"I am decidedly of opinion, Gentlemen, that a Corn Bill of no
description, no matter what its principles or provisions, can do either
tenant or landlord any good; and I am not less decidedly of opinion,
that though prices are now low, they must, all the present train of
public measures continuing, be yet lower, and continue lower upon an
average of years and of seasons.--As to a Corn Bill; a law to prohibit
or check the importation of human food is a perfect novelty in our
history, and ought, therefore, independent of the reason, and the recent
experience of the case, to be received and entertained with great
suspicion. Heretofore, _premiums_ have been given for the exportation,
and at other times, for the importation, of corn; but of laws to prevent
the importation of human food our ancestors knew nothing. And what says
recent experience? When the present Corn Bill was passed, I, then a
farmer, unable to get my brother farmers to join me, _petitioned singly_
against this Bill; and I stated to my brother farmers, that such a Bill
could do us no good, while it would not fail to excite against us the
ill-will of the other classes of the community; a thought by no means
pleasant. Thus has it been. The distress of agriculture was considerable
in magnitude then; but what is it now? And yet the Bill was passed; that
Bill which was to remunerate and protect is still in force; the farmers
got what they prayed to have granted them; and their distress, with a
short interval of tardy pace, has proceeded rapidly increasing from that
day to this. What, in the way of Corn Bill, can you have, Gentlemen,
beyond absolute prohibition? And, have you not, since about April, 1819,
had absolute prohibition? Since that time no corn has been imported, and
then only thirty millions of bushels, which, supposing it all to have
been wheat, was a quantity much too insignificant to produce any
sensible depression in the price of the immense quantity of corn raised
in this kingdom since the last bushel was imported. If your produce had
fallen in this manner, if your prices had come down very low,
immediately after the importation had taken place, there might have been
some colour of reason to impute the fall to the importation; but it so
happens, and as if for the express purpose of contradicting the crude
notions of Mr. Webb Hall, that your produce has fallen in price at a
greater rate, in proportion as time has removed you from the point of
importation; and, as to the circumstance, so ostentatiously put forward
by Mr. Hall and others, that there is still some of the imported corn
_unsold_, what does it prove but the converse of what those Gentlemen
aim at, that is to say, that the holders _cannot afford_ to sell it at
present prices; for, if they could gain but ever so little by the sale,
would they keep it wasting and costing money in warehouse? There appears
with some persons to be a notion, that the importation of corn is a _new
thing_. They seem to forget, that, during the last war, when agriculture
was so _prosperous_, the _ports were always open_; that prodigious
quantities of corn were imported during the war; that, so far from
importation being prohibited, high _premiums_ were given, paid out of
the taxes, partly raised upon English farmers, to induce men to import
corn. All this seems to be forgotten as much as if it had never taken
place; and now the distress of the English farmer is imputed to a cause
which was never before an object of his attention, and a desire is
expressed to put an end to a branch of commerce which the nation has
always freely carried on. I think, Gentlemen, that here are reasons
quite sufficient to make any man but Mr. Webb Hall slow to impute the
present distress to the importation of corn; but, at any rate, what can
you have beyond absolute efficient prohibition? No law, no duty, however
high; nothing that the Parliament can do can go beyond this; and this
you now have, in effect, as completely as if this were the only country
beneath the sky. For these reasons, Gentlemen, (and to state more would
be a waste of your time and an affront to your understandings,) I am
convinced, that, in the way of Corn Bill, it is impossible for the
Parliament to afford you any, even the smallest, portion of relief. As
to the other point, Gentlemen, the tendency which the present measures
and course of things have to carry prices _lower_, and considerably
lower than they now are, and to keep them for a permanency at that low
rate, this is a matter worthy of the serious attention of all connected
with the land, and particularly of that of the renting farmer. During
the _war_ no importations distressed the farmer. It was not till peace
came that the cry of distress was heard. But, during the war, there was
a boundless issue of paper money. Those issues were instantly narrowed
by the peace, the law being, that the Bank should pay in cash six months
after the peace should take place. This was the cause of that distress
which led to the present Corn Bill. The disease occasioned by the
preparations for cash-payments, has been brought to a crisis by Mr.
Peel's Bill, which has, in effect, doubled, if not tripled, the real
amount of the taxes, and violated all contracts for time; given triple
gains to every lender, and placed every borrower in jeopardy.
_Kensington, Friday, 4 Jan. 1822._
Got home from _Battle_. I had no time to see the town, having entered
the Inn on Wednesday in the dusk of the evening, having been engaged all
day yesterday in the Inn, and having come out of it only to get into the
coach this morning. I had not time to go even to see _Battle Abbey_, the
seat of the Webster family, now occupied by a man of the name of
_Alexander_! Thus they _replace them_! It will take a much shorter time
than most people imagine to put out all the ancient families. I should
think, that six years will turn out all those who receive nothing out of
taxes. The greatness of the estate is no protection to the owner; for,
great or little, it will soon yield him _no_ rents; and, when the
produce is nothing in either case, the small estate is as good as the
large one. Mr. Curteis said, that the _land_ was _immovable_; yes; but
the _rents are not_. And, if freeholds cannot be seized for common
contract debts, the carcass of the owner may. But, in fact, there will
be no rents; and, without these, the ownership is an empty sound. Thus,
at last, the burthen will, as I always said it would, fall upon the
_land-owner_; and, as the fault of supporting the system has been wholly
his, the burthen will fall upon the _right back_. Whether he will now
call in the people to help him to shake it off is more than I can say;
but, if he do not, I am sure that he must sink under it. And then, will
_revolution No. I._ have been accomplished; but far, and very far
indeed, will that be from being the _close_ of the drama!--I cannot quit
Battle without observing, that the country is very pretty all about it.
All hill, or valley. A great deal of wood-land, in which the underwood
is generally very fine, though the oaks are not very fine, and a good
deal covered with _moss_. This shows, that the clay ends before the
_tap_-root of the oak gets as deep as it would go; for, when the clay
goes the full depth, the oaks are always fine.--The woods are too large
and too near each other for hare-hunting; and, as to coursing it is out
of the question here. But it is a fine country for shooting and for
harbouring game of all sorts.--It was rainy as I came home; but the
woodmen were at work. A great many _hop-poles_ are cut here, which makes
the coppices more valuable than in many other parts. The women work in
the coppices, shaving the bark of the hop-poles, and, indeed, at various
other parts of the business. These poles are shaved to prevent _maggots_
from breeding in the bark and accelerating the destruction of the pole.
It is curious that the bark of trees should generate maggots; but it
has, as well as the wood, a _sugary_ matter in it. The hickory wood in
America sends out from the ends of the logs when these are burning,
great quantities of the finest syrup that can be imagined. Accordingly,
that wood breeds maggots, or worms as they are usually called,
surprisingly. Our _ash_ breeds worms very much. When the tree or pole is
cut, the moist matter between the outer bark and the wood putrifies.
Thence come the maggots, which soon begin to eat their way into the
wood. For this reason the bark is shaved off the hop-poles, as it ought
to be off all our timber trees, as soon as cut, especially the
ash.--Little boys and girls shave hop-poles and assist in other coppice
work very nicely. And it is pleasant work when the weather is dry
overhead. The woods, bedded with leaves as they are, are clean and dry
underfoot. They are warm too, even in the coldest weather. When the
ground is frozen several inches deep in the open fields, it is scarcely
frozen at all in a coppice where the underwood is a good plant, and
where it is nearly high enough to cut. So that the woodman's is really a
pleasant life. We are apt to think that the birds have a hard time of it
in winter. But we forget the warmth of the woods, which far exceeds
anything to be found in farm yards. When Sidmouth started me from my
farm, in 1817, I had just planted my farm yard round with a pretty
coppice. But, never mind, Sidmouth and I shall, I dare say, have plenty
of time and occasion to talk about that coppice, and many other things,
before we die. And, can I, when I think of these things, now, _pity_
those to whom Sidmouth _owed his power_ of starting me!--But let me
forget the subject for this time at any rate.--Woodland countries are
interesting on many accounts. Not so much on account of their masses of
green leaves, as on account of the variety of sights and sounds and
incidents that they afford. Even in winter the coppices are beautiful to
the eye, while they comfort the mind with the idea of shelter and
warmth. In spring they change their hue from day to day during two whole
months, which is about the time from the first appearance of the
delicate leaves of the birch to the full expansion of those of the ash;
and, even before the leaves come at all to intercept the view, what in
the vegetable creation is so delightful to behold as the bed of a
coppice bespangled with primroses and blue-bells? The opening of the
birch leaves is the signal for the pheasant to begin to crow, for the
blackbird to whistle, and the thrush to sing; and, just when the
oak-buds begin to look reddish, and not a day before, the whole tribe of
finches burst forth in songs from every bough, while the lark, imitating
them all, carries the joyous sounds to the sky. These are amongst the
means which Providence has benignantly appointed to sweeten the toils by
which food and raiment are produced; these the English Ploughman could
once hear without the sorrowful reflection that he himself was a
_pauper_, and that the bounties of nature had, for him, been scattered
in vain! And shall he never see an end to this state of things? Shall he
never have the due reward of his labour? Shall unsparing taxation never
cease to make him a miserable dejected being, a creature famishing in
the midst of abundance, fainting, expiring with hunger's feeble moans,
surrounded by a carolling creation? O! accursed paper-money! Has hell a
torment surpassing the wickedness of thy inventor?
SUSSEX JOURNAL: THROUGH CROYDON, GODSTONE, EAST-GRINSTEAD, AND UCKFIELD,
TO LEWES, AND BRIGHTON; RETURNING BY CUCKFIELD, WORTH, AND RED-HILL.
_Lewes, Tuesday, 8 Jan., 1822._
Came here to-day, from home, to see what passes to-morrow at a Meeting
to be held here of the Owners and Occupiers of Land in the Rapes of
Lewes and Pevensey.--In quitting the great Wen we go through Surrey more
than half the way to Lewes. From Saint _George's Fields_, which now are
covered with houses, we go, towards Croydon, between rows of houses,
nearly half the way, and the whole way is nine miles. There are, erected
within these four years, two entire miles of stock-jobbers' houses on
this one road, and the work goes on with accelerated force! To be sure;
for, the taxes being, in fact, tripled by Peel's Bill, the fundlords
increase in riches; and their accommodations increase of course. What an
at once horrible and ridiculous thing this country would become, if this
thing could go on only for a few years! And these rows of new houses,
added to the Wen, are proofs of growing prosperity, are they? These make
part of the increased capital of the country, do they? But how is this
Wen to be _dispersed_? I know not whether it be to be done by knife or
by caustic; but, dispersed it must be! And this is the only difficulty,
which I do not see the _easy_ means of getting over.--Aye! these are
dreadful thoughts! I know they are: but, they ought not to be banished
from the mind; for they will _return_, and, at every return, they will
be more frightful. The man who cannot coolly look at this matter is
unfit for the times that are approaching. Let the interest of the Debt
be once well reduced (and that must be sooner or later) and then what is
to become of _half a million_ at least of the people congregated in this
Wen? Oh! precious "Great Man now no more!" Oh! "Pilot that weathered
the Storm!" Oh! "Heaven-born" pupil of Prettyman! Who, but him who can
number the sands of the sea, shall number the execrations with which thy
memory will be loaded!--From London to Croydon is as ugly a bit of
country as any in England. A poor spewy gravel with some clay. Few trees
but elms, and those generally stripped up and villanously ugly.--Croydon
is a good market-town; but is, by the funds, swelled out into a
_Wen_.--Upon quitting Croydon for Godstone, you come to the chalk hills,
the juniper shrubs and the yew trees. This is an extension westward of
the vein of chalk which I have before noticed (see page 54) between
Bromley and Seven-Oaks. To the westward here lie Epsom Downs, which lead
on to Merrow Downs and St. Margaret's Hill, then, skipping over
Guildford, you come to the Hog's Back, which is still of chalk, and at
the west end of which lies Farnham. With the Hog's Back this vein of
chalk seems to end; for then the valleys become rich loam, and the hills
sand and gravel till you approach the Winchester Downs by the way of
Alresford.--Godstone, which is in Surrey also, is a beautiful village,
chiefly of one street with a fine large green before it and with a pond
in the green. A little way to the right (going from London) lies the
vile rotten Borough of _Blechingley_; but, happily for Godstone, out of
sight. At and near Godstone the gardens are all very neat, and at the
Inn there is a nice garden well stocked with beautiful flowers in the
season. I here saw, last summer, some double violets as large as small
pinks, and the lady of the house was kind enough to give me some of the
roots.--From Godstone you go up a long hill of clay and sand, and then
descend into a level country of stiff loam at top, clay at bottom,
corn-fields, pastures, broad hedgerows, coppices, and oak woods, which
country continues till you quit Surrey about two miles before you reach
East-Grinstead. The woods and coppices are very fine here. It is the
genuine _oak-soil_; a bottom of yellow clay to any depth, I dare say,
that man can go. No moss on the oaks. No dead tops. Straight as larches.
The bark of the young trees with dark spots in it; sure sign of free
growth and great depth of clay beneath. The wheat is here sown on
five-turn ridges, and the ploughing is amongst the best that I ever
saw.--At East-Grinstead, which is a rotten Borough and a very shabby
place, you come to stiff loam at top with sand stone beneath. To the
south of the place the land is fine, and the vale on both sides a very
beautiful intermixture of woodland and corn-fields and pastures.--At
about three miles from Grinstead you come to a pretty village, called
Forest-Row, and then, on the road to Uckfield, you cross Ashurst Forest,
which is a heath, with here and there a few birch scrubs upon it,
verily the most villanously ugly spot I ever saw in England. This lasts
you for five miles, getting, if possible, uglier and uglier all the way,
till, at last, as if barren soil, nasty spewy gravel, heath and even
that stunted, were not enough, you see some rising spots, which instead
of trees, presents you with black, ragged, hideous rocks. There may be
Englishmen who wish to see the coast of _Nova Scotia_. They need not go
to sea; for here it is to the life. If I had been in a long trance (as
our nobility seem to have been), and had been waked up here, I should
have begun to look about for the Indians and the Squaws, and to have
heaved a sigh at the thought of being so far from England.--From the end
of this forest without trees you come into a country of but poorish
wettish land. Passing through the village of Uckfield, you find an
enclosed country, with a soil of a clay cast all the way to within about
three miles of Lewes, when you get to a chalk bottom, and rich land. I
was at Lewes at the beginning of last harvest, and saw the fine farms of
the Ellmans, very justly renowned for their improvement of the breed of
_South-Down sheep_, and the younger Mr. John Ellman not less justly
blamed for the part he had taken in propagating the errors of Webb Hall,
and thereby, however unintentionally, assisting to lead thousands to
cherish those false hopes that have been the cause of their ruin. Mr.
Ellman may say that he _thought_ he was right; but if he had read my
_New Year's Gift_ to the Farmers, published in the preceding January, he
could not think that he was right. If he had not read it, he ought to
have read it, before he appeared in print. At any rate, if no other
person had a right to censure his publications, I _had_ that right. I
will here notice a calumny, to which the above visit to Lewes gave rise;
namely, that I went into the neighbourhood of the Ellmans, to find out
whether they ill-treated their labourers! No man that knows me will
believe this. The facts are these: the Ellmans, celebrated farmers, had
made a great figure in the evidence taken before the Committee. I was at
WORTH, about twenty miles from Lewes. The harvest was begun. Worth is a
woodland country. I wished to know the state of the crops; for I was, at
that very time, as will be seen by referring to the date, beginning to
write my First Letter to the Landlords. Without knowing anything of the
matter myself, I asked my host, Mr. Brazier, what good corn country was
nearest to us. He said Lewes. Off I went, and he with me, in a
post-chaise. We had 20 miles to go and 20 back in the same chaise. A bad
road, and rain all the day. We put up at the White Hart, took another
chaise, went round, and saw the farms, through the window of the chaise,
having stopped at a little public-house to ask which were they, and
having stopped now and then to get a sample out of the sheaves of wheat,
came back to the White Hart, after being absent only about an hour and a
half, got our dinner, and got back to Worth before it was dark; and
never asked, and never intended to ask, one single question of any human
being as to the conduct or character of the Ellmans. Indeed the evidence
of the elder Mr. Ellman was so fair, so honest, and so useful,
particularly as relating _to the labourers_, that I could not possibly
suspect him of being a cruel or hard master. He told the Committee, that
when he began business, forty-five years ago, every man in the parish
brewed his own beer, and that now, not one man did it, unless he gave
him the malt! Why, here was by far the most valuable part of the whole
volume of evidence. Then, Mr. Ellman did not present a parcel of
_estimates_ and God knows what; but a plain and honest statement of
facts, the rate of day wages, of job wages, for a long series of years,
by which it clearly appeared how the labourer had been robbed and
reduced to misery, and how the poor-rates had been increased. He did
not, like Mr. George and other Bull-frogs, sink these interesting facts;
but honestly told the truth. Therefore, whatever I might think of his
endeavours to uphold the mischievous errors of Webb Hall, I could have
no suspicion that he was a hard master.
_Lewes, Wednesday, 9 Jan. 1822._
The Meeting and the Dinner are now over. Mr. Davies Giddy was in the
Chair: the place the County Hall. A Mr. Partington, a pretty little
oldish smart truss nice cockney-looking gentleman, with a yellow and red
handkerchief round his neck, moved the petition, which was seconded by
Lord Chichester, who lives in the neighbourhood. Much as I had read of
that great Doctor of _virtual representation_ and _Royal Commissioner of
Inimitable Bank Notes_, Mr. Davies Giddy, I had never seen him before.
He called to my mind one of those venerable persons, who administer
spiritual comfort to the sinners of the "sister-kingdom;" and, whether I
looked at the dress or the person, I could almost have sworn that it was
the identical _Father Luke_, that I saw about twenty-three years ago, at
Philadelphia, in the farce of the Poor Soldier. Mr. Blackman (of Lewes I
believe) disapproved of the petition, and, in a speech of considerable
length, and also of considerable ability, stated to the meeting that the
evils complained of arose from the _currency_, and not from the
_importation of foreign corn_. A Mr. DONAVON, an Irish gentleman, who,
it seems, is a magistrate in this "disturbed county," disapproved of
discussing anything at such a meeting, and thought that the meeting
should merely state its distresses, and leave it to the wisdom of
Parliament to discover the remedy. Upon which Mr. Chatfield observed:
"So, Sir, we are in a trap. We cannot get ourselves out though we know
the way. There are others, who have got us in, and are able to get us
out, but they do not know how. And we are to tell them, it seems, that
we are in the trap; but are not to tell them the way to get us out. I
don't like long speeches, Sir; but I like common sense." This was neat
and pithy. Fifty professed orators could not, in a whole day, have
thrown so much ridicule on the speech of Mr. Donavon.--A Mr. Mabbott
proposed an amendment to include all classes of the community, and took
a hit at Mr. Curteis for his speech at Battle. Mr. Curteis defended
himself, and I thought very fairly. A Mr. Woodward, who said he was a
farmer, carried us back to the necessity of the war against France; and
told us of the horrors of plunder and murder and rape that the war had
prevented. This gentleman put an end to my patience, which Mr. Donavon
had put to an extremely severe test; and so I withdrew.--After I went
away Mr. Blackman proposed some resolutions, which were carried by a
great majority by show of hands. But, pieces of paper were then handed
about, for the voters to write their names on for and against the
petition. The greater part of the people were gone away by this time;
but, at any rate, there were more _signatures_ for the petition than for
the resolutions. A farmer in Pennsylvania having a visitor, to whom he
was willing to show how well he treated his negroes as to food, bid the
fellows (who were at dinner) _to ask for a second or third cut of pork
if they had not enough_. Quite surprised at the novelty, but emboldened
by a repetition of the injunction, one of them did say, "Massa, I wants
another cut." He had it; but as soon as the visitor was gone away, "D--n
you," says the master, while he belaboured him with the "cowskin," "I'll
make you know _how to understand me_ another time!" The signers of this
petition were in the dark while the show of hands was going on; but when
it came to _signing_ they knew well _what Massa meant_! This is a
petition to be sure; but it is no more the petition of the farmers in
the Rapes of Lewes and Pevensey than it is the petition of the Mermaids
of Lapland.--There was a _dinner_ after the meeting at the _Star-Inn_,
at which there occurred something rather curious regarding myself. When
at Battle, I had no intention of going to Lewes, till on the evening of
my arrival at Battle, a gentleman, who had heard of the before-mentioned
calumny, observed to me that I would do well not to go to Lewes. That
very observation, made me resolve to go. I went, as a spectator, to the
meeting; and I left no one ignorant of the place where I was to be
found. I did not covet the noise of a dinner of from 200 to 300 persons,
and I did not intend to go to it; but, being pressed to go, I finally
went. After some previous common-place occurrences, Mr. Kemp, formerly a
member for Lewes, was called to the chair; and he having given as a
toast, "_the speedy discovery of a remedy for our distresses_," Mr.
Ebenezer Johnstone, a gentleman of Lewes, whom I had never seen or heard
of until that day, but who, I understand, is a very opulent and most
respectable man, proposed _my health_, as that of a person likely to be
able to point out the wished-for remedy.--This was the signal for the
onset. Immediately upon the toast being given, a Mr. Hitchins, a farmer
of Seaford, duly prepared for the purpose, got upon the table, and, with
candle in one hand and _Register_ in the other, read the following
garbled passage from my _Letter to Lord Egremont_.--"But, let us hear
what the younger Ellman said: 'He had seen them employed in drawing
beach gravel, as had been already described. One of them, the leader,
worked with a bell about his neck.' Oh! the envy of surrounding nations
and admiration of the world! Oh! what a 'glorious Constitution!' 'Oh!
what a happy country! Impudent Radicals, to want to reform a Parliament,
under which men enjoy such blessings! On such a subject it is impossible
(under Six-Acts) to trust one's pen! However, this I will say; that here
is much more than enough to make me rejoice in the ruin of the farmers;
and I do, with all my heart, thank God for it; _seeing, that it appears
absolutely necessary, that_ the present race of them should be totally
broken up, in Sussex at any rate, _in order to put an end to this
cruelty and insolence towards the labourers, who are by far the greater
number and who are men, and a little better men too, than such employers
as these, who are, in fact, monsters in human shape_!'"
I had not the Register by me, and could not detect the garbling. All the
words that I have put in Italics, this HITCHINS left out in the reading.
What sort of man he must be the public will easily judge.--No sooner had
Hitchins done, than up started Mr. Ingram, a farmer of Rottendean, who
was the second person in the drama (for all had been duly prepared), and
moved that I should be _put out of the room_! Some few of the Webb
Hallites, joined by about six or eight of the dark, dirty-faced,
half-whiskered, tax-eaters from Brighton (which is only eight miles off)
joined in this cry. I rose, that they might see the man that they had to
put out. Fortunately _for themselves_, not one of them attempted to
approach me. They were like the mice that resolved that a bell should be
put round the cat's neck!--However, a considerable hubbub took place.
At last, however, the Chairman, Mr. Kemp, whose conduct was fair and
manly, having given my health, I proceeded to address the company in
substance as stated here below; and, it is curious enough, that even
those who, upon my health being given, had taken their hats and gone out
of the room (and amongst whom Mr. Ellman the younger was one) came back,
formed a crowd, and were just as silent and attentive as the rest of the
company!
[NOTE, written at _Kensington, 13 Jan._--I must here, before I insert
the speech, which has appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_, the Brighton
papers, and in most of the London papers, except the base sinking _Old
Times_ and the brimstone-smelling _Tramper_, or _Traveller_, which is, I
well know, a mere tool in the hands of two snap-dragon Whig-Lawyers,
whose greediness and folly I have so often had to expose, and which
paper is maintained by a contrivance which I will amply expose in my
next; I must, before I insert this speech, remark, that Mr. Ellman the
younger has, to a gentleman whom I know to be incapable of falsehood,
disavowed the proceeding of Hitchins; on which I have to observe, that
the disavowal, to have any weight, must be public, or be made to me.
As to the provocation that I have given the Ellmans, I am, upon
reflection, ready to confess that I may have laid on the lash without a
due regard to mercy. The fact is, that I have so long had the misfortune
to be compelled to keep a parcel of badger-hided fellows, like SCARLETT,
in order, that I am, like a drummer that has been used to flog old
offenders, become _heavy handed_. I ought to have considered the Ellmans
as _recruits_ and to have suited my tickler to the tenderness of their
backs.--I hear that Mr. Ingram of Rottendean, who moved for my being
turned out of the room, and who looked so foolish when he had to turn
himself out, is an Officer of Yeomanry "_Gavaltry_." A ploughman
spoiled! This man would, I dare say, have been a very good husbandman;
but the unnatural working of the paper-system has sublimated him out of
his senses. That greater Doctor, Mr. Peel, will bring him down
again.--Mr. Hitchins, I am told, after going away, came back, stood on
the landing-place (the door being open), and, while I was speaking,
exclaimed, "Oh! the fools! How they open their mouths! How they suck it
all in."--Suck _what_ in, Mr. Hitchins? Was it honey that dropped from
my lips? Was it flattery? Amongst other things, I said that I liked the
plain names of _farmer_ and _husbandman_ better than that of
_agriculturist_; and, the prospect I held out to them, was that of a
description to catch their applause?--But this Hitchins seems to be a
very silly person indeed.]