244 'The Rural Inquirer. July 



employed in tlie national fervice, than in any former war. 

 Notwithftanding the immenfe numbers thereby taken from 

 ordinary labour, no fcarcity of hands is difcovered for exe- 

 cuting the moft extcnfive territorial improvements ; but eve- 

 ry thing goes on as if the prefent was the moft peaceable 

 sera. When we compare thefe things with what aftually 

 happened during the American war, when labourers could 

 not be procured, when foreign failors navigated our merchant 

 veflels, when the navy could not be manned, and when our 

 army was conftantly non-efFe£live : We fay, when we make 

 fuch a comparifon, the warrantable conclufion muft be, that 

 the population of Britain has of late rapidly increafed, and 

 that its progrefs has been uniform and fteady, fince the con- 

 clufion of the unhappy and unfortunate vjrar with our ancient 

 colonies. 



Again, the alteration in the value of money has prevented 

 improvements from reducing the nominal price of the ne- 

 ceilaries of life; we fay, the nominal; becaufe, if a man will 

 not give as much labour for fixpence as formerly, he is not 

 entitled to receive the fame neceflaries for that fum as he 

 formerly procured. It is evident that provifions have been 

 lower, upon an average, during the prefent century, when 

 compared with the value of money, (laying afide their rate at 

 this dillreffing period, when a fcarcity, unparalleled in the 

 annals of our hiltory, prevails, which, by the by, would have 

 been greater without improvements), than for the century 

 preceding. We know no better rule for afcertaining this 

 matter, than a comparative view of the price of bread during 

 each century, with the wages earned by the labourer or ma- 

 nufacturer, during the fame period. Such a comparifon will 

 fliew, that the latter, in the courfe of a century, has advanced 

 full as much as the former ; confequently, that the rate of 

 rents, provifions, flock, &c. fagacioufly (lated by the Noble 

 Peer at the meeting alluded to, as an obje£lion to agricultural 

 improvements, is merely imaginary ; and that, in ordinary 

 years thefe things will conftantly bear an affinity to each o- 

 ther, if left to find their own level. 



The divifion and inclofure i>f common fields and waftes, 

 from the number of inclofure bills paiTed in Parliament, have 

 perhaps increafed the quantity of productive land in the king- 

 dom, at the rate of a o^-wxtx per cent, per awium^ for fifty years 

 back ; in other words, the land now in condition for carrying 

 crops of corn and grafs, exceeds what was in that ftate in the 

 year 1750, at the rate of 124 P^^' <^^"^' If we add to this, the 



augmentation 



