26 



lasting benefit, while the class of cultivators 

 will suffer no injury. 



An analogy has been drawn from the plan of 

 increasing supplies by the above means, to that 

 of increasing them by the suspension of the dis- 

 tilleries ; and although there be a difference be- 

 tween them in the view of scarcity, as shall af- 

 terwards be shewn, yet in the continuance of 

 average supplies, I think the analogy p. :iy I 

 admitted. The interference in regurd to both 

 is equally wrong; the farmer is injured by 

 both ; and the public will ultimately be so too; 

 only, as the power of the Legislature can ope- 

 rate much more surely in suspending the dis- 

 tillery than in forcing improvement, the inju- 

 rious effects of the former will be more strongly 

 felt. On the other hand, as the free competi- 

 tion of the culture of wastes can do no harm, 

 neither can the free admission of the colonial 

 produce into the distilleries*. 



Another mode of increasing the home sup- 

 plies, from which an analogy has been drawn 

 to the suspension of the distilleries, is the im- 

 portation of corn. This case just resembles 

 the last. If importation w r ere promoted by a 

 bounty, or other encouragement, while there 

 was no call for it from scarcity, it would be 

 equally wrong with the forced importation of 



* See Note (C.) 



