507,778,695f. The goods in bond, on the 31st of December, 1833, were 112,960,111f. The goods that passed in transitu through France in 1833 were 107,871,655f. The goods exported with premium in the same year were 99,260,916f., and the premiums paid, 18,485,634f. The following table shows the premiums paid in the last two years :

THE opinion that has been formed, in diametrical opposition to Mr. Jacob's vast accumulation of evidence, and his inductive reports, that a large stock of old wheat remained in hand previously to last harvest, has received confirmation from the large supplies lately furnished; and in proof of the extended cultivation and growth of that staple of existence, accounts have been prepared, showing the quantities sent to the London market during the last ten years from Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. By these it appears that the joint supplies from these counties have been increased as understated.

This acts two ways in diminishing the supply of oats, the lands where that grain was raised being appropriated to wheat, and by increasing the supplies of the latter article proportionably. The causes which have given rise to this change-better tillage, and a necessity for augmenting the

most valuable part of the crop-have no doubt operated generally to bring more wheat into the market, and to defeat Mr. Jacob's prophecy of eventual scarcity.

In our last Report we mentioned that the low price of wheat,-rather because it forms the main subsistence of the people, than on account of its important station in the farmer's crops,-had induced a design to lower wages, not only upon this, but upon the plain principle that the wages always fluctuate with the fluctuation of the price of food. This determination has since been more generally acted upon. Discontent is the natural consequence. Large meetings of labourers have been held in several districts, hitherto without any violence; but though the men have stopped short of mischief during the day, there have been but too many terrible indications of the temper of the country in the spreading practice of incendiarism. The apprehension of the new Poor-law, arising out of the few instances of apparent severity where it has been acted upon, also operates to exasperate the labourers, who are but too universally impressed with the belief that neither "the world, nor the world's law," is friendly to them. It should indeed seem that they still adhere to the pernicious error which has destroyed so much property, reduced the means of their employment, and brought so many of themselves to an untimely end; that a higher rate of wages must eventually be compelled by the destruction of agricultural produce by fire. Of all the changes parochial degradation and moral depravation have brought upon the English character, this is the most to be deplored, because it is connected with so much palpable vengeance, and is perpetrated in the most diabolical spirit of malice. The worst of it is that all the remedies hitherto tried have failed. But idleness and pauperism have completely perverted the mind and morals of the class of agricultural labourers. And now the press begins to discover that the object to be kept constantly in view is the restoring the balance between the demand for, and the supply of labour. Until this be effected-until the labourer can count on constant employment at the market-rate of wages-until he ceases to be driven from one employer to another, one day under a farmer, and the next in a gravel-pit, the country can never be considered secure against such attempts as are now spreading so great an alarm among the agriculturists." This, we most potently believe, this has been long since emphatically stated in our pages. In the leading article of this journal, for March 1832, it was deduced from incontrovertible premises, drawn from a view of the whole case, that the pauperism of the labourers in agriculture arises from their being confined to an area insufficient for their profitable employment." This was then true, and the subsequent effect has only been to increase the pressure by the accession to the labour market of those arriving at a working age out of a population increasing daily at the rate of a thousand per diem. The remedy, therefore, is to extend that area by home and foreign colonization; the latter can never be made sufficiently comprehensive; the reliance of the country for its rescue must therefore be mainly placed on the former. Come it slow, or come it fast, to this it must come eventually.

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In the meanwhile, it is not a little curious to compare the practical adoption of the principle, and the theoretical condemnation of it, which we find in the writings and speeches of economists in Parliament, in committees, in societies, and last, not least, in the theory and practice of the new PoorLaw Bill itself.

The space we devote to this part of our miscellany is scarcely equal to carry out the development, but we may perhaps find the means hereafter to open the eyes of the country upon the palpable errors and contradictions now going on in this respect. In the mean time, we have said enough to turn the attention of the country to the fact.

The corn markets have evinced little variety or change since our last: the prices remain pretty much the same; the supplies of the raw material equal to the demand, a little below it perhaps in the manufactured article, Dec.-VOL. XLII. NO. CLXVIII.

2 N

for which reason flour has borne a rate disproportioned to the price of wheat. But the scarcity of water begins in a slight degree to abate, though the drought still may be said, comparatively speaking with the average of years, to continue, and the wind has also set the mills so moved to work, and increased, within the last week or two, the supplies of flour. This evil, which has been a subject of angry discussion in the journals, will thus soon remedy itself. The wheat trade, from this cause, as well as from a supply shortened in a degree by the necessity of wheat-sowing and field employment, has been more firm than previously. There can be no doubt that millers in the vicinity of London have the power under such circumstances artificially to sustain the price of flour, but the disproportion cannot be continued for any long period. Besides these circumstances enumerated, this artificial scarcity has been favoured by the late gales having prevented the arrival of cargoes both from Ireland and Scotland, and coastwise from even England.

Of barley the supply has been tolerably liberal, but nevertheless prices have improved, showing that this result arises from the general conviction of the production not being fully equal to present and future demand. It is stated that orders have been sent to Hamburgh for the article, which is at 13 to 14 in the ports of the Baltic. The malt-trade follows the barleytrade, and is brisk at better prices. Chevalier malt found ready sale at 65s., and the best a still higher rate. Oats may be deemed to have advanced full 38. during the middle fortnight of the month, and are earnestly inquired for. Beans are also in demand at higher qualities, and orders for the article are sent abroad, while from 18. to 2s. more have been given for the article in bond. The foreign markets exhibit little or nothing of change. While the mild weather has favoured the growth of turnips, which, having recovered in some sort from the blasting effects of the mildew, have continued to increase in the apple, the wheat-sowing has been somewhat retarded by its dryness. This has made the appearance of the blade rather later than usual, and even now there is land to sow. It is to be hoped that the old adage (we put great faith in such maxims, for they are generally those of experience,) will not hold this season, for if it does, the harvest of next year will be short. The adage we allude to is conveyed in the homely distich

"Sow in the slop -
Heavy at top."

Perhaps there never was less of "slop" than during the present wheatsowing. We have remarked an unusual quantity of red weed (as the poppy is called by farmers) now springing, and we believe it is not commonly known that for this very important evil there is a certain cure, which consists in running a bush over the land the moment the wheat appears above ground. This may be repeated four or five times, and if the land be at all moist, the subsequent use of a heavy rake will effectually crush the young weed, and prevent its future growth. We have had constant opportunities of observing the success of this practice, and of the contrary on lands contiguous to each other. We cannot conclude our article better than by citing the many examples of landlords and clergy making returns of rent and tithes to the amount of from ten to twenty per cent. A diminution of rent, tithe, and taxation, is far more to be calculated upon as a remedy for distress, than a reduction of the rate of labour. But this ought not to be done in the way of a benevolence. If the rent or tithe be too high for the relative value of the crop, let the land be fairly assessed. Let the farmer be reinstated in his rights. So long as it is otherwise he remains a mere dependant on the eleemosynary bounty of the landlord and clergyman. This is as much a subject for redress as the rate of wages being made up out of the poor's rate. The one will make a suppliant of the tenant, the other has made a pauper of the labourer. Both are inconsistent with the character of the yeoman, and "the bold peasantry" which have been hitherto the pride and the support of England.

RURAL ECONOMY.

Cultivation of the Potato.-An useful and interesting lecture on this subject has been delivered by the Rev. Mr. Mayo, at the Devizes Literary and Scientific Institution, in the course of which the lecturer, in alluding to the very slovenly mode of preparing the soil for a crop of potatoes in his own neighbourhood, said, "That previous preparation is of the utmost consequence, I am well convinced, as I this year obtained a crop three times as large on the ground I myself dug, as on that for which I paid a labourer. The generality of diggers stand upon the ground they are to dig, and slope the spade in such a way as to loosen the soil not more than four or five inches: the consequence is, that the upper soil becomes impoverished, while that beneath receives the fatness, without returning anything for the supply of the plant. I speak now of some of the market-gardeners themselves, as well as of their labourers. Their lands are cultivated in a slovenly manner, and no real science displayed. As long as they can scrape enough off the land to pay their rent, they seem content with their work. The first thing to be attended to in the cultivation of land, is never to touch it but when the weather is dry. One day's digging on a wet day has often spoiled the productiveness of the ground for a whole year. The next thing is to dig deep. Before you commence digging a patch of ground, open a trench two feet wide. If the soil will permit, take it out two spades deep; if the good soil is shallow, throw out only to the depth of a foot, but be sure that the under-soil or substratum is dug as deep as the spade will go, without mixing it with the upper soil. This alone will add greatly to the productiveness of the crop; then throw upon the opening so dug the top soil of the next space, and operate upon the subsoil in a similar manner; thus every year the goodness and depth of the soil will increase." The lecturer very justly observed, that next to the important advantages to be derived from the allotment system, is to teach those to whom the land is let, the most profitable mode of cultivating it.-Devizes Gazette.

USEFUL ARTS.

Important Discovery.—Mr. F. A. Bernhardt, a distinguished architect and civil engineer of Berlin, after many years' application, has found out a method of constructing fire-places so that they shall not emit smoke either in the chamber or in the street; at the same time that a current of warm air is diffused throughout the building, which in purity is equal to atmospheric air. By this invention, without altering the stoves as at present constructed, two-thirds of the fuel now used will create the necessary degree of warmth. It has been applied with the most complete success in Prussia.

New Detonator.-A patent has been taken out for a novel description of lock for percussion guns. The nipple on which a cap is placed is at the end of the breech of the barrel, and a lever which lifts by a hinge joint enables the cap to be put upon the nipple, and when the lever is closed, all is water-proof, and little appearance of a lock. On the inside is a plunger with a spring, which, on pulling the trigger, strikes against the cap, and fires the gun. To the trigger is attached a lever bolt, which is acted on by the hand in the act of firing, so as to free the trigger, but at all other times it renders the gun as safe as with the common lock. There is no cock, and the invention is certainly a very ingenious one, but time must prove whether it is effective, and possessed of advantages sufficient to occasion its general adoption.

NEW PATENTS.