IHOUGKTS AND DETAILS OX SCARCITY^ ORIGINALLY PRESENTED TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAxM PITT, IN THE MONTH OP NOVEMBEB, 1795. BY THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE. Eondon : PRINTED FOR F. AND C. RIVINGTON, No. 62, St. Paul's Church- Yard ; AND J. HATCHARD, NO. 17 3, PICCADILLY. 1800. 'i^Price One ShiU'mg and Slxpence.'\ ^ PREFACE. Beaconsfield, Nov, 1, 1800. The wifdom, which is canonized by death, is confulted with a fort of facred veneration. A cafual remark, or an incidental maxim in fome ancient author, an interefling narrative, or a pointed anecdote from the hiftory of paffc times, even though they bear but a remote and general application to the exigency of our own immediate fituation, are caught up with eager- nefs, and remembered with delight. But how much more important is the in{lru£lion which we may derive from the poilihumous opinions of thofe who, having been mod eminent in our own times for fuperior talents and more exten- live knowledge, have formed their obfervation on c ire um (lances fo (imilar to our own, as only not to be the fame, yet who fpeak without in- fluence from the little prejudices and pa/Tions, a to [ i^ ] to which accident, folly, or malevolence may have given birth in the prefent moment. The late Mr. Burke, in the eftimation of thefe who were moft capable of judging, flood high, both as a fcientific and a practical farmer. He carried into his fields the fame penetrating, comprehenfive, and vigorous mind, which flione forth fo conipicuouily in all his exertions on the flage of public life. Wherever he was, in whatever he was encraged, he was alike affidu- ous in colledting information, and happy in combining, what he acquired, into general prin- ciples. Ail that the ancients have left us upon hufbandry was familiar to him, and he once en- couraged and fet on foot a new edition of thofe valuable writers ; but, though he might ccca- fionally derive new hints even from thofe fources, he preferred the authority of his own hind to that of Hefiod or Virgil, of Cato or Columella. He thought for himfelf upon this, as upon other fubjecls ; and not rejeding found reforms of demonflrated errors, he was, how- ever, principally guided by the traditionary fkill and experience of that clafs of men, who,\vom father to fon, have for generations laboured in calling forth the fertility of the Englifli foil. He [ V ] He not only found in agriculture the moft agreeable relaxation from his nnore fericus cares, but he resrarded the cultivation of the earth, a and the improvement of all which it produces, as a fort of moral and religious duty. Towards the clofe of his life, when he had loft his fon, in whom all his profpecls had long centered, after lamenting, in an elegant allution to Virgil, that the trees, which he had been nurfingi: for many years, would now afford no (hade to his pofterity, he was heard to correct himfelf, by adding, *' Yet be it fo : I ought not therefore to beftow leis attention upon them — thev grow to God." Agriculture, and the commerce connetfled with, and dependent upon it, form one of the moft confiderable branches of political econorry ; and as fuch, Mr. Burke diligently ftudied them. Indeed, when he begc^n to qualify himfelf for the exalted rank which he afterwards held among ftatefmen, he laid a bro.id and deep foundation; and to an accurate relcarch into the conftitution, the lav/s, the civil and military hiftory of thele kingdoms, he joined an enlight- ened acquaintance with the whole circle of our commercial fyftem. On his hrft introdudlion, when [ vi ] when a young man, to the late Mr. Gerard Ha- milton, who was then a Lord of Trade, the latter insjenuoufiv confefled to a friend ftill liv- ing, how fenfibly he felt his own inferiority, much as he had endeavoured to inform himfelf, and aided as he was by official documents, in- acceffible to any private perfon. He was alfo confultcd, and the greatefl: deference was paid to his opinions by Dr. Adam Smith, in the pro- grefs of the celebrated work on the Wealth of Nations. In Parliament, Mr. Burke very foon diftin- guiflied himfelf on thefe topics. When the firft great permanent law for regulating our foreign corn-trade was under the confideration of the Houfe in 1772, he was one of its principle fup- porters, in a fpeech admired at the time for its excellence, and defcribed as abounding with that knowledge in ceconomics, which he was . then univcrfally allowed to poflefs, and illuftrated with that philofophical difcrimination, of which he was fo peculiarly a mafter. About the fame time, too, he zealoufly promoted the repeal of [he llatutcs 2i2;i\\\{\. Jorejialiers \ a meafure not lightly and haftily propofed oradopted in the liberal impulfe of an unguarded moment, but the refult , • of [ vii ] of various inveftlgations made by the Houfe, or in different conrimittees, during fix years of fcarcity and high prices ; a meafure which, al- though two Bills of a contrary tendency had formerly been introduced and loft, fo approved itfelf, at length, to the reafon of all, that it was ordered to be brought in, without a fingle dif- fentient voice. Yet, though fuch was his early pre-eminence in thefe purfuits, to the lafl: hour of his life, as his fame fpread wader and wider over Europe, he availed himfelf of the ad- vantage which this afforded him,, to enlarge the fphere of his enquiries into the'ftate of other countries, that he might benefit his own. The confequence of all was, he every day became more firmly convinced, that the unreftrained freedom of buying and felling is the great ani- mating principle of produ6tion and fupply. The prefent publication records Mr. Burke's moft mature reflections on thefe intereftins: fub- jedls ; the more valuable, becaufe the fentiments which he delivered on the occafions already men- tioned, have not been preferved to us, either by himfelf or by others. He was alarmed by the appearance of the crop in 1795, even before the harvefl. In the autumn of that year, when the produce L viii J produce of tlie harvell began to be known, the alarm became general. Various projedls, as in fuch cafes will always happen, were offered to Government; and, in his opinion, feemed to be received with too much complaifance. Under this impredion, anxious as he ever was, even in his retirement, and in the midfl of his own private affli(fLio«, for thepublick fafety and prof- perity,4ie immediately addreded to Mr. Pitt a Me- morial, which is the ground-work of the follow- ing tra6l. Afterwards, confidering the import- ance of the matter, and fearing a long cycle of fcarcity to come, he intended to have dilated the fevcrnl branches of the argument, and to have moulded his " Thoughtsand Details" into a more popular fliape. This he purpofed to have done in a feries of letters on rural oeconomics, infcribed to his friend Mr. Arthur Young. It may be remem- bered, that he even announced this defign in an advertifcment. But his attention was irredftibly called another way. His whole mind was en- groflcd by the change of policy which difcover- ed itfelf in our councils at that period, when forgetting the manly arts, by which alone great nations have ever extricated themfelve:^ from momentous and doubtful conflicl:s, we defcend- ed, againft the remonflrancesof our allies, to the voluntary L i-^ J Voluntary and uniieceilary, humiliation of follclt- ing a peace, which, in his judgment, the ani- mofity of our infolent enemy was not then dif- pofed to grant, and which, if offered, we could not then have accepted, without the certainty of incurrincr dangers much more formidable than any that threatened us from the protraction of the war. He haftened to raife and re-infpirit the proftrate genius of his country. In a great mea- fure he fucceeded, and was ftill employed in the pious office, when Divine Providence took him to receive the reward of thofe, who devote them- felves to the caufe of virtue and religion. After his deceafe, two or three detached fragments only of the firft letter to Mr. Young were found among his papers. Thefe could not be printed in that imperfed: ftate, and they feemed too precious to be wholly thrown afide. They have been inferted, therefore, in the Memorial, where they feemed bed to cohere. The firft and largeft of thefe interpolations reaches from the middle of the fixth to the bottom of the 1 8th page ; the fecond commences near the bottom of the 2oth, and ends a little below the middle of the 24th ; and the laft, occupying about three pages and a haif, forms the prefent con- r.lufion. b The The Memorial had been fah'ly copied, but did not appear to have been examined or corre(5ted, as fome trifling errors of the tranfcribcr were perceptible in it. The manufcript of the frag- ments was a rough draft from the Author's own hand, much blotted and very confufed. It has been followed with as much fidelity as was pof- fible, after confulting thofe who were mofl accuftomed to JMr. Burke's manner of writing. Two or three chafms in the grammar and fenfe, from the cafual omiflion of two or three unim- portant words at a diftance, have been fupplicd by conjecture. The principal alteration has been the necefTary change of the fecond for the third perfon, and the confequent fuppreffion of the common form of affectionate addrefs, where Mr. Youno; is named. That gentleman alone can have reafon to complain of this liberty, inafmuch as it may feem to have deprived him of that, which in fome fort was his property, and which no man would have known better how to value. But, it is hoped, he will pardon it, fince in this manner alone theCe go/dcn frag- ments (to borrow a favourite phrafe of critics and commentatorsj could have been made, as they were defigned to be, of general utility. To the reader no apology is due, if the dilquifitions thus interwoven may feem a little difpropor- tioned [ xi ] tioned to the fummary flatements of the ori- ginal Memorial. Their own intrinfic worth and beauty will be an ample compenfation for that flight deformity ; though perhaps in fuch a compofition, as this profefTes to be (and the title is Mr. Burke's own) nothing of the kind could have been fairly regarded as an irregular excrefcence, had it been placed by himfelf, where it now flands. The Memorial, which was indeed communi- cated to feveral members of the King's Govern- ment, was believed at the time to have been not wholly unproductive of good. The enquiry, which had been a6lually begun, into the quan- tity of corn in hand, was filently dropped. The fcheme of public granaries, if it ever exifted, was abandoned. In Parliament the Minifters maintained a prudent and dignified forbearance ; and reprefTed in others, or where they could not entirely controul, interpofed to moderate and divert, thatreftlefs fpirit of legiflation, which is an evil that feems to grow up, as the vehemence of party-contention abates. The coniiftency and good fenfe of the Commons defeated an at- tempt, which was made towards theclofe of the fefiions, to revive againfl foreflallers of one par- ticular defcription, fome portion of the exploded laws. [ xil ] Laftyear, on the approach of our prefect dif- treffes, the fame excellent temper of mind feem- ed to prevail in Government, in Parliament* and among the people. There was no propofal of taking flock, no fpeculation of creating a new eftablilhment of royal purveyors to provide us with our daily dole of bread. The corn mer- chants were early alTured that they fhould not again have to contend with the competition of theTreafury, in the foreign market. A_^Com- mittee of the Houfe of Commons ventured to difTuade the flopping of thediftilleriesin a report, very clofely coinciding with the reafoning of Mr. Burke. Little or no popular declamation was heard on the miferies of " the labourins: poor ;'* not a fingle petition was prefented, or motion made, againfl: foreftallers. The leafh pbjeflionable of the experiments fuggefled, ta encreafe the fupply or leflen the confumption, were adopted. It is hardly worthy of mention, as an exception, that a Parliamentary charter was granted to a company of very worthy and well-meaning perfons, who, on the notiof> of a combination (which, by the way, they to- tally failed in proving) among the tradeis that fupply the capital with bread, opened a fubfcrip- tion for undertaking to furnifh nearly one-tenth of the confumption. They were contented to [ xlli ] do this with limited profits, merely as humane badgers and jobbers, charitable millers, fenti- mental mealmen, and philanthropic bakers. But diftrufting a little their own fufficiency for their new bufinefs, they naturally defired to be ex- empted from the operation of the bankrupt laws ; and their bill was carried by a very fmall ma- jority, confifting of partners in the firm. All this while, under trials much more fevere than in the former dearth, the inferior clafTes dif- played a patience and refignation, only to be eqiialled by the alacrity and zeal, which the higher and middle orders every where manifefh- ed, to relieve the necefiities of their poorer neigh- bours in every practicable mode. The prefent is a feafon of ferment and riot. The old cry againft forefrallers has been raifed a2:ain with more violence than ever. It has been adjudged, for the firll: time, it is prefumed, fincc the repealing a6l of 1772, that they are ftill liable to be puniflied by the common law, with fine and imprifonment at leafl:, if not with whipping and the pillory, according to the no- tion which the judge may entertain of their crime. The interpreters of the law mufl ex- pound it, according to their confcientious judg- nients, as it is, and the doctrine is not quite new ; [ ^iv ] new ; it has certainly been fuggefted in grave books fince the repeal, yet men of fober minds have doubted, and will doubt, whether in the whole code of cuftoms and ufages, derived to us from our anceftors, there can be found any one part fo radically inapplicable to the prelent fl:ate of the country, as their Trade law ; which, formed before commerce can be faid to have exijfted, on mixed confiderations, of police for the prevention of theft and rapine, and of pro- tecftion to the intereft of the Lord in the rights of toll and ftallage, permitted no tranfa«5tion of bargain and fale in any kind of commodity, but openly at a market, or a fair, and more anciently llill, with the addition of witnefTes alfo before the magiflrate, or the priefl : which knew of no commercial principle, but that of fubjeding, in every inftance, the grower, the maker, or the importer, native and foreigner alike, to the con- fumer, and for that purpole prohibited every in-^ termediate profit, and every pradice by act, by word, or by writing, that could enhance thq price; by which, if the dragging of the mould- ering records into day be not a mere robbery of the moths and worms, fhould a gentleman en- courage iiihermen, brewers, and bakers to fettle on his efiate, it may be pronounced ^./oref^aU lage of the next town, and a filk merchant, Ihould I ^v J ffiould he ajli. too much for his raw and organ- zine (the unfortunate Lombard in the aflize- book only alked, he did not get it from the poor Jiikewemen) may be puniflied by a heavy fine ; which cannot now be partially in force againft one let of dealers, and abrogated by difufe with regard to all others; which, if generally applied for a lingle term, without the interpofition of that wifdom of Parliament, over which this refort to the common law is by lome regarded as a tri- umph, would more etFe<5tually clog, diftrefs, and ruin our foreign and domcftic commerce in all its branches, than a confederacy of the whole world againft us in many years. Be the late convictions, however, what they may, in legal merits ; their pradical effedts have been much to be deplored. Grofs minds diflorted them into authorities to prove, that there was plenty in the land, and that the arts of greedy and unfeeling men alone intercepted the bounty of Providence. Meet- ings were called ; non-confumption agreements were figned, and afTociations were formed, chiefly in cities and great towns, to profecute thofe, without whom cities and great towns can never be regularly fed. There is no weak, no wild, no violent project, which did not find countenance in fome quarter or other. Tbc fall of the market immediately after the harvell:, and and the fubfequent rife, though the natural ef"- fe£ls of obvious caufes, encreafed the pubUc agi- tation ; and the multitude began to puriue their ulual courfe of providing in the fliorteft wav for their inftant wants, or of terrifying, or punifhing thofe, whom they had been taught to confider as their oppreiTors ; unconfcious or unconcerned that they were thus only preparing for them- felves a tenfold ago-ravation of their own future fufferings. The eyes of all were now turned to- wards Parliament, not for a train of judicious meafures, which, if it be poflible, may hereafter again equalize the production with the con- fumption of the country, but for an immediate fupply ; as if the omnipotence of Parliament could reflorea fingle grain that has been injured by the moft contemptible infed. At fuch a juncture, however unfavourable it may be to the popularity of this little tract, the publication of it was felt to be a duty. He who wrote it, ever fet that confideration before him as the firft motive of all his actions. While he lived, he never ceafed, publickly and privately, to v/arn his country and her rulers, againft every danger which his wifdom forefaw. lie now gives to her and them, this folemn warning from his grave. THOUGHTS THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY. OF all things, an indifcreet tampering with the trade of provifions is the moft dangerous^ and it is always worft in the time when men. are moft difpofed to it : — diat is, in the time of fcarcity. Becaufe there is nothing on which the paffions of men are fo violent, and their judgment fo weak, and on which there exiftsfuch a multitude of ill-founded popular prejudices. The great ufe of Government is as a reftraint ; and there is no reftraint which it ought to put upon others, and upon itfelf too, rather than on the fury of fpeculating under circumftances of irrita- tion. The number of idle tales fpread about by the induftry of fadlion, and by the zeal of foolifii A good- ( 2 ) good-intenilorij and greedily devoured by the mar- lignant credulity of mankind, tends infinitely to ag- gravate prejudices, which, in themfelves, are more than fufficiently ftrong. In that ftate of affairs, and of the publick with relation to them, the firft thing that Government owes to us, the people, is information ; the next is timely coercion : — the one to guide our judgment; the other to regulate our tempers. To provide for us in our neceffities is not in the power of Government. It would be a vain pre- I'umption in ftatefmen to think they can do it. The people maintain them, and not they the people. It is in the power of Government to prevent much evil ; it can do very little pofitivc good' in this, or perhaps in any thing elfe. It is not only fo of the ftate and ftatefman, but of all the claffes and dcfcriptions of the Rich — they are the penfioners of the poor, and are maintained by their fuperfluity. They are under an abfolute, hereditary, and indefeafible dependance on thofc who labour, and are mifcalled the Poor. The labouring people are only poor, becaufc they are numerous. Numbers in their nature im- ply poverty. In a fair diftribution among a vaft multitude, none can have much. That clafs of de- pendant penfioners called the rich, is fo extremely (mail. ( 3 ) fmall, that if all their throats were cut, and a diflrl- bution made of all they confume in a year, it would not give a bit of bread und cheefe for one night's fupper to thofe who labour, and who in reality feed both the pcnfioners and themfelves. But the throats of the rich ought not to be cut, nor their magazines plundered ; becaufe, in their perfons they are truftees for thofe who labour, and their hoards are the banking-houfes of thefe latter. Whether they mean it or not, they do, in efFed, execute their truft — fome with more, fome with lefs fidelity and judgment. But on the whole, the duty is performed, and every thing returns, de- ducting fome very trifling commiffion and dif- count, to the place from wiience it arofe. When the poor rife to deftroy the rich, they ad as wifely for their own purpofes as when they burn mills, ^nd throw corn into the river, to make bread cheap. Vv^hen I fay, that we of the people ought to be informed, inclufively I fiy, we ought not to be flattered: flattery is the reverfe of inftrudion. The poor in that cafe would be rendered as impro- vident as the rich, which would not be at all good for them. Nothing can be fo bafe and fo wicked as the political canting language, " The Labouring A 2 Poorr ( * ) Poor'* Let compa0ion be fliewn in action, the more the better, according to every man's ability, but let there be no lamentation of their condition. It is no relief to their miferable circumftances ; it is only an infult to their miferable underftandings. It arifes from a total want of charity, or a total want of thought. Want of one kind was never relieved by want of any other kind. Patience, labour, fo- briety, frugality, and religion, (liould be recom- mended to them j all the reft is downright /;v?«^. It is horrible to call them " The once happy la- bourer." Whether what may be called moral or philofo- phical happinefs of the laborious clailes is in- creafed or not, I cannot fay. Tlie feat of that fpecies of happinefs is in the mind; and there are few data to afcertain the comparative ftate of the mind at any two periods. Philofophical hap- pinefs is to want little. Ciyil or vulgar happinefs is to want much, and to enjoy much. If the happinefs of the animal man (which cer- tainly goes fomewhere towards the happinefs of the rational man) be the object of our eilimate, then 1 aflert, without the leail hclitation, that the condi- tion of thofe who labour (in all defcriptions of la- bour, and in all gradations of labour, from the higheft to the lowed inclufively) is on the whole ex- tremely ( 5 ) tremely meliorated, if more and better food is any ftandard of melioration. They work more, it is certain ; but they have the advantage of their aug- mented labour ; yet whether that increafe of labour be on the whole a, good or an evil, is a confideration that would lead us a great way, and is not for my prefent purpofe. But as to the fad of the melio- ration of their diet, I Ihall enter into the detail of proof whenever I am called upon : in the mean time, the known difficulty of contenting them with any thing but bread made of the fineft flour, and meat of the firfl quality, is proof fufficient. I further affert, that even under all the hard- fliips of the laft year, the labouring people did, either out of their direct gains, or from charity, (which it feems is now an infult to them) in fadl, fare better than they did, in feafons of common plenty, 50 or 60 years ago ; or even at the period of my Englifli obfervation, which is about 44 years. I even affert, that full as many in that clafs, ai ever were known to do it before, continued to fave money ; and this I can prove, fo far as my own information and experience extend. It is Hot true that the rate of wages has not en- creafed with the nominal price of provifions. 1 al- low it has not fluftuated with that price, nor ought it ; and the Squiiea of Norfolk had dined, when they ( 6 ) they gave it as their opinion, that it might or ought to rife and fall with the market of proviiions. The rate of wages in truth has no dlre^ relation to that price. Labour is a commodity like every other, and rifes or falls according to the demand. This is in the nature of things ; however, the nature of things has provided for their ncceflities. Wages have been twice raifed in my time, and they bear a full proportion, or even a greater than formerly, to the medium of provifion during the lall bad cycle of twenty years. They bear a full proportion to the refult of their labour. If we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it, the ftone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back upon them in a diminiflied demand, or, what in- deed is the far leiTer evil, an aggravated price of all the provifions, which are the refult of their manual toil. There is an implied contra6l, much flronger than any indrument or article of agreement, be- tween the labourer in any occupation and his em- ployer — that the labour, fo far as that labour is concerned, fliall be fufficient to pay to the em- ployer a profit on his capital, and a compenfation for his riik ; in a word, that the labour (hall pro- duce an advantage equal to the payment. What- ever is above that, is a dired tax ; and if the amount ( 7 ) amount of that tax be left to the will and pleafurc of another, it is an arbitrary tax. If I underhand it rightly, the -tax propofed oa the farming intereft of this kingdom, is to be le- vied at what is called the difcretion of juftices of peace. The queftions arifing on this fcheme of arbi- trary taxation are thefe — ^yhethe^ it is better to leave all dealing, in which there is no force or fraud, collufion or combination, entirely to the perfons mutually concerned in the matter con- tracted for; or to put the contrad: into the hands of thofe, v/ho can have none, or a very remote in- tereft in it, and little or no knowledge of the fub- , jedV. It might be imagined that there v/ould be very little difficulty in folving this Cjuellion ; for what man, of any degree of refledion, can think, that a want of intereftin any fubjedl clofely connefledwith a v/ant of Ikillin it, qualifies a perfon tointermeddle in any the leaft affair ; much lefs in affairs that vi- tally concern the agriculture of the kingdom, the firft of all it's concerns, and the foundation of all it's profperity in every other matter, by which that profperity is produced ? The ( 8 ) The vulgar error on this fubjed arifes from a to- tal confufion in the very idea of things widely dif- ferent in themfelves j — thofe of convention, and thofe of judicature. When a contract is making, it is a matter of difcretion and of intereft between the parties. In that intercourfe, and in what is to arife from it, the parties are the maflcrs. If they are not completely fo, they are not free, and there- fore their contrails are void. But this freedom has no farther extent, when the contracl is made; then their difcretionary powers expire, and a new order of things takes it's origin. Then, and not till then, and on a difference be- , tween the parties, the office of the judge com- mences. He cannot didate the contract. It is his bufmefs to fee that it be enforced \ provided that it is not contrary to pre-exifting laws, or ob- tained by force or fraud. If he is in any way a maker or regulator of the contrad, in f^ much he is difqualified from being a judge. But this fort of confufed diflribution of adminiflrative and judicial charaders, (of which we have already as much as is fufiicienr, and a little more) is not the only per- plexity of notions and paffions which trouble us in the prefcnt hour. What is doing, fuppofes or pretends that the far- mer ( 9 ) mer and the labourer have oppofite interefts ; — that the farmer opprefles the labourer; and that a gen- tleman called a jufcice of peace, is the protedor of the latter, and a controul and reftraint on the for- mer; and this is a point I wifh to examine in a manner a siood deal different from that in which gentlemen proceed, who confide more in their abi- lities than is fit, and fuppofe them capable of more than any natural abilities, fed with no other than the provender fnrniflied by their own private fpe- culations, can accomplifh. Legiflalive ads, at- tempting to regulate this part of csconomy, do, at leaft, as much as any other, require the exacted de- tail of circumftances, guided by the fureft general principles that are necelTary to direft experiment and enquiry, in order again from thofe details to elicit principles, firm and luminous general prin- ciples, to dired a practical legislative proceeding. Firft, then, I deny that it is in this cafe, as in any other of neceflary implication, that contracting parties (hould originally have had different inte- refts. By accident it may be fo undoubtedly at the outfet; but then the contract is of the nature of a compromife ; and compromife is founded on cir- cumftances that fuppofe it the intcreft of the par- ties to be reconciled in fome medium. The prin- ciple of compromife adopted, of confequence the interefts ceafe to be different. B But C 10 ) But in the cafe of the farmer and the labourer, their interefts are always the fame, and it is abfo- luteiy impoflible that their free contrads can be onerous to eidier party. It is the intereft of the farmer, that his work Ihould be done with eirect and celerity ; and that cannot be, unlefs the la- bourer is well fed, and otherwife found with fuch neceffaries of animal life, according to it's habi- tudes, as may keep the body in full force, and the mind gay and cheerful. For of all the inftrumenrs of his trade, the labour of man (what the ancient "wricers have called the injirimenlum vocale) is that on which he is moft to rely for the re-payment of his capital. The other two, the femivocale in the ancient claffification, that is, the working flock of cattle, and the injirumenium miifum, fuch as carts, ploughs, fpades, and lb forth, though not all in- confiderable in themfelves, are very much inferiour in utility or in expence ; and without a given por- tion of the fir ft, are nothing at all. For in all things whatever, the mind is the moll valuable and the moft important; and in this fc:ile the whole of agriculture is in a natural and juft order; the beaft is as an inforaiing principle to the plough and cart ; the labourer is as reafon to the beaft ; and the farrner is as a thinking and prefiding principle to the labourer. An attempt to break this chain of fubordination in any part is equally abfurd ; but the abfurdity is the moft mifcliievous in prac- tical ( 11 ) . tical operation, where it is the moft eafy, that is, where it is the moft fubjed to an erroneous judg- ment. It is plainly more the farmer's intereft that his men Ihould thrive, than that his horfes iliould be well fed, fleek, plump, and fit for ufe, or than that his waggon and ploughs (hould be ftrong, in good repair, and fit for fervice. On the other hand, if the farmer ceafes to profit of the labourer, and that his capital is not continu- ally manured and frudified, it is impofiible that he (hould continue that abundant nutriment, and cloathing, and lodging, proper for the prote6\ion of the inftruments he employs. It is therefore the firft and fundamental intered of the labourer, that the farmer (hould have a full incoming profit on the produftof his labour. The propofition is felf-evident, and nothing but the ma- lignity, perverfenefs, and ill-governed paflions of mankind, and particularly the envy they bear to each other's profperity, could prevent iheir feeing and acknowledging it, with thankfulnefs to the be- nign and wife difpofer of all things, who obliges men, whether they will or not, in purfuing their own felfilh interefts, to conneft the general good with their own individual fuccefs. B 2 But ( 12 ) But who are to judge what that profit and ad- vantage ought to be ? certainly no authority on earth. It is a matter of convention dictated by the reciprocal conveniences of the parties, and in- deed by their reciprocal neceflities. — But, if the farmer is exceflively avaricious ? — why fo much the better — the more he defires to increafe his gains, the more interefted is he in the good condi- tion of thofe, upon whofe labour his gains muft principally depend. I (hall be told by the zealots of the fedt of re- gulation, that this may be true, and may be fafely committed to the convention of the farmer and the labourer, when the latter is in the prime of his youth, and at the time of his health and vigour, and in ordinary times of abundance. But in cala- mitous feafons, under accidental illnefs, in declin- ing life, and with the prelTure of a numerous ofF- fpring, the future nourifhers of the community but the prefent drains and blood-fuckers of thofe who produce them, what is to be done ? When a man cannot live and maintain his family by the natural hire of his labour, ought it not to be raifed by au- thority ? On this head I muft be allowed to fubmit, what my opinions have ever been ; and fomewhat at large. And, ( i3 ) And, firfl:, I premife that labour is, as I have al- ready intimated, a commodity, and as fuch, an ar- ticle of trade. If I am right in this notion, then labour muft be fubjed: to all the laws and princi- ples of trade, and not to regulations foreign to them, and that may be totally inconfidcnt with thofe prin- ciples and thofe laws. When any commodity is carried to market, it is not the neceffity of the vender, but the neceffity of the purchaler that raifes the price. The extreme want of the feller has rather (by the nature of things with which we fhall in vain contend) the dired: contrary opera- tion. If the goods at market are beyond the de- mand, they fall in their value ; if below it, they rife. The impoffibility of the fubfiftence of a man, who carries his labour to a market, is totally befide the queftion in this way of viewing it. The only queftion is, what is it worth to the buyer ? But if authority comes in and forces the buyer to a price, what is this in the cafe (fay) of a far- mer, who buys the labour often or twelve labour- ing men, and three or four handycrafts, what is it, but to make an arbitrary divifion of his property among them ? The whole of his gains, I fay it with the mod certain convi<5lion, never do amount any thing lUtc in value to what he pays to his labourers and artificers -, ( u ) artificers ; (o that a very fmall advance upon what ane man pays to many, may abforb the whole of what he polletres, and amount to an aftual parti- tion of all his fubftancc among them. A perfed. equality will indeed be produced j— that is to fay, equal want, equal wrctchednefs, equal beggary, and on the part of the partitioners, a woeful, help- lefs, and defperate difappointment. Such is the event of all compulfory equalizations. They pull down what is above. They never raife what is be- low : and they deprefs high and low together be- neath the level of what was originally the loweft. If a commodity is raifed by authority above what it will yield with a profit to the buyer, that comn:OL!ity will be the lefs dealt in. If a fecond blundering inierpofition be ufed to correct the blunder of the firil, and an attempt is made to force the purchafe of the commodity (of labour for inftance), the one of thefe two things mud hap- pen, either that the forced buyer is ruined, or the price of the produft of the labour, in that propor- tion, is raifed. Then the wheel turns round, and the evil complained of falls with aggravated "weight on the complainant. The price of corn, which is the refult of the cxpence of all the operations of hufbandry, taken together, and for fome time con- tinued, will rife on the labourer, confidered as a confumer. The very bell will be, that he remains where ( IS ) wlicre he was. But if the price of the corn (hoiiM not compenfate the price of labour, what is far more to be feared, the moft ferious evil, the very deftruc- tion of agriculture itfelf, is to be apprehended. Nothing is fuch an enemy to accuracy of judg- ment as a coarfe difcrimination ; a want of fuch claffification and diftribution as the fubjedl admits of. Encreafe the rate of wages to the labourer, fay the regulators — as if labour was but one thing and of one value. But this very broad generic term, labour, admits, at leaft, of two or three fpc- cific defcriptions : and thefe will fufHce, at leaft, to let gentlemen difcefn a little the neceflity of proceeding with caution in their coercive guidance of thofe whofe exiftence depends upon the obfer- vance of Pcill nicer diftinAions and fub-divifions, than commonly they refort to in forming their judgments on this very enlarged part of economy. The labourers in hufbandry may be divided : I ^. into thofe who are able to perform the full work of a man ; that is, what can be done by a perfon from twenty-one years of age to fifty. I know no hufbandry work (mowing hardly excepted) that is n«t equally within the power of all perfons within thofe ages, the more advanced fully compenfating by knack and habit what they lofe in aftivity. • Un- queflionably, there is a good deal of difference btweeen ( '6 ) between the value of one man's labour and that of another, from ftrength, dexterity, and honeft appli- cation. But I am quite fure, from my beft oblerva- tion, that any given five men will, in their total, afford a proportion of labour equal to any other five within the periods of life I have ftated ; that is, that among fuch five men there will be one pollefilng all the qualifications of a good workman, one bad, and the other three middling, and approximating to the firft and the laH;. So that in io fmall a platoon as that of even five, you will find the full complement of all that five men can earn. Taking five and five throughout the kingdom, they arc equal : therefore, an error with regard to the equa- lization of their wages by thofe who employ five, as farmers do at the very leaft, cannot be confi- derable. 2dly. Thofc who are able to work, but not the complete tafk of a day-labourer. This clafs is in- finitely diversified, but will aptly enough fall into principal divifions. Men, from the decline, which after fifty becomes every year more fenfible, to the period of debility and decrepitude, and the maladies that precede a final difiblution. lVo772en, whofe employment on hufbandry is but occafional, and who differ more in effedive labour one from another than men do, on account of geftation, nurfing, and domeftic management, over and above the ( '7 ) the difference they have in common with men in advancing, in ftationary, and in decHning hfe. Children, who proceed on the reverfe order, grow- ing from lefs to greater utility, but with a dill greater difproportion of nutriment to labour than is found in the fecond of thefe fub-divifions; as is vifible to thofe who will give themfelves the trou- ble of examining into the interior economy of a poor-houfe. This inferior claffification is introduced to fliev/, that laws prefcribing, or magiflrates exerciling, a very (tiff, and often inapplicable rule, or a blind and raih difcretion, never can provide the juft pro- portions between earning and falary on the one hand, and nutriment on the other: whereas in- tereft, habit, and the tacit convention, that arife from a thoufimd namelefs circumftances, produce a ta^ that regulates without difficulty, what laws and magiftrares cannot regulate at all. The firft: clafs of labour wants nothing to equalize it; it equalizes itfelf. The fecond and third are not capable of any equalization. But what if the rate of hire to the labourer comes far fhort of his neceifary fubfiflence, and the calamity of the time is fo great as to threaten adual famine ? Is the poor labourer to be aban- doned to the flinty heart and griping hand of G bafe C IS ) bafe felf-inrereft, fnppoited by the fword of hw^ cfpecially when there is reafon to fuppofe that the- very avarice of farmers thetnfelves has concurred with the errors of Government to bring famine on the land. In that cafe, my opinion is this. Whenever it happens that a man can claim nothing according to the rules of commerce, and the principles of juftice, he paffes out of that department, and comes within the jurifdidion of mercy. In that province the magiftratc has nothing at all to do : his inter- ference is a violation of the property which it is his office to protect. Without all doubt, charity to the poor is a dired and obligatory duty upon all Chriftians, next in order after the payment of debts, full as ftrong, and by nature made infinitely more delightful to us. Puffendorf, and other cafuifts do not, I think, denominate it quite pro^ perly, when they call it a duty of imperfed: obliga- tion. But the manner, mode, time, choice of ob- jefts, and proportion, are left to private difcretionj and perhaps, for that very reafon it is performed with the greater fatisfadion, becaufe the difcharge of it has more the appearance of freedom; recom- mending us behdes very fpeclally to the divine favour, as tlie cxercile of a virtue moft fuitable to a being fenfible of It's owj3 infirmity. The ( '9 ) The cry of the people in cities and towns, though unfortunately (from a fear of their multi- tude and combination^ the moft regarded, ought, in faSi, to be the leaj^ attended to upon this fubjedl; for citizens are in a ftate of utter ignorance of the means by which they are to be fed, and they contri- bute little or nothing, except in an infinitely circui- tous manner, to their own maintenance. They are truly *^ Fruges confumere nati." They are to be heard with great refpe£l and attention upon matters within their province, that is, on trades and manufactures ; but on any thing that relates to agriculture, they are to be liftened to with the fame reverence which we pay to the dogmas of other ignorant and prefump- tuous men. If any one were to tell them, that they were to give in an account of all the ftock in their fhops ; that attempts would be made to limit their profits, or raife the price of the labouring manufadurers upon them, or recommend to Government, out of a capital from the publick revenues, to fet up a (hop of the fame commodiiies, in order to rival them, and keep them to reafonable dealing, they would very foon fee the impudence, injuftice, and opprcf- fion of Rich a courfe. They would not be mif- taken ; but they are of opinion, that agriculture is to be fubject to other laws, and to be governed by other principles. C 2 A greater ( 20 ) A greater and more ruinous miftake cannot be fallen into, than that the trades of agriculture and grazing can be conduced upon any other than the common principles of commerce i namely, that the producer (liould be permitted, and even expected, to look to all poffible profit which, without fraud or violence, he can make j to turn plenty or fear- city to the bed advantage he can ; to keep back or to bring forward his commodities at his pleafure ; to account to no one for his flock or for his gain. On any other terms he is the Have of the confumer; and that he fliould be lb is of no benefit to the con-^ fumer. No flave was ever fo beneficial to the maf- ter as a freeman that deals with him on an equal footing by convention, formed on the rules and principles of contending interellsand compromifed advantages. The confumer, if he were fuffercd, would in the end always be the dupe of his own tyranny and injufttce. The landed gentleman is never to forget, that the farmer is his reprefen- tative. It is a perilous thing to try experiments on the farmer. The farmer's capital (except in a few perfons, and in a very few places) is tar more feeble than commonly is imagined. The trade is a very poor trade ; it is fubjed to great riiks and lofTes. The capital, fuch as it is, is turned but. cnce in the yearj in feme branches it requires" :hree ( 21 ) three years before the money is paid. I believe never lefs than three in the turnip and grafs-land courfe, which is the prevalent courfe on the more or lefs fertile, fandy and gravelly loams, and thefe compofe the foil in the fouih and fouih-eaft of England, the beft adapted, and perhaps the only ones that are adapted^ to the turnip hulbandry. It is very rare that the moft profperous farmer, counting the value of his quick and dead ftock, the intereft of the money he turns, together with his own wages as a bailiff or overfeer, ever does make twels'e or fifteen j^^r centum by the year on his ca- pital. I fpeak of the profperous. In moft of the parts of England which have fallen within my ob- fervation, 1 have rarely known a farmer, who to his own trade has not added fome other employ- ment or traffic, that, after a courfe of the moft unremitting pariimony and labour (fuch for the greater part is theirs), and perfevering in his bufi- nefs for a long courfe of years, died worth morfe than paid his debts, leaving his pofterity to con- tinue in nearly the fame equal conflid; between in- duftry and want, in which tiie laft predeceffor, and a long line of predeceffbrs before him, lived and died. Obferve that I fpeak of the generality of farmer* who have not more than from one hundred and fifty ( '22 ) fifty to three or four hundred acres. There arc few in this part of the country within the former, or much beyond the latter, extent. Unqueftidn- ably in other places there are much larger. But, I am convinced, v.hitever part of England be the theatre of his operations, a farmer who cultivates twelve hundred acres, which 1 conhder as a large farm, though I know there arc Larger, cannot pro- ceed, with any degree of fafety and efied, with a fmaller capital than ten ihoufand pounds; and that he cannot, in the ordinary courle of culture, make more upon that great capital of ten thoufand pounds, than twelve hundred a year. As to the weaker capitals, an eafy judgment may be formed by what very fmall errors they may be farther attenuated, enervated, rendered unproduc- tive, and perhaps totally deflroyed. This conftant precarioufnefs and ultimate mo- derate limits of a farmer's fortune, on the ftrongeft capital, I prefs, not only on account of the hazard- ous fpeculations of the times, but becaufe the ex- cellent and moft ufeful works of my friend, Mr. Arthur Young, tend to propagate that error (fuch I am very certain it is), of the largenefs of a far- mer's profits. It is not that his account of the produce does often greatly exceed, but he by no laeans makes the proper allowance for accidents and ( 23 ) and loffes. I might enter into a convincing detail, if other more troublefome and more neceflary de- tails were not before me. This propofed difcretionary tax on labour militates with the recommendations of the Board of Agriculture: they recommend a general ufe of the drill culture. I agree with the Board, that where the foil is not exceffively heavy, or incum- bered with large loofe ftones (which however is the cafe with much otherwife good land), that courfe is the bed, and moil: produdive, provided that the moft accurate eye; the moil vigilant fuper- intendance ; the moft prompt adivity, which has no fuch day as to-morrow in its calendar; the moft fteady forefight and pre-difpoling order to have every body and every thing ready in it's place, and prepared to take advantage of the fortunate fugi- tive moment in this coquetting climate of ours — > provided, I fay, all thefe combine to fpeed the plough, I admit its fuperiority over the old and general methods. But under procraftinating, im- provident, ordinary hufbandmen, who may neg- lefb or let flip the few opportunities of fweetening and purifying their ground with perpetually reno- vated toil, and undifiipated attention, nothing, when tried to any extent, can be worfe, or more dangerous : the farm may be ruined, inftead of having the foil enriched and fweetened by ic. But ( 24 ) But the excellence of the method on a proper foil, and conduced by an hufbandman, of whom there are few, being readily granted, how, and on what conditions, is this culture obtained ? Why, by a very great encreafe of labour; by an augmen- tation of the third part, at leaft, of the hand- labour, to fay nothing of the horfes and machinery employed in ordinary tillage. Now, every man muft be feniible how little becoming the gravity of Legiilature it is to encourage a Board, which re- commends to us, and upon very weighty reafons tinqueftionably, an enlargement of the capital we employ in the operations of the land, and then to pafs an a£t which taxes that manual labour, al- ready at a very high rate; thus compelling us to dia-iinifli the quantity of labour which in the vul- gar courfe we adually employ. What is true of the farmer Is equally true of the middle man ; whether the middle man adts as fac- tor, jobber, falefman, or fpeculator, in the markets of grain. Thefe traders are to be left to their free courfe ; and the more they make, and the richer they are, and the more largely they deal, the better both for the farmer and confumer, between whom they form a natural and mod ufeful link of connec- tion ; though, by the machinations of the old evil counfellor. Envy, they are hated and maligned by both parties. I hear ( 25 ) I hear that middle men are accufed of mono- poly. Without queftion, the monopoly of autho- rity is, in every Inftance and in every degree, an evil J bat the monopoly of capital is the contrary. It is a great benefit, and a benefit particularly to the poor. A tradefman who has but a hundred pound capital, which (fay) he can turn but once a year, cannot live upon a profit of 10 per cent, be- caufe he cannot live upon ten pounds a year; but a man of ten thoufand pounds capital can live and thrive upon 5 per cent, profit in the year, becaufe he has five hundred pounds a year. The fame proportion holds in turning it twice or thrice. Thefe principles are plain and fimple ; and it is not our ignorance, fo 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 fuffer our vices to ufurp the place of our judgment. The balance between confumption and produc- tion makes price. The market fettles, and alone can fettle, that price. Market is the meeting and conference of the confumer and producer^ when they mutually difcover each other's wants. Nobody, I believe, has obferved with any refledion what market is, without being aftonilhed at the truth, the corrednefs, the celerity, the general equity, with which the balance of wants i$ fettled. They D who ( 26 ) who wifh the deftrudion of that balance, and would fain by arbitrary regulation decree, that de- feftive produdion fhould not be compenfaied by encreafed price, direftiy lay their ^.v^ to the root of produdtion itfelf. They may even in one year of fuch falfe policy, do mifchiefs incalculable j becaufe the trade of a farmer is, as I have before explained, one of the moft precarious in its advantages, the moft liable to lofies, and the leaft profitable of any that is carried on. It requires ten times more of labour, of vigilance, of attention, of fkill, and let me add, of good fortune alfo, to carry on the bufinefs of a farmer with fuccefs, than what belongs to any other trade. Seeing things in this light, I am far from prefiiming to cenfure the late circular inftruc- tion of Council to Lord Lieutenants — but I confefs I do not clearly difcern its obje