88 REPORT—1849., 
were throughout Europe. But in the eight years, 1803 to 1810, prices were constantly 
low in France, giving a general average of only 18f. 60c.; and in each of these years, 
but especially the last seven, grain was more or less largely exported. 
The averages here stated are, as usual, those of the astronomical, not of the agri- 
cultural years. They may therefore be taken to indicate the market value of about 
two-thirds of one crop and one-third of the next. So the first of the seven good years 
is to be referred to the harvest of 1803—of that summer during which Bonaparte 
formed the camp at Boulogne, and prepared his election to the Imperial throne in 
the following spring. The last ended with the gathering of the deficient harvest of 
1810—the year in which the events of the Peninsular war began to run decidedly 
against France, and in which Napoleon determined upon urging his final and fatal 
dispute with Russia.. 
The common average of the three years 1811, 1812, 1813 was 27f. 66c.—an ad- 
vance of more than fifty per cent. upon the average of the preceding eight years; and 
the whole rise of price, from 1809 to 1812, was from 15f. to 34f. per hectolitre. The 
harvest of 1813 was good, and after it was gathered prices fell; but this period was 
closed virtually by the battle of Leipsic in October, and formally by the abdication 
of the following April. The third period embraces the sixteen years from 1815 to 
1830. It has a striking resemblance to the one preceding. The years 1816, 1817, 
1818 were years of general scarcity, like those of 1800, 1801, 1802. -Then also there 
was a middle period of plenty, marked by the nine years, 1816 to 1827, of moderate or 
low prices. ‘I'he lowest prices, as before, were in the last years of this time of plenty ; 
and they were succeeded by the scarcity and high prices of 1828, 1829, 1830. The 
price of bread in Paris was actually higher in 1829 than at any time in 1816, 1817 
or 1818, or at any time since 1800. During the fourth period (the seventeen 
years from 1831 to 1847 inclusive) were nearly repeated the features which had 
distinguished the three preceding. At its commencement were two years of high 
prices. ‘Then followed thirteen years (1833 to 1845), during which the general average 
of 20f. was only once materially exceeded, when, in 1839, the annual average rose 
to 22f.49c. The common average of this period was 18f.43c. But the period ended 
precisely as its predecessors had ended; with two years of prices, which, notwith- 
standing the use of foreign supplies, more than twice as large as had ever been im- 
ported in a similar period, were unusually high. Mr. Danson then went over the 
same ground again with another test—that afforded by a statement, from the Cus- 
toms account, of the quantity of grain and flour of every description actually ex- 
ported (of French produce), cr exported and taken into consumption (of foreign 
produce), in each year; and exhibited, by tables and diagrams, a remarkable coinci- 
dence of the results obtained by the two methods. And finally, applying both tests 
conjointly to the period of ten years, 1838 to 1847, he showed the probable value of the 
excesses of exports and imports respectively, as indicating the addition to, or drawn 
upon, the national resources consequent upon the annual superabundance or de- 
ficiency of the home supply. The estimated value of the excess of imports in. 1847 
exceeded 320,000,000f.; and they were sufficient, according to the best authorities, 
to feed the whole population with grain food for forty-five days. In conclusion, two 
inferences were suggested :—1, That the political dates, 1792, 1814, 1830, and 1848, 
are also the natural divisions of a history of the French Corn Market since 1778; 
and 2. That the history of prices (especially as it regards the food of the people) 
might, in the order of practical importance to mankind, take precedence of the 
history of politics. 

On the Progress of Emigration from the United Kingdom during the last Thirty 
Years relatively to the Growth of the Population. By J.T. Danson. 
The first complete census of the three kingdoms in 1821 gave us the total popu- 
lation 21,193,000; in 1831 the number returned was 24,306,000, showing an increase 
of 3,113,000 in ten years. Whether the number added in each year of this period 
was greater or less than the number added in the year preceding, could not be known 
from any comparison of these returns. But in 1841 the number returned was 
26,916,000, showing an increase of only 2,610,000. It may therefore be presumed 
that the number added to the population in each year is now less than was added in 
the year before; but further, against this decreasing increment of the population, we 
wot 
