On threshing, I found things as I expected, - the
ears not filled, some of the capsules quite empty, and
?
ears not filled, some of the capsules quite empty, and
?
Edmund Burke
Men, from the decline, which
after fifty becomes every year more sensible, to the
period of debility and decrepitude, and the maladies
that precede a final dissolution. Women, whose em
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ployment on husbandry is but occasional, and who
differ more in effective labor one from another than
men do, on account of gestation, nursing, and domestic management, over and above the difference they have in common with men in advancing, in
stationary, and in declining life. Children, who proceed on the reverse order, growing from less to greater utility, but with a still greater disproportion
of nutriment to labor than is found in the second of these subdivisions: as is visible to those who will give themselves the trouble of examining into the interior economy of a poor-house.
This inferior classification is introduced to show
that laws prescribing or magistrates exercising a
very stiff and often inapplicable rule, or a blind and
rash discretion, never call provide the just proportions between earning and salary, on the one hand,
and nutriment on the other: whereas interest, habit,
and the tacit convention that arise from a thousand
nameless circumstances produce a tact that regulates
without difficulty what laws and magistrates cannot
regulate at all. The first class of labor wants nothing to equalize it; it equalizes itself. The second
and third are not capable of any equalization.
But what if the rate of hire to the laborer comes
far short of his necessary subsistence, and the calamity of the time is so great as to threaten actual famine? Is the poor laborer to be abandoned to the flinty heart and griping hand of base self-interest,
supported by the sword of law, especially when there
is reason to suppose that the very avarice of farmers
themselves has concurred with the errors of government to bring famine on the land?
In that case, my opinion is this: Whenever it hapVOL. V. 10
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pens that a man can claim nothing according to the
rules of commerce and the principles of justice, he
passes out of that department, and comes within the
jurisdiction of mercy. In that province the magistrate has nothing at all to do; his interference is a
violation of the property which it is his office to protect. Without all doubt, charity to the poor is a direct and obligatory duty upon all Christians, next in
order after the payment of debts, full as strong, and
by Nature made infinitely more delightful to us.
Pufendorf, and other casuists, do not, I think, denominate it quite properly, when they call it a duty of
imperfect obligation. But the manner, mode, time,
choice of objects, and proportion are left to private
discretion; and perhaps for that very reason it is
performed with the greater satisfaction, because the
discharge of it has more the appearance of freedom,
recommending us besides very specially to the Divine
favor, as the exercise of a virtue most suitable to a
being sensible of its own infirmity.
The cry of the people in cities and towns, though
unfortunately (from a fear of their multitude and
combination) the most regarded, ought, inlfact, to be
the least attended to, upon this subject: for citizens
are in a state of utter ignorance of the means by
which they are to be fed, and they contribute little or
nothing, except in an infinitely circuitous manner, to
their own maintenance. They are truly fruyes consumere nati. They are to be heard with great respect and attention upon matters within their province, - that is, on trades and manufactures; but on anything that relates to agriculture they are to be listened to with the same reverence which we pay to the
dogmas of other ignorant and presumptuous meni.
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If any one were to tell them that they were to give
in an account of all the stock in their shops, - that
attempts would be made to limit. their profits, or raise
the price of the laboring manufacturers upon them,
or recommend to government, out f a capital from
the public revenues, to set up a hsop of the same
commodities, in order to rival them, and keep them
to reasonable dealing, -- they would very soon see
the impudence, injustice, and oppression of such a
course. They would not be mistaken: but they are
of opinion that agriculture is to be subject to other.
laws, and to be governed by other principles.
A greater and more ruinous mistake cannot be
fallen into than that the trades of agriculture and
grazing can be conducted upon any other than the
common principles of commerce: namely, that the
producer should be permitted, and even expected, to
look to all possible profit which without fraud or
violence he can make; to turn plenty or scarcity to
the best advantage he can; to keep back or to bring
forward his commodities at his pleasure; to account
to no one for his stock or for his gain. On any other
terms he is the slave of the consumer: and that he
should be so is of no benefit to the consumer. No
slave was ever so beneficial to the master as a freeman that deals with him on an equal footing by convention, formed on the rules and principles of
contending interests and compromised advantages.
The consumer, if he were suffered, would in the end
always be the dupe of his own tyranny and injustice.
The landed gentleman is never to forget that the
farmer is his representative.
It is a perilous thing to try experiments on the
farmer. The farmer's capital (except in a few per
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sons and in a very few places) is far more feeble than
commonly is imagined. The trade is a very poor
trade; it is subject to great risks and losses. The
capital, such as it is, is turned but once in the year;
in some branches it requires three years before the
money is paid: I believe never less than three in the
turnip and grass-land course, which is the prevalent
course on the more or less fertile sandy and gravelly
loams, -and these compose the soil in the south and
southeast of England, the best adapted, and perhaps
the only ones that are adapted, to the turnip husbandry.
It is very rare that the most prosperous farmer,
counting the value of his quick and dead stock, the
interest of the money he turns, together with his own
wages as a bailiff or overseer, ever does make twelve
or fifteen per centum by the year on his capital. I
speak of the prosperous. In most of the parts of
England which have fallen within my observation I
have rarely known a farmer, who to his own trade
has not added some other employment or traffic, that,
after a course of the most unremitting parsimony and
labor, (such for the greater part is theirs,) and persevering in his business for a long course of years, died worth more than paid his debts, leaving his posterity to continue in nearly the same equal conflict between industry and want, in which the last predecessor, and a long line of predecessors before him, lived and died.
Observe that I speak of the generality of farmers,
who have not more than from one hundred and fifty
to three or four hundred acres. There are few in
this part of the country within the former or much
beyond the latter extent. Unquestionably in other
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places there are much larger. But I am convinced,
whatever part of England be the theatre of his operations, a farmer who cultivates twelve hundred acres,
which I consider as a large farm, though I know there
are larger, cannot proceed with any degree of safety
and effect with a smaller capital than ten thousand
pounds, and that he cannot, in the ordinary course
of culture, make more upon that great capital of ten
thousand pounds than twelve hundred a year.
As to the weaker capitals, an easy judgment may
be formed by what very small errors they may be
farther attenuated, enervated, rendered unproductive,
and perhaps totally destroyed.
This constant precariousness and ultimate moderate limits of a farmer's fortune, on the strongest
capital, I press, not only on account of the hazardous speculations of the times, but because the excellent and most useful works of my friend, Mr. Arthur Young, tend to propagate that error (such I am very
certain it is) of the largeness of a farmer's profits.
It is not that his account of the produce does often
greatly exceed, but he by no means makes the proper
allowance for accidents and losses. I might enter
into a convincing detail, if other more troublesome
and more necessary details were not before me.
This proposed discretionary tax on labor militates
with the recommendations of the Board of Agriculture: they recommend a general use of the drill culture. I agree with the Board, that, where the soil
is not excessively heavy, or incumbered with large
loose stones, (which, however, is the case with much
otherwise good land,) that course is the best and
most productive, - provided that the most accurate
eye, the most vigilant superintendence, the most
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prompt activity, which has no such day as to-morrow in its calendar, the most steady foresight and
predisposing order to have everybody and everything ready in its place, and prepared to take advantage of the fortunate, fugitive moment, in this coquetting climate of ours,- provided, I say, all these combine to speed the plough, I admit its superiority over the old and general methods. But under
procrastinating, improvident, ordinary husbandmen,
who may neglect or let slip the few opportunities
of sweetening and purifying their ground with perpetually renovated toil and undissipated attention,
nothing, when tried to any extent, can be worse or
more dangerous: the farm may be ruined, instead
of having the soil enriched and sweetened by it.
But the excellence of the method on a proper soil,
and conducted by husbandmen, of whom there are
few, being readily granted, how, and on what conditions, is this culture obtained? Why, by a very
great increase of labor: by an augmentation of the
third part, at least, of the hand-labor, to say nothing
of the horses and machinery employed in ordinary
tillage. Now every man must be sensible how little
becoming the gravity of legislature it is to encourage
a board which recommends to us, and upon very
weighty reasons unquestionably, an enlargement of
the capital we employ in the operations of the hand,
and then to pass an act which taxes that manual
labor, already at a very high rate,- thus compelling
us to diminish the quantity of labor which in the
vulgar course we actually employ.
What is true of the farmer is equally true of the
middle-man,- whether the middle-manl acts as factor, jobber, salesman, or speculator, in the markets
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 151
of grain. These traders are to be left to their free
course; and the more they make, and the richer
they are, and the more largely they deal, the better
both for the farmer and consumer, between whom
they form a natural and most useful link of connection,- though by the machinations of the old evil
counsellor, Envy, they are hated and maligned by
both parties.
I hear that middle-men are accused of monopoly.
Without question, the monopoly of authority is, in
every instance and in every degree, an evil; but the
monopoly of capital is the contrary. It is a great
benefit, and a benefit particularly to the poor. A
tradesman who has but a hundred pound capital,
which (say) he can turn but once a year, cannot live
upon a profit of ten per cent, because he cannot live
upon ten pounds a year; but a man of ten thousand pounds capital can live and thrive upon five per
cent profit in the year, because he has five hundred
pounds a year. The same proportion holds in turning it twice or thrice. These principles are plain
and simple; and it is not our ignlorance, so much
as the levity, the envy, and the malignity of our
nature, that hinders us from perceiving and yielding to them: but we are not to suffer our vices to
usurp the place of our judgment.
The balance between consumption and production
makes price. The market settles, and alone can
settle, that price. Market is the meeting and conferenlle of the consumer and producer, when they
mutually discover each other's wants. Nobody, I
believe, has observed with any reflection what market is, without being astonished at the truth, the correctness, the celerity, the general equity, with which
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the balance of wants is settled. They who wish the
destruction of that balance, and would fain by arbitrary regulation decree that defective production
should not be compensated by increased price, directly lay their axe to the root of production itself.
They may, even in one year of such false policy, do
mischiefs incalculable; because the trade of a farmer
is, as I have before explained, one of the most precarious in its advantages, the most liable to losses,
and the least profitable of any that is carried on.
It requires ten times more of labor, of vigilance, of
attention, of skill, and, let me add, of good fortune
also, to carry on the business of a farmer with success, than what belongs to any other trade.
Seeing things in this light, I am far from presuming to censure the late circular instruction of Council
to lord-lieutenants, but I confess I do not clearly discern its object. I am greatly afraid that the inquiry
will raise some alarm, as a measure leading to the
French system of putting corn into requisition. Fo.
that was preceded by an inquisition somewhat similar
in its principle, though, according to their mode, their
principles are full of that violence which here is not
much to be feared. It goes on a principle directly
opposite to mine: it presumes that the market is no
fair test of plenty or scarcity. It raises a suspicion,
which may affect the tranquillity of the public mind,
" that the farmer keeps back, and takes unfair advantages by delay "; on the part of the dealer, it gives
rise obviously to a thousand nefarious speculations.
In case the return should on the whole prove favorable, is it meant to ground a measure for encouraging exportation and checking the import of corn? If it is not, what end can it answer? And I believe
it is not.
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This opinion may be fortified by a report gone
abroad, that intentionc; are entertained of erecting
public granaries, and that this inquiry is to give
government an advantage in its purchases.
I hear that such a measure has been proposed, and
is under deliberation: that is, for government to set
up a granary in every market-town, at the expense
of the state, in order to extinguish the dealer, and
to subject the farmer to the consumer, by securing
corn to the latter at a certain and steady price.
If such a scheme is adopted, I should not like to
answer for the safety of the granary, of the agents,
or of the town itself in which the granary was erected: the first storm of popular frenzy would fall upon that granary.
So far in a political light.
In an economical light, I must observe that the
construction of such granaries throughout the kingdom would be at an expense beyond all calculation. The keeping them up would be at a great charge.
The management and attendance would require an
army of agents, store-keepers, clerks, and servants.
The capital to be employed in the purchase of' grain
would be enormous. The waste, decay, and corruption would be a dreadful drawback on the whole dealing; and the dissatisfaction of the people, at havillg decayed, tainted, or corrupted corn sold to them, as must be the case, would be serious.
This climate (whatever others may be) is not favorable to granaries, where wheat is to be kept for
any time. The best, and indeed the only good granary, is the rick-yard of the farmer, where the corn is preserved in its own straw, sweet, clean, wholesome,
free from vermin and from insects, and comparatively
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at a trifle of expense. This, and the barn, eiljoying
many of the same advantages, have been the sole
granlaries of England from the foundation of its agriculture to this day. All this is done at the expense
of the undertaker, and at his sole risk. He contributes to government, he receives nothing from it but
protection, and to this he has a claim.
The moment that government appears at market,
all the principles of market will be subverted. I
don't know whether the farmer will suffer by it,
as long as there is a tolerable market of competition; but I am sure, that, in the first place, the trading government will speedily become a bankrupt, and the consumer in the end will suffer. If government
makes all its purchases at once, it will instantly raise
the market upon itself. If it makes them by degrees,
it must follow the course of the market. If it follows
the course of the market, it will produce no effect,
and the consumer may as well buy as he wants;
therefore all the expense is incurred gratis.
But if the object of this scheme should be, what I
suspect it is, to destroy the dealer, commonly called
the middle-man, and by incurring a voluntary loss
to carry the baker to deal with government, I am to
tell them that they must set up another trade, that
of a niller or a meal-man, attended with a new traiin
of expenses and risks. If in both these trades they
should succeed, so as to exclude those who trade oil
natural and private capitals, then they will have a
monollpoly ill their hands, whichl, under the appearance of a monopoly of capital, will, ill reality, be a
monollpoly of authority, and will ruin whatever it
touches. The agriculture of the kingdom canlot
stand before it.
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A little place like Geneva, of not more than from
twenty-five to thirty thousand inhabitants, - which
has no territory, or next to none, -- which depends
for its existence on tlre good-will of three neighboring powers, and is of course continually ill the state
of something like a siege, or in the speculation of it,
- mighlt find some resource in state granaries, and
some revenue from the monopoly of what was sold to
the keepers of public-houses. This is a policy for a
state too small for agriculture. It is not (for instance) fit for so great a country as the Pope possesses, - where, lowever, it is adopted and pursued in a greater extent, and with more strictness. Certain of the Pope's territories, from whence the city of
Rome is supplied, being obliged to furnish Rome and
the granaries of his Holiness with corn at a certain
price, that part of the Papal territories is utterly rlined. That ruin may be traced with certainty to this
sole cause; and it appears indubitably by a comparison of their state and condition with that of the other
part of the ecclesiastical dominions, not subjected to
the same regulations, which are in circumstances
highly flourishing.
The reformation of this evil system is in a manner
impracticable. For, first, it does keep bread and all
other provisions equally subject to the chamber of'
supply, at a pretty reasonable and regular price, in
the city of Rome. This preserves quiet among the
numerous poor, idle, and naturally mutinous people
of a very great capital. But the quiet of the town is
purchased by the ruin of the country and the ultimate wretchedness of both. ' The next cause whicll
renders this evil incurable is the jobs which llaqve
grown out of it, and which, in spite of all precautions,
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would grow out of such things even under govern
ments far more potent than the feeble authority of
the Pope.
This example of Rome, which has been derived
from the most ancient times, and the most flourishing
period of the Roman Empire, (but not of the Roman
agriculture,) may serve as a great caution to all governments not to attempt to feed the people out of
the hainds of the magistrates. If once they are habituated to it, though but for one half-year, they will
never be satisfied to have it otherwise. And having
ooked to government for bread, on the very first
scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed
them. To avoid that evil, government will redouble
the causes of it; and then it will become inveterate
and incurable.
I beseech the government (which I take in the largest sense of the word, comprehending the two Houses of Parliament) seriously to consider that years of scarcity or plenty do not come alternately or at short
intervals, but in pretty long cycles and irregularly,
and consequently that we cannot assure ourselves, if
we take a wrong measure, from the temporary necessities of one season, but that the next, and probably
more, will drive us to the continuance of it; so that,
in my opiinion, there is no way of preventing this evil,
which goes to the destruction of all our agriculture,
and of that part of our internal commerce whiclh
touches our agriculture the most nearly, as well as
the safety and very beinig of governmenlt, but manfill5 to resist the very first idea, speculative or practical, that it is within the competence of government, taken as government, or even of the rich, as rich, to
sutplyl) to the poor those necessaries which it has
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pleased the Divine Providence for a while to withhold from them. We, the people, ought to be made
sensible that it is not in breaking the laws of coilmerce, which are the laws of Nature, ald consequently the laws of God, that we are to place our hope of softening the Divine displeasure to remove
any calamity under which we suffer or which hangs
over us.
So far as to the principles of general policy.
As to the state of things which is urged as a reason to deviate from them, these are the circumstances
of the harvest of 1794 and 1795. With regard to
the harvest of 1794, in relation to the noblest grain,
wheat, it is allowed to have been somewhat short, but
not excessively, - and inll quality, for the seven-andtwenty years during which I have been a farmer, I
never remember wheat to have been so good. The
world were, however, deceived in their speculations
upon it, - the farmer as well as the dealer. Accordingly the price fluctuated beyond anything I can remember: for at one time of the year I sold my wheat at 141. a load, (I sold off all I had, as I
thought this was a reasonable price,) when at the
end of the season, if I had then had any to sell, I
might have got thirty guineas for the same sort of
grain. I sold all that I had, as I said, at a comparatively low price, because I thought it a good price,
compared with what I thought the general produce of
the harvest; but when I came to consider what my
own total was, I found'that the quantity had not answered my expectation. It must be remembered that
this year of produce, (the year 1794,) short, but excellent, followed a year which was not extraordinary in
production, nor of a superior quality, and left but lit
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tie in store. At first, this was not felt, because the
harvest came in unusually early, - earlier than common by a full month.
The winter, at the end of 1794 and beginning of
1795, was more than usually unfavorable both to
corn and grass, owing. to the sudden relaxation of
very rigorous frosts, followed by rains, which were
again rapidly succeeded by frosts of still greater rigor than the first.
Much wheat was utterly destroyed. The clovergrass suffered in many places. What I never observed before, the rye-grass, or coarse bent, suffered more than the clover. Even the meadow-grass in
some places was killed to the very roots. In the
spring appearances were better than we expected.
All the early sown grain recovered itself, and came
up with great vigor; but that which was late sown
was feeble, and did not promise to resist any blights
in the spring, which, however, with all its unpleasant
vicissitudes, passed off very well; and nothing looked
better than the wheat at the time of blooming; - but
at that most critical time of all, a cold, dry east wind,
attended with very sharp frosts, longer and stronger
than I recollect at that time of year, destroyed the
flowers, and withered up, in an astonishing manner,
the whole side of the ear next to the wind. At that
time I brought to town some of the ears, for the purpose of showing to my friends the operation of those
unnatural frosts, and according to their extent I predicted a great scarcity. But such is the pleasure of
agreeable prospects, that my opinion was little regarded.
On threshing, I found things as I expected, - the
ears not filled, some of the capsules quite empty, and
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several others containing only withered, hungry grain,
inferior to the appearance of rye. My best ears and
grain were not fine; never had I grain of so low a
quality: yet I sold one load for 211. At the same
time I bought my seed wheat (it was excellent) at
231. Since then the price has risen, and I have sold
about two load of the same sort at 231. Such was
the state of the market when I left home last Monday.
Little remains in my barn. I hope some in the rick
may be better, since it was earlier sown, as well as I
can recollect. Some of my neighbors have better,
some quite as bad, or even worse. I suspect it will
be found, that, wherever the blighting wind and those
frosts at blooming-time have prevailed, the produce
of the wheat crop will turn out very indifferent.
Those parts which have escaped will, I can hardly
doubt, have a reasonable produce.
As to the other grains, it is to be observed, as the
wheat ripened very late, (on account, I conceive, of
the blights,) the barley got the start of it, and was
ripe first. The crop was with me, and wherever my
inquiry could reach, excellent; in some places far
superior to mine.
The clover, which came up with the barley, was
the finest I remember to have seen.
The turnips of this year are generally good.
The clover sown last year, where not totally destroyed, gave two good crops, or one crop and a plentiful feed; and, bating the loss of the rye-grass, I do not remember a better produce.
The meadow-grass yielded but a middling crop.
and neither of the sown or natural grass was there
in any farmer's possession any remainder from the
year worth taking into account. In most places
there was none at all.
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Oats with me were not in a quantity more considerable than in commonly good seasons; but I have
never known them heavier than they were in other
places. The oat was not only an heavy, but an uncommonly abundant crop.
My ground under pease did not exceed an acre or
thereabouts, but the crop was great indeed. I believe
it is throughout the country exuberant. It is, however, to be remarked, as generally of all the grains,
so particularly of the pease, that there was not the
smallest quantity in reserve.
The demand of the year must depend solely on its
own produce; and the price of the spring corn is not
to be expected to fall very soon, or at any time very
low.
Uxbridge is a great corn market. As I came
through that town, I found that at the last marketday barley was at forty shillings a quarter. Oats
there were literally none; and the inn-keeper was
obliged to send for them to London. I forgot to ask
about pease. Potatoes were 5s. the bushel.
In the debate on this subject in the House, I am
told that a leading member of great ability, little conversant in these matters, observed, that the general uniform dearness of butcher's meat, butter, and cheese could not be owing to a defective produce of wheat;
and on this ground insinuated a suspicion of some
unfair practice on the subject, that called for inquiry.
Unquestionably, the mere deficiency of wheat could
not cause the dearness of the other articles, which extends not only to the provisions he mentioned, but to
every other without exception.
The cause is; indeed, so very plain and obvious that
the wonder is the other way. When a properly di
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rected inquiry is made, the gentlemen who are amazed
at the price of these commodities will find, that, when
hay is at six pound a load, as they must know it is,
herbage, and for more than one year, must be scanty;
and they will conclude, that, if grass be scarce, beef,
veal, mutton, butter, milk, and cheese must be dear.
But to take up the matter somewhat more in detail. -If the wheat harvest in 1794, excellent in quality, was defective in quantity, the barley harvest was in quality ordinary enough, and in quantity deficient.
This was soon felt in the price of malt.
Another article of produce (beans) was not at all
plentiful. The crop of pease was wholly destroyed,
so that several farmers pretty early gave up all hopes
on that head, and cut the green haulm as fodder for
the cattle, then perishing for want of food in that dry
and burning summer. I myself came off better than
most: I had about the fourth of a crop of pease.
It will be recollected, that, in a manner, all the
bacon and pork consumed in this country (the far
largest consumption of meat out of towns) is, when
growing, fed on grass, and on whey or skimmed
milk, -and when fatting, partly on the latter. This
is the case in the dairy countries, all of them great
breeders and feeders of swine; but for the much
greater part, and in all the corn countries, they are
fattened on beans, barley-meal, and pease. When
the food of the animal is scarce, his flesh must be
dear. This, one would suppose, would require no
great penetration to discover.
This failure of so very large a supply of flesh in one
species naturally throws the whole demand of the
consumer on the diminished supply of all kinds of
flesh, and, indeed, on all the matters of human susVOL. V. 11
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tenance. Nor, in my opinion, are we to expect a
greater cheapness in that article for this year, even
though corn should grow cheaper, as it is to be hoped
it will. The store swine, from the failure of subsistence last year, are now at an extravagant price. Pigs, at our fairs, have sold lately for fifty shillings,
which two years ago would not have brought more
than twenty.
As to sheep, none, I thought, were strangers to the
general failure of the article of turnips last year: the
early having been burned, as they came up, by the
great drought and heat; the late, and those of the
early which had escaped, were destroyed by the chilling frosts of the winter and the wet and severe weather of the spring. In many places a full fourth
of the sheep or the lambs were lost; what remained
of the lambs were poor and ill fed, the ewes having
had no milk. The calves came late, and they were
generally an article the want of which was as much
to be dreaded as any other. So that article of food,
formerly so abundant in the early part of the summer, particularly in London, and which in a great part supplied the place of mutton for near two
months, did little less than totally fail.
All the productions of the earth link in with each
other. All the sources of plenty, in all and every
article, were dried or frozen up. The scarcity was
not, as gentlemen seem to suppose, in wheat only.
Another cause, and that not of inconsiderable operation, tended to produce a scarcity in flesh provision. It is one that on many accounts cannot be too much regretted, and the rather, as it was the sole
cause of a scarcity in that article which arose from
the proceedings of 1ino- themselves: I mean the stop
put to the distillery.
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The hogs (and that would be sufficient) which
were fed with the waste wash of that produce did
not demand the fourth part of the corn used by farmers in fattening them. The spirit was nearly so much clear gain to the nation. It is an odd way of
making flesh cheap, to stop or check the distillery.
The distillery in itself produces an immense article of trade almost all over the world, -- to Africa,
to North America, and to various parts of Europe.
It is of great use, next to food itself, to our fisheries
and to our whole navigation. A great part of the
distillery was carried on by damaged corn, unfit for
bread, and by barley and malt of the lowest quality.
These things could not be more unexceptionably employed. The domestic consumption of spirits produced, without complaints, a very great revenue, applicable, if we pleased, in bounties, to the bringing
corn from other places, far beyond the value of that
consumed in making it, or to the encouragement of
its increased production at home.
As to what is said, in a physical and moral view,
against the home consumption of spirits, experience
has long since taught me very little to respect the
declamations on that subject. Whether the thunder
of the laws or the thunder of eloquence " is hurled
on gin," always I am thunder-proof. The alembic,
in my mind, has furnished to the world a far greater
benefit and blessing than if the opus maximum had
been really found by chemistry, and, like Midas, we
could turn everything into gold.
Undoubtedly there may be a dangerous abuse in
the excess of spirits; and at one time I am ready to
believe the abuse was great. When spirits are cheap,
the business of drunkenness is achieved with little
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time or labor; but that evil I consider to be wholly
done away. Observation for the last forty years, and
very particularly for the last thirty, has furnished me
with ten instances of drunkenness from other causes
for one from this. Ardent spirit is a great medicine,
often to remove distempers, much more frequently
to prevent them, or to chase them away in their beginnings. It is not nutritive in any great degree.
But if not food, it greatly alleviates the want of it.
It invigorates the stomach for the digestion of poor,
meagre diet, not easily alliable to the human constitution. Wine the poor cannot touch. Beer, as applied to many occasions, (as among seamen and fishermen, for instance,) will by no means do the business. Let me add, what wits inspired with champagne and
claret will turn into ridicule, --it is a medicine for
the mind. Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times
and in all countries called in some physical aid to
their moral consolations, -- wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
I consider, therefore, the stopping of the distillery,
economically, financially, commercially, medicinally,
and in some degree morally too, as a measure rather
well meant than well considered. It is too precious
a sacrifice to prejudice.
Gentlemen well know whether there be a scarcity
of partridges, and whether that be an effect of hoarding and combination. All the tame race of birds live
and die as the wild do.
As to the lesser articles, they are like the greater.
They have followed the fortune of the season. Why
are fowls dear? Was not this the farmer's or jobber's
fault? I sold from my yard to a jobber six young
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 165
and lean fowls for four-and-twenty shillings, -- fowls
for which two years ago the same man would not
have given a shilling apiece. He sold them afterwards at Uxbridge, and they were taken to London
to receive the last hand.
As to the operation of the war in causing the
scarcity of provisions, I understand that Mr. Pitt has
given a particular answer to it; but I do not think
it worth powder and shot.
I do not wonder the papers are so full of this sort
of matter, but I am a little surprised it should be
mentioned in Parliament. Like all great state questions, peace and war may be discussed, and different opinions fairly formed, on political grounds; but on
a question of the present price of provisions, when
peace with the Regicides is always uppermost, I can
only say that great is the love of it.
After all, have we not reason to be thankful to the
Giver of all Good? In our history, and when'" the
laborer of England is said to have been once happy,"
we find constantly, after certain intervals, a period
of real famine, by which a melancholy havoc was
made among the human race. The price of provisions fluctuated dreadfully, demonstrating a deficiency very different from the worst failures of the present
moment. Never, since I have known England, have I
known more than a comparative scarcity. The price
of wheat, taking a number of years together, has had
no very considerable fluctuation; nor has it risen
exceedingly until within this twelvemonth. Even
now, I do not know of one main, woman, or child
that has perished from famine: fewer, if any, I
believe, than in years of plenty, when such a thing
may happen by accident. This is owing to a care
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and superintendence of the poor, far greater than
any I remember.
The consideration of this ought to bind us all, rich
and poor together, against those wicked writers of
the newspapers who would inflame the poor against
their friends, guardians, patrons, and protectors. Not
only very few (I have observed that I know of none,
though I live in a place as poor as most) have actually died of want, but we have seen no traces of those dreadful exterminating epidemics which, in consequence of scanty and unwholesome food, in former times not unfrequently wasted whole nations. Let
us be saved from too much wisdom of our own, and
we shall do tolerably well.
It is one of the finest problems in legislation, and
what has often engaged my thoughts whilst I followed that profession, - What the state ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what
it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion. Nothing, certainly,
can be laid down on the subject that will not admit
of exceptions, - many permanent, some occasional.
But the clearest line of distinction which I could
draw, whilst I had my chalk to draw any line, was
this: that the state ought to confine itself to what
regards the state or the creatures of the state: namely, the exterior establishment of its religion; its magistracy; its revenue; its military force by sea
and land; the corporations that owe their existence
to its fiat; in a word, to everything that is truly and
properly public, -to the public peace, to the public
safety, to the public order, to the public prosperity.
In its preventive police it ought to be sparing of its
efforts, and to employ means, rather few, unfrequent,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 167
and strong, than many, and frequent, and, of course,
as they multiply their puny politic race, and dwindle,
small and feeble. Statesmen who know themselves
will, with the dignity which belongs to wisdom, proceed only in this the superior orb and first mover
of their duty, steadily, vigilantly, severely, courageously: whatever remains will, in a manner, provide for itself. But as they descend from the state to a province, from a province to a parish, and from a parish to a private house, they go on accelerated in their
fall. They cannot do the lower duty; and in proportion as they try it, they will certainly fail in the
higher. They ought to know the different departments of things, - what belongs to laws, and what manners alone can regulate. To these great politicians may give a leaning, but they cannot give a
law.
Our legislature has fallen into this fault, as well
as other governments: all have fallen into it more
or less. The once mighty state which was nearest
to us locally, nearest to us in every way, and whose
ruins threaten to fall upon our heads, is a strong
instance of this error. I can never quote France
without a foreboding sigh,- E. XETAI'HMAP!
Scipio said it to his recording Greek friend amidst
the flames of the great rival of his country. That
state has fallen by the hands of the parricides of their
country, called the Revolutionists and Constitutionalists of France: a species of traitors, of whose fury and atrocious wickedness nothing in the annals of
the frenzy and depravation of mankind had before
furnished an example, and of whom I can never
think or speak without a mixed sensation of disgust,
of horror, and of detestation, not easy to be expressed.
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These nefarious monsters destroyed their country for
what was good in it: for much good there was in the
Constitution of that noble monarchy, which, in all
kinds, formed and nourished great men, and great
patterns of virtue to the world. But though its enemies were not enemies to its faults, its faults furnished them with means for, its destruction. My dear departed friend, whose loss is even greater to the public than to me, had often remarked, that the leading
vice of the French monarchy (which he had well
studied) was in good intention ill-directed, and a
restless desire of governing too much. The hand
of authority was seen in everything and in every
place. All, therefore, that happened amiss, in the
course even of domestic affairs, was attributed to
the government; and as it always happens in this
kind of officious universal interference, what began
in odious power ended always, I may say without
an exception, in contemptible imbecility. For this
reason, as far as I can approve of any novelty,
I thought well of the provincial administrations.
Those, if the superior power had been severe and
vigilant and vigorous, might have been of much
use politically in removing government from many
invidious details. But as everything is good or bad
as it is related or combined, government being relaxed above as it was relaxed below, and the brains
of the people growing more and more addle with
every sort of visionary speculation, the shiftings of
-the scene in the provincial theatres became only preparatives to a revolution in the kingdom, and the popular actings there only the rehearsals of the
terrible drama of the Republic.
Tyranny and cruelty may make men justly wish
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 169
the downfall of abused powers, but I believe that
no government ever yet perished from any other direct cause than its own weakness. My opinion is against an overdoing of any sort of administration,
and more especially against this most momentous
of all meddling on the part of authority, - the meddling with the subsistence of the people.
? ? ? ? A
LETTER TO A NOBLE LORD
ON
THE ATTACKS MADE UPON MR. BURKE AND HIS PENSION, IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
BY
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD AND THE
EARL OF LAUDERDALE,
EARLY IN THE PRESENT SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 1796.
? ? ? ? LETTER.
M Y LORD, --I could hardly flatter myself with
the hope that so very early in the season I
should have to acknowledge obligations to the Duke
of Bedford and to the Earl of Lauderdale. These
noble persons have lost no time in conferring upon
me that sort of honor which it is alone within their
competence, and which it is certainly most congenial
to their nature and their manners, to bestow.
To be ill spoken of, in whatever language they
speak, by the zealots of the new sect in philosophy
and politics, of which these noble persons think so
charitably, and of which others think so justly, to me
is no matter of uneasiness or surprise. To have incurred the displeasure of the Duke of Orleans or the Duke of Bedford, to fall under the censure of Citizen
Brissot or of his friend the Earl of Lauderdale, I
ought to consider as proofs, not the least satisfactory,
that I have produced some part of the effect I proposed by my endeavors.
after fifty becomes every year more sensible, to the
period of debility and decrepitude, and the maladies
that precede a final dissolution. Women, whose em
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 145
ployment on husbandry is but occasional, and who
differ more in effective labor one from another than
men do, on account of gestation, nursing, and domestic management, over and above the difference they have in common with men in advancing, in
stationary, and in declining life. Children, who proceed on the reverse order, growing from less to greater utility, but with a still greater disproportion
of nutriment to labor than is found in the second of these subdivisions: as is visible to those who will give themselves the trouble of examining into the interior economy of a poor-house.
This inferior classification is introduced to show
that laws prescribing or magistrates exercising a
very stiff and often inapplicable rule, or a blind and
rash discretion, never call provide the just proportions between earning and salary, on the one hand,
and nutriment on the other: whereas interest, habit,
and the tacit convention that arise from a thousand
nameless circumstances produce a tact that regulates
without difficulty what laws and magistrates cannot
regulate at all. The first class of labor wants nothing to equalize it; it equalizes itself. The second
and third are not capable of any equalization.
But what if the rate of hire to the laborer comes
far short of his necessary subsistence, and the calamity of the time is so great as to threaten actual famine? Is the poor laborer to be abandoned to the flinty heart and griping hand of base self-interest,
supported by the sword of law, especially when there
is reason to suppose that the very avarice of farmers
themselves has concurred with the errors of government to bring famine on the land?
In that case, my opinion is this: Whenever it hapVOL. V. 10
? ? ? ? 146 THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY.
pens that a man can claim nothing according to the
rules of commerce and the principles of justice, he
passes out of that department, and comes within the
jurisdiction of mercy. In that province the magistrate has nothing at all to do; his interference is a
violation of the property which it is his office to protect. Without all doubt, charity to the poor is a direct and obligatory duty upon all Christians, next in
order after the payment of debts, full as strong, and
by Nature made infinitely more delightful to us.
Pufendorf, and other casuists, do not, I think, denominate it quite properly, when they call it a duty of
imperfect obligation. But the manner, mode, time,
choice of objects, and proportion are left to private
discretion; and perhaps for that very reason it is
performed with the greater satisfaction, because the
discharge of it has more the appearance of freedom,
recommending us besides very specially to the Divine
favor, as the exercise of a virtue most suitable to a
being sensible of its own infirmity.
The cry of the people in cities and towns, though
unfortunately (from a fear of their multitude and
combination) the most regarded, ought, inlfact, to be
the least attended to, upon this subject: for citizens
are in a state of utter ignorance of the means by
which they are to be fed, and they contribute little or
nothing, except in an infinitely circuitous manner, to
their own maintenance. They are truly fruyes consumere nati. They are to be heard with great respect and attention upon matters within their province, - that is, on trades and manufactures; but on anything that relates to agriculture they are to be listened to with the same reverence which we pay to the
dogmas of other ignorant and presumptuous meni.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 147
If any one were to tell them that they were to give
in an account of all the stock in their shops, - that
attempts would be made to limit. their profits, or raise
the price of the laboring manufacturers upon them,
or recommend to government, out f a capital from
the public revenues, to set up a hsop of the same
commodities, in order to rival them, and keep them
to reasonable dealing, -- they would very soon see
the impudence, injustice, and oppression of such a
course. They would not be mistaken: but they are
of opinion that agriculture is to be subject to other.
laws, and to be governed by other principles.
A greater and more ruinous mistake cannot be
fallen into than that the trades of agriculture and
grazing can be conducted upon any other than the
common principles of commerce: namely, that the
producer should be permitted, and even expected, to
look to all possible profit which without fraud or
violence he can make; to turn plenty or scarcity to
the best advantage he can; to keep back or to bring
forward his commodities at his pleasure; to account
to no one for his stock or for his gain. On any other
terms he is the slave of the consumer: and that he
should be so is of no benefit to the consumer. No
slave was ever so beneficial to the master as a freeman that deals with him on an equal footing by convention, formed on the rules and principles of
contending interests and compromised advantages.
The consumer, if he were suffered, would in the end
always be the dupe of his own tyranny and injustice.
The landed gentleman is never to forget that the
farmer is his representative.
It is a perilous thing to try experiments on the
farmer. The farmer's capital (except in a few per
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sons and in a very few places) is far more feeble than
commonly is imagined. The trade is a very poor
trade; it is subject to great risks and losses. The
capital, such as it is, is turned but once in the year;
in some branches it requires three years before the
money is paid: I believe never less than three in the
turnip and grass-land course, which is the prevalent
course on the more or less fertile sandy and gravelly
loams, -and these compose the soil in the south and
southeast of England, the best adapted, and perhaps
the only ones that are adapted, to the turnip husbandry.
It is very rare that the most prosperous farmer,
counting the value of his quick and dead stock, the
interest of the money he turns, together with his own
wages as a bailiff or overseer, ever does make twelve
or fifteen per centum by the year on his capital. I
speak of the prosperous. In most of the parts of
England which have fallen within my observation I
have rarely known a farmer, who to his own trade
has not added some other employment or traffic, that,
after a course of the most unremitting parsimony and
labor, (such for the greater part is theirs,) and persevering in his business for a long course of years, died worth more than paid his debts, leaving his posterity to continue in nearly the same equal conflict between industry and want, in which the last predecessor, and a long line of predecessors before him, lived and died.
Observe that I speak of the generality of farmers,
who have not more than from one hundred and fifty
to three or four hundred acres. There are few in
this part of the country within the former or much
beyond the latter extent. Unquestionably in other
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 149
places there are much larger. But I am convinced,
whatever part of England be the theatre of his operations, a farmer who cultivates twelve hundred acres,
which I consider as a large farm, though I know there
are larger, cannot proceed with any degree of safety
and effect with a smaller capital than ten thousand
pounds, and that he cannot, in the ordinary course
of culture, make more upon that great capital of ten
thousand pounds than twelve hundred a year.
As to the weaker capitals, an easy judgment may
be formed by what very small errors they may be
farther attenuated, enervated, rendered unproductive,
and perhaps totally destroyed.
This constant precariousness and ultimate moderate limits of a farmer's fortune, on the strongest
capital, I press, not only on account of the hazardous speculations of the times, but because the excellent and most useful works of my friend, Mr. Arthur Young, tend to propagate that error (such I am very
certain it is) of the largeness of a farmer's profits.
It is not that his account of the produce does often
greatly exceed, but he by no means makes the proper
allowance for accidents and losses. I might enter
into a convincing detail, if other more troublesome
and more necessary details were not before me.
This proposed discretionary tax on labor militates
with the recommendations of the Board of Agriculture: they recommend a general use of the drill culture. I agree with the Board, that, where the soil
is not excessively heavy, or incumbered with large
loose stones, (which, however, is the case with much
otherwise good land,) that course is the best and
most productive, - provided that the most accurate
eye, the most vigilant superintendence, the most
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prompt activity, which has no such day as to-morrow in its calendar, the most steady foresight and
predisposing order to have everybody and everything ready in its place, and prepared to take advantage of the fortunate, fugitive moment, in this coquetting climate of ours,- provided, I say, all these combine to speed the plough, I admit its superiority over the old and general methods. But under
procrastinating, improvident, ordinary husbandmen,
who may neglect or let slip the few opportunities
of sweetening and purifying their ground with perpetually renovated toil and undissipated attention,
nothing, when tried to any extent, can be worse or
more dangerous: the farm may be ruined, instead
of having the soil enriched and sweetened by it.
But the excellence of the method on a proper soil,
and conducted by husbandmen, of whom there are
few, being readily granted, how, and on what conditions, is this culture obtained? Why, by a very
great increase of labor: by an augmentation of the
third part, at least, of the hand-labor, to say nothing
of the horses and machinery employed in ordinary
tillage. Now every man must be sensible how little
becoming the gravity of legislature it is to encourage
a board which recommends to us, and upon very
weighty reasons unquestionably, an enlargement of
the capital we employ in the operations of the hand,
and then to pass an act which taxes that manual
labor, already at a very high rate,- thus compelling
us to diminish the quantity of labor which in the
vulgar course we actually employ.
What is true of the farmer is equally true of the
middle-man,- whether the middle-manl acts as factor, jobber, salesman, or speculator, in the markets
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 151
of grain. These traders are to be left to their free
course; and the more they make, and the richer
they are, and the more largely they deal, the better
both for the farmer and consumer, between whom
they form a natural and most useful link of connection,- though by the machinations of the old evil
counsellor, Envy, they are hated and maligned by
both parties.
I hear that middle-men are accused of monopoly.
Without question, the monopoly of authority is, in
every instance and in every degree, an evil; but the
monopoly of capital is the contrary. It is a great
benefit, and a benefit particularly to the poor. A
tradesman who has but a hundred pound capital,
which (say) he can turn but once a year, cannot live
upon a profit of ten per cent, because he cannot live
upon ten pounds a year; but a man of ten thousand pounds capital can live and thrive upon five per
cent profit in the year, because he has five hundred
pounds a year. The same proportion holds in turning it twice or thrice. These principles are plain
and simple; and it is not our ignlorance, so much
as the levity, the envy, and the malignity of our
nature, that hinders us from perceiving and yielding to them: but we are not to suffer our vices to
usurp the place of our judgment.
The balance between consumption and production
makes price. The market settles, and alone can
settle, that price. Market is the meeting and conferenlle of the consumer and producer, when they
mutually discover each other's wants. Nobody, I
believe, has observed with any reflection what market is, without being astonished at the truth, the correctness, the celerity, the general equity, with which
? ? ? ? 152 THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY.
the balance of wants is settled. They who wish the
destruction of that balance, and would fain by arbitrary regulation decree that defective production
should not be compensated by increased price, directly lay their axe to the root of production itself.
They may, even in one year of such false policy, do
mischiefs incalculable; because the trade of a farmer
is, as I have before explained, one of the most precarious in its advantages, the most liable to losses,
and the least profitable of any that is carried on.
It requires ten times more of labor, of vigilance, of
attention, of skill, and, let me add, of good fortune
also, to carry on the business of a farmer with success, than what belongs to any other trade.
Seeing things in this light, I am far from presuming to censure the late circular instruction of Council
to lord-lieutenants, but I confess I do not clearly discern its object. I am greatly afraid that the inquiry
will raise some alarm, as a measure leading to the
French system of putting corn into requisition. Fo.
that was preceded by an inquisition somewhat similar
in its principle, though, according to their mode, their
principles are full of that violence which here is not
much to be feared. It goes on a principle directly
opposite to mine: it presumes that the market is no
fair test of plenty or scarcity. It raises a suspicion,
which may affect the tranquillity of the public mind,
" that the farmer keeps back, and takes unfair advantages by delay "; on the part of the dealer, it gives
rise obviously to a thousand nefarious speculations.
In case the return should on the whole prove favorable, is it meant to ground a measure for encouraging exportation and checking the import of corn? If it is not, what end can it answer? And I believe
it is not.
? ? ? ? rHOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 153
This opinion may be fortified by a report gone
abroad, that intentionc; are entertained of erecting
public granaries, and that this inquiry is to give
government an advantage in its purchases.
I hear that such a measure has been proposed, and
is under deliberation: that is, for government to set
up a granary in every market-town, at the expense
of the state, in order to extinguish the dealer, and
to subject the farmer to the consumer, by securing
corn to the latter at a certain and steady price.
If such a scheme is adopted, I should not like to
answer for the safety of the granary, of the agents,
or of the town itself in which the granary was erected: the first storm of popular frenzy would fall upon that granary.
So far in a political light.
In an economical light, I must observe that the
construction of such granaries throughout the kingdom would be at an expense beyond all calculation. The keeping them up would be at a great charge.
The management and attendance would require an
army of agents, store-keepers, clerks, and servants.
The capital to be employed in the purchase of' grain
would be enormous. The waste, decay, and corruption would be a dreadful drawback on the whole dealing; and the dissatisfaction of the people, at havillg decayed, tainted, or corrupted corn sold to them, as must be the case, would be serious.
This climate (whatever others may be) is not favorable to granaries, where wheat is to be kept for
any time. The best, and indeed the only good granary, is the rick-yard of the farmer, where the corn is preserved in its own straw, sweet, clean, wholesome,
free from vermin and from insects, and comparatively
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at a trifle of expense. This, and the barn, eiljoying
many of the same advantages, have been the sole
granlaries of England from the foundation of its agriculture to this day. All this is done at the expense
of the undertaker, and at his sole risk. He contributes to government, he receives nothing from it but
protection, and to this he has a claim.
The moment that government appears at market,
all the principles of market will be subverted. I
don't know whether the farmer will suffer by it,
as long as there is a tolerable market of competition; but I am sure, that, in the first place, the trading government will speedily become a bankrupt, and the consumer in the end will suffer. If government
makes all its purchases at once, it will instantly raise
the market upon itself. If it makes them by degrees,
it must follow the course of the market. If it follows
the course of the market, it will produce no effect,
and the consumer may as well buy as he wants;
therefore all the expense is incurred gratis.
But if the object of this scheme should be, what I
suspect it is, to destroy the dealer, commonly called
the middle-man, and by incurring a voluntary loss
to carry the baker to deal with government, I am to
tell them that they must set up another trade, that
of a niller or a meal-man, attended with a new traiin
of expenses and risks. If in both these trades they
should succeed, so as to exclude those who trade oil
natural and private capitals, then they will have a
monollpoly ill their hands, whichl, under the appearance of a monopoly of capital, will, ill reality, be a
monollpoly of authority, and will ruin whatever it
touches. The agriculture of the kingdom canlot
stand before it.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 155
A little place like Geneva, of not more than from
twenty-five to thirty thousand inhabitants, - which
has no territory, or next to none, -- which depends
for its existence on tlre good-will of three neighboring powers, and is of course continually ill the state
of something like a siege, or in the speculation of it,
- mighlt find some resource in state granaries, and
some revenue from the monopoly of what was sold to
the keepers of public-houses. This is a policy for a
state too small for agriculture. It is not (for instance) fit for so great a country as the Pope possesses, - where, lowever, it is adopted and pursued in a greater extent, and with more strictness. Certain of the Pope's territories, from whence the city of
Rome is supplied, being obliged to furnish Rome and
the granaries of his Holiness with corn at a certain
price, that part of the Papal territories is utterly rlined. That ruin may be traced with certainty to this
sole cause; and it appears indubitably by a comparison of their state and condition with that of the other
part of the ecclesiastical dominions, not subjected to
the same regulations, which are in circumstances
highly flourishing.
The reformation of this evil system is in a manner
impracticable. For, first, it does keep bread and all
other provisions equally subject to the chamber of'
supply, at a pretty reasonable and regular price, in
the city of Rome. This preserves quiet among the
numerous poor, idle, and naturally mutinous people
of a very great capital. But the quiet of the town is
purchased by the ruin of the country and the ultimate wretchedness of both. ' The next cause whicll
renders this evil incurable is the jobs which llaqve
grown out of it, and which, in spite of all precautions,
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would grow out of such things even under govern
ments far more potent than the feeble authority of
the Pope.
This example of Rome, which has been derived
from the most ancient times, and the most flourishing
period of the Roman Empire, (but not of the Roman
agriculture,) may serve as a great caution to all governments not to attempt to feed the people out of
the hainds of the magistrates. If once they are habituated to it, though but for one half-year, they will
never be satisfied to have it otherwise. And having
ooked to government for bread, on the very first
scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed
them. To avoid that evil, government will redouble
the causes of it; and then it will become inveterate
and incurable.
I beseech the government (which I take in the largest sense of the word, comprehending the two Houses of Parliament) seriously to consider that years of scarcity or plenty do not come alternately or at short
intervals, but in pretty long cycles and irregularly,
and consequently that we cannot assure ourselves, if
we take a wrong measure, from the temporary necessities of one season, but that the next, and probably
more, will drive us to the continuance of it; so that,
in my opiinion, there is no way of preventing this evil,
which goes to the destruction of all our agriculture,
and of that part of our internal commerce whiclh
touches our agriculture the most nearly, as well as
the safety and very beinig of governmenlt, but manfill5 to resist the very first idea, speculative or practical, that it is within the competence of government, taken as government, or even of the rich, as rich, to
sutplyl) to the poor those necessaries which it has
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pleased the Divine Providence for a while to withhold from them. We, the people, ought to be made
sensible that it is not in breaking the laws of coilmerce, which are the laws of Nature, ald consequently the laws of God, that we are to place our hope of softening the Divine displeasure to remove
any calamity under which we suffer or which hangs
over us.
So far as to the principles of general policy.
As to the state of things which is urged as a reason to deviate from them, these are the circumstances
of the harvest of 1794 and 1795. With regard to
the harvest of 1794, in relation to the noblest grain,
wheat, it is allowed to have been somewhat short, but
not excessively, - and inll quality, for the seven-andtwenty years during which I have been a farmer, I
never remember wheat to have been so good. The
world were, however, deceived in their speculations
upon it, - the farmer as well as the dealer. Accordingly the price fluctuated beyond anything I can remember: for at one time of the year I sold my wheat at 141. a load, (I sold off all I had, as I
thought this was a reasonable price,) when at the
end of the season, if I had then had any to sell, I
might have got thirty guineas for the same sort of
grain. I sold all that I had, as I said, at a comparatively low price, because I thought it a good price,
compared with what I thought the general produce of
the harvest; but when I came to consider what my
own total was, I found'that the quantity had not answered my expectation. It must be remembered that
this year of produce, (the year 1794,) short, but excellent, followed a year which was not extraordinary in
production, nor of a superior quality, and left but lit
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tie in store. At first, this was not felt, because the
harvest came in unusually early, - earlier than common by a full month.
The winter, at the end of 1794 and beginning of
1795, was more than usually unfavorable both to
corn and grass, owing. to the sudden relaxation of
very rigorous frosts, followed by rains, which were
again rapidly succeeded by frosts of still greater rigor than the first.
Much wheat was utterly destroyed. The clovergrass suffered in many places. What I never observed before, the rye-grass, or coarse bent, suffered more than the clover. Even the meadow-grass in
some places was killed to the very roots. In the
spring appearances were better than we expected.
All the early sown grain recovered itself, and came
up with great vigor; but that which was late sown
was feeble, and did not promise to resist any blights
in the spring, which, however, with all its unpleasant
vicissitudes, passed off very well; and nothing looked
better than the wheat at the time of blooming; - but
at that most critical time of all, a cold, dry east wind,
attended with very sharp frosts, longer and stronger
than I recollect at that time of year, destroyed the
flowers, and withered up, in an astonishing manner,
the whole side of the ear next to the wind. At that
time I brought to town some of the ears, for the purpose of showing to my friends the operation of those
unnatural frosts, and according to their extent I predicted a great scarcity. But such is the pleasure of
agreeable prospects, that my opinion was little regarded.
On threshing, I found things as I expected, - the
ears not filled, some of the capsules quite empty, and
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several others containing only withered, hungry grain,
inferior to the appearance of rye. My best ears and
grain were not fine; never had I grain of so low a
quality: yet I sold one load for 211. At the same
time I bought my seed wheat (it was excellent) at
231. Since then the price has risen, and I have sold
about two load of the same sort at 231. Such was
the state of the market when I left home last Monday.
Little remains in my barn. I hope some in the rick
may be better, since it was earlier sown, as well as I
can recollect. Some of my neighbors have better,
some quite as bad, or even worse. I suspect it will
be found, that, wherever the blighting wind and those
frosts at blooming-time have prevailed, the produce
of the wheat crop will turn out very indifferent.
Those parts which have escaped will, I can hardly
doubt, have a reasonable produce.
As to the other grains, it is to be observed, as the
wheat ripened very late, (on account, I conceive, of
the blights,) the barley got the start of it, and was
ripe first. The crop was with me, and wherever my
inquiry could reach, excellent; in some places far
superior to mine.
The clover, which came up with the barley, was
the finest I remember to have seen.
The turnips of this year are generally good.
The clover sown last year, where not totally destroyed, gave two good crops, or one crop and a plentiful feed; and, bating the loss of the rye-grass, I do not remember a better produce.
The meadow-grass yielded but a middling crop.
and neither of the sown or natural grass was there
in any farmer's possession any remainder from the
year worth taking into account. In most places
there was none at all.
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Oats with me were not in a quantity more considerable than in commonly good seasons; but I have
never known them heavier than they were in other
places. The oat was not only an heavy, but an uncommonly abundant crop.
My ground under pease did not exceed an acre or
thereabouts, but the crop was great indeed. I believe
it is throughout the country exuberant. It is, however, to be remarked, as generally of all the grains,
so particularly of the pease, that there was not the
smallest quantity in reserve.
The demand of the year must depend solely on its
own produce; and the price of the spring corn is not
to be expected to fall very soon, or at any time very
low.
Uxbridge is a great corn market. As I came
through that town, I found that at the last marketday barley was at forty shillings a quarter. Oats
there were literally none; and the inn-keeper was
obliged to send for them to London. I forgot to ask
about pease. Potatoes were 5s. the bushel.
In the debate on this subject in the House, I am
told that a leading member of great ability, little conversant in these matters, observed, that the general uniform dearness of butcher's meat, butter, and cheese could not be owing to a defective produce of wheat;
and on this ground insinuated a suspicion of some
unfair practice on the subject, that called for inquiry.
Unquestionably, the mere deficiency of wheat could
not cause the dearness of the other articles, which extends not only to the provisions he mentioned, but to
every other without exception.
The cause is; indeed, so very plain and obvious that
the wonder is the other way. When a properly di
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 161
rected inquiry is made, the gentlemen who are amazed
at the price of these commodities will find, that, when
hay is at six pound a load, as they must know it is,
herbage, and for more than one year, must be scanty;
and they will conclude, that, if grass be scarce, beef,
veal, mutton, butter, milk, and cheese must be dear.
But to take up the matter somewhat more in detail. -If the wheat harvest in 1794, excellent in quality, was defective in quantity, the barley harvest was in quality ordinary enough, and in quantity deficient.
This was soon felt in the price of malt.
Another article of produce (beans) was not at all
plentiful. The crop of pease was wholly destroyed,
so that several farmers pretty early gave up all hopes
on that head, and cut the green haulm as fodder for
the cattle, then perishing for want of food in that dry
and burning summer. I myself came off better than
most: I had about the fourth of a crop of pease.
It will be recollected, that, in a manner, all the
bacon and pork consumed in this country (the far
largest consumption of meat out of towns) is, when
growing, fed on grass, and on whey or skimmed
milk, -and when fatting, partly on the latter. This
is the case in the dairy countries, all of them great
breeders and feeders of swine; but for the much
greater part, and in all the corn countries, they are
fattened on beans, barley-meal, and pease. When
the food of the animal is scarce, his flesh must be
dear. This, one would suppose, would require no
great penetration to discover.
This failure of so very large a supply of flesh in one
species naturally throws the whole demand of the
consumer on the diminished supply of all kinds of
flesh, and, indeed, on all the matters of human susVOL. V. 11
? ? ? ? 162 THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY.
tenance. Nor, in my opinion, are we to expect a
greater cheapness in that article for this year, even
though corn should grow cheaper, as it is to be hoped
it will. The store swine, from the failure of subsistence last year, are now at an extravagant price. Pigs, at our fairs, have sold lately for fifty shillings,
which two years ago would not have brought more
than twenty.
As to sheep, none, I thought, were strangers to the
general failure of the article of turnips last year: the
early having been burned, as they came up, by the
great drought and heat; the late, and those of the
early which had escaped, were destroyed by the chilling frosts of the winter and the wet and severe weather of the spring. In many places a full fourth
of the sheep or the lambs were lost; what remained
of the lambs were poor and ill fed, the ewes having
had no milk. The calves came late, and they were
generally an article the want of which was as much
to be dreaded as any other. So that article of food,
formerly so abundant in the early part of the summer, particularly in London, and which in a great part supplied the place of mutton for near two
months, did little less than totally fail.
All the productions of the earth link in with each
other. All the sources of plenty, in all and every
article, were dried or frozen up. The scarcity was
not, as gentlemen seem to suppose, in wheat only.
Another cause, and that not of inconsiderable operation, tended to produce a scarcity in flesh provision. It is one that on many accounts cannot be too much regretted, and the rather, as it was the sole
cause of a scarcity in that article which arose from
the proceedings of 1ino- themselves: I mean the stop
put to the distillery.
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The hogs (and that would be sufficient) which
were fed with the waste wash of that produce did
not demand the fourth part of the corn used by farmers in fattening them. The spirit was nearly so much clear gain to the nation. It is an odd way of
making flesh cheap, to stop or check the distillery.
The distillery in itself produces an immense article of trade almost all over the world, -- to Africa,
to North America, and to various parts of Europe.
It is of great use, next to food itself, to our fisheries
and to our whole navigation. A great part of the
distillery was carried on by damaged corn, unfit for
bread, and by barley and malt of the lowest quality.
These things could not be more unexceptionably employed. The domestic consumption of spirits produced, without complaints, a very great revenue, applicable, if we pleased, in bounties, to the bringing
corn from other places, far beyond the value of that
consumed in making it, or to the encouragement of
its increased production at home.
As to what is said, in a physical and moral view,
against the home consumption of spirits, experience
has long since taught me very little to respect the
declamations on that subject. Whether the thunder
of the laws or the thunder of eloquence " is hurled
on gin," always I am thunder-proof. The alembic,
in my mind, has furnished to the world a far greater
benefit and blessing than if the opus maximum had
been really found by chemistry, and, like Midas, we
could turn everything into gold.
Undoubtedly there may be a dangerous abuse in
the excess of spirits; and at one time I am ready to
believe the abuse was great. When spirits are cheap,
the business of drunkenness is achieved with little
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time or labor; but that evil I consider to be wholly
done away. Observation for the last forty years, and
very particularly for the last thirty, has furnished me
with ten instances of drunkenness from other causes
for one from this. Ardent spirit is a great medicine,
often to remove distempers, much more frequently
to prevent them, or to chase them away in their beginnings. It is not nutritive in any great degree.
But if not food, it greatly alleviates the want of it.
It invigorates the stomach for the digestion of poor,
meagre diet, not easily alliable to the human constitution. Wine the poor cannot touch. Beer, as applied to many occasions, (as among seamen and fishermen, for instance,) will by no means do the business. Let me add, what wits inspired with champagne and
claret will turn into ridicule, --it is a medicine for
the mind. Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times
and in all countries called in some physical aid to
their moral consolations, -- wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
I consider, therefore, the stopping of the distillery,
economically, financially, commercially, medicinally,
and in some degree morally too, as a measure rather
well meant than well considered. It is too precious
a sacrifice to prejudice.
Gentlemen well know whether there be a scarcity
of partridges, and whether that be an effect of hoarding and combination. All the tame race of birds live
and die as the wild do.
As to the lesser articles, they are like the greater.
They have followed the fortune of the season. Why
are fowls dear? Was not this the farmer's or jobber's
fault? I sold from my yard to a jobber six young
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and lean fowls for four-and-twenty shillings, -- fowls
for which two years ago the same man would not
have given a shilling apiece. He sold them afterwards at Uxbridge, and they were taken to London
to receive the last hand.
As to the operation of the war in causing the
scarcity of provisions, I understand that Mr. Pitt has
given a particular answer to it; but I do not think
it worth powder and shot.
I do not wonder the papers are so full of this sort
of matter, but I am a little surprised it should be
mentioned in Parliament. Like all great state questions, peace and war may be discussed, and different opinions fairly formed, on political grounds; but on
a question of the present price of provisions, when
peace with the Regicides is always uppermost, I can
only say that great is the love of it.
After all, have we not reason to be thankful to the
Giver of all Good? In our history, and when'" the
laborer of England is said to have been once happy,"
we find constantly, after certain intervals, a period
of real famine, by which a melancholy havoc was
made among the human race. The price of provisions fluctuated dreadfully, demonstrating a deficiency very different from the worst failures of the present
moment. Never, since I have known England, have I
known more than a comparative scarcity. The price
of wheat, taking a number of years together, has had
no very considerable fluctuation; nor has it risen
exceedingly until within this twelvemonth. Even
now, I do not know of one main, woman, or child
that has perished from famine: fewer, if any, I
believe, than in years of plenty, when such a thing
may happen by accident. This is owing to a care
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and superintendence of the poor, far greater than
any I remember.
The consideration of this ought to bind us all, rich
and poor together, against those wicked writers of
the newspapers who would inflame the poor against
their friends, guardians, patrons, and protectors. Not
only very few (I have observed that I know of none,
though I live in a place as poor as most) have actually died of want, but we have seen no traces of those dreadful exterminating epidemics which, in consequence of scanty and unwholesome food, in former times not unfrequently wasted whole nations. Let
us be saved from too much wisdom of our own, and
we shall do tolerably well.
It is one of the finest problems in legislation, and
what has often engaged my thoughts whilst I followed that profession, - What the state ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what
it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion. Nothing, certainly,
can be laid down on the subject that will not admit
of exceptions, - many permanent, some occasional.
But the clearest line of distinction which I could
draw, whilst I had my chalk to draw any line, was
this: that the state ought to confine itself to what
regards the state or the creatures of the state: namely, the exterior establishment of its religion; its magistracy; its revenue; its military force by sea
and land; the corporations that owe their existence
to its fiat; in a word, to everything that is truly and
properly public, -to the public peace, to the public
safety, to the public order, to the public prosperity.
In its preventive police it ought to be sparing of its
efforts, and to employ means, rather few, unfrequent,
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. 167
and strong, than many, and frequent, and, of course,
as they multiply their puny politic race, and dwindle,
small and feeble. Statesmen who know themselves
will, with the dignity which belongs to wisdom, proceed only in this the superior orb and first mover
of their duty, steadily, vigilantly, severely, courageously: whatever remains will, in a manner, provide for itself. But as they descend from the state to a province, from a province to a parish, and from a parish to a private house, they go on accelerated in their
fall. They cannot do the lower duty; and in proportion as they try it, they will certainly fail in the
higher. They ought to know the different departments of things, - what belongs to laws, and what manners alone can regulate. To these great politicians may give a leaning, but they cannot give a
law.
Our legislature has fallen into this fault, as well
as other governments: all have fallen into it more
or less. The once mighty state which was nearest
to us locally, nearest to us in every way, and whose
ruins threaten to fall upon our heads, is a strong
instance of this error. I can never quote France
without a foreboding sigh,- E. XETAI'HMAP!
Scipio said it to his recording Greek friend amidst
the flames of the great rival of his country. That
state has fallen by the hands of the parricides of their
country, called the Revolutionists and Constitutionalists of France: a species of traitors, of whose fury and atrocious wickedness nothing in the annals of
the frenzy and depravation of mankind had before
furnished an example, and of whom I can never
think or speak without a mixed sensation of disgust,
of horror, and of detestation, not easy to be expressed.
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These nefarious monsters destroyed their country for
what was good in it: for much good there was in the
Constitution of that noble monarchy, which, in all
kinds, formed and nourished great men, and great
patterns of virtue to the world. But though its enemies were not enemies to its faults, its faults furnished them with means for, its destruction. My dear departed friend, whose loss is even greater to the public than to me, had often remarked, that the leading
vice of the French monarchy (which he had well
studied) was in good intention ill-directed, and a
restless desire of governing too much. The hand
of authority was seen in everything and in every
place. All, therefore, that happened amiss, in the
course even of domestic affairs, was attributed to
the government; and as it always happens in this
kind of officious universal interference, what began
in odious power ended always, I may say without
an exception, in contemptible imbecility. For this
reason, as far as I can approve of any novelty,
I thought well of the provincial administrations.
Those, if the superior power had been severe and
vigilant and vigorous, might have been of much
use politically in removing government from many
invidious details. But as everything is good or bad
as it is related or combined, government being relaxed above as it was relaxed below, and the brains
of the people growing more and more addle with
every sort of visionary speculation, the shiftings of
-the scene in the provincial theatres became only preparatives to a revolution in the kingdom, and the popular actings there only the rehearsals of the
terrible drama of the Republic.
Tyranny and cruelty may make men justly wish
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the downfall of abused powers, but I believe that
no government ever yet perished from any other direct cause than its own weakness. My opinion is against an overdoing of any sort of administration,
and more especially against this most momentous
of all meddling on the part of authority, - the meddling with the subsistence of the people.
? ? ? ? A
LETTER TO A NOBLE LORD
ON
THE ATTACKS MADE UPON MR. BURKE AND HIS PENSION, IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
BY
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD AND THE
EARL OF LAUDERDALE,
EARLY IN THE PRESENT SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 1796.
? ? ? ? LETTER.
M Y LORD, --I could hardly flatter myself with
the hope that so very early in the season I
should have to acknowledge obligations to the Duke
of Bedford and to the Earl of Lauderdale. These
noble persons have lost no time in conferring upon
me that sort of honor which it is alone within their
competence, and which it is certainly most congenial
to their nature and their manners, to bestow.
To be ill spoken of, in whatever language they
speak, by the zealots of the new sect in philosophy
and politics, of which these noble persons think so
charitably, and of which others think so justly, to me
is no matter of uneasiness or surprise. To have incurred the displeasure of the Duke of Orleans or the Duke of Bedford, to fall under the censure of Citizen
Brissot or of his friend the Earl of Lauderdale, I
ought to consider as proofs, not the least satisfactory,
that I have produced some part of the effect I proposed by my endeavors.
