——————$—

[8]

Grant the fat, and the evil is still more op- pressive and afflicting. The providence of the Almighty is to be submitted to with patience and resignation; but an artificial scarcity that shall last for months, must be the sole fault of the Le- eislature. What short-sighted supporters are those of government, who contend against the existence of a great, real, and unexampled scarcity; who seem to think they gain a point,.if they prove the deficiency only a fourth! Do they forget, that in fact they are strenuous only to shew that we have the honour of living under a very bad government, which permits the people to be thus distressed tor food in the midst of tolerable plenty!

But to come to the deficiency—let us first ex- amine what isa common crop of wheat.

Thirty years ago I made three agricultural tours through England, which extended little short of five thousand miles; and the average produce of wheat, upon the minutes I took, was 24 bushels per acre. In the last fifteen years 1 have also made many shorter journies(one, however, of thirteen hundred miles) through many coun- ties, to the extent of about four thousand miles more, and the.average produce of wheat in these was also 24 bushels; not a little to my sur- prize, for| expected it would have been higher; but when I reflected on certain circumstances that had taken place, I found that 1 had on principle been erroneous in that expectation, and that the

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