supplying Milh for the Poor. i^i 



The necessity of measures to create an advance may appear an evil, when grain 

 for the present might be had from foreign countries at a cheaper rate. But the 

 miseries which must and would ultimately result from an increasing dependance 

 on foreign nations, would infinitely outweigh any present advantage. And besides 

 it admits of considerable doubt, (taking the average of a few years back), whether 

 it would not have been cheaper both to the nation and individuals, had measures, 

 like the present, been taken some years ago, to advance and encourage the growth 

 of grain at home. 



Years of failure of crops must, in the course of events, be expected; a demand 

 for importation beyond the usual supply, has an immediate effect on the foreign 

 markets, and subjects us to whatever demands speculators may think proper to 

 exact. Considering the few hands in which the foreign trads is placed, the means 

 of combination are not very difficult. Widely different is the case with our home 

 supply; when there are half a million of manufacturers of grain, the public has 

 litde to fear from monopoly ; — by which system are we likely to be most cheaply 

 supplied ? 



The price paid in our markets for foreign grain was not the price it cost the 

 consumers ; a most material addition must be made for the bounty, which did not 

 enter into the contemplation of many of them. 



However much the late high prices of corn are to be lamented, it must be 

 granted some good resulted from it, by producing an activity, and accelerating 

 improvements in agriculture in every part of the empire ; which, in the ordinary 

 course of proceeding, would have required many years to have accomplished. It 

 has also created a spirit of enterprise, which may be turned to good account, and, 

 from what we have seen doni:", we may justly entertain the most sanguine expecta- 

 tions of the further improvements which may be still effected. Without profits 

 would the manufacturer continue to prosecute trade ? can, or ought, the farmer be 

 expected to do it? The ahnning disparity which has taken place in the course of 

 the present reign, between the growth of grain and our consumption, is a subject 

 worthy of our most serious consideration. They who are inclined to attribute it 

 solely to our increased population, look, I conceive, but partially at the question. 

 Was this the fundamental cause, its ffects would have been of a slow and progres- 

 sive nature. The population of Great Britain is supposed to have gained in the 

 last century an addition of nearly three niillionsj v/hich would give an increase 



