1804.] Observations on the Act,&c. 173

"The late reduction in the price of wheat excited Similar aps Prehensions, Lt was Supposed that tbe litile encouragement aftorded to the industry of the farmer for this Species of gruwth, would lead him to direct bis labour to Some other produce more valuable to bimselt, and Jess conducive to the publie Subsietence. 1 am not disposed to blame the farmer ior making his election, he is purzuing a trade to all the benefits of which he is entitled; it is Suficiently intri- Cate and laborious, and ia the words of a French writer, 1 les habitans voluptueux des villes Savaient ce qu'il en edute de travauy pour leur procurer du paiu, us en Seraient eſſrayes*

L perhaps is proper to advert to the canse of 4his expecta- tiou. Lt arises from the Dew condition in which the farmer appears. It is true that rapid improvements have been made un' agriculture, but it is not less true, that the reut of land has kept pace with this amelioration, while no essential dif- ference has been occasioned in the price of the articles pro- duced: 50 that the advantage the farmer enjoys, is uot any inereased wiue for his commodity, but merely the additional quantity he is enabled 40 extract by the Superior ingenuity of the present times. It is on this account, that every disad- vahtageous fuctuation in the price is very Severely felt by hinz. 15 it an aggravated statement, that the rental of the whole kingdom has doubled within the last five-and-twenty years? It it be not, unless the farmer produce double the quantity under the' explanation I have just given, he will not be remunerated tor the discharge of his active and laborious duties.

The complaints of the great proprietors af land have been unceasing: we have been told, that in whatever form theo laxes are imposed, they must fall ultimately on the land, and that therefore the owner must Sustain all the burthens of the State. This is a prejudice wholly arising from a mistaken conception of the comparative weight and influence of the commercial and agricultural SysStems. Whatrational ground of disSarisfaction the proprietor can reasonably present under the immense iucrease of rental within the period of one genera- tion, it wonld be very difficult to conjecture.

1u this Situation of aflairs, a new minister is called to office; be finds himself unsupported by the land interest, and 15 coneiliate iis favour, he proposes a bounty, which is the Subject vf the present paper. It is not my intention here tos complain, that by the increased magnitude of the tunded

* If the voluptuous inhabitants of cities knew the exertion which was required to procure bread fer their Support, they would be Serieus15 alacrmed,