1801.] On ſelling Corn by Weight. 395

obtained was, that the difference was very inconſiderable; five, even young oxen, on the hills of Glouceſterſhire, where they are always worked ſingle in harneſs, are expected to perform the ſame quantity of work with four horſes.

In this neighbourbood I made enquiry reſpe&ing the efe of the Letter of che Duke of Portland, which has been, and even ſtill is, a ſubje& of foul declamation to- many a hilly citizen.— The anſwer from every one was,“ We attend much more to the words of a Britiſh Corn-dealer, than to any letter of a Duke;” and“ that it was impoſfible that any Lecter that had tended to encourage importation, could raiſe the price of our own produce.”“Why then,’ I aſked,< do you ſo warmly drink the health of his Grace?”*—“ His health,” they anſwered, « js ſeldom drank in this neighbourhood; we have not ſo great reaſon todrink it as the farmers have near manufaQuring towns, ſuch as Witney and Stroud, for there, by means of this very ſeaſonable Letter, the perſons of the farmers were laved from violence, and their property from fire.”

Fami. Yours;

Piccadilly, May 23, 1801. T. WESTON.

ON SELLING CORN BY WEIGHT.

Téthe Editor of the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine. SIR, S your Publication has led the public mind to the preſent attempt of cauſing Corn to be ſold by weight, I know not to whom I can ſo properly tranſmit a few immature thoughts which have occurred to me on that ſubjedt.

At 2a period when the price of every article of life has beén advanced, perhaps, to an unprecedented exceſs, either by means of a ſcarcity in the produce, or by the villainy of the dealers in this Country; the attention of the people has been turned to deviſe ſchemes and plans, in order to leſſen its preſſure and to check impoſitions; the Legiſlature has laudably given attention to the ſubject, as well as privaté individuals; and this great body of the HÑation is again to be ſolicited for an a&; which, on‘the very firſt View, carries‘with it a convidion of utility and of equity:—L mean the application which the Mayer and Corporation of Wor- ceſter intend to make, for a Bill that ſhall compel the ſelling of corn, potatoes and turnips, by the pound weight, inſtead of, as is now practiſed, by meaſure. There is no one that ever pur- chaſed a peck of grain who will not approve of the ſcheme, and even the ſellers of corn cannot deny the rea! fairneſs of ſuch a method of ſale; although by the change, if it be adopted, they will not be gainers. To fell grain by meaſure is, in many inſtances