300 THE WEDGWOODS. 



much wanted amongst our own poor at home. "Now you have 

 already been made acquainted that our ports are opened for the 

 importation of foreign corn, and that considerable quantities are 

 actually brought to us by that means. The merchants who buy 

 this corn at foreign markets, bring it to England by a long sea- 

 voyage, and many other expenses attend its importation, besides 

 which they must have an allowance for their profits in trade. They 

 must therefore buy it much lower there than they can afford to sell 

 it in London or any other port ; add to this the expenses of carriage 

 from such port to the inland parts of the kingdom, to our own 

 county in particular, and we may fairly conclude that a bushel of 

 foreign corn, if sold for nine shillings here, did not originally cost 

 more than five or six when first purchased abroad. How, then, can 

 it for a moment be supposed that any dealer would send corn from 

 hence, where he could sell it for nine shillings a bushel, to the 

 foreign markets, where, after the additional expense of sending it 

 thither, it would not be sold for more than five or six ? The idea 

 is too ridiculous to need any other refutation than this plain state- 

 ment of facts ; but nothing is too absurd to be believed when men's 

 passions overpower their reason. 



" Add to the foregoing considerations that, peace being now 

 restored, we may expect that trade and commerce will flourish 

 anew. We have already experienced a very considerable increase 

 of the demand for our manufacture, which will enable masters to 

 give out over-work to their servants, and thereby increase their 

 wages, to the better support of them and their families. 



"After thus mentioning what is doing for you by others, if I 

 ask you whether there is not something which you can do for 

 yourselves, it must occur to you that youth is a time in which 

 something should be saved for future contingencies ; and if a married 

 man can maintain a wife and four or five children, with no more 

 than you do or may earn, who have only yourselves to provide for, 

 surely some small weekly saving may be made, which, I can promise 

 you, you will afterwards find the comfort of when you marry and 

 have a house to furnish, and other things to provide for a wife and 

 growing family. I know some who have tried this experiment, and 

 do not repent it now ; and others I know (would to God the numbers 

 were fewer!) who by too frequently visiting public houses, wakes, 

 and other places where time and money is wasted, have acquired 

 habits in their youth which entail poverty and distress on those 

 who have the misfortune to depend upon their support in future life. 



" What I have to say upon the second complaint, ' the great 



