USEFUL PROJECTS. 
_g- The impolicy, if not injustic, 
- of restraining, by compulsive means, 
the sale of an article; which, how- 
ever indispensable in itself, has as 
fair a claim as any other article of 
trade to a free and voluntary :node 
of sale ; especialiy an article cf which 
the growth is optiohal on the part 
of the seller. 
4. Lhe absolute impossibility of 
securing a consiant uniform supe 
ply on every market day, suflicient 
for the consumption of the distritt 
dependant on that market, tll the 
mMext market days “ 
The above ate my doubts as to 
the practicability, or even the possi- 
bility of carrying « plan of this kind 
into effett.. My opinion is, that 
it can do but little good, and may 
doa great dealof harm; and I take 
the liberty of supporting that opi- 
nion by* the folfowing reasons. 
The present, and indeed every 
scarcity of corn, arises chiefly from 
a failure of crops. 
That failure must be compen. 
sated to the grower {who is obitged 
to pay the same reat in ali seasons) 
by ap increased price.—That price 
as always regulated by the demand. 
—The great desideratvm 1s to keep 
the demand and the supply as neariy 
regular as possible, ‘Lhe proposal 
now made to the commities has 
that end for its object. I have, 
with all deference, to prove that it 
is inadequate, 
I live in a situation most likely 
to furnish me with the means of in- 
[43% 
formation; viz. at the junftion of 
the country which produces corn, 
with “he countfy which consumes it, 
within five miies of the great corn 
raarket of Warminster. : 
From Warminster, for near forty 
miles eastward, through Wiits and 
Hants, is a country which does 
not consume one fourth part of the 
coin it grows.—From Warminster 
for near forty miles westward, 
through a gteat part of Somerset. 
shite, and including Bath and Bris- 
tol, is a country which does not 
produce one fourth patt of the corn 
it consumes. 
The other three-fourths of corn 
consumed in the latter distriét is 
brought chiefly from the former 
(for the increased population of 
the north has deprived Bristol of 
the resource it once had down the 
Severn), Warminster and Devizes 
are the principal markets by which 
this quaniity is supplied. From 
these towns to Bristol and Bridge- 
water, there isnot a market where 
corn is exposed for sale in balk. 
But would it be politic to compel 
the growers of this one-fourth part 
of the consumption of Somerset 
shire to bring it to Warminster 
cr Devizes, or to Bridgewater or 
bristol, to seilit, to be carried back 
again. to be consumed by the 
manufaturing towns cf Frome or 
Shepton Mailett, possibly within a 
few miles of the place of its growth, 
at an advanced price, occasioned by 
this useless carriage* ? I may be 
* The proposal made in the committee, of obliging farmers to bring at least 2 
‘sack of coru to market us a sampic, or even a bushel, is objectionable; the 
katter quantity, small-as it is, canaot be brought ten miles under an expeuce 
ef two shillings, and aobody could buy it at that additional expence, auiess 
they also contracted to take a greater quantity with it to cover that expeace: the 
poor, for whom it is intended, could aever buy it. Besides, in all manufacturing 
countries the poor seldom buy wheat at market, or would if they could; the labour 
@fs in agriculture in the villages buy it wf the farmers for; whom they work: che 
manufactureis live from hand to mouth, and buy bread ready baked. Besides, 
tis seldom reckoned how much a poor man loses im time and expences in goimg 
to market to buy corn, even if he could buy it. 
asked, 
