429, 
for feveral weeks; and, when nature fo 
far prevailed, that it feemed defirous of 
aflociating again with the feathered tribe, 
pufs betrayed evident marks of anxiety 
and diftrefs. Tie cat has been generally 
confidered a felfifh and ungenerous animal ; 
but inftances are not wanting to prove, 
that it is fometimes actuated by the no- 
bleft and mott difinterefted motives. 
The number of refident- proprietors in the 
parith is greatly decreafed of late years;and 
a defire of confolidating many farms into 
one has manifefted itfelf, to the evident 
difadvantage of the community at large. 
The farms are in general rented at be- 
tween fifty and one hundred pounds a year; 
but there are a few Jower than the former, 
and higher than the latter, fum. The 
value of land per acre is commonly from 
ten to twenty fhillings per annum; but, 
in fome fituations, it is not rented at lefs 
than torty fhillings per annum. 
(To be continued ) 
ipa 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DEFENCE of FORESTALLING. 
(Continued from page 230, No. 35.) 
CASE IV. 
ORD KENYON, in the Cafe of 
4 Waddington, ‘afks, ‘* Whether a 
rich man, buying up the cargo of fhips 
jut arrived with corn, with a view to 
raife the price.to the confumer, would not 
deferve punifhment ?”’ 
In a moral light he may be guilty of 
evil intentions; but in a political view, 
the punithment inflicted by the magiftrate 
mult be proportioned to the injury done 
to the community. What is the quan- 
tum of injury? 
He muft either fell the corn immediate- 
ly, or he muft keep it back. 
If he retails immediately, no harm will 
‘be done by him, for he muft retail at that 
price at which they from whom he bought 
might and would have retailed; though 
the corn may have been imported by feve- 
ral merchants, yet he cannot fell at a mo- 
nopoly price, the corn fo purcha!ed bear- 
ing too {mall a proportion to the whole to 
deftroy the competition. (Not .to repeat 
what I have alieacy remarked, with se- 
gard to the aid that would be derived, 
even in the cafe of a monopoly of corn, 
trom all other articles of food.) 
If he keeps it back from the market, 
he mult keep it back in one of thefe three 
circumflances.—1. The whole fupply, 
including the corn in queftion, muit be 
more than fufficient for the confumption : 
—Or, 2. It muft be juft iufficient:—Or, 
3. It mutt be lefs than fufficient. 
Defence of Foreftalling. 
[june }, 
1. If the fupply be more than fufficient 
for the confumption, fomebody muft keep 
back. For if equal quantities be carried 
to each fucceffive market, fome part mut 
be conftantly returned unfold. Some 
corn, therefore, mult be kept back, for 
the chance of a failing crop next year, or 
for re-exportation. 
2. If the fupply be exactly fufficient, the 
corn kept back will raife the price of the 
corn brought to market above that price 
at which it would fell if none were kept 
back. This rife in the price will decreafe 
the confumption, And this decreafe in 
the confumption will make the whole fup- 
ply more than fufficient. He, therefore, 
who has kept back his corn, will find 
that when he brings it to market (as he 
muft at laft) he brings it to a glutted 
market, inftead of a market in which the 
‘fupply is exa&tly proportioned to the de- 
mand. He mutt now, therefore, fell his 
corn at a price reduced, not barely in 
proportion to the rife which, by keeping 
‘back his corn, he occafioned to them who 
- brought their corn to market, but reduced, 
befides, in- proportion. to the decreafed 
confumption ; fince the confumer cannot 
confume, in this quarter of the year, an 
additional quantity of corn proportioned 
to their fhort allowance of that article 
during the laft quarter. 
Ifsit be faid that this temporary fhort 
allowance is the evil complained of, and 
for which punifhment is demanded ; I 
anfwer, that the punifhment above ftated 
is fo certain, and fo well known to all 
traders, though fo little known to lawyers, 
that it is more than enough to prevent the 
crime, or rather the error, from being 
ever committed more than in a very trifling 
degree. 
3. If the fupply be lefs than fuficient, 
it is for the good of the public that fuch a ~~ 
quantity fhould be kept back as will di- 
vide the whole fupply to every market in 
equal proportions, that the confumpftion 
may be decreafed. If more be kept back 
than is neceflary for this purpofe, the corn 
kept back will, by raifing the price, fill 
farther decreafe the confumption. And 
whenever the corn fo kept back is brought 
to market, it will caufe a lefs deficiency, 
and confequently a lower price, than if it 
had been brought fo as to furnifh an equa- 
ble fupply. 
The bad confequences, therefore, to 
the public, is a greater variation of price. 
But the average price will even be lower. 
This variation of price is an inconveni- 
ence; but to the perion keeping back there 
is a pofitive lofs. For he felis his corn 
at 
