83 



certain of the present corn laws being retained. Their 

 fears, I hope, are groundless, for with the increased pro- 

 duction, from the improved cultivation of the land, in 

 England and Scotland, and the expected improvement in 

 Ireland, I trust Parliament will believe that henceforth 

 there will be no more necessity to import foreign wheat into 

 the British dominions, than to import foreign children. 

 The Honorable Membr r for Middlesex is very peculiar in 

 many of his notions ; he is reported to .have said that 

 which, I should hope, he could not find in the six hundred 

 members of the House of Commons, six, to agree with him, 

 " that England would be in as flourishing a slate as it now 

 is, if it did not produce one single bushel of corn." It 

 appears that great men may greatly differ in opinion on 

 subjects of the greatest importance, for Dr. Johnson says, 

 " Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the 

 only riches she can call her own." 



Having the opportunity, in this second edition, I make a 

 few brief observations on the able " Remarks on the present 

 state of Agriculture," by Charles Shaw Lefevre, l^sq. in a 

 letter, addressed to his constituents of North Hampshire. 

 In consequence of the distress which prevailed, it was 

 absolutely due to the agricultural interest to have a 

 Committee of the House of Commons appointed, to inquire 

 into the causes of the distress, and to report, from 

 the evidence which came before them, their recom- 

 mendations for relief. That the Committee should not 

 have known what "to recommend, and therefore should 

 have made no report, could not have surprised any 

 able-minded agriculturist, whose thoughts had been di- 

 rected to the subject. Mr. Lefevre says he is decidedly in 

 favor of a fixed duty on foreign corn, instead of the present 

 duty, which is fluctuating ; but should this alteration not 

 take place, he yields to the suggestion of a gradual 

 reduction in the present scale of duties on importation. 

 This suggestion, it appears, comes from dealers in foreign 

 corn ; those who, till within the last few years, carried on 

 a lucrative concern in that article. May it not reasonably 

 be suspected, that such persons may be desirous of 

 regaining their now nearly lost trade ? During the last 

 twenty years, I have read so much as to the price that 



