88 



Very low prices for agricultural produce will certainly be 

 beneficial to some classes ; but the question is, will such low 

 prices, with our high taxation, be for the general good : I 

 think not : for the lower the value of the produce of the 

 soil, the higher, in reality, it makes the amount of the 

 national debt, and thus adds to the weight of taxation 

 upon that class which pays so great a portion of the interest 

 of it. If the incomes of landlords were to be so reduced 

 by their rents being lowered to correspond with wheat at 

 five shillings per bushel, and tenants not to be able to get 

 more than a bare subsistence, the manufacturers must find 

 the demand for their goods very materially lessened. 

 Whether, with such low prices of produce, and conse- 

 quently such a reduced circulation of money, a sufficient 

 amount of taxes could be raised to continue paying, for any 

 length of time, the full amount of interest of our enormous 

 national debt, I leave to the consideration of those who are 

 competent to form a more correct opinion on the subject 

 than I am. 



Some Newspapers are continually giving statements of 

 the comparative prices of wheat, in England and on the 

 Continent. It is not the price of food, in any country, 

 that proves whether it is cheap or dear, the proof is the 

 relative value which the wages of the labouring classes boar 

 to itt The prosperity of a country, the contentment, 

 comfort, and happiness of its labouring classes, are not to 

 be estimated by the low price of food. Most of the 

 London papers annually inform their readers, that the crops 

 throughout the country are most abundant. Providence 

 has certainly been kind to this country, but abundant 

 crops are not produced every year. The newspaper writers 

 no doubt suppose (but are most egregiously mistaken), that 

 by their holding it forth that there is great abundance, it 

 may have the effect of keeping down prices. 



1 attended the great agricultural meeting, in London, on 

 the 15th December, 1835, where, as I expected, 1 heard 

 nothing satisfactory how agriculture could be relieved by 

 any legislative enactments. The real cause of the agri- 

 cultural distress was, from there having been more than the 

 usual quantity sown, and more than an average produce 

 for three years, wheat was selling at a less price than it 



