GRAIN MARKETS. 323 



It is quite obvious that I am no lawyer ; and I give my opinions 

 with the more freedom, knowing that they will not be quoted as 

 authority.* 



Besides Smithfield, markets for the sale of live stock, botn 

 lean and fatted, are held in various parts of the country. These 

 being held in determined places, and at established and well- 

 known times, the farmers and others have always an opportunity 

 of disposing of cattle, for which they wish to find purchasers, 

 and of obtaining such as they require for keep or fattening. 



LIIL GRAIN MARKETS. 



Next to the cattle markets, in England, the grain markets 

 deserve attention. They perhaps should have a higher place, as 

 the value of the grain crop of the country must very much 

 exceed that of its live stock. The amount of grain produced in 



* I might get upon forbidden ground if I ventured to speak of chartered opin 

 ions, and of the variety of artificial and stringent contrivances to regulate what 

 men shall think in all times to come. I have my own notions on these subjects, 

 with which I shall not trouble my readers, further than to say that I hold mental 

 slavery as the most ignominious of all kinds of bondage, and thank God, every 

 day of my life, that attempts to inthral the mind are, in the end, as idle as to 

 attempt to chain the wind, convinced as I am that all hopes of human improve 

 ment, and the moral advancement of society, must depend upon the utterly free, 

 unrestricted, and independent inquiries of the human mind after what is good, 

 and useful, and true. 



I trust I shall be pardoned these reflections, which otherwise might seem inop 

 portune, when it is considered that, in some respects, Smithfield is classical and 

 consecrated ground. I think it was one of the Oxford martyrs, who said to his 

 heroic companion at the stake, that &quot; they should kindle such a fire that day in 

 England, as he trusted in God would never be extinguished.&quot; Such were the 

 fires kindled in Smithfield, which, as they were reflected from the surrounding 

 objects, showed the grim, and hideous, and bloody features of bigotry and intol 

 erance, in all their deformity and hatefulness, and still send up their light to 

 Heaven, as the signal of that liberty of judgment, opinion, and conscience, which 

 constitutes the glory of the human mind, and which every true man should claim, 

 at any and every peril, as his independent and inalienable birthright. 



