APPENDIX. 



ENGLAND'S RESOURCES IN TIME OP DEARTH. 



IT is a merciful provision of the Almighty, that, in time of 

 dearth, one country is frequently enabled to supply the defici- 

 encies of another, and that one year often supplies a redundance 

 to help out the scarcity that may follow, or has preceded it. 

 When the famine was " sore " in the land of Canaan, and iu 

 the adjoining countries, Jacob said to his sons, "Behold, I 

 have heard that there is corn in Egypt : get you down thither, 

 and buy for us from thence ; that we may live and not die." In 

 this case the famine had been foretold, and the resources of 

 Egypt had been wisely husbanded by Joseph during the years 

 of plenty which preceded the time of dearth. And even now, 

 seasons of comparative scarcity, though not foretold, are in 

 some measure anticipated and provided for, either by govern- 

 ment, as in foreign countries, or, as at home, by a class of per- 

 sons who, in seeking to promote their own interests, are really 

 serving the interests of the nation at large. 



"In Sweden, Prussia, Spain, Denmark, &c., magazines or 

 storehouses of grain are erected in different places, in order to 

 guard against bad seasons. In Spain alone there are upwards 

 of five thousand of these depositories, called positas. Every 

 occupier of land is obliged to bring a certain quantity of corn, 

 proportionate to the extent of his farm ; the following year he 

 takes back the corn lie has thus deposited, and replenishes the 

 empty garner with a larger quantity ; and thus he continues 

 annually to increase the stock by these contributions, called 

 ' cresus,' till a certain measure of grain is deposited ; then every 

 one receives back the whole corn which he has furnished, and 

 replaces it by an equal quantity of new corn. Whenever a 

 scarcity happens these repositories are opened, and the corn is 

 dealt out to the people at a moderate price. In some places 

 seed corn is distributed to necessitous husbandmen, who are 

 bound to restore as much in lieu of it the next harvest. The 



