74 
turalized to our soil. Sheep, in course, are 
doing badly abroad, with their fleece and loins 
constantly wet, feeding on sodden and half- 
rotted turnips. The mortality among them 
in various counties, and in Scotland, has al- 
ready been considerable ; and unless a speedy 
change in the weather should supervene, a 
general rot, like those in former days, may he 
apprehended; in the mean time, they who 
keep sheep abroad in such circumstances, yet 
possessing the means of feeding them under 
shelter, (and there are many such men) may, 
perhaps, be wise men, tliough certainly sorry 
calculators. But custom and fashion must ever 
govern practices, as wellin sheep husbandry, 
‘as in physic and civinity. A public fortune-teller 
of prime notoriety, who moreover refers to 
the exact fulfilment of his former predictions, 
has lately ventured to prophecy a still farther 
decline in the price of wheat, to the ratio of 
cent per cent. Give the markets time for 
this, and the prediction may be verified; but 
should the old rules of weather-wisdom hold 
their ground, and a warm and moist winter be 
followed by a cold and blighting spring and 
summer, it may be presumed that, neither the 
quantity, nor quality of the future wheat 
crop, will give much sanction to a farther de- 
cline of price, in whatever humour currency 
may find itself. During several weeks past, 
the causes of rain and fog, of the former par- 
ticularly, appears to have been evidently ex- 
hausted ; yet a state of moisture in the atmo- 
sphere has constantly prevailed, and the lands 
have remained in avery wet and poachy state. 
There is at present great hopes of a favour- 
able change. Fine, beavy, dry wheat, short 
in quantity, and muctvin request, is worth 75s. 
‘per quarter; but in general, all kinds of pro- 
duce are necessarily at a declining price, since 
the supply invariably exceeds the demand. 
Perhaps long wool is an exception, being ra- 
ther realy of sale. Manufactures are io a 
far more prosperous state than agriculture, 
and are gradually relieving the lind from a 
part of its superfluous labourers. Great part 
of the lands may be said to be Jarmed by the 
preprietors, through the suppert which they 
have most prudently and hcnourably extended 
to their tenants; but the mere eleemosynary 
plan, perbaps firstdeprecated in these reports, 
seems ubout to be superseded by properly 
adapted contracts. In this respect the Lords 
FirzwiLuiamM and Srarrorp have acted 
wisely and worthily, and the Jatter has given 
public notice that he will in future, be governed 
inthe receipt of hisrents, by the market price 
‘of wheat; a regulation which, if generally 
-adopted, would place agriculture ona so.id 
basis, and throw all the consequences of fluc- 
tuating markets on proprietors, capitalists, 
and consumers; and although it would place 
-the tenant at his ease, yet landlords would 
gain by the advance, when prices required 
an increased income, as much as they 
might nominally lose when prices dimi- 
nished ; and, when of course, the expendi- 
ure their esinblishments would be less. 
Agricultural Report. 
Fat 2s. Sid. 
[Feb. 1, 
Scotland, where gereral inclosure has always 
been free, has suffered less than any of the 
southern parts of the island ; and late accounts 
state that farms are there freely taken at the old 
rents. Thestate of Ireland, naturally a moist 
climate, is most deplorable; a state, in too 
great measure, attributable to the policy and 
national justice of this country, to which, a 
finishing stroke was put by a Pirr adminis- 
tration. The Continent slares with usin the 
miseries of superabundance. Not Chaos, 
but ihe days of Midas are come again! It 
has been a hard-run race between the conti- 
nental cultivators and our own, which should 
have the honour and profit of feeding this 
country, The present are days of indivi- 
dual and partial distress, but of general pros- 
perity. 
The relative situations of the two great 
classes of the community, tke agriculturists 
and the manufacturers, renders the relief of 
the former, in tke principle of higher prices 
a question of great difficulty and delicacy. It 
would be a monstrous policy to endeavour to 
benefit either class of the community, by 
adopting: any measure to raise the price of the 
necessaries of life. Such a policy ought to be 
opposed by all classes. What then is to be 
done for the relief of the agricu'turist? He 
produces a commodity which will feteb only 
a certain price in the market, and it is tke in- 
terest of all, that it should not fetch a higher 
price; but any price is sufficient, if the out- 
goings bear a just proportion to it. In this 
case, then, are the out-guings necessary, and 
ean they be diminished ? They consist of 
RENT, which it is obvious, can be diminished ; 
of Taxes, which can or ought to be di- 
minished ; and the continuance of which, de- 
pends on the pleasure of the legislature 5 of 
the Poor’s-RATES, created by the engross- 
ment of farms, owing to the cupidity of land- 
lords and speculating farmers—and of the 
PRICE OF LABOUR, Which has already been 
reduced to a minimum, insomuch®that many 
industrious labourers depend more on the 
parish than their employers, and which, there- 
fore, admits of no reduction. The remedies, 
consequent!y are Obnoxious: rents must be 
reduced—taxes must be transferred from land 
to the funds, whose annual accounts exceed 
the rental of land, and sma!l farms must be 
restored for the purpose.of diminishing the 
poor-rates, and providing for the over supply 
of labourers, 
Smithfield —Beef 2s. $d. to 4s. 2d.— 
Muttou 2s. 9d. to 4s. 0d.—Lamb 3s. 4d. to 
4s. 8d.— Veal 4s. 9d. to 6s.0d—Pork 3s. 4d. 
to 5s. 0d—Bacon Os. Od. to Us. 0d—Raw 
Wheat 30s. to 75s.— 
Barley 17s.to 30s —Oats 14s. to 28s.—The 
guartern loaf in London 10}d.—Hay 60s. to 
90s. Ud.—Clover do. 72s. to 105s.— Straw 
27s. 6d. to 40s.— Coals in the Pool 34s. 6d. 
to 45s. 6d. ; : 
Middlesex, Jan. 25, 1822. 
MONTHLY 
