The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-11-01 00:00:00

PUBLIC Mil STING.
-•1..--

At the Election of Magistrates for the Borough
of Stafford on Monday se'nnight, the following speech
was delivered by George Chetwynd, Esq. M.P. for the
Borough.
" Mr. CIIETWYND said that the anxiety he must na-
turally feel in meeting so many of his constituents
upon the present occasion, was in a great.degree re-
lieved by the flattering compliment which had just
been paid him, because from the cordial manner in
which his health had been drank. it was fair to augur
that neither he, nor his honourable colleague, had
done any thing since he had last the honour of meeting
them upon a similar occasion, to forfeit the confi-
dence which they bad been pleased to repose in them.
Since that period many important events had occurred :
—they had gene through one of the most laborious
Sessions ever known in the History of Parliament, and
it would he a satisfaction to him hereafter to reflect
that lie had participated in those labours.—(Ap-
plause.)—Measures highly important, and materially
affecting the interests of the country had been carried,
and he hoped that his Majesty's Ministers bad actually
commenced, and were at this moment acting upon,
the system of economy and retrenchment, so strongly
urged by that indefatigable, acute, and useful Member
of Parliament, Mr. Hume, by whose exertions alone a
saving to the country of more than 117,0001. a year
would he immediately effected, in merely regulating
i the offices of Receivers General, which in many cases
had been converted into complete sinecures. Similar
reductions might he made, and he believed were mak-
ing in the War Office, Ordnance Department, Excise
and Customs.—(Applause.)—Mr. C. said he was de-
, ,
rummy of opinion that unless a system of the most
rigid, hut at the same time judicious economy, in the
expenditure of the public money. was enforced and
acted upon in every department of the State, the peo-
ple must not expect any relief from their present
heavy burdens. Most strongly did he deprecate the
continuance, in times like the present, of any useless
offices, sinecure placer, and pensions, unless granted
for services actually rendered to the country.--4Ap-
planse.)—Where this is the case, no one could' object
to them ; but upon looking ever the pension list, he
found many names therein which perfectly astonished
him. He !toped the . countraceirould be alive to this

his hands, he assured them it should not remain aor-
mant on the Table of the Honse." '

THE PRODUCE and CONSUMPTION OF THE
COUNTRY.

There having now been time to form an estimate of
the result of the last Harvest, the following article on
the produce and Consumption of the Country. from
the intelligent Editor of The Norwich 411errnry. will,
we doubt not, prove acceptable to all our readers who
arc interested in the-comparison stated :
The fact at all times most important t a Country is
the production and the cost of its subsistence; and at
this moment that fact is tendered doubly momentous
by the belief, corroborated both by evidence and events,
that the producers are daily falling into ruin, front the dif-
ference between the cost of production and the selling
price of the commodity. With this depreciation is
necessarily connected a concurrent depression of all
other articles and all incomes; and lastly the portentous
evil, that a taxation, heavier than any nation was ever
before subjected to, remains unaltered amidst this ge-
neral abstraction from the power to pay. Hence one
disorder leads to all the rest, and the interest of the in.
dividuals composing the community, as well as those of
the State itself, are injured and endangered.
_

One great problem is, to determine whether the
growth of the Country is eqnal to its consumption.
Upon this head we think the time is not yet arrived for
forming an accurate decision. There can be no doubt
that up to a very late period—perhaps 1819—the ge-
neral growth had not been decreased. if it had not even
increased, from superior knowledge of the science
_of
agriculture and superior attention, for the reasons
which are subjoined. From 1792 to 1819 there had
been an annual average importation of 500,000 quarters
of wheat only. In the year 1818 near five millions of
i
quarters of corn (including the import from Ireland and';
the Isle of Man) came in. The crops of 1819, 1820,
have been at least average crops. In bulk, that of last
year is excessive. We have lately traversed the country
in various directions, and never did we observe so many
stacks. We have seen the circulars of many Corn
Merchants, who concur in stating that the quality is
various and inferior, but nevertheless they express con-
fidently that the crop amounts to a full average.
With these premises before us, it is fair to conclude
that a much larger stock of the old as well as the new
growth than ordinary remains still in store. For if
500,000 quartets has been the average importation for
27 years, the wheat imported in 1818 would give full
three years consumption of foreign grain in advance,
and that all this did actually come into the market.
was sold and consume'', is proved by the fact that 957
quarters only remained under the King's lock in Feb.
1819. The effect was to displace so much of the
English growth, the Eyfglish farmer unwisely holding
for a higher price,'While the importer possessed himself
of the mart. But as the imports, to make upthe average of
500.000 quarters have taken place very mach in fall-
ing seasons when the crop was below as average crop,
it follows that the seasons since 1819, having produced
a full average or perhaps more than as average crop.
there is probably as accumulation of English growth,
both *ld and new. equal to the whole import of 1818,
and thus the supply is. and is likely to be beyond the
demand. however much the prices of good and bad,
mead sad aasuaad core, may vary.

,Y:

Tye- only, place where suct returns ars made and
• a
11:1Ch receftls published as cto enityle us to (corm a cosi,
liaratlve htatement of supply, is the port of London.
We have observed these records, and they exhikit,
though but partial, stilt some curious phenoMena.•
• rebel. Ai 13th of Nov. 1816 tivLita ,the ports had
been first steeped for_foragn corn) to April ,5. 1817,
the weekly average supply was—
ENGLISH WHEAT. ' FOREIGN WHEAT.
6810qrs. 5576
From April 5 to Aug. 16-4
6380 906
From. Nov. 13, 1817, to April IS, 1818
6962 667
The years 1819 and 1820 were limited certainly to an
English supply, except till February in the former year,
and it is remarkable that in 1819 the supply was about
6000 quarters per week. in 1820 the supply increased
about 1000quartersper week, beiag about 7000 week-
ly. In 1821 the supply has risen to 8000 quarters,
and it is singular that in no former year has there
been such an immense influx as during the last five
weeks, which has amounted to one-third of all sent in
during the year. There is no one week indeed, nor
no series of weeks when the supply has risen to half
the amount for these five. This not only proves the
abundance but the power which the employment of
threshing machines bestow of deluging the market at
once—a most important feature in the case—because
by means of this instrument, a farmer can instantly
take advantage of rise, and it is probable this circum-
stance alone would, in the event of such rise, be pro•
ditctive of great and immediate finctuation. For ma-
chinists now travel from firm to faro, and let their
implement amid their services for one or more days.—
! Every farmer can therefore command their use. This
is a much more important fact, in time agricultural
case titan is imagined, when considered in its relation
to the payment of wages, abstraction of the sum paid
from the parish, &c. &e. But one of the curious ques-
tions arising out of these figures is, how the apparent
deficit, occasioned by the non-appearance of foreign
grain at market, and amounting to more than half the
total, has been supplied during the three last years ? The
corn clearly did not come to London by sea, and it is
too much to suppose that a sufficient stock of either
English or Foreign was warehoused by millers for
three year's consumption.

In addition to tl►ese circumstances we have one
other fact to relate, which is momentous. Much sus-
picion has long existed, that quantities of foreign corn
have been surreptiously drawn from warelionses under
the King's lock, and sent into the market, in spite of
lire evidence to the contrary given on the Averages
Committee. In one instance a detection has very re-
cently been made of such a f and at a Yorkshire port.
lYe know the 14ct—though not the partirulars—and
we have strong reason to believe that similar cases of
negligence or collusion on the part of the revenue
officers may be found even in very large• depots. We
should therefore earnestly recom►nend Agricultural
Associations to petition the Board of Trade to cause
enquiry to
,be made into the matter, by a general sur-
vey. It Wcertainly an object of consequence, nut to

Sot to tie

large:

From these statements, which it is admitted mist
be very limited in their operation, though they exhibit
something of a general character, our readers will
draw their own inferences. We conclude that there is
a large sutpins of supply above the possibility of pre-
sent demand in harid, and consequently, 'that as the
holder is driven to sell, prices will fluctuate and conti-
wually fall. There will certainly be great differences
in valise, but as a large'portitffi of the crop is damaged
in the growth or by the weather in the harvesting,
the general agricultur.tl case will he made the harder.