84 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY 



" thofe clafTes who come under our confideration. This me- 

 " thod I have feveral objections to ; namely, that it is more 

 " likely to relieve thofe on whom the poor's rate are at pre- 

 " fent levied, rather than prove itfelf that fair and equitable 

 " equivalent, without which, this important reformation can- 

 '* not in honour be undertaken — but my principal one is, that 

 *! of fubftituting money as this equivalent. It ought to be an 

 C{ objeft of our confideration, in this momentous bufinefs, that 

 «• the value of the exchange fhould be permanent, and, if 

 *' money is to be the exchange, how can this be faid to be the 

 *' cafe. In proof of this, how much the labouring poor of 

 ** this country would have fuffered, if this circumflance had 

 *' taken place in the laft century, if money had been equiva- 

 *• lent, when it is fo well known, how much alteration has 

 *« taken place in its value, while every neceffary article of 

 *' life is more than doubled." 



Mr. Wagftaff fays, " perhaps there are certain trafts of 

 * s land, neceffary ranges for combined flocks, belonging to 

 *' fmall proprietors, whereby the fleece is improved : but 

 ** there is this misfortune attendant on rich commons (and 

 *' fuch are what this gentleman truly remarks of Wymondham 

 ■' and Attleborough) through each claimant on them making 

 "■ the mofl of the prefent advantages, without adverting to a 

 *' wanted improvement that might continue and fecure, in the 

 " future, an addition of advantages ; through this defeft, of 

 e( what is every claimant's bufinefs, fuch as undrained waters, 

 *' which contaminate where they continue, and is, I am per- 

 u fuaded, an addition to the too lengthened continuance of 

 ii their ranging, the origin of the decay, which, fometimes, 

 " becomes contagious to other fheep ; and this, I prefume, 

 «* arifing for want of a compulfory tax, to oblige the feveral 

 * 5 claimants to improve their common privilege, by requifite 

 " drainage, ditching, embankment, and elevation of low 

 " ground, to which might be added, the omiffion of fumrner 

 ^'mowings of the immenfity of thi files and ragweed: as by 

 *'■ thefe attentions, the falubrity and certainty of an excellent 



" paflurage 



