l8o'3« Original Letter from Sir ^ames Stewart , Baronet. 389 



is, to begin by paring and burning. Reglftered experiments 

 of doing it by fallowing, are to be met with in various works. 

 The Board's Report of the North Riding of Yorkfliire and of 

 Somerfetfliire, details fome ; others are to be found in Mr 

 Young's tours ; and the refult is, either lofs, or a profit fo very 

 inferior, that the queltion ought to be confidered as done with. 

 Let it fleep for ever, except for the wrongheaded individuals, 

 who will, upon every queftion, arife, in every age, to contra- 

 dict the common fenfe of mankind. ' 



FOR THE farmer's MAGAZINE. 



Original Letter from the late Sir fames Stewart, Baronety Author 

 of a 'Treat if e o?t Political Economy^ to a Gentle matt iti Stirling^ 

 Jljire, dated l^th OBoher 1777. Communicated by Mr Erfhine 

 of Mar, 



I have the honour of your letter of the i ith, concerning the 

 Corn Bill, but (hall not enter upon the fubje£t in this' letter. I 

 fee you are well grounded in the ruling principle concerning 

 importations. Corn is a manufacture, and greater than all o- 

 ther manufactures put together, both with refpeCl to the num- 

 ber of the confumers, and the number of the manufacturers. 

 The inquiry you propofe, for twenty-one years back, cannot be 

 accomplifhed with exaCtnefs. The fiars will prove nothing, be- 

 caufe we have had no fcarcity ; and high prices are advantage- 

 ous (fay I) to cheap manufacturing. Cuftomhoufe books in 

 Scotland, will give no light, as Parliament found it, in forming 

 a table, which I have, concerning the quantities exported and 

 imported for fome years preceding 1772. But the merits of the 

 queftion, concerning the effeCt of the prices of grain upon the 

 profperity of manufacture, muft be examined, not from expor- 

 tation, but from the rate of wages of manufacturers, compared 

 with the fiars of the year. If the Glafgow merchants can ihew, 

 from uncontroverted evidence, that wages keep pace with the 

 prices of oat meal, rifing, and falling, as oat meal rifes, and 

 falls, I give up my oppofition to their plan : If they can (hew 

 that the wages of the great manufacturing clafTcs, of weavers, 

 fpinners, &c. have come down thefe two laft years in their own 

 city and neighbourhood, in the fame proportion, or nearly to 

 it, as the price of oat meal has come down in this period, 

 compared with the preceding years : If they can do this, I 

 think their arguments are good ; and if Parliament put the ifTue 

 of the queftion upon this faCt, I am pretty fure the merchants 

 will not prevail j becaufe nothing but a rife in the price of fub- 



filteiice. 



