138 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



that general principle of security 

 and freedom of commerce which is 

 conformable to the system of our 

 laws and government^ but also 

 because persons engaged in this 

 branch of trade are highly useful, 

 and even necessary for the due and 

 regular supply of the marliets, and 

 may, therefore, be considered as 

 rendering an important service to 

 the people at large. 



Conclus'ton, 



In adverting to the matter refer- 

 red to them upon the extensive scale 

 on which the lords' committees 

 thought it their duty to consider it, 

 they are desirous of touching upon 

 some of the other points connected 

 with it, to which they alluded in 

 the commencement of their report, 

 although they do notfeel themselves 

 sufficiently informed to report any 

 detailed opinion to the house. The 

 means of preventing the recurrence 

 of such difficulties as are now ex- 

 perienced, are naturally connected 

 with the consideration of the 

 mode of relieving the present pres- 

 sure. 



Your committee have every rea- 

 son to believe, that although from 

 the recency of many of the enclo- 

 sures, the full advantage which 

 may be expected from them has not 

 yet been derived, they have un- 

 questionably contributed to the 

 improvement of agriculture, and an 

 increased quantity of human food. 

 Your committee, therefore, enter- 

 tain no doubt that infinite benefit 

 will result from a still farther en- 

 couragement to enclosures in ge- 

 neral, and particularly of waste and 

 uncultivated lands ; a measure that 

 they deem themselves boinid to re- 

 commend in the strongest manner, 

 in the full expectation that the 



enclosure of those lands would, in 

 itself, afford the most effectual 

 means to prevent the recurrence of 

 the deficiency of grain, from which 

 the present inconveniences are ex- 

 perienced. It has farther appeared 

 to your committee in the course of 

 their inquiry, that the inundations 

 of the fens, which took place in the 

 year 1795, and in the years 1799 

 and 1800, have considerably dimi- 

 nished the ordinary supply of oats 

 of our own growth, of which a 

 proportion equal to one-third is 

 calculated to be the produce of that 

 district of country which includes 

 the fens of Lincolnshire, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Norfolk, Huntingdon- 

 shire, and Northamptonshire. They 

 have also been assured on the same 

 autliorities, that if the drainage of 

 the fens v/ere rendered more secure 

 by an improvement of the outfal to 

 the sea, a very considerable addi- 

 tion may be expected to the national 

 produce of every description. 



They are farther of opinion that 

 it may be expedient to examine the 

 effects of the present laws, as well 

 such as affect importation and ex- 

 portation, as those which regulate 

 the internal commerce of grain ; to 

 remove what has almost universally 

 been stated to your lordships' com- 

 mittee as a very great and material 

 inconvenience, viz. the difference 

 of the measures for the sale of corn 

 throughout the kingdom ; and to 

 investigate whether the sale of corn 

 by weight, or the sale by weight 

 and measure combined, would not 

 be more advantageous than by 

 measure alone. 



The lords' committees had enter- 

 tained an anxious wish to connect 

 with this report some more detailed 

 opinions u^wn subjects of this ex- 

 treme impoitauce. They have ' 



