43 



and labour, destroy both rent and profit | and mo- 

 derate prices secure moderate rents, and moderate 

 profit. The price of 54y. a quarter ought not to 

 be called moderate, it is, in fact, a very low 

 price ; it is only about 2$. 6d. a quarter more than 

 the average price of 150 years antecedent to 1790, 

 when the amount of parliamentary and parochial 

 taxation, and the general expenses of production, 

 were nothing in comparison with their present 

 amount; but I apply the expression moderate to 

 the price of 54s., as contrasted with the still lower 

 price of 40,9. a quarter. 



Under the present circumstances of the coun- 

 try, a high price of the chief articles of human 

 subsistence would benefit the landed interest at 

 the expense of other interests. A low price, not 

 induced by the employment of British and Irish 

 capital and labour, would be a greater evil, it is 

 doubtful whether any interest would benefit by it; 

 and even if the manufacturing and commercial 

 interests did, it would be by a sacrifice far greater 

 than their exclusive advantage. Either high prices, 

 the result of entire prohibition, or low prices, the 

 result of permitting the introduction of corn into 

 our market,, not produced in English territories, or 

 by the means of British and Irish capital and 

 labour, would be injurious to the best interest of 

 the country at large ; but moderate prices are 

 what are to be desired, to preserve the fair balance 

 between the great interests of the country, and to 

 insure the prosperity of all. Our pilots must take 



