1 8 00. Mifrepreftntatlon of Neiufpapers. 417 



to their remembrance the long feries of dlftrefling weather 

 that had occafioned the deficiency of the crop. The uniform 

 anfwer was, liOok at the newfpapers j fee what fine crops 

 they have in England, and elfewhere; and hear what is faid 

 about foreftallers. It is in vain that I tell them, the authors 

 of the paragraphs they lay fo much ftrefs upon, are, many of 

 them, fo grofsly ignorant of country affairs, as to be unable to 

 diflinguifh a horfe from an afs, or a fheep from a hog ; and 

 that the editors, in order to fill up a corner, take any thing 

 that is offered them ; and, rather than want materials, will in- 

 fert an old ballad, or an extract from Satan's Invifible World, 

 or Pilgrim'? Progrefs. My arguments, however, are tor the 

 mod part unavaiHn.g, and very unequal to the taik of combat- 

 ing the ftrong plea of hunger, fliarpened by falfe and poifou- 

 ous ftatements. 



Laft year, a feafon that will long be memorable in the an- 

 nals of our hillory, at the commencement of the harveft, the 

 newfpapers announced a plentiiul crop, and held out the moft 

 flattering profpedls of cheap and wholefome Winter food. 

 The fqualid looks, and emaciated bodies, of thoufands of half- 

 famifhed human beings, by deftroying the credit of thefe af- 

 fertions, ought, in my humble opinion, to have ferved as a ca- 

 veat to thofe concerned, or at lead di£lated a more prudent 

 conducSl in future. The fcarcity of laft crop, by its formi- 

 dable appearance, became the fubje£l of national inquiry, at a 

 very early period of the feafon ; and the labours of the Com- 

 mittee of the lioufe of Commons, aided by the opinions of 

 thofe who had the beft opportunities of information, in every 

 diftridl throughout the kingdom, edablifhed, beyond difpute, 

 that the fcarcity and high price of grain were owing entirely 

 to a deficiency in the crop, which, in a number of cafes, was 

 one third fliort of an average, in others, one half, and, in not 

 a few inftances, it had entirely failed. 



Amongit others, 1 had the honour of being applied to upon 

 the fubjedl, and was deiired to flate what 1 thought the pro- 

 bable caufes of the fcarcity, and the means of preventing a fi- 

 milar calamity in future ? I'he only anfwer I could make, (and 

 it was founded upon a perfect knowledge of the diftri£t in 

 which 1 refide), was, that the fcarcity was a real one, occa- 

 fioned by the long- continued bad weather, during the Seed- 

 timey Summer^ and Harvest ; an evil that lay beyond the 

 power of man to prevent, and which could only be mitigat- 

 ed, in future, by the ftridleft attention to our national agri- 

 culture, and bringing an additional number of acres under 



M m 4 the 



