1830.] Agricultural Report. 609 



practice. The remission of the beer duty seems to afford little satisfaction to the farming 

 interest, on the ground that it will be beneficial only to the inhabitants of towns, and 

 that in preference malt ought to have been relieved of the burden. However this may 

 stand as a general proposition, there is one argument much enforced, in which we cannot 

 join it is maintained that with mah free of duty, the agricultural labourers would enjoy 

 home-brewed beer on their own comfortable hearths. But how would the miserable pit- 

 tance which is the reward of their labour enable them to purchase such substantial com. 

 forts ? Accounts from almost every quarter of the country threaten a still greater surplus 

 of labourers after farming labour shall grow slack, for which the usual season approaches. 

 The country labourers, as a body, have ever had sufficient experience of poverty and de- 

 pression, but it can no longer be questioned that the general use of machinery has been 

 the main cause of their present accumulated misery. The early advocates of machinery 

 were too sanguine in their expectations that, although improvements may, or rather must 

 be attended with partial disadvantages, things would yet gradually find their usual level, 

 and that even an additional quantity of labour would result, in various ways, from such 

 almost unlimited powers of operation. The grand error consisted in not paying a timely 

 attention to the fallibility of these views, and to the discovery and employment of a coun- 

 teracting remedy. In the present appalling state of the case there is no other remedy 

 than the employment of men deprived of the means of living in consequence of the 

 adaption of machinery, by those who have benefitted by machinery, or by the state. It 

 has been broached of late the argument, perhaps, chiefly grounded on the present alarm 

 that threshing machines are actually unprofitable to the farmer, both as regards the corn 

 and straw, with the additional disadvantage of affording the means of throwing a great 

 glut of corn upon the markets. Certain landlords are even said to have insisted on the disuse 

 of those machines by their tenantry. Men, all equal inheritors of the earth, though of 

 different degrees, and willing to perform their bounden duties, have a natural right to 

 subsistence, which they will find the means, however irregular, to support. This 

 is not said to encourage the too general demoralization and depravity of the lower 

 classes, or the vindictive and base passions of midnight incendiaries, who ought to be 

 faced with the most determined opposition, and treated with the utmost severity of the 

 law. Strange that the rich county of Kent should so long have been the chief theatre of 

 these enormities but more strange still that in the full view of all that is now passing in 

 the world, they who possess the heaviest interest are so tardy in taking warning. 



SmithfieldBeef, 3s. 4d Mutton, 3s. to 4s. 2d Veal, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 8d. Pork, 

 3s. to 3s. 4d Rough fat, 2s. 5d. per stone. 



Corn Exchange Wheat, 45s. to 75s Barley, 28s. to 47s. Oats, 19s. to 33s. 

 London 4 Ib. Loaf, lOd Hay, 30s. 6d. to 84s. per load. Clover, ditto, 34s. to 105s. 

 Straw, 30s. to 40s. 



Coals in the Pool, 29s. to 38s. 6d. per chaldron. 

 Middlesex, October 21. 



MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. 



SUGAR. In West India Muscovadoes last week business was rather more brisk ; 

 no alteration in prices ; sales about 2,000 hhds. and tierces. At the close of the 

 market the estimated sales of Muscovadoes were 1,000 hhds. and tierces, including 

 the public sale of Barbadoes. In prices there is no alteration. In the refined 

 market a general reduction of 3s. took place on low goods ; in some instances 4s. 

 and 5s. ; low lumps were reported at all prices, from 65s. 6d. up to 68s. The 

 decline appeared so marked that we have since a great increase in the demand. 

 Fine goods are also dull, and a shade lower ; Molasses more in request. This 

 afternoon the market is dull; prices about Is. lower; lumps appear to have settled 

 about CDs. 



COFFEE. The purchases of Coffee last week consisted of about 1,200 packages 

 British plantation, chiefly Jamaica, in casks, sold at a general reduction of Is. to 

 Is. 6d. per cwt. ; considerable private contracts were reported ; St. Domingo, 32s. 

 to 34s. 6d. ; Brazil, 33s. to 35s. 6d. ; La Guyra, about the same price ; the Ceylon 

 sold at 34s., the quality particularly good ; good old Brazil, 33s. 6d. The market 

 is steady. 



RUM, BRANDY, HOLLANDS. There are considerable purchases of Rum reported, 

 at prices rather lower ; proofs to 5 over, 4s. 8^d. to 4s. 9d. Brandy is still in great 

 request, and the prices are again 2d. and 4d. per gallon higher, first marks, being 

 reported at 5s. 3d. and 5s. 4d., and one parcel 5s. 6d. per gallon. Geneva is still 

 neglected; Martell vintage, 1829, at 5s. and 5s. 6d. ; Bordeaux, 3s. 3d. 



HEMP, FLAX, AND TALLOW. The failure of the fishery at Davis's Straits is 

 complete. In consequence of the great rise in Oils, Tallow is beginning to feel 



M.M. New Series VOL. X. No. 59. 4 H 



