104 



abundant. The character of much of the disease is also 

 sufficient to prove that the badness and scarcity of provision, 

 combined with severity of weather, has been a fatal cause. 

 The mortality was greatest, I believe, in the latter part of 

 December, when the two causes operated most strongly.* 



I think, that until the last few years, sufficient con- 

 sideration was not given to the vast increase of our po- 

 pulation, and its consumption and requirements; owing to 

 our having become the greatest manufacturing community 

 in the world. This materially affects the question before 

 us ; and as it goes far to strengthen my statements as 

 to the results of a depression in trade, I may venture to say 

 a few words on the subject. In so doing, I must refer you 

 back to the middle of Jast century. Up to that time (1750) 

 this was a corn-exporting country. The exportation of that 

 year was 947,000 quarters, and during the ten years pre- 

 ceding 1751, the bounty paid on export, amounted to the 

 sum of £l,5 15, 000. t The rapid increase of the population 

 after the Peace of Paris, in the year J 763, when the com- 

 merce and manufactures of the country began to take most 

 extraordinary strides, caused a change to take place. It 

 is, however, a fact according to a report to a Committee 

 of the House of Commons in 1797, that during the reigns 

 of Ann, George I., George II., and 37 years of the reign of 

 George III., the enclosure of waste lands (which must 

 partly have met the wants of the times,) took place to the 

 extent of 3,142,374 acres. Say, 



During the reign of Ann, 12 years... 1439 Acres. 



George I, 14 years... 17,960 „ 

 „ II, 33 years... 318,778 „ 

 „ III, 37 years... 2,804, 197 „ 



• See the leading article in the Times, on the authority of which mainly, 

 this statement is made. 



■+■ A/' Culloch. — The Bounty was 5s. per quarter on Wheat. 

 „ 2s. 6d. „ Barley. 



,. 3s. 6d. „ Rye. 



„ 2s. 6d. „ Oats. 



