46 



by a good deal more. This quantity will there- 

 fore disappear from the market. If it had been 

 displaced by corn, even forcibly encoilraged 

 from waste lands, or imported by a bounty, as 

 formerly mentioned, the same, or nearly the 

 same, quantity of subsistence would still have 

 been within the country ; and that part of it 

 consumed by the distillery, would still have 

 remained to be set free for human use on the 

 occurrence of scarcity. But, in the present 

 case, the grain displaced, is replaced by sugar, 

 a commodity which, in the utmost necessity, 

 cannot be turned to human support. No re- 

 source will therefore remain from the suspen- 

 sion of distillation, when necessity shall call 

 for that measure, if we now adopt it without 

 any necessity. 



But, thirdly, it may be said, that it is no 

 longer time to betake ourselves to this re- 

 source, when the necessity has arrived, for 

 then the corn will have been actually distil- 

 led. To this I reply, that there will be abun- 

 dant time to take the precaution ; and, indeed, 

 the remedy will apply itself in the best way, 

 without any such precaution. The grain rais- 

 ed for distillation is not all distilled in one 

 day or week; it is done gradually. As grain 

 becomes scarce, and prices rise, it will be dis- 

 tilled more slowly every day, because the dis- 



