3 70 Agricultural InteU'igenee, Aug. . 



^vife it fliall be fully given in tlie fiicceeding Number. At this time, 

 %ve may only fay that the bill is founded in juftice, being calculated to 

 prevent foreigners, who are not fubje6i:ed to our burdens, from inter- 

 fering in the home market of Britain, when prices are below the rates 

 at which Britifh hufbandmcn can be reckoned able to cultivate grain. 

 So far the bill will operate as a temporary remedy, but ftill it cannot 

 be confidered as an effcdlual one ; for as rent, labour and taxes increafe, 

 or, what is the fame thing, as the value of money diminifiies, fo ought 

 the importation rates to be raifed in a proportionable manner. We 

 have feen a flatement laid before the corn Committee, which demon- 

 ilrates that every Linlithgow boll of grain, difpofed of by the farmer 

 at this, time, actually cods him ten fliillings more than it did in 1790, 

 upon the fuppofition that a given fpot of ground, fay an acre, yielded 

 the like quantity at each period. If this be the cafe, and we are dif- 

 pofed to believe that it is not wide of the truth, then it may be in- 

 ferred that agriculturifls are not placed, by the prefent biU, in fuch 

 a favourable fituatioa as they occupied in 1 790, when the lail one was 

 paffed. A feeble oppofition was made to the bill, but it met with 

 little attention. The Glafgow Chamber of Commerce early commit- 

 ted themfelves, by entering into refolutions to oppofe the bill, but they, 

 were followed up with very little vigour, and v.-ere feconded by only 

 few manufa(3:uring bodies. Indeed, the Chamber forgot that, when 

 compared v/ith wages earned by labourers and manufacturers at both 

 periods, the price of provifions would abfolutely be lower, even if 

 grain reached the importation rates, than that at which they were fur- 

 nifhed in 1790. The country, generally fpeaking, feemed to be of this 

 opinion ; for no corn bill ever received lefs difcuffion, or excited lefc 

 attention among the manufafturing and trading interefts of Great 

 Britain. 



When on this fubjeft, we cannot avoid noticing fome parts of Mr 

 Chalmers's late edition pf the Political Ellimate of Great Britain, 

 becaufe we conceive them calculated to do mmch mifchief among 

 people who are unable to invefligate fuch fubje6ls with precifion, Mr 

 Chalmers, we are aware, piques hinifelf upon his accuracy in matters 

 of fact ; but this calls upon us to deal the more plainly with him. 

 If he had only been a common writer, one iwho was in the habit of 

 gathering fa6ls at random, we might have paffed him in filence ; but 

 his reputation being great, and his authority confidered by mod people 

 as unqucilionable, we are induced to bellow a few minutes in confider- 

 ing what he fays about the corn trade of Great Britain. 



* As I have been afked my opinion, ' fays Mr Chalmers, * with re- 

 gard to fcarcity, the paft and the future, I will fubnut my judgement 

 upon this interefling fubjeiSl. During the war and the dearth, I was 

 illent ; though I did not always approve of what was done or faid. 

 Now that we have peace and plenty, I will deliver my fentiments, ' 

 &c. kc. (p. 320.) 



With regard to the corn laws and their operation, Mr Chalmers 

 iCpiicuiS with the opinion of Mr Howlett, which he quotes (p. 330. )i, 



