AAA 
Surely then a fpeedy period to that ftate of 
wartare,which lies at the root of our mi- 
fery, is a confummation devoutly to be 
wifhed. 
A great change has likewife taken place 
in our agricultural fyftem and manage- 
ment. Che confolidation of farms has 
thrown the produce of the country into 
much fewer hands—a circumftance natu- 
rally operating to produce monopoly, ef- 
pecially when aided and facilitated by pa- 
per-credit. It has greatly increafed the 
breed of horfes, and diminifhed that of 
oxen. I[t has reduced the number of that 
hardy and ufeful race, our labourers in 
hufbandry. It is notorious that much 
fewer bands are now employed in agricul- 
tural occupations. The village-cottages 
are deferted, or pulled down, and their oc- 
cupiers lave been driven into our cities 
and towns to feek for different employ- 
ments, where they add largely to the mats 
of paupers, fubfilted in a great mefure at 
the public expence. The confolidation of 
farms has greatly curtailed the fupply of 
poultry, pork, and other neceflaries, which 
in former feafons of {carcity contributed 
much to diminith the preffure of that 
dreadful calamity which is now experien- 
ced. It has alfo produced a great and moft 
unfavourable change in the tate of all our 
country markets. I can remember the 
times when every houfholder of the large 
and populous town in which I refide regu- 
larly and conttantly purchafed his grain in 
the open weekly markets, and when fingle 
buthels were always pitched therein, com- 
petent to the fupply of the inhabitants. 
It was then fent to the mill for the fimple 
procefs of grinding, and dreffed by the 
houfe-keeper after its return, But fince 
the confolidation of farms, there have not 
been, uponan average, fifty bufhels of corn 
pitched in the weekly market, for the con- 
fumption of fifteen thoufand inhabitants. 
The farmer {ells his grain to the taétor or 
miller by fample, and generally by private 
contract in théir own houfes, without 
eyen the fample appearing in the market 
at all. And when the faétor or miller are 
by thefe finifter methods in poffeffion of 
Jarce ftocks upon hand, it then becomes 
their interelt, and they well know how, to 
raife the price of the article in order to 
enhance their own profits. The houfe- 
holders alfo are precluded by neceffity trom 
their former cuttom of dreffing the meal for 
themielves, and are obliged to (ubmit to 
the further exactions of the manufacturing 
miller. The commodity now hkewife 
pafles through a much greater number of 
hands before it reachts the confumer. 
Thoughts on the prefent high Price of Provifions. 
[Dec. 1, 
The factor, miller, huckfter, jobber, &c. 
&c. have each their individual profits, 
and the poor confumer fuffers moft of all, 
who is obliged to purchafe his {mall fup- 
ply at a further advance from the retailer 
of flour. 
Such are the prime caufes of that aggra- 
vated diftrefs and mifery, which now pre- 
vails among all the lower claffes of the 
community. It will perhaps be faid, that 
the view only prefents a melancholy pic- 
ture of evils irremediable. And true it 
is, the circumitances in which we are 
placed do bear an afpeét alarming indeed 
to every confiderate mind. The good 
fhip Britansia lies labouring in a heavy 
fea, while the hollow murmurs of the 
whiftling wind, and the roaring of the 
diftant billows, indicate an approacing 
ftorm. But let us not abandon ourlelyes 
to unmanly cefpair. ‘The gallant feaman, 
when in fuch a fituation, ftands colleéted, 
and, with fteady undaunted firmnels, puts 
the helm a-weather, and adopts every pre- 
caution to encounter and break the force 
of the gathering tempett. 
It is not, however, a time to have re- 
courfe to palliatives only. The malady has 
reached the vitals, and calls for {peedy and 
effectual relief. It will not be fufficient, 
though effentially neceflary, to increafe by 
importation the ftock of grain: nothing 
fhort of an immediate reduétion in the 
price of neceffaries can relieve the general 
diftrefs, or avert thofe accumulated horrors 
invatiably produced by a ftate of ftarva- 
tion. Thofe difeafes that are the certain 
concomitants of famine, are advancing by 
rapid ftrides. Already, in one of our 
principal ports (Briftol), printed inftruc- 
tions have been given by an eminent and 
humane phyfician, to guard againft the 
malignant difeafe that rages—Such is the 
term ufed. The people cannot wait the 
return of orders for foreign grain. The 
people cannot exift at the prefent enormous 
price of every neceflary of life; nor is it 
reafonable that any particular clafs fhould, 
on fuch an emergency, extort from their 
perithing fellow-creatures a profit not ex- 
aggerated by that noble and benevolent 
peer, who rated it at two hundred per 
cent. 
“To prevent in future the return of a 
fituation fo terrible as the prefent, without 
exaggeration, really and truly is, I hum- 
bly conceive the following regulations may 
be of ule. To check monopoly and 
combination by fevere reftrictions. To 
regulate the employment and the profit of 
the millers. To limit the extent of farms. 
To encourage agriculture by a general 
. inclo- 

