1829. ] Affairs in General. 523 
relieve these persons before he can with any decency boast of our in- 
creased imports. We require exports, not imports. We require a 
high value for these exports, not an increased quantity of exports. We 
desire high wages and high profits, as well at home as abroad — not 
cheap goods, not rotten muslins, not goods burnt with acids, that, like 
the Jew’s razors, are made to sell, not to use. We care nothing for 
‘large quantities. ” And all this true, fatally true. The spirit of the 
modern economist is the most extraordinary contrast to that of the 
modern politician. The politician says, think nothing of your posterity, 
extinguish the rights of your children, that you may contrive to pur- 
chase a little quiet for a year or two for yourselves. The economist 
says, look to the glorious quantity of ribbons and silk stockings that 
your grand-children will make; and, in the mean time, break up your 
looms, and. starve yourselves.—Every man, but a member of the present 
philosophical school, might comprehend that it is much more manage- 
able to live in the hearing of an occasional brawl in Ireland, than to live 
without eating. However, this is the decision; and the texture of a true 
philosopher, in those matters, scorns to be ruffled by the cries of men call- 
ing out for work in the land of whose wealth their labour formed so 
Jarge a part, and might form a so much larger one, 
DIALOGUE OF A GREAT MAN WITH A SUPPLICANT FOR A SILK GOWN, - 
* Well, what the devil brings you here?” 
“ I come to beg your Grace’s—” 
___“ Ay, ay, you come to beg ; so does every one who comes here. 
But, upon my soul, I thought, with that face of yours, you came to steal. 
Well, mendicant, what is it that you come to beg?” ; 
“ The truth is, your Grace—” ‘ 
“ Pho, pho, fellow, come to the point at once; I have no time for non- 
sense ; out with your lie and be done.” 
*« My story then, your Grace, is—that, having seven years ago, most 
inadvertently, and in the heat of virtuous enthusiasm, uttered language 
touching his most gracious Majesty—” re 
“Why, sirrah, do you think that I can sit here all day, listening to 
this long winded stuff? Get out of the room.” 
* Why then, your Grace, I want a gown.” 
“ Pho! a petticoat, you mean.” 
“IT want a silk gown; for which I am ready ta make any acknow- 
ledgement, or submit to any recantation whatever.” a 
“ Well, fellow ; as it is my purpose to show that all your party, with 
all their boasting, are slaves in their souls; that I might have any and all 
of them for asking ; and that I might tie them neck and neck by the 
dozen, and drive them round the ring in Hyde Park any day I liked, 
‘you shall have the silk gown. Eh, kneeling? Do you take me for 
the Pope already ?” : 
“ Oh, may Heaven shower down on your Grace’s head the blessings 
of a deceived demagogue, of a repentant radical, of.a loyal liberal. Here, 
at your Grace’s feet, I forswear Tom Paine, Ri d: Carlisle, Henry 
Hunt, and William Cobbet ; and may I go to—” ; 
* To Beelzebub, if you please ; but out of this you go instantly. 
Here, Hill, call in ‘the corporal’s guard, and out with him— But, 
no—stop; my boots want cleaning. fellow, paligh them over 
carefully with your tongue: it has “es ‘so well employed, 
3 X 
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