612 POST-OFFICE, ROADS, AND CONVEYANCE. 



the country is getting into the hands of a few individuals. At the 

 present moment the nation is rapidly dividing into two classes usur- 

 pers and paupers. A change in this system is imperatively called for, 

 as essential to public confidence and the well-being of society. Al- 

 ready the security of property has become in a great measure nominal, 

 simply from the circumstance that the great mass of the community 

 have now no stake in the national wealth. Public confidence and pub- 

 lic prosperity alike require that this should be amended. We do not 

 plead this change upon the abstract principles of duty and honesty. 

 The day is gone by for appeals either to philanthropy or patriotism. 

 We rest it upon the stern necessity of the case. It is an axiom in 

 civil polity a law unalterable as that of the Medes and Persians 



that 'A PROPER DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESOURCES OF A STATE IS 

 ABSOLUTELY NE'CESSARY TO THE INTEGRITY OF ITS EXISTENCE, 

 BECAUSE THE NEGLECT OF IT MUST TERMINATE EITHER IN ANAR- 

 CHY OR DESPOTISM.' We are just bordering upon this cond ition. 

 There is now no general wide-spread prosperity amongst the various 

 classes of our society. And though the wealth of Great Britain is still 

 enormous in quantity, nevertheless that it does not produce effects 

 commensurate with its magnitude, the increase of misery and 

 crime, sedition and insubordination, with each succeeding year, too 

 fully demonstrate.* This system must be changed ; nor can it 

 ever be so in a more extensive, or less objectionable manner, than by 

 the adoption of a proposal that will distribute capital, and effect al- 

 terations, which, whether viewed commercially, morally, or politically, 

 will be of the utmost importance to society." 



We shall not follow Mr. Broun through the arguments drawn 

 from the political state of society, by which he enforces the expedience 

 and necessity for Government adopting his plan. A morning paper, 

 in a leading article upon it, makes the following observations, in 

 which we cordially agree. " We cannot doubt after taking a view 

 of this proposal, and the subject which it refers to, that, with im- 

 proved communication and reduction of taxes, employment to manual 

 labour will be afforded, food cheapened, and capital distributed, to an 

 extent that must guarantee the most important change in the social 

 condition of the country. We really think that the project holds out 

 the fairest promise of a realization of this result ; but then in pro- 

 portion to our conviction upon this point is our doubt whether ministers 

 will have the spirit, prudence, and judgment, requisite for the adoption 

 of a proposition so novel and important. The change is too complete 

 and sweeping ; and, we might add, the advantages of it are far too 

 probable and definite to allow us to suppose that the plan will meet 

 with the approbation of our reform professors who hold the reins of 

 government. Yet we do trust that the proposition will be strenuously 

 advocated in parliament, and that it will be urgently enforced upon 

 the government to accede to the appointment of a commission of in- 

 quiry into the subject of a consolidation of the post-office, roads, and 

 locomotive conveyance, with a vieAV to the ascertaining of the mode 



* No stronger proof can be adduced of the magnitude of this evil, than the 

 fact that the deposits of private individuals last year with the Bank of England, 

 bearing no interest, amounted to nearly 10,500,000/., not including 4,000,000/. of 

 public balances ! Prior to 1825, the deposits did not exceed 2,000,000J. 



