l8o3* Review of Pcchlcs Survey* 215 



rent for the current crop. To make our author's argument 

 complete, it ouglit to have been firft maintained, that both tlic 

 fox-hunter and the preacher regulated their demands in direft 

 proportion do the goodncfs of the crop ; and this being done, the 

 inference would have been conclufive. We do not puih tlie mat- 

 ter farther, apprehending that an additional argument is alto- 

 gether unnccelfary. 



Tile fection on the corn laws is much to our mind. We are, 

 like the author, hoif ile to every compulfory reflrictlon on trade, 

 and are clear the nation has not received benefit from the regu- 

 lating laws palTed from time to time on this fubjed. Our an- 

 ceftors dreaded being llarved, if 2ifree exportation was permitted, 

 and, in the prefent age, we are apprehenfive of being inundated 

 with foreign grain, if a free importation was to take place. Were 

 expoitation allowed at all times, except in thole of dearth and fa- 

 mine, and importation permitted under protecting duties, a vail 

 burden would be taken off the trading and agricultural interefl 

 of Britain. We find that clover feed, for inftance, pays the 

 fame duty, whether the commodity is cheap or dear, and yet a 

 plentiful f apply is always procured. Jt does not appear either 

 that the free import of foreign feed has difcouraged the home 

 growth. If the corn trade was in this way regulated, and pro- 

 tedbing duties impofed equal to the difference of the value ot la- 

 bour and money in Britain, wlien compared with foreign coun- 

 tries, we fee no harm that could enfue from a free trade at all 

 times. At prefent, the corn trade is an abfolute fpeculation ; but 

 the propofed alteration would ferve to put it upon a footing with 

 other commercial undertakings. 



The fyftem of entails is viewed in a true light, and the acl of 

 Parliament, icth of his prefent Majefty, palled for the exprefs 

 purpofe of leifening their inimical effects, is faid not to have ope- 

 rated in Peebles-fhire, and very partially in the reft of Scotland. 

 This act, like every other half meafure, has proved unequal to 

 the evils which it was intended to counteract, though, in its ori- 

 ginal ihape, it might have produced conliderable advantage. 



Speaking of Nidpath caftle, and the deftruction of the w^oods 

 around it, we find feme very pertinent obfervations on this 

 fubjedt. 



* We laugh at the fuperflition of the Chinefe, in paying divine 

 honours to the memory of their deceafed ancefcors ; though it is pro- 

 bable, this their worfhip is, like that of other people, fo managed, as 

 not effentially to interfere with their temporal iiUerefls. But might 

 not a (Iranger to our laws and culloms be tempted to tax us of a more 

 than Chinefe fuperltition, in paying to the wills of our anceftors, where 

 they interfere fo materially with our temporal interslls, as to preclude 

 ^11 power of choice on our part, in forne of the moit effcntial parts of 



their 



