96 



help feeling, however, that there must have been gross 

 negligence somewhere, or we should, long ere this, have had 

 some regular and established statistics on so all-important 

 a subject. Our merchants and agriculturists have, in fact, 

 been too local in their ideas and information, and it is to 

 be hoped that the advancement of the age, and the present 

 deplorable state of the country, will, ere long, bring about 

 a more systematic and better state of things. 



Without further prelude I purpose proceeding at once to 

 my subject, which I shall endeavour to treat as briefly as 

 possible under the two following heads : — 



1. The necessity of having an even and regular supply 



of food in a country so thickly populated as ours ; 

 and the ruin and misery caused by a contrary 

 state of things. 



2. The consideration of the expediency of such a 



system of published Agricultural and Commercial 



Statistics of Food, as would give us timely notice 



of our probable wants and requirements. This 



would be the best and most certain means that 



could be adopted to bring about such evenness 



and regularity in their supply, and would, upon the 



ordinary and acknowledged principles of " supply 



and demand," have a direct tendency to produce a 



greater uniformity in the prices of food. 



In the first place then, I think all will admit that an 



even supply of the necessaries of life in any country, but 



more particularly in tins, — where we have a dense population, 



which, including Ireland, amounts to, from 26,000,000 to 



27,000,000 and upwards, — is of paramount importance. 



We have only to look to some periods of the past, and indeed 



to the present state of things, for a striking proof of this 



assertion. There are at the present time thousands of human 



beings in Ireland and Scotland in actual starvation ; and in 



England and Wales, though we have little of open and 



