t8oO. Agricultural Intelligence. ' 447 



nearly fet Britain in a flame. The mutual confidence which, 

 in every well-regulated fociety, ought to exift betwixt the 

 inhabitants of the country and thofe in towns, has thereby 

 been relaxed, and a degree of enmity created, not much in- 

 ferior to what prevails betwixt hoftile nations. 



We have lately feen this fpirit difplayed in adls of open 

 violence and outrage againil bakers, millers, farmers, butchers, 

 and other dealers in provifions, not only in the metropolis, 

 but likewife in many of our provincial towns. But it is to be 

 hoped, that the wifdom of Government, fupported by the re- 

 turning good fenfe of the nation, will in future effedlually pre- 

 vent fuch diforders, and remove every impediment to a free 

 internal traffic in grain, which alone can afford a regular and 

 conftant fupply of provifions, proportioned to the demand 

 and the quantity in the country. In this northern climate, 

 clothing is as m.uch a necefiary of life as food. If the mer- 

 chant and retailer were perfecuted by law, or by the pra£lice 

 of the courts of juftice, would the community be cheaper or 

 better ferved, by being fent to the manufacturer ? Moft cer- 

 tainly the contrary etFeCt would be produced. The manu- 

 facturer would not know how to proceed with his bufinefs ; 

 manufactures v/ould receive a check ; and the regular fupply 

 to anfwer the current demand in the market not arriving, 

 fcarcity would enfue, and with it an advance in price. In 

 the prefent ftate of fociety, when the greateft part of the po- 

 pulation of the nation is crowded into towns, the preventing, 

 or throwing impediments in the way of a . free internal com- 

 merce in grain or other provifions, is equally impolitic, and 

 would be attended with the fame evil confequences, as fhut- 

 ting up all the rstall-fhops, and preventing merchants from 

 purchafing goods from one another, by which the price is 

 fuppofed to be enhanced to the confumer j for it is not with- 

 in the compafs of pollibility, that the inhabitants of the large 

 towns can be fupplied with provifions from the aCtual raifer 

 of the different articles of confumption, no more than they 

 can be fupplied with every article of drefs from the aCtual 

 manufacturer : And »his free commerce in grain, as well as 

 ev'ery other article, fo far from enhancing the price, by pafs- 

 ing through different hands before it comes to the confumer^ 

 has a quite contrary effeCt; of which we (hall give the fol- 

 lowing ftriking inftance exaCtly in point. — In years of plenty, 

 when wheat of our own growth nearly equals our confump- 

 tion, the city of London is moftly fupplied by corn-dealers, 



O o 3 who 



