THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



545 



the measured bushel. Upon testing it, however, he 

 obtained only about 26 stone per quarter instead of 28, 

 which wheat of 631bs. per bushel ought to prodncc. 

 Other cases of a similar kind have been stated to us, 

 tending to prove that in the produce of human food 

 there will be a much greater deficiency than the public 

 generally are at all aware of, and which will show 

 itself more and more as the season advances. 



It therefore becomes daily more evident that unless 

 a largo importation takes place, we shall have much 

 higher prices as the new year advances. The demand 

 for foreign corn this season will be more general and 

 to a greater extent than over was known And, as the 

 ports of the Baltic will, in all probability, be closed by 

 the frost in a very few weeks, the stoppage of the sup- 

 ply from America, which we greatly fear will be the 

 result of the letters sent out this week, will inflict 

 serious injury upon the country at large, as well as on 

 those of our merchants interested in the American 

 commerce. 



An important question arises, however, out of this 

 statement that we should much like to see solved. It 

 is very plain that under the present Bank Act, which 

 compels that establishment to keep the two depart- 

 ments as distinct and separate as if they belonged to 

 two different parties who had no interests in common, 

 the Bank has but the choice of two resources on an 

 emergency like the present. The one would be to 

 raise the rate of discount so high as to anni- 

 hilate commerce — or to beg for a temporary abro- 

 gation of the Act of Parliament in order to be 

 allowed to make use of the specie in the Issue Depart- 

 ment to meet the liabilities of the Banking Depart- 

 ment. Or both these measures must be resorted to, in 

 order to stem the torrent of bullion that is setting in 

 on the Continent. There is no fear that the Bank of 

 England will fail, because it must be supported by the 

 Government ; and, if such an emergency were to occur, 

 the latter must resort to the expedients of 1825, or 

 even those of 1797, if things come to the worst. We 

 say, we have no fear of the Bank's stability, but we 

 do fear the consequences of the reiterated recurrence 

 of these panics or semi-panics, by which the trade and 

 commerce of the country are so frequently thrown 

 into confusion. They are injurious to the prosperity 

 of the country at large, to the mercantile interests in 

 particular, and to the general morals of the people in 

 their trading transactions. Of the latter effect, we have 

 had illustrations enough of late years, in which houses, 

 once of the first standing in mercantile affairs have 

 been detected in transactions at which they would once 

 have shuddered, but that the pressure of the moment 

 has tempted them to risk. 



Some of our best financiers are of the opinion 

 that the Bank Act of 1844 is at the foundation of the 

 evil, by preventing the two departments of the Bank 

 of England from acting in concert in a case of emer- 

 gency ; leaving all the liability upon the shoulders of 

 one, whilst all the means of meeting them remain with 

 the other. We trust that this state of things, which has 

 within twelve or thirteen years caused two panics, and 



seems now likely to produce a third, will induce some 

 competent member of the House to bring forward a 

 measure of a remedial kind. Such a step we are certain 

 would meet the approbation of the commercial classes, 

 although it might not suit the views of those who fatten 

 and enrich themselves upon the distresses of the 

 country. 



THE TRANSFER OF LAND.— There was one sub- 

 ject with which they were all interested, while at the same 

 time it abutted upon the duties of a member of Parliament, 

 without trenching upon politics— namely, the sale of land. 

 It appeared to him that these associations would be acting 

 strictly within their province if they took this matter in 

 hand, and endeavoured to obtain an amendment to the law 

 as it now existed. Most, if not all present, probably knew by 

 experience what an immense amount of money was obliged 

 to be expended, what a dreary waste of time was necessi- 

 tated, in order to convey a piece of land from A to B. If 

 Smith wanted to sell Jones a house, a ship, or £20,000 in 

 stock, the transaction could be effected in a few minutes; but 

 the purchase of half an acre of meadow laud was an arduous, 

 expensive, tedious enterprize, not to he undertaken without 

 much forethought and consideration. In one of the papers 

 of the Juridical Society he recently saw it stated that the 

 sale of a piece of land, even under the simplest circum- 

 stances, took 600 times as long as the disposal of a like 

 amount of stock, while the expense was, of course, largely 

 increased. The effect of this was not only to render the 

 sale of land a very slow and costly operation, but to prevent 

 its changing hands at all except in large masses, so that in 

 England more than in any other country the acquisition of 

 land was a luxury confined to the capitalist class. He be- 

 lieved that was a serious grievance, and that any measure 

 which made the sale of land easy and cheap would enhance 

 the well-being of England. It was an evil to every class in 

 the community, and especially to the landowners them- 

 selves, for it had been shown that if landed property could 

 be transferred with greater facility its increased value in the 

 market would be equivalent to three years' more purchase. 

 Nothing could more plainly show the injurious operation of 

 the existing system than the fact that consols realized 

 about as many years' purchase as land. It was a consumma- 

 tion devoutly to be wished that a field or a building plot 

 should be;dispo8ed of as easily as a house or a horse. Although 

 he was a Liberal, he must do the Conservative Government 

 the justice to say that during the time they held office a 

 measure was introduced which, had it been passed, would 

 have made along stride in the right direction. The propo- 

 sition of Sir Hugh Cairns was a very clear and simple one. 

 Two judges were to be appointed to investigate on application 

 the title of owners to landed property, and if this was made 

 out to their satisfaction certificates to that effect would be 

 given ; and thereafter the owners would be able to dispose 

 of their property without incurring any sort of expense. In 

 order to prevent complications in the course of years it was 

 proposed to establish a register of titles, in which the name 

 and address of all those who had any lien upon the land 

 would be entered. By this means, an intending purchaser 

 might easily ascertain the liabilities upon any particular 

 property, and the process would be as short and simple as 

 its nature admitted oL—Mr. C, Bu.vlon, M.P., at the MakU- 

 tone Meeting. 



