388 Verfification 
was given to tillage, by the certainty the 
farmers had, of being at liberty to carry 
their produce to the beft market; tillage 
increafed yearly, the farmers grew richer, 
their farms were better ftocked, and they 
became capable of undertaking more ex- 
penfive improvements in agriculture. 
Only twenty-five years elapfed from 
the paffing of this act, to the granting the 
bounty on the exportation of corn in 1688 ; 
but even inthis fhort pericd, the good 
effeéts of this wife law were very fenfi- 
bly felt ; for it appears from the regif- 
ters, that the average price of the bett 
wheat, in the nine years previous to 
granting the bounty, viz. from 1680 to 
3638 inclufive, was 18 per cent. lower 
than in the 68 years from 1595 to 1663 ; 
jt was even 11 per cent. lower than in the 
forty years after granting the bounty ; 
and there cannot be the leaft doubt en- 
tertained, but that our agriculture (with- 
out any bounty) would long ago have 
arrived to a much greater degree of per- 
fe€tion than’ it has yet reached, if the 
good effects of this wife law had not been 
conftantly counteraéted, by the tyzhe, 
which is certainly the moft impolitic of 
all taxes, being inimical to tillage, and to 
every expenfive improvement in agri- 
culture. 
The average exportation of all forts of 
grain, during feventy years after the boun- 
ty was granted, was 487,411 quarters 
yearly; but the yearly comfumption of 
England and Wales, is calculated at 
23,954,474 quarters, exclufive of feed ; or 
nearly thirty times the quantity exported; 
" removing the geftriétions on the inland 
trade muft confequently have had a much 
greater effect in encouraging tillage, than 
a bounty on exportation. 
Our prefent corn laws are better cal- 
culated tor the benefit of the merchants 
who export and import corn, than cf the 
growers of it; for the uncertainty they 
produce, as to the granting or not grant- 
ing the bounty, and as to the ports being 
open cr fhut for exportation and impor- 
tation, tends greatly to the diicouraging 
of tillage. A 
The laws to regulate exportation and 
importation of corn, ought to be invaria- 
ble and wholly independent of price. Our 
farmers pay higher rents than in moft 
countries, they are alfo fubject to a heavy 
tax for the poor, and to that oppreffive 
tax tythe ; it is, therefore. unjuft to force 
them into a competition with foreign far- 
mers, by allowing corn at any time to be 
imported duty free ; but if a duty of 4s. 
the quarter was laid on wheat imported, 
4 
of fHorace. 
[June 
and on other grain in proportion, they 
would very well fupport the competition 4 
as this duty would (on an average) be 
equal to the tythe ; and the extra rent 
and other taxes which they pay, would 
be fully compenfated by the freight and 
other charges on imported corn ; under 
this imple regulation, the bounty might 
be taken off, and exportation and impor- 
tation freely allowed at a!l times, and at 
all prices, without any danger of the 
price ever falling fo low as to difcourage 
tillage, or ever rifing fo high as to diftrefs 
the people. Corn might aifo beallowed 
to be imported, and lodged in warehoutes, 
until exported, without paying any duty, 
or to pay the duty if taken out for home 
confumption ; and if we ever become 
wife enough to abolifh tythes, importation 
may then be allowed-duty free. 
B. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, oe ’ 
1% {canning the alcaic ftanzas of Horace, 
I was taught to confider the third 
verfe as aniambic verfe. On recon- 
‘fidering the fubjeé&t, I.am inclined to 
think that I have been in an error, and 
that the meafure is, at the end, trochaic. 
Upon this fuppofition, the ftanzas have 
have appeared to me not only more har- 
‘Monious, but I now fee the reafon for 
the invariable ufe of certain feet, which, 
if the verfe had been iambic, would, 
doubtlefs, in places, have varied as in 
other iambic verfes. Upon this fup- 
pofition alfo, there is a particular beauty 
in the ftanza. The two firft verfes are 
fimilarly modulated. The two laft verfes 
are mixt; the firft haif of the third 
verfe being like the frf& half cf the 
firft and fecond verfes. The firft half of 
the fourth verfe correfponds to the. laft 
half of the firft and fecond verfes ; and 
the laf half of the fourth verie is fmilar 
to the laft half of the third verfe. Thus, 
then, the firf ftanza of the firft ode of 
the fecond book, will be {canned 
Motum éx | Métél | id confulé | civicum 
Belli | que cau | fas | et vittla et modos 
Lidim | qie for | tintaé gra | vefque 
Principum 4 [ miciti | as ét | arma 
s 
u 
Some of your readers, perhaps, ms ~ 
have been in the fame error with myfelf, 
and this hint may lead them to examine 
the third verfe in this ftanza with greater 
attention, I have written down the 
third verfes in this ode, to fhow how well 
they tally with my idea, and how im- 
probable it is that the iambic meafure 
nal frowld 
