[ 958 
By atable of imported and-exported grain, hung 
up in the Treafury Chambers, it appears, that-to a 
. eertain period, (which, as far as I can recolle& from 
memory, is tothe year 1774) England had received 
a balance of about four millions fterling, or about 
400,000]. per annum, in the latter years of that 
period. After this, the exports began to. decline, 
and the imports foon-gained an excefs, till they 
amounted in thefe two or three laft years, to. about 
7 or 800,000]. annually; fo that, fuppofing two- 
thirds of the value of the grain imported to have ~ 
been wheat, worth at leaft 5s. per Winchefter bufhel, 
the annual importation of late has been 3,200,000 
bufhels, equal to the produce of 160,000 acres of 
land, and to the fubfiftence of 533,333 people. 
The progreflive increafe of population, according 
to my ideas, aétually demanded fuch a fupply of 
bread-corn from abroad, unlefs the produce of the 
land has been progreflively increafed by improve- 
ments in agriculture, or that an adequate number of 
acres of wafte laad has been brought into cultivation. 
The fa& is, 1 apprehend, that thefe circumftances 
united, have not been fufficient to provide for an in- 
creafed confumption; and although a great number 
of Inclofure Bills have been paffed within thefe 
twenty years, yet they have been chiefly of common 
ficld land; and I fear by this mode, that more has 
been converted to pafture than has been preferved 
to arable. But taking the preceding data and faéts 
AS 
