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serfs, at the expense of Britain. That such a measure should sap the foundation of all property, public and private. The security of the fundholder rests wholly on the land. Strike one-fifth off its value, and so much will the security of the fundholder and mortgagee be weakened. With such a diminution and destruction of real property, the taxes of the country can never be collected;—public credit once shaken, who can foretel the result? and this all caused by a few speculative theorists and mill-owners, who, not satisfied with moderate gains, strive to make fortunes at a single stride. The increase of machinery in the cotton trade alone, during the last three years, has been upwards fifty-three per cent.; and the difference of cotton-wool imported was as in 1820, 152,829,633 lbs., opposed to 460,000,000 in 1838;— about 400 per cent. of increase; yet we are told our manufactures are declining! The wonder is, how the consumption has been able to keep pace at all with this enormous production. The increase of the linen and woollen trades will bear a similar comparison. Has agriculture made similar progress? is it not an acknowledged fact, on the contrary, that rents have fallen one-third? while burdens of every kind, in the shape of land-tax, tithes, poors-rates, besides the malt tax, and many other taxes which exclusively press upon land, remain unabated. Look at the manufacturer rolling in his carriage, and purchasing up the estates of the landed proprietors, and the poor agriculturist jobbing on as he can. Withdraw protection to this important interest, and both food and wages would vanish from our population—such would be the result of enriching the foreign at the expense of the British cultivator.
I conclude in the eloquent language of Mr. M'Queen. The intention of "Alexander and Napoleon, avowed to conquer the world, was sanity compared to the design promulgated by a small party of exporting manufacturers, led by a few wrong-
