all their concomitant horrors!" P. vii. Two or three quotations will exhibit the author's fentiments on the fubjects proposed in the title page, and will probably meet with concurrence from very few readers. I fhall, without further circumlocution, proceed to itate my plan for the permanent relief; one part of which is, to pay a bounty of five fhillings per quarter upon the first two millions of quarters of new wheat that the farmers fhall bring to, and bona file difpofe of, in open market, in their refpective vicinity. And no grain or other fpecies of provifion fhould, on any account, be permitted to be fold, or any contract whatever relating to grain, or other fpecies of provifions, be deemed valid, but fuch as are made with the utmoft publicity in the open market. And to prevent monopoly, it would be advifcable to fubject all grain (if not other provifions) to the operation of the excife laws!" P. 23. "It would be feen in a fhort space of time, whether the dearth is real or fictitious. And if it thould happen that wheat, by the adoption of this measure (of which there cannot remain a doubt) fhould be reduced to 6os. per quarter, in that cafe I should humbly fubmit that government fhould become purchasers of at least two million of quarters of wheat, to be stored in public granaries or magazines, agreeably to the practice and cuftom of many European ftates, in order to meet future exigencies." P. 24. The firft effect of fuch a measure would probably be, the converfion of half the arable land in the kingdom into pafture." The expence of management of the public granaries or magazines of corn, muft, for a time, be supported by government; but the neighbouring magiftrates, agreeably to the practice of other European ftates, fhould have the controul of the bufinefs; that is to fay, the whole arrangement should be made under the direction of five juftices of the peace of the vicinity, three of whom to form a quorum, in order to give a legal fanction to their measures. Thefe magiftrates, aided by certain commiffioners, to be nominated for that purpofe from among the neighbouring independent freeholders, fhould be impowered, affifted by the corn-infpectors, to make the purchafes." P. 27. Mr. A. feems to be unapprized, that in most districts of the kingdom, there is at least as great a carcity of refident acting magiftrates, as of grain; and that the cares already impofed, and continually accumulating upon them, are not likely to make them more plentiful. "If government were, either in conjunction with the proprietors, or by purchafing fuch waftes in fee (where it might be practicable) to take them in their own hands, and apportion out the waftes in moderatefized farms, it would become a refource to the nation of ineftimable value." P. 34. Extravagant as thefe fchemes may appear, the book contains much hiftorical information, and many acute obfervations; and is evidently written with a strong defire to promote the public good. ART. 41. Inquiry into the Caufes and Remedies of the late and prefent Scarcity, and High Price of Provifions. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, K. G. First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. Sc. Fc. 8vo. 71 PP. 25. Wright. 1800. In this enquiry, the author begins by fetching light from the experience of paft times. There has been no famine (he fays) in this country, for more than 350 years, though frequent inftances of fcarcity and dearth. Famines were frequent before the Norman Conqueft; and fince, till near the end of the Plantagenet race of kings. It appears, that famines never occurred, except after bad feafons; and that the evil was, probably, fometimes augmented by impolitic institutions and regulations; fuch as, a prohibition againft tranfporting corn from one part of the country to another; and (in one inftance) a limitation of the price of provifions, to which fome hiftorians afcribe the famine of the following year. An enquiry is then inftituted, into the circumftances which expofed former ages (particularly the 14th century) to famine, and its ufual concomitant, peftilence. 1. The low ftate of agriculture: "It appears that, in the 13th and 14th centuries, corn fold for more than three times as much as the fame weight of butchers meat." P. 5. 2. "A more fcanty production, in proportion to the number and neceffities of the confumers, owing to the more fimple manners of the times." P. 6.-" The quantity of grain employed, in latter times, in brewing, diftilling, feeding of hotfes, and other articles of unneceffary confumption, becomes a fort of difpofeable furplus; fo that, in times of fcalcity, great part of it may be turned into the channels of neceffity. It is evident, then, however paradoxical it may at first fight appear, that luxury, or what by fome may be called wafte, is one of the refources against famine." P. 7.-" However expedient and commendable, therefore, it may be, in times of fcarcity, to make retrenchments in articles of luxury, it would be highly impolitic and dangerous to make fuch retrenchments perpetual." P. 7. 3. The want of internal and foreign commerce; which precludes all relief, in cafe of fcarcity, from one feafon to another, and from one country, and one kingdom, to another. From thefe remarks on patt times, the author proceeds to," inquire into the caufes of the prefent fcarcity, and high price of provi fions." P. 12. The ft. and grand caufe, feems to have been the cold and rainy fummer and autumn, and the fcanty and ill-gotten crop of 1799. Having affigned this fingle caule, the author digreffes fo far, and fo long, on various topics, that it is much easier to fay that he prefents to us many ingenious and useful reflections, concerning farmers, merchants, dealers, &c. than to give an abftract of them. He next ftates, but does not strongly infilt upon, fome fubordinate and fecondary caufes of the fcarcity; as, the depreciation of money; the war; (which he maintains does not increafe the confumption one 36th part) agriculture not keeping pace with population and manufactures; the profe cution of foreftallers; and the affize of bread: on which laft topic we find a few fhort, but good hints. We come now to the remedies of fcarcity; of which the first is, an extended cultivation; the next, an increafed culture of potatoes. But as thefe are only remote recourfes, it is propofed to relieve the prefent diarefs by importation; abolition of the allize; itaying profecutions of foreftallers; enforcing the tale-bread att; ftopping the diftulerics, and the manufacture of arch and hair-powder; and rejecting ail expectation of a maximum of price: most of which things the legiflature has actually done. We have given a fomewhat extended account of this tract; having found in it many juft (if not always novel) arguments; and (what is extremely defirable in this feafon of agitation) a caretul abftinence from all inte operate fpeculations and language. ART. 42. A Sermon, preached at St. Julian's Shreavfbury, on Sunday, December 14, 1800, on reading his Majefty's Praclaquation for limiting the Ufe of Bread. By Simul Buler, M. d. Head Mofter of Shrewsbury School, and late Fellow of St. Jibu's College, Cambridge. 12mo. 32 pp. 18. Eddowes, Shrewsbury; Longman and Rees, London. 1800. 66 very ho A fhort Dedication (rather too antithetical for our tafte) is nourable to Thomas Eyton, Efq. as an active friend to the poor; a character, of which this kingdom now affords examples, at leaft as numerous and fplendid, as any ever exhibited in any ration, or in any age. Difcourfing on Luke xii, 24, "Confider the ravens," &c. the preacher fets before his hearers fuch motives for religious cheerfulnefs, as may tend to diffipate the gloom of melancholy, and rettore them to peace of mind. Adverting to a former dikar, concerning the infinite mercy of God, and our own unworthiness, he justly obferves, that whatever caufe for dejection we can have on the latter ground, we have ftill more abundant reafon for hope and exultation on the former." P. 6. He then proceeds to show, why it is pur duty to endeavour that we may attain this cheerfulness, and to offer fuch practical confiderations, relul ing from the fubject, as are applicable to our prefent ftate." P. 7. Having well defcribed the nature of true cheerfulness, he, ift, proves that it is a duty which we owe to God; 2ndly, he deduces motives for cheertul refignation to God's will, from the relation in which we ftand to him, as Chriftians, and as his chilaren ; 3dly, he fhows, that "defpondency under the difpenfations of Providence, is not only wicked and unreasonable, but it is the very means to make thofe afflictions heavier, at which we repine." P.12. 4thly, Cheerfulness is shown to be a duty, which we owe to our families, and to fociety at large. This topic leads to the confideration," how we may belt alleviate the prefent evil." P. 14. At pp. 17, & much good and found advice, concerning the prefect dearth, is offered to the poor. Had we ftood at the writer's elbow when he finifhed this Sermon, we should have advised him to draw his pen over the last five lines; and fhould then have congratulated him, on having completed a very well-timed and useful discourse, ART. 43. Thoughts on the prefent Prices of Provifions, their Caufes, and Remedies; addreed to all Ranks of People. By an independent Gentleman. 8vo. 87 pp. Reynolds, Oxford-Street, 1800. The principal caufe here affigned, is not any actual Scarcity, but the avarice and extortion of farmers; and the grand specific propofed is a maximum, to be fixed by juftices of the peace. This is the most injudicious and unfatisfactory tract, which we have fo far met with, on the Scarcity. ART. 44. A short Enquiry into the Nature of Monopoly and Forestalling. 1800. We commended this tract very strongly, on its first appearance, at p. 62, of the 9th volume of our Review; and we with again to fix the public attention upon it, as containing a very concife, argumentative, and temperate difcuffion of thofe fubjects, which our present vifitation of Scarcity has rendered fo highly interefting. ART. 45. An Investigation of the Caufe of the prefent High Price of Provifions. By the Author of the Effay on the Principle of Population. Second Edition. 8vo. 28 pp. IS. Johnfon. 1800. The author of this pamphlet fufpecs, that the principal caufe of the high price of provifions, in proportion to the actual degree of fcarcity, has hitherto efcaped detection: (p. 1.) and that this is no other, than the attempt, in molt parts of the kingdom, to increase the parish allowances in proportion to the price of corn, combined with the riches of the country, which have enabled it to proceed as far as it has done in this attempt." P. 4. At pp. 5, 6, 7, this opinion is fupported by a fuppofition, rather ingenious than fatisfactory. As far as our information enables us to fpeak, we question the fact of this general increafe, in the proportion here stated. A crop of wheat in 1800, deficient by one third, fucceeding a crop ftill more deficient, at leaft in quality, with the very increafed ufe of fine bread, will account for high prices much more forcibly. We agree, that in an article (p. 14) which is in fo many hands as corn is, in this country, monopoly, to any pernicious extent, may fafely be pronounced impoffible." Yet, in particular diftricis, of which the produce is fcanty, and the accefs to it difficult, we apprehend that this monopoly may exift long enough, to enrich a few, and to ftarve the reft of the inhabitants. Differing in opinion, as we do in many points, from this writer, yet we readily acknowledge, that his tract is one of thofe which deferve much attention at the prefent juncture. ART. 46. The Cafe of the Farmers, at the prefent important Crifis, flated by a Hertfordshire Farmer. 8vo. 20 pp. 63. Law. 1860. Among the pernicious tendencies of many of the Agricultural Surveys lately publifhed, one his repeatedly been noticed by us; namely, 3 a ten a tendency to exafperate the minds of farmers against their landlords, for refusing to grant long leafes. Here is a farmer, or rather (we fufpect) a fate-reformer, who has read the Surveys attentively, and has been duly improved by them. Moft curious is the exordium of this tract: The afflicted and oppreffed African has found advocates: but the oppreffed and infulted farmers of this ifland are left to their fate : oppreffion will make a man mad; and that the farmers of England are oppreffed, must be admitted;-a fet of men whofe hands are bound, and whofe feet are in fetters,-manacled flaves,-doomed to a state of humiliating abjectnefs to the will of another, that degrades the dignity of the human mind." The Surveys are appealed to, in proof of this; and not without reafon; for fuch are, in many cafes, the intimations contained in them. But in what confifts all this oppreffion? Why, in the refufal of land-owners to grant long leafes, upon liberal terms; and in degrading, unneceffary, and illiberal reftrictions."-" In cafes where leafes are granted, they generally run for five, feven, or nine, years endurance only: nineteen years, or twenty-one, may be confi dered as the maximum." And pray, honeft farmer, for how much longer time, would you infift upon a landlord's refigning to you his eftate; which you would probably re-leaf, by fome device or other, before half of the term fhould expire? When the London feditiousfocieties, in the fummer of 1798, had their emiffaries at work throughout the villages of the kingdom, one tract of this fort for the ufe of farmers, another of the fame ftamp for their labourers, and a third for the poor in general, (all which might have been extracted from the County Surveys) would have operated ftrongly towards a general tranffer of landed, and all o her property, from the old to new matters, ART. 47. An Addrefs to the good Senfe and Candour of the People, in Behalf of the Dealers in Corn: with some few Obfervations on a late Trial for Regrating; by Sir Thomas Turton, Bart. The Second Edition, with a Poftfcript. 8vo. 189 PP. 35. 6d. Egerton, &c. 1800. A very eloquent harangue in defence of farmers, corn-dealers, monopolizers, atque id genus omne. There is fuch a profufion of words in this oration, that we cannot eafily pick out the matter from among them. But the purport of the whole is to fhow, that combinations of farmers to hoard their corn, or of dealers to monopolize it, are utterly impracticable; that the general profits of the latter are overrated; and that they who keep back corn from the market, during the early months after harvest, are, in fact, whatever may be their intention, real benefactors to the public: fince, by producing a temporary fcarcity, and confequently high prices, they compel the people to economy in the use of corn; and thus prevent, during the latter months, an actual famine. Though we are not prepared to affent to all which is here urged in favour of thele gentry, yet we acknowledge that they have found, in this worthy Baronet, a very acute, entertaining, and able advocate. PHI |