113 



country, but on the political regulations to which it 

 may hereafter he subject, that any reasonfngs applied 

 must be in a great measure hypothetical and specu- 

 lative ; and any conclusions we may arrive at, must 

 be liable to be affected by changes which cannot 

 now be contemplated, or taken into calculation. 



The utmost that can be done is to approximate to 

 a result, by a consideration of the principal circum- 

 stances on which it will depend, by reference to the 

 fluctuations in past periods, and by an examination 

 into the causes from which those fluctuations have 

 proceeded. 



In obedience to this direction, I presume, with 

 the diffidence which must be always felt in antici- 

 pating the effects of untried, and consequently 

 doubtful experiments, to state my views on the 

 subject. 



The effect of the stimulus here proposed must 

 depend, in a great measure, on the assurance of its 

 duration. The market for Wheat which England 

 presents, is the great object of attention to the cul- 

 tivators in Poland, and to the merchants at the ports 

 from whence its Corn must be exported. Those 

 persons have been accustomed to observe such fre- 

 quent alterations in our laws relative to the Com 

 trade, that any new enactments would, at first, be 

 thought temporary and mutable, like those of former 

 periods. This uncertainty has been the cause of 

 heavy losses to them, and would therefore have the 

 effect of causing the cultivators to pause before they 

 made any great changes in their rotation of crops, or 

 in the kinds of Corn they would sow. 



The Statements which are given in the part of 

 this Report more immediately relating to the king- 

 dom of Poland, will show that the want of capital 

 among the cultivators has proceeded to such an 

 extent, from the losses they have sustained, that 



