ing from deficient home produce deficient 

 foreign produce the interruption of war or 

 from all these taken together. At such a sea- 

 son, the superfluous produce raised for the con- 

 sumption of the distilleries, affords a fund of 

 subsistence, which will be set free for human 

 food by the natural rise of prices ; or, when the 

 necessity becomes very high, may be set free 

 by Legislative interference. This last, how- 

 ever, should, in general, be delayed till the 

 whole effect had been nearly produced in the 

 natural way. To encroach forcibly on this 

 spare fund at any season of moderate plenty, 

 or easy prices, is to deprive the country of it 

 when the necessity arrives, by the discourage- 

 ment of cultivation, which will probably be to 

 a much greater amount than in proportion to 

 the produce which the vent itself consumed. 

 There is at present no such deficiency, or like- 

 lihood of deficiency, from any cause, as to in- 

 duce us to risk such discouragement. 



I have thus endeavoured to shew, that on 

 general and permanent principles, whether re- 

 garding this country as producing its own sup- 

 plies, or importing a part of them, and whether 

 during moderate years, or in the case of scar- 

 city, the vent of the distillery to our home pro- 

 duce is a great public benefit ; and it never 



