142 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



the folly anil injustice of this false 

 policy, to which is to he attrihuted 

 the assumption of a right to set 

 prices on commodities hrought to 

 market, of fixing a maximum for 

 the articles of daily consumption, of 

 entering into associations (which is 

 much the same thing) not to give 

 more than a certain price for any of 

 those articles, of obliging the growers 

 of corn, or dealers in other articles 

 of provision, to sell at a given price, 

 and, what is worst of all, going in 

 bands to the houses of farmers, and 

 forcing them by threats, and vari- 

 ous other modes of intimidation, to 

 enter into engagements to bring and 

 dispose of their commodities at a 

 given price ; a proceeding which I 

 cannot advert to without urging 

 your grace to prosecute, without 

 distinction, all persons concerned in 

 it, in the most vigorous, exemplary, 

 and impressive manner, which the 

 power, military as well as civil, 

 under your command, will most 

 speedily and effectually enable you 

 to do. It would be an unreason- 

 able abuse of your grace's time to 

 enumerate the evils which must un- 

 avoidably result from a continuance 

 of the proceedings which I have 

 taken the liberty of pointing out to 

 you, as requiring to be immediately 

 suppressed. But if any thing could 

 contribute to realise the absurd no- 

 tion of corn being destroyed for the 

 purpose of keeping vip the price of 

 it, tliis would be more likely to ef- 

 fect it than any other mode that 

 could be adopted, as the life of a 

 person possessed of corn, or any other 

 article of provision, is rendered no 

 less insecure than his property, and 

 it would consequently tend, as all 

 other acts of violence do, to the 

 concealment, much more than the 

 production of the commodity ; the 



consequence of which must be ob- 

 vious in the injury resulting to 

 landed property, by discouraging 

 tillage and every sort of agriculture, 

 and by locking up, or diverting int» 

 another channel, that capital which 

 is perhaps more beneficially em- 

 ployed in the improvement of land 

 than in any other mode — it would 

 so impede and obstruct the great 

 source and means of the daily sup- 

 plies of the country, that famine 

 would soon be substituted in the 

 place of scarcity, and that distress 

 and confusion would soon ensue, 

 which would debilitate its inhabi- 

 tants, and enervate all its powers 

 more fatally than any calamity with 

 which it has been visited for centu- 

 ries, or than is to be met with in the 

 annals of its history, If the employ- 

 ment of property is not secure ; if 

 every man does not feel that he has 

 power to retain what he possesses as 

 long as he pleases, and dispose of it 

 at the time, in the manner, and for 

 the price he chooses to fix upon it, 

 there must be an end of confidence, 

 of industry, and of all valuable and 

 virtuous exertions of every descrip- 

 tion ; for there is no reason why a 

 price may not be paid on the works? 

 of the handicraftsman, mechanic, 

 or artist, as well as upon those of 

 the farmer, gi-azier, gardener, &c. 

 and thus the whole order of things 

 would be overturned and destroyed. 

 Your grace, therefore, wUl, I hope, 

 excuse the earnestness with which I 

 address myself to you to resist those 

 attempts in their outset, and to 

 maintain the principle of perfect 

 freedom of property, upon which 

 the prosperity of this country rests, 

 and by which it has risen, under 

 Providence, to the extraordinary 

 state of wealth and power which it 

 now enjoys. If this conelusion is as- 



