A DISCOVERY.
TRUTH, which is said to lie at the bottom of a well, is more com- monly found floating on the surface of the water. Politicians attribute to complicated and recondite causes, effects which issue from "the simplest and most familiar things." For this reason, we are often disposed to take council from the plain, unsophisti- .cated, good sense of that class of our legislators termed the Country Gentlemen, rather than from those assuming wiseacres the Poli- tical Economists : we prefer the Marquis of CHANDOS to Colonel TORRENS, and Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL to MT. POULETT THOMSON. One instance out of many, -which justifies our pre- ference, occurred in the House of Commons on Monday. Mr. CORBETT presented some petitions complaining of agricultural distress ; which the Political Economists have had the folly and ignorance to attribute to the single or united operation of Poor- laws, Corn-laws, excessive exactions by the landlords, appreciation of the currency, and Heaven only knows bow many other causes. But Mr. VERNON, the member for Derbyshire, simplified and cleared up the matter at once, by assuring the House that "beer-shops were the great cause of agricultural distress:' Here we have a plain solution of the puzzling fact, that the harder a farmer works, and the more plentiful the crop be raises, the poorer he becomes. All that remains, then, since we are now instructed as to the cause of agricultural suffering, is to apply a remedy to it. Let an act immediately be passed to shut up beer-shops ; and then corn and barley will rise to 20s. and 12s. the bushel, rents will mount up to 80s. the acre, the country gentlemen will be full of jokes and joy, and plenty will once more reign in the land. The obligations we are under to Mr. VERNON for this imiostant disco- very are incalculable.
Previous page
