THE summer of 1816 had been so cold and wet, and the harvest so remarkably late, that, in the northern parts of Britain, the crops had scarce. ly all been carried from the fields before the beginning of the present year. In different parts of the Island, the labours of this important season might have been seen going on from the beginning of September till the middle of December; and much of the latest crops was accordingly of little or no value, and not worth securing, if they had not been necessary for the support of cattle during the winter. At the latter period, the greater part of the land intended for wheat remained to be sown, and was in a very unsuitable state for receiving the seed.

The present year commenced with more favourable weather. January and February were uncommonly mild and moderately dry; so that field-labour was very little interrupted, and a great deal of wheat was put in, both on the fallows and turnip lands. At the beginning of March, farmers, in most

instances, seemed to have recovered the ground they had lost, their work being nearly as far advanced as usual at this season. March, April, and May allowed all the spring seeds to be deposited in a dry bed; but the temperature was low, vegetation made little progress, and the ravages of the grub became very extensive. In the early part of June, the appearance of the crops was, with few exceptions, most unpromising, the plants being thin on the ground, stunted and feeble. About the middle of that month, a fortunate change occurred, which continued till August. Gentle showers, sunshine, and heat, during this period, not only spread health, vigour, and luxuriance over the fields, but seemed to have suddenly filled up the thin crops with new plants. But the hopes that now began to be formed were disappointed by the heavy rains that fell in August, which laid them down, and retarded their ripening. September, however, and the greater part of October, were favourable, the former remarkably so.

Reaping had begun partially in the south of England in August, before dry weather set in, and some of the earliest grain was therefore injured; but general harvest did not come on till September, and before the middle of October, nearly all the crops of England, and the south of Scotland, were secured in the best condition. In the Highlands of Scotland, however, the oats were still in the fields, and were not all gathered till the end of November. This month was, for the most part, wet; and toward the end

January.

With a view to the supply of the markets, and to the prices of 1817, it is necessary to observe, that crop 1816, which then came into consumption, had been deficient in a very extraordinary degree, as was to be expected from the very ungenial weather of that year. Though it is difficult, if not impossible, to estimate, with any near approach to accuracy, the extent of this deficiency, yet it seems to have been generally understood, that not more than half the quantity of sound marketable wheat, that is grown in Britain in ordinary years, was produced in 1816. In East Lothian, the first wheat-growing county in Scot

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land, and not inferior, in this respect, in favourable seasons, to the average of England, this grain was computed to yield only about twelve bushels, or a quarter and a half the acre. Barley was a better crop than wheat, and also oats, except in high or cold situations, where much of this grain never came to maturity. Beans and peas did not return twice the seed. And potatoes were neither good nor plentiful. But crop 1815 had been abundant; and though it was evident, before midsummer 1816, that the produce of the latter year would be greatly below an average, and the harvest very late, yet prices did not rise so high as to open

the ports to foreign grain till November, 1816.

The ports having continued open till November, 1817, grain of all kinds, and flour, were imported to the value, at the market prices, of 7,763,8951. With this addition to the supply, the average prices of England, in 1817, were, Wheat, 94s. 9d.; Rye, 56s. 6d.; Barley, 48s. 3d.; Oats, 328. 1d.; Beans, 528.; Peas, 51s. 5d., per quarter; and Oatmeal, per boll of 140 lb. avoirdupois, 39s. 3d. ; and the average prices of Scotland-Wheat, 688. 3d.; Rye, 38s. 4d.; Barley, 29s. 8d.; Oats, 23s. 8d.; Beans, 35s. 5d.; Pease, 35s. 8d.; and Oatmeal, 18s. 11d. The difference between these prices strongly marks the inferior quality of the produce of Scotland, particularly in wheat; that of England being no less than 26s. 6d. per quarter higher, instead of 8s. or 10s, as in ordinary years. But much of the inferior wheats of both countries, especially of the former, do not appear in these averages; and it is an undoubted fact, that a pretty large proportion of the whole crop was sold for less than 60s. the quarter.

The best criterion of the value of wheat, after so unfavourable a season as 1816, in which the quality of the grain was so various, is the price of bread. In London, the quartern-loaf remained steadily at 174d. till May; in that month it was 184d.; in June, the price rose for two weeks to 20d.; but after the favourable weather that occurred about the middle of the month, it began to fall. Before the end of July, it was down to 154d.; in August, 14d.; in September, 13d.; but in the beginning of October, it rose again to 14d., at which it continued till the end of the year. Notwithstanding the difference in the average prices of wheat in England and Scotland, the price of the quarternloaf in Edinburgh was never below

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From this rise of price after harvest, it must be evident, that the this year was not considered to be so productive as had at one time been expected. The shutting of the ports in November, it is true, prevented us from receiving further supplies of foreign grain, barley excepted; but so small are the imports during the winter months, when the Baltic is inaccessible, that this circumstance could kardly have had any effect on prices, if our own new crop had been tolerably abundant. As soon as there was time to ascertain the fact, it was found accordingly, that though the bulk in the straw was great, the produce was, in many instances, deficient, and, in all, that the quality was inferior. The heavy rains of August, which had laid down the best crops of wheat and barley, sufficiently account for the thinness and lightness of these grains, which, besides this, had not had the benefit of much heat and sunshine during summer; and the spring-sown wheat and oats, and also the beans and pease, had suffered very generally from frosts in the beginning of October. There was not, however, so remarkable a failure in any one crop as in the preceding year, in the case of wheat; unless in the oat crop in Scotland, and particularly in the Highlands. In that district, and generally in the hilly tracts of Scotland, oats were not more productive than in 1816; in many instances, hardly worth the reaping. But potatoes turned out well almost every

where; a greater breadth than usual had been planted, and the produce was both abundant, and of an excellent quality.

At the beginning of the year, all kinds of farm live-stock, as also the produce of the dairy, had fallen to little more than half the prices they would have brought in 1813. At the beginning of the grass-season, cattle and sheep, fit for being made fat before the end of the year, sold freely at the rates of 1816, and advanced from 10 to 15 per cent. by mid-summer. Stock of this description experienced a further advance in autumn. But young and lean cattle continued in little request till the beginning of winter, when they were in demand for the straw-yards. In the early part of the year, the market was fully supplied with fat stock, at from 5s. to 7s. per stone; during summer it was lower; but rose again to about the same rates before the end of the year. Wool advanced a little; Leicester (in Scotland) was sold for 28s., and Cheviot, from 24s. to 26s. per stone of 24 lb.; fine wool also improved in value. Add to this, that the lambing season had been favourable, and it will be seen, that the grazier was better remunerated than the corn-grower.

The circumstance of two unfavourable years following in succession could not fail to occasion much distress. In England, this distress exhibited itself as usual, in the advance of the poorrates, which in some places amounted to as much as the rent. Other measures were necessarily resorted to for the relief of the lower classes in Scotland. The condition of the small tenants of the Highlands was so deplorable, that in many parts, during the winter of 1817, they were not only in want of potatoes and oatmeal for their support, but had no seed fit to be used for the ensuing crop. Some of the proprietors, on this occasion, generously came forward to assist them, by importing

grain from other districts; while rents were either abated, or their payment allowed to stand over till better times. The Highland Society offered premiums for the cultivation of early po tatoes, which had some effect in bring. ing this root sooner into use in Edinburgh; and the same measure was adopted by some of the societies in Ireland, where the preceding season had been equally unfavourable as in Britain.

Many of the country-labourers were thrown out of employment, and wages were everywhere too low, when com pared with the prices of grain. This is the necessary consequence of the high price of produce, when it is occasioned, as in the present case, by the failure of the crops. At such a time, wages, instead of rising to meet the advance of prices, invariably fall, be cause the employers in general are less able to pay them. All those farmers, whose principal dependence is on grow. ing wheat, received less money for their crop 1816, than for that of the preceding year, of which the price was only about half the average of 1817. For what part of crop 1817 came to mar. ket before the end of the year, the cultivators of good early soils were much better remunerated; and the whole of this crop, indeed, sold at such prices, as to yield a liberal profit to the grower throughout the principal corn-districts of the kingdom.

The large import of foreign grain during this year, though it was evident from the prices that it was all needed, was looked upon with a jealous eye by some of the farmers of England, who first began, about this time, to form associations for obtaining a repeal of the present corn-laws, in order to have a duty imposed on foreign grain, whatever might be the prices in our own market. Their petitions to Parlia ment, and the proceedings that took place there in consequence, belong to a subsequent period.

THE Commercial and manufacturing interests of Great Britain were, at the commencement of this year, marked by that deep depression, of which we have already endeavoured to trace the causes. A general distress pervaded the community; and every manufacturing town was filled with thousands of starving labourers. The reduction of the national expenditure, and the straitened circumstances of the agricultural population, darkened the demand at home; while all the foreign markets being glutted with our manufactures, till they were sold below prime cost, every discouragement was thus given to sending more. At the same time an equal depression was felt in the price of sugar, wine, coffee, cotton, and every article of colonial produce. It was increased by the East India Company bringing to market coffee and cotton, the produce of Bourbon and Java; and the former of a superior quality to the West India coffee. Tobacco, which early in the year stood as low as the other commodities, felt a slight revival in February and March, in consequence of some orders which were received from France.

Equal distress with that felt in Britain seems to have prevailed on the continent, particularly in Holland and Germany. Many of the old branches of trade and manufactures had been broken up during the recent convulsions, and were in vain attempted to be again set on foot. The following account of the Leipsic fair includes a general view of commercial affairs throughout Ger. many.

"Our fair has turned out extremely ill; it may be reckoned inferior by one-third, if not one-half, to the last Michaelmas fair. It is said there were fourteen thousand strangers less, which

one could easily perceive in the streets. The number of Russians and Poles in particular was small, and those who were traders made but few purchases. Germany is so overstocked with goods, that it has far more than it needs, the consumption having been much reduced by war and distress, and the manufactures, by the employment of machinery instead of human labour, have greatly increased, and every thing is produced much more rapidly. This causes the trade in manufactured goods to stagnate extremely. Silks, formerly a great article at our fair, were in small demand. English cotton manufactures extremely cheap; they fell five or six per cent, and scarcely a third part of the stock on hand was disposed of. The proprietors of course suffer a great loss by the part they have left on their hands. Saxon cotton goods found hardly any sale. Our manufacturers are inconsolable, since by this failure of their last hope the greatest distress will be occasioned, as they will be obliged to dismiss a number of workmen, who will be exposed to perish with hunger. Woollen wares, particularly fine Netherland cloths, and Saxon Merinos, kerseymeres, &c. sold well, and almost all the stocks were bought. The inferior cloths fetched very low prices. Wool from Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary, of inferior qualities, was in abundance; the prices have, however, fallen from 40 to 60 per cent, within these two months. Almost the whole was sold. As shearing time approaches, the Saxon may be expected to become cheaper than last year; but it is not likely to fall above 10 or 15 per cent. cheaper than last year. Goods of English manufacture were really in masses; the indiennes, the muslins, and the woollen cloths of Great Britain,

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