a short time, be so far reduced below the legal maximum, as to make those encumbrances a lighter burden upon the landed interests of the kingdom. It is an alleviation which former intervals of peace have produced, at periods in many respects less favourable to its attainment; and if, in the present instance, the want of that alleviation is become more urgent, your Committee venture to hope, that, from the greater accumulation of capital in the country, cooperating with the effects of a positive and steady reduction of the public debt, this salutary result will also be more speedily brought about. They look forward to this mode of easing the encumbrances of the landlord with the more anxiety, as, amidst all the injury and injustice which an unsettled currency, an evil, they trust, never again to be incurred, has in succession cast upon the different ranks of society, the share of that evil which has now fallen upon the landed interest, is the only one which, without inflicting greater injury and greater

injustice, admits, (now that we are advanced in the system of a restored currency,) of no other relief. The difficulties, great as they unfortunately are, in which it has involved the farming, the manufacturing, and trading interests of the country, must diminish in proportion as contracts, prices, and labour, adjust themselves to the present value of money. That this change is now in progress, and has already taken place to a considerable degree, is in evidence before your Committee. They are satisfied that it will continue until that balance is restored, which will afford to labour its due remuneration, and to capital its fair return. And although they deeply lament the derangement which the fluctuations of the last ten years, in the value of the currency, have occasioned in all the transactions of life, together with the individual loss and suffering unavoidably produced by the return to a fixed standard, they are satisfied that this was the only course which was in the power of Parliament to adopt,-well as to prevent the continuance of a derangement, leading, as it must have led, to the aggravation of those losses and sufferings, as to manifest to the world the inflexible determination of this country, rigidly to adhere to that good faith of which the moral character of the people is the sure guardian, and which, with that character, has placed our greatness and our power upon the foundation, hitherto unshaken amidst all our vicissitudes, of public credit and national honour. 18th June, 1821.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE POOR RATES.

The select Committee appointed to consider the several returns made to

the orders of this House in 1819, 1820, and 1821, relative to the sums assessed, levied, and expended, on account of the poor in England and Wales, and to report an abstract of the same, together with their observations thereon, to the House; have, pursuant to the orders of the House, considered the matters to them referred, and agreed to the following Report :

The returns referred to your Committee contain a statement of the total sum raised by assessment in each parish and township in England and Wales, in the five years ending on the 25th of March, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820.

The mode of obtaining, by order of the House of Commons addressed to the parish officers, information as to the amount of the assessments and expenditure on account of the poor, was suggested by the Committee appointed to consider of the poor laws, in the year 1818; and your Committee have the satisfaction of informing the House, that the returns so procured are very nearly complete. The deficiencies are very few in number, and, with the exception of one parish in Middlesex, arise in inconsiderable parishes.

This is the parish of St Matthew, Bethnal-green; and the deficiency appears to have arisen from litigation with respect to the custody of the books, and not from any wilful neglect on the part of the churchwardens or overseers. Your Committee have directed the expenditure of this parish to be estimated in the abstract according to its amount in the preceding year.

The returns for the first four of the years mentioned, were called for by an order of the House, dated 30th April, 1819, and those of the last of these years, by an order of the 5th of July, 1820.

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It is necessary to make this distinction, because there is a slight variation in the wording of the two orders. That of 30th of April, 1819, which was carefully framed so as to require as little as possible of detail from the officers, required an account," showing the total amount of the money as sessed and levied upon each parish, township, or other place maintaining its own poor; distinguishing, in the said account, the amount of money paid out of such assessments for any other purpose than the relief of the poor." The remainder, after deducting the latter of these amounts from the former, was taken as the amount expended on account of the poor.

Before the order of 1820 was issued, it appeared that this mode of ascertaining the expenditure on account of the poor was not quite accurate, inasmuch as the sum assessed and levied," and the sum "expended" for all purposes, do not always, in each particular year, correspond in amount. The expenditure of any year may be defrayed in part, out of the balance of the assessment of the preceding year; or there may be a debt remaining at the end of the year, which in some returns may be included in the account of the sum expended, and in others excluded..

Some of the parish officers appear to have supplied this defect in the order, by stating separately the sum expended on account of the poor; and it is owing to this circumstance, that in the abstract of the four years or dered to be printed on July 17, 1820, the second and third columns, which were intended jointly to state the total expenditure, do not exactly agree in amount with the first, which contains the amount assessed and levied. The difference, however, is very inconsiderable; and your Committee are satisfied that the corrected account now given of "money expended solely on

the poor," contains a sufficiently accurate statement of the expenditure for any purpose of comparison.

The order calling for the returns of the year ending March 25, 1820, required, as before, an account of the sum assessed and levied, and also, "the total amount of money expended in that year;" when from this latter sum the amount of the expenditure "for other purposes" is deducted, the remainder comes out accurately as the amount of the expenditure on account of the poor.

There may possibly still be some difference between different parishes in the mode of making up the return; some officers may, perhaps, include in one column, and some in the other, moneys expended in litigation and other matters immediately connected with the poor, but not applicable to their relief. The amount, however, of this mixed expenditure, though considerable in one point of view, does not bear so great a proportion to the whole expenditure, as to constitute a material objection to the accuracy of the returns.

- The Committee have the further satisfaction of adding, that the returns under the late order have been made more promptly, and in a more regular form, than those called for in the preceding year.

It may be convenient here to ob. serve, that in the order recently made by the House for returns for the year ending 25th March, 1821, a still further correction is made of the form. Instead of calling for the amount "assessed and levied," the requisition is now for the amount levied only. This alteration was certainly proper, as the whole sum assessed may not always be levied within the year.

Your Committee having been instructed to report to the House an abstract of the late returns, together with their observations thereupon, con

ceive that they cannot more usefully execute the duty assigned to them, than by connecting the returns of the five years referred to them, with those of former periods, which are to be found in the journals and papers of

the house.

Returns are already before Parlia ment, in different degrees of detail of the amount and expenditure of the poor rates in the years ending at Easter 1748, 1749, 1750, 1776, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1803, and 1813, 1814, 1815; your Committee have, therefore, included in their abstract so much of the account of those former years as can be compared with the more recent accounts; so that the House has now before it a statement of the amount of the poor rates, at several periods, commencing in the middle of the last century, and reaching to the year preceding the last.

The first statement which your Committee submit to the House, shows, in gross sums, the amount of moneys assessed and levied in England and Wales, at each former period, and in each year comprised in the late returns; and the amount expended upon the poor, and for other purposes, with other distinc tions to be found in some of the returns.

Your Committee present to the House, in the second place, an account of the sums expended in each county, for the relief of the poor only, in each of the eight years, ending on the 25th March, 1820, being the latest period for which there are the means of giving complete yearly accounts; of these eight years, the accounts of the first three are taken from the return of 1815, the others are from the returns referred to your Committee; these they have combined in order that the eight years may be viewed together.

Your Committee have not thought

it expedient to give the detailed account of each parish. The House having lately called for returns of the poor rates, for the year ending the 25th of March, 1821, it appears to your Committee more convenient that a parochial account, embracing nine years, should be prepared early in the next session of parliament, when the House will have the additional advantage of an opportunity of considering these returns in connexion with the result of the late numeration of the people.

They have at the same time the satisfaction of informing the House, that all the parochial returns, and correct abstracts in which each parish is distinguished, are carefully arranged, so as to facilitate reference by any member of the House to the return of any particular district.

The Committee lay before the House, thirdly, a statement in which the former returns, so far as they relate to the expenditure upon the poor only, are also distinguished by counties; and the eight later years are averaged in three periods; the first of three years, ending in March, 1815, being the period which was under the consideration of the Committee of 1817, and which reached to the first year of peace; the second, embracing a like period of three years, ending in March 1818; and the third, comprising only two years, to March 1820, which may be completed to a triennial period, when the returns recently ordered shall have been received.