distillation, otherwise a part of the produce is 

 forced on the market, which there is no capital 

 to store up, and retrenchment is preven'ed from 

 taking place among the people so soon as it 

 ought to do. Corn will never be exported, 

 when a good price can be got at home : It will 

 never be distilled, when it can he sold higher 

 for food. No stop slwuld be put to the accu- 

 mulation of the corn-dealer, whose storing up 

 helps to enforce early retrenchment, and whose 

 stores come forth as scarcity increases, and pre- 

 vent that extreme of misery which a rash over- 

 consumption would have occasioned. The 

 same rule of perfect freedom equally applies to 

 all these modes of consumption. The arrange- 

 ments of nature need no assistance from the 

 feeble and presumptuous efforts of man, whose 

 interference only disturbs what it cannot amend. 

 In the system of human improvement, that 

 knowledge, I believe, is as important and as 

 slowly acquired, which informs us what we can- 

 not do, as that which informs us what we can. 

 It may perhaps be prudent to prohibit ex- 

 port and distillation, when these vents are nearly 

 closing of their own accord, to pacify the ex- 

 cusable prejudices of the people in times of 

 severe scarcity. As to the corn-dealer, no in- 

 terference with him should ever be attempt- 

 ed. The people may be assured, that any 



