So'8 tHE feEE, OR ' Feb. 23, 



. li was obferved by Swift, with bis ufual aclite- 

 nefs, " that he who raifes two ftiilks of corn, where only 

 one grew before, does a more eflential fervice to t'it- 

 community, than the greateft pob'tician that ever exiil- 

 ed;" and the obfervation is well founded. — He who pro- 

 duces a greater quaiitit_y of human fullcnance in a ftate, 

 than it would otherwife have afforded, may be faid, in 

 a certain fenfe, to produce more men, and thus to add 

 to the power and the ftrength of the flate, iii the mo(i 

 unequivocal manner. Individuals, however, in their 

 own operations, can only ar\end, each to his own im- 

 mediate profit ; and it ought to be the Itudy of an en- 

 lightened legiflp.ture, to adopt fuch regulations as Iball 

 naturally tend to render the profit of individuals con- 

 tributive to the general pi'ofperity of the ftate. Now, 

 it fo happens, that the bounty on grain exported pro- 

 duces precifely this effcft : — for, by aflording a ready 

 market for the produce of cultivated fields, it ftimu- 

 lates the owners of walle lands properly fituated, to con- 

 vert them into com fields, and tlius to augment their 

 natural produce, perhaps a liundrcd-fold beyond what 

 it otlicrwife W'Ould have been. Thele fields, alfo, 

 after being thus once converted into tillage, come in 

 their turn, by the well-uiidt rffopd rotation of crops, to 

 be turned once more into artificial paitures, much more 

 rich and abundant in herbage, than the original heath 

 from which they \vere recovered^— Tlius room is given 

 for llill more waftes to be inverted into corn fields, and 

 more corn-land=. to be turned into artificial pafture; fo 

 that a cunftant prcgrtf'- in melioration is efi:ablilhed, and 

 ■whole counties are gradually converted into rich fields, 

 which, but for this circumflance, would havd remain- 

 ed, to the end ot^ time, barren deferts. Confidered ia 

 this point of view, the benefits of the bounty on th& 

 exportation cf cdrn, are perhaps ineftimable to the com- 

 munity. 



Nor is this hypothetical reafoning only — It is fup- 

 ■ ported by the evidence of facts that are Itrong and ua- 



