^02' Garden Calls. 



degrees. Every evil iS lessened by being foreseen ; and if every agricul- 

 turist, manufacturer, and commercial man knew that in 1840 trade would 

 be perfectly free, commerce would be regulated accordingly. 



It is in vain to think of continuing the prosperity of the country, if the 

 national debt is not either paid offj or the interest of it paid by some other 

 means than the assessed taxes. Government must unavoidably resort 

 to a tax on real property, or to yearly loans, perhaps to both ; and to a 

 free trade things will certainly come sooner or later. A free trade, taken 

 in connection with general peace and the extraordinary facilities of uni- 

 versal intercourse of the present day, cannot but lead to an extraordinary 

 degree of prosperity in all countries. Australia will not undersell 

 Europe and ^America in wool, without taking its value in commodities 

 in return. When an article is produced, the producer will not then, as 

 now, look to any one country for a market for his commodities. Every 

 country will produce that which it finds it can produce cheapest and best, 

 and commerce will do the rest. The climate and soil of England and 

 Ireland is better adapted for the production of butcher-meat than those of 

 any other country in Europe, not even excepting Holland and Denmark, 

 where the winters are too severe for perennial grasses and the preservation 

 of roots. We cannot help thinking, therefore, that the day is not very far 

 distant when Britain will export fatted live bullocks to various parts of the 

 Continentj and more especially to France. Suppose for a moment that 

 butcher-meat was as generally consumed by the laborious classes on the 

 Continent as it is in England, to what a consumption of fat bullocks would 

 this not give rise? It is certain these bullocks would be fatted at less 

 expense in England and Ireland than on the Continent, because grass grows 

 in these countries all the year, and because the growth of grass and of 

 monocotyledonous plants generally during summer is always greatest in a 

 humid atmosphere. Here, then, is a permanent cause, that will always 

 maintain the value of landed property in Britain on a high level : but, that 

 it may rise to this level, trade, in the first place, must be free. 



In the Transactions of the Highland Society oi Scotland, vol. vii. pub- 

 lished along with the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for February 1828, 

 is a description, accompanied with plans and sections of a steam-boat for 

 conveying live stock, the cattle stalled so as they may be fed and watered, 

 and the accommodation for 200 head of cattle, or 1560 sheep. How easy 

 to convey these from any British sea-port to any part of the Continent, or 

 even the Peninsula! 



If it is distressing to witness the present state of the proprietors and 

 farmers, it is still more so to hear the complaints of the common labourers. 

 The want of employment is general throughout the country ; it exists even 

 about London, and the effects of the want of food are too obvious in the 

 countenances of mothers and young children. We shall here mention a 

 suggestion that we have just received from a correspondent at Sydney, 

 whose letter will be found in another part of this Magazine. As is the 

 case in every colony, the want of labourers at Sydney is felt as the greatest 

 evil, and the supply of convicts is now out of all proportion to the increas- 

 ing demand. R. S. suggests, therefore, that the English government should 

 pass a law to render it legal for British subjects, merchants, captains of 

 vessels, or others, to purchase the labour or life of individuals, with their 

 consent, for a certain number of years, not exceeding, say seven, on con- 

 dition of taking them to New South Wales, and reselling their interest in 

 them there to persons in want of labourers. This is no doubt a species of 

 temporary slavery ; but R. S. thinks the law might be arranged in such a way 

 as to render it a great blessing to the individuals, a great relief to many 

 parishes in England, and a most acceptable supply for Australia. We have 

 since mentioned the idea to a gentleman who has been several years in a 

 public situation at Sydney, who has lately passed two years on the Conti- 



