Page:Vindication of a fixed duty on corn.djvu/17

11

In the first period, therefore, 2.194,200, and in the second 4,485,541 of the additional population must have been supplied from our own increased produce.

In what degree our own produce may yet be increased by a still improving mode of culture, I am not prepared to decide; but from the tillage of fresh land the increase must plainly every year become less, and, except perhaps in Ireland, soon cease altogether. Looking, therefore, to the next period of ten years, we cannot estimate the supply which we shall annually require from abroad at less than 1,500,000 quarters of wheat and 750,000 quarters of other sorts of corn; or, in other words, we must annually import corn sufficient to feed two millions of our population.

During the last thirteen years we have had ample opportunities of trying a Corn Law with a variable duty, and in its present state it is, I believe, uni-