measure as to price, they embark in another undertaking, viz. the rearing and fattening live ftock, the furplus of which, through the medium of the more favoured claffes of British fubjects, the merchants and manufacturers, they know can be exported in one shape or other to any part of the globe, are they not right?

Doctor Adam Smith, in his Enquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, gives a number of reasons whence to conclude that corn-laws of any defcription are unneceffary, if not improper. This, however refpectable the authority above quoted, the writer is satisfied would be going too far, as, if the corn-trade were carried on without regulations or restrictions of any kind, the most baneful confequences would enfue. But if, in place of that conftant fhuffling and changing, that endless cutting and carving on the corn-laws of this country, which has taken place fince the year 1757, one thoroughly digefted and deliberately framed act of parliament, on the original principle of making British corn an article of foreign commerce, were to be paffed, those concerned in husbandry would find it more for their intereft to devote their attention to the cultivation of grain than under the existing circumftances they do; and of course such an act of parliament would have the effect to render corn not only abundant, but, when compared with

other

other articles, moderate in price. If ever it fhall become the ruling principle to guard alike the interests of the farmer, the merchant, and the manufacturer, plenty will again visit the land. We fhall, befides being enabled to throw off our dependence on foreign nations for an annual supply of bread-corn, have it in our power, by our exports, to draw back from thefe nations the immenfe fums which, owing to the impolicy of the corn-laws, we have been obliged to expend. But till regulations refpecting the fale and export of grain, as liberal as those which regard the manufacturing and commercial concerns of the country, are enacted into ftatutes, and the farmer be left as unfettered as the merchant or the manufacturer, neither of thefe events can be expected to happen.

The public newspapers have for fome time teemed with the most severe and generally unjust reflections against the British farmers, on account of the late high prices of grain. A letter, which was written by a gentleman well known in the literary world, and published in the London Chronicle in 1766, when the farmers of that day suffered fimilar abuse, and were (as happened last year) plundered in many places, is the best answer that can be given to fuch unmerited abuse. This letter, fome extracts from which are here fubjoined, is addreffed to

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Meffieurs

Meffieurs the Public *.

"I am one of that class of people that feeds you all, and at present is abused by you all :-In fhort, I am a farmer.

"By your newspapers we are told, that God had fent a very short harvest to `some other countries of Europe. I thought that might be in favour of Old England; and that now we fhould get a good price for our grain, which would bring millions among us, and make us flow in money, which to be fure is fcarce enough.

"But the wisdom of government forbade the exportation. Well, fays I, we must be content with the market price at home.

"No, fays my lords the mob, you fha'n't have that. Bring your corn to market if you dare.We'll fell it for you for less money, or take it for nothing.

"Being thus attacked by both ends of the con ftitution, the head and the tail of government, what am I to do? Muft I keep my corn in the barn to feed and increase the breed of rats? Be it fo they cannot be lefs thankful than thofe I have been used to feed. Are we farmers the only people to be grudged the profits of honeft labour? And why!-one of the late fcribblers against us gives a bill of fare of the provifions at VOL. IV. O

*Museum Rufticum, vol. i. p. 254.

my

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my daughter's wedding, and proclaims to all the world that we had the infolence to eat beef and pudding. Has he not read that precept in the good book, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn? or does he think us lefs worthy of good living than our oxen ?

"Oh! but the manufacturers! they are to be favoured, and they must have bread at a cheap rate!

"Hark ye! the farmers live fplendidly, you fay; and pray would you have them hoard the money they get? Their fine clothes and furniture, do they make them themfelves, or for one another, and fo keep the money among them? or do they employ these your darling manufacturers, and fo fcatter it again all over the nation?

"My wool would produce me a better price if it were fuffered to go to foreign markets; but that, meffieurs the public, your laws will not permit. It must be kept all at home, that our dear manufacturers may have it the cheaper; and then having yourselves thus leffened our encouragement for rearing fheep, you curfe us for the scarcity of mutton."

It might have been added, By the impolicy of your corn-laws, you fhut us out from a market for our fuperabundant grain, while at the fame time you abufe us for not cultivating it to a greater extent.

SECTION IV.

The Importance of Uniformity in Weights and Meajures.

THE variation in the weights and measures of every production of the foil, while those by which the various articles of commerce and manufactures are in almost every inftance regulated by general standards throughout the island, is one evidence, among many others that might be adduced, how much attention has hitherto been bestowed by government in every particular connected with commerce or manufactures, while the interests of agriculture have been allowed to fhift for themselves. There is, perhaps, no greater grievance under which the whole nation fuffers, and that might be fo eafily remedied, as the difconformity of weights and measures. It is not a fingle county or diftrict where this evil exifts; every parish, nay, where the rents are paid in grain or meal, almost every estate, differs from others in thefe effential particulars: the confequence is uncertainty and wrangling in bargain-making, which frequently terminates in law-fuits, and fubjects individuals to many evil confequences.