33 



where that matter is entirely committed to free 

 individual exertion. 



2. It has been the policy of all barbarous go- 

 vernments to discourage large dealers in corn, 

 from the idea that their accumulation of grain 

 might produce artificial scarcity ; and this po- 

 licy, with other prejudices of the same kind, 

 has thrown the task, as already hinted, into 

 much worse hands, that of the governments 

 themselves. I need not mention the follies 

 which have filled our statute-book on this sub- 

 ject, nor the disgraceful prejudices which ap- 

 peared upon it during the last scarcity ; even 

 in those whose public station left no excuse for 

 their ignorance. It is only, indeed, because 

 our laws have yielded to the general feeling of 

 public interest, and are not enforced, that we are 

 not all made sensible of their mischief. Were 

 corn-dealers generally to be prevented from pur- 

 chasing, or forced to sell, at the will of the Le- 

 gislature, or of judges, we should feel by expe- 

 rience the miseries of deficient supply. The 

 interest of the corn-dealer, where he is left free, 

 necessarily, in all respects, coincides with that 

 of the public. It leads him to accumulate when 

 corn is cheap, and thus takes an useless surplus 

 out of the market ; and to sell sparingly as 

 scarcity increases, which diminishes consump- 



c 



