114 



That with a free trade with countries indepen- 

 dent of us, or a much nearer approach to it, such 

 an approach as would bring down the price of 

 wheat to 40^. a quarter, rent would be annihilated 

 on all but the best land, and very much reduced 

 on land of the highest fertility : that this loss and 

 reduction would go out of the pockets of landlords 

 at home into the pockets of landlords abroad ; 

 that such a price would occasion the transfer of 

 landed property, the ruin of the great mass of 

 landlords and tenants ; and the distress of the 

 agricultural labourers, by lessening the field of 

 agricultural production, and thereby throwing a 

 considerable portion of them out of employment. 



That a moderate price of corn, such a price as 

 54s. a quarter, after the outgoings of the farmer 

 have been reduced, produces a moderate rent for 

 the landlords, a fair profit for the farmers, a field 

 of employment and good wages for the agricultu- 

 ral labourers ; but that a low price of corn, such 

 a price as 40s. a quarter, occasioned by the com- 

 petition of nations independent of England, de- 

 stroys the income of the landlords on all farming 

 land but that of the highest fertility, the profit of 

 the tenants on all poor farming land, and con- 

 tracts the field of employment for the labourers, 

 and reduces their wages. 



That the vast Empires of the East afford a new 

 field for the profitable employment of capital and 

 labour in trade and commerce, which does not in- 

 volve a free trade in corn, for they have no corn to 



