5G2 Mackineri/'distresses. [June, 



there ; one busy-body undertakes for the attendance of some important 

 personage, a second for the presence of a bishop or two, and a third 

 will canvass the whole peerage. A snug little committee is formed ; 

 resolutions are framed ; the. duke — no, the archbishop himself is to take 

 the cliair, and make the opening speech, deprecating discussion, 

 and backed by faithful supporters ; the sums of contribution are 

 fixed, and a secretary named to announce them — to glad the hearts 

 of all beholders and strike' their honest souls M'ith admiration. The 

 meeting takes place ; bishops, lords, ministers, throng the hustings ; 

 the speeches are made ; interruptions are checked, and impertinence 

 silenced; the contributions agreed upon are declared; his Majesty's 

 £2000 is received with astounding and rending applause ; £1000, £500, 

 £300, the hall rings again ; then come the ministers, the hundred or 

 two of one is met with a cheer, of a second with a hiss, and of a third 

 with a dead silence of wonder and a^'nazement ; and ten or twelve thou- 

 sands are collected on the spot. Then follow, day after day, in a suc- 

 cession of advertisements, emulously and carefully, all of certain stations 

 and pretensions, who can, and cannot afford to present a sum of the 

 proper amount to blazon in the public prints, till the thousands grow up 

 to £40 — 50 — G0,000, and finally the clergy, in the establishment and out 

 of it, piquing themselves on this species of influence, will probably, if 

 not by the pathos of their eloquence, by the activity of their tongues, 

 bring up the swelling sum to £100,000. 



To all this labour and effort, set in motion, observe, by the ministers — 

 though still resolutely resisting the aid of a grant, they have since come 

 forward, quite unexpectedly, with a very ingenious device, calculated 

 at once to display their own financial dexterity, and to prove their deep 

 and public concern for those distresses which they have already so 

 materially alleviated in their private capacities. Why, what are they 

 going to do ? There is a considerable quantity of corn in the ports. 

 ' Well. They are going to throw that — into the mouths of tlie famine- 

 struck wretches? No, into the market. What good will that do? 

 Augment the supply, to be sure, and thus reduce the price. Admira- 

 ble ; all, the fruits of political economy. But will not the farmers keep 

 back their stores in proportion ? They will never have the heart to do 

 so. Not the heart ? Why, can you expect them to bring into the 

 market more than can be sold but at a great depreciation ? But some 

 will be forced, by the want of money, to do so. Yes, but only some ; 

 and therefore, looking also at the inconsiderable quantity of liberated 

 corn, and the certainty that speculators will lay their gripe upon it, 

 the clear probability is, that no change, worth a word, will be effected. 

 The most sanguine, surely, cannot expect that the ninepenny loaf will 

 be brought down even to eight-pence ; and of what advantage is this to 

 those who have not a sixpence ? Yes, yes, but this foreign supply will 

 check the rise, which the general apprehension of an inadequate stock 

 is likely to bring about. Again, we ask, what immediate benefit will 

 you bring the man who has not a six-pence, by preventing the loaf from 

 rising above nine-pence ? and immediate aid is what the case of the 

 destitute requires. 



The truth is, and it stares us in the face, the ministers know all this 

 perfectly well, they are as fully convinced as ourselves, that the measure 

 is itself calculated to produce no mitigation whatever of the present 

 distress. No, they have another object in view, and it has long been 



