388 
Mr. Vaneittart ; and, though the inter- 
vening sufferings of the agriculturists 
and their dependants form no item 
of fiscal arithmetic, yet they must, 
as soon as all his shifts fail, operate 
on his balance-sheet. He may, it is 
true, have recourse to direct loans, 
and thus keep up the system a few 
years longer; but this expedient 
would only be to aggravate the evils, 
and to move in a still more vicious 
circle than that of renewing the Bank- 
restriction Act, and re-opening the 
flood-gates of paper currency. 
To put the public, in a few words, 
in possession of the difference to the 
agricultural interest of the effect of 
’ prices raised to a maximum by public 
Joans spent by contractors in the mar- 
kets, and the prices depreciated by 
the absence of such factitious pur- 
chasers, and by the deficiency of local 
currency, arising from the periodical 
drains of non-resident landlords and 
tax-receivers, I have estimated the 
respective amounts of the leading 
articles of produce and consumption 
in the United Kingdom, taking the 
population at twenty millions :— 
Millions. 
Supposing that each person consumes 
half a pound of meat per day, and 
the difference of price to be 4d. per 
Ib. the total diminution of cost and 
return would be eececseseeeseees G1 
Supposing that each person consumes 
a quartern-loat’ per week, and the 
difference to be 1s. the diminution 
WOUId he eevedece eoveesescesee 52 
Supposing each person to consume as 
much agricultural produce of other 
kinds as make a difference of 3d. 
per day, it would be -+ee--ee+eee 92 
Supposing thirty-five millions of loads 
of hay ‘at 20s. less, and twenty mil- 
lions of quarters of oats at 20s. less, 
the difference in return from horse- 
feed would be --cseccsescccesase 55 
Less in 1822 than 1793 to 1815++ 260 
Making a difference of upwards of 
31. 3s. per acre in the profits of each 
acre, on all the cultivated land in the 
three kingdoms. Add to this 7s. per 
acre in increased direct and indirect 
taxes, and 10s. for poor-rates, and the 
effect of tythe-moduses, we have a to- 
tal defalcation of 4/1. per acre in the 
profits of farming! 
If, however, the former he supposed 
to have netted 2/. per acre in the pe- 
riod of high prices, then we find that 
a total loss is now suffered of 2. per 
ivils of Non-Resident Landlords. 
[Dec. 1, 
acre, and hence the obvious difficulty 
of paying high rents, or even any rent, 
if other charges are not abated, or the 
system of allowing non-resident re- 
ceivers and exhausted currency is not 
speedily changed. , 
Of course, in such a calculation, 
round numbers have been taken, and 
errors are presumed to balance them- 
selves. But it may be considered, 
that the effect of the drain from non- 
residence is, to other effects, as three 
or four to one. 
In regard to purchases of estates, 
made when prices were raised by the 
loans spent by contractors, by which 
the farmer was enabled to pay 30s. or’ 
40s. more per acre than when no such 
contracts existed; if any wiseacre 
then gave thirty years’ purchase, he 
gave 45/. or 60/. more than the net 
value of the estate. Yet such was the 
folly of the day, and the utter igno- 
rance of the true operation of public 
loans, that many estates were bought 
even at forty years’ purchase, or at 
601. and 80/. per acre more than their 
net value! In fact, when the country 
gentlemen of England encouraged 
loans to carry on wars against the 
liberties of other nations, they in effect 
were mortgaging their own estates ; 
and what they received in extra rents 
was their share of the mortgage, 
received through high prices, created 
by the operation of Joans, by means of 
contractors in the markets. This 
mortgage was then added to their 
rent, and the amount treated as areal 
rent, on which they presumed to live, 
while madmen were found to give 
thirty and forty years’ purchase! Thus, 
if a man had 400 acres of Jand, which 
in 1790 he let at 30s. per acre, or 500/. 
and in 1800, owing to loans or mort- 
cages, and consequent high prices, he 
let the same at 50s. or 10007. ; the extra 
5007. was, in truth, his share of an 
annual loan and a mortgage raised _ to 
that amount. But, if in 1801 he felt 
disposed to sell the same, thirty times 
the said 10007. (that is, rent and mort- 
gage together,) or 30,000/. was often 
greedily given for the same. It fre- 
quently happened that two-thirds of 
the amount was left, or borrowed on 
mortgage at five per cent. amounting 
to the 10007. per annum for interest, 
to pay which, and leave a surplus, the 
farmer was racked to 60s. But the 
delusion is now at an end, though its 
nature’is to this day not understood, 
and 
