have the the general averge price put down in place of the actual selling prices.

On looking back to examine particulars, I find that the three districts which have actually made returns, are the

Ist. comprehending, Essex, Kent, Sussex, the

5th, comprehending Durham and Northumberland,

and

8th, comprehending Flint, Denbygh, Anglesea, Carnarvon, Merioneth.

On going still back farther to examine particulars more narrowly, I find that from the three very populous counties, composing the first district, the following places alone have made returns.

out having bestowed a thought on correcting the enormous errors in the returns for that article, or providing any means for enforcing returns. The consequences of this must soon be felt.

*This last, however, does not come into the general average, from a peculiarity in the act we need not stop to explain. It is here set down that the reader may have at once in his view the actual state of the returns.

VOL. Xvii,

Thus, it appears, that out of one hundred and fifty market towns, which compose the whole of the twelvedistricts into which England and Wales have been divided by this law, only eight inconsiderable places have made any returns at all, of the selling price of pease; and the only two places which can be considered as in a trading district that have made a return, Maidston and Sussex, give an average of 32 s. 8d; while Pwllheli, which I suppose many of my readers now hear of for the first time, gives a price of no less than 60 s: per quarter. This however, goes to make up the general average price that must be substituted instead of the real price in all those nine districts which have made no returns; and I must here entreat your attention while I develope some of the consequences of this very curious mode of procedure *.

It is well known to every corn merchant on the east cost of Scotland, that the actual selling price of pease was lower in Norfolk during the whole season since reaping the crop 1792, than at Leith, or any where else along the north coast of Scotland, and that pease could have been bought at Lynn and sold here with profit; yet, as no returns had been made of the price of pease from Norfolk and the other counties where pease are reared for sale in quantities, and as some small inland places, where per

i* As another instance of the amazing negligence with which this law s enforced,-Though every dealer in grain is required to give an account upon oath, under severe penalties, of the whole quantity of corn he has bought or sold, it appears by the return now before me, that on ly 40 quarters of pease had been sold in the whole of England, and registered in this return.

haps not one quarter is sold for ten thousand that are sold at Lynn, had made returns at very high rates, the general average price was substituted for the real prices there; in consequence of which it appeared from your tables, that the price was so much higher in Norfolk than here, as, by the law as it stands, infers a forfeiture of fhip and cargo when attempted to be transported hither. In consequence of this situation of affairs, it is a notorious fact, that the owners of the whale ships in Dundee, having occasion for some pease to victual their vefsels, and finding these could be had cheaper from Lynn than at home, inadvertently ordered down a cargo of pease for that purpose. The vessel was accordingly seized; and though the commifsioners, from a sense of the high injustice of the case, did mitigate the law, and did not actually condemn the vefsel, yet the owners, as a great favour done them, were happy to be allowed to send back the cargo, and let their fhips go without any; for pease of last crop, the produce of this country, could not be got in quantities for this purpose at any price:*

It is also a notorious fact, that during the whole of last season, not a single pot pea, could be bought in Leith or Edinburgh, that was not smuggled into the

It is to be observed that white pease fit for being boiled, unsplit, are the pease chiefly reared in Norfolk; and grey pease, employed chiefly as a feeding for horses, are the only kinds reared in Scotland. No provision has been made by the law for allowing for the difference of price that ought and must always take place between them. This is one of the innumerable oversights in the law which subjects the country i endless perplexity.

harbour at the evident risk of forfeiture of every fhip in which they were brought.

I state facts that are known, and can be proved by thousands. I do it to you, sir, that you may, if you please to represent the absurdities that you are obliged to register every week, to those who have it in their power to correct them ;-and they loudly call for an immediate correction, as a national disgrace. But I state them also to the public, that in case you, sir, or those above you, should not think proper to move in this business, some other persons who have the welfare of the country at heart, but who have not thought of adverting to these things, may take a proper opportunity of bringing it forward for redress.

As to the alterations that were made during the last sefsion of parliament, I have fhown you they were in some respests much for the worse. These alterations were still worse in other respects, which my limits in this place prevent me from mentioning. The whole of this corn law must indeed be admitted to be one of the most complete absurdities in legislation that ever was uttered since the creation, by a deliberative assembly of sensible men, who were not under the influence of pafsion at the time; and by no pofsible modification can ever be carried into practice, so as nearly to effect the purposes they intended by it. Indeed they intended to do what no legislature any circumstances that can occur ever will be able to perform, and therefore it ought not to have been attempted. When some individuals shall have made fortunes, at the expence of the public, sufficient to satisfy themselves, it may then perhaps be discovered

in

that the whole system MUST BE ABANDONED as impracticable. In the mean time such persons as myself may speak on.

As this letter is intended for the public information as well as your own, I hope you will pardon me for sending you a printed copy, I remain, sir, your very humble servant.

Bee office, Edinr. ]

12th. Nov. 1793.

JAS. ANDERSON.

E

ON THE DELAYS INCIDENT TO THE COURT
OF SESSION.

Continued from p. 133.

To the Lord President of the Court of Sefsion.

MY LORD,

LETTER IX.

ON the intricate subject of my last, an action of count and reckoning, I.think your Lordship will approve of the proposal to ascertain, as nearly as pofsible, the putative balance, if I may so term it, due to the pursuer, and to have decreet given for the amount of it; as the defender will be kept safe, by reserving to him his counter action: and when he brings such an action, his very next step must be to exhibit a full and fair state of accounts, and produce the proper vouchers along with it. Throughout the whole of the process, too, the task of clearing up, or establishing facts, will fall to the fhare of him who is best acquainted with them.