The Sun.
London, England, 1813-03-25 00:00:00

INDIA.

LTTLIt IV

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I. t 3 tat etl,, in my third Letter.othat thost_t persons
who had an interest in inculcating4a belief that there
w a great scarcity of timber in thiicountry., !diced
their chief reliance upon the re,mit of the two sur-
vey's nude in 1,608 without condesend,
ing to .ekamine .whether the .quantity grown in
1608 was or wtp not more than Was :;u' icient
for the, whole.constunption of the coutrtry, or. at 7
:tempting•to shew that the quantity grown. at the
latter period WAS insufficient to meet the demand.
Sir, it that mode of reasoning wire once allowt4i
to be.conelpsive, it mould not be;difthfit to thew
that a scarcity Inuit have existed in 1608, by la-
..ititotiog comparison between
.that fwd -ally of
the antecedent centuries. . '

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It •cannot,l should think, benceessary to remind
any Qf your readers, that atter the Conquest no
.1/cry inconsiderable portion of this *kingdom was
converted into forests, merely for tile. purposes of •
the chase, and that those forests were, planted not
with any reference to any existing or anticipated
demand for timber, but solely to gratify the fa-
vourite passion Qf the Monarch. It has, I know,'
been. urged, that the .astonishing increase of the
Ilritish Navy of late years is of itself almost suffi-
cient to create a .scarcity, and
.that in a short time
it " uiust" be most severely felt. Now it unfortu-
,nately.happens that precisely .the same language
was held fifty years ago, lt was then asserted as
positively as • it is now, and
,probably by persons
who were equciity well acquainted with the. sub-
ject ; that in-less." than half et century the most
alarming consequences would ensue it the most vi
gorou(measurts were not adopted to increase our
stock, of timber." The period for the completion,
of this alarming prophecy • has elaps.cd, and the
prediction has not been verified ; one of two con-
sequences must, therefore, be achnitterfc-r-eititer
that the prophets of that day knew nothing aliout,
the, Matter, or elsp that" vigorous mediures have
.since hemp taken to increase our stock. of Limber.",
'Chit there has been a rapid and unprecedented in-
crease hi our Navy 1 am ready to admit ; and ii that
fa'ethad not been nrged as an Lirguin en t oti the other.
Side of the,lquestion, I should certainly have
brought' it forward iu support of the proposition,
for which r aro contending,. But the advochtes
for India built slop., in.Lve adopted -a very ainbidex-
trollB sort of reasoning ; either the supply lois been
"eqrnil to 0o:del-Mind, or it has, not : if it Ilan not;
then. theh c::-seas substatniated once •if it bas,
then-they.logieally infer, that bccauso the supply
baS'been equal to the'demand,- thi;iefart it must
he: eafter he inadeqnate.
Every body kfiows that for more than a century
an alarm has subsisted in Trance, thtAt•the supply
.
of wood hir fuel would fail ; •and really when Iris
cotuid6red'that.no other' article is used foe
purpose throughout the whole of that immense

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t..()MAIN : t.. 1 l Ttio;st.%s W 001), "fl`o'. 114, Str""; ;arid 11'1111'1J" .I'v wILLLAM ARMIGIW. SCR,II,P4, .SOlllll Molton-street.
At the tc1:;, Str;md, 'Where Aditli
c3enientv,. Ord::r.; for tie I/ego-7J -1.0:-Iter4 for the Eadttr-, &c.,;eposi pa!1?),

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