cent. per annum, which experience has shown to be the actual rate of increase, the mean number of consumers in this period has been 25,218,221; so that if the importations had been fairly divided among them, each would annually have received just one gallon of wheat. In each of the three periods of ten years into which our statement has been divided, there have been two years of large importation arising from deficient harvests; and in the last period of four years, the year 1831 was of this character. If those years were excluded from the calculation, the average importations would of course be materially lessened. Taking the last four years, the average has been only 125,229 quarters, or less than three pints per head for each one of the people; and if the calculation is limited to the years 1833, 1834, and 1835, the average importation of 58,494 quarters brought from foreign countries and our colonies, would afford just one pint and one-fifth, equal to about 15 ounces of fine flour, during the year, to each consumer.

While the total number of families in Great Britain has increased, between 1811 and 1831, from 2,544,215 to 3,414,175, or at the rate of 34 per cent., the number of families employed in agriculture has increased only from 895,998 to 961,134, or at the rate of 7 per cent. The increased production; which is thus seen to have been brought about by a comparatively small addition of labour, has in a great degree resulted from the employment of capital in improving the soil, in draining and manuring, in throwing down a great part of the fences with which our forefathers were accustomed to divide their farms into small patches, by the use of improved implements of husbandry, and, above all, through the employment of a better system of cropping by rotation. Nor should we omit to notice, among the most effective causes of this improved condition of agriculture, the help that has been borrowed from men of science. In particular the researches of Davy, undertaken at the instance of the Board of Agriculture, about the beginning of the present century, may be mentioned as having produced the happiest results, by showing the various resources we can command, through the application of chemical knowledge, for remedying the defects and improving the natural capabilities of different soils. It may be added, that the great agricultural improvements which have taken place since the peace, and which are still in progress, while they negative the notion of an uninterrupted series of losses on the part of cultivators, are, in some degree, the consequence of the stimulus to exertion supplied by low prices. Had prices continued high, the farmers would perhaps have gone on in their old course; but with so considerable a fall as they have experienced in the value of their produce, such a course would have been attended with certain ruin, and in this way the improvements they have made may be Isaid to have been forced upon them.

The following table of the number of inclosure bills passed by Parliament, of the annual excess of exports or imports, and of the average prices of wheat in England, will give a tolerably correct idea of the progress of agriculture in that part of the kingdom, during each of the 75 years between 1760 and 1835. For the convenience of examination, this table is divided into eight periods; seven consisting each of ten years, and the last of six years :—

It will be seen that in the ten years from 1760 to 1769, when the average number of inhabitants of England and Wales was 6,850,000 souls, the quantity of wheat produced was more than sufficient for home use by 1,384,561 quarters-an inconsiderable quantity, and so near to the then wants of the people, that the deficient harvests of 1767 and 1768 occasioned the importation of the comparatively large quantity of 834,669 quarters.

The select committee of the House of Commons, which sat in 1813 to inquire into the state of the corn trade, stated in their report, that through the extension of, and improvements in, cultivation, the agricultural produce of the kingdom had been increased one-fourth during the ten years preceding the time of their inquiry.

With scarcely any exception, the revenue drawn in the form of rent

from the ownership of the soil, has been at least doubled in every part of Great Britain since 1790. This is not a random assertion, but, as regards many counties of England, can be proved by the testimony of living witnesses; while in Scotland, the fact is notorious to the whole population. In the county of Essex, farms could be pointed out which were let just before the war of the French Revolution at less than 10s. per acre, and which rose rapidly during the progress of that contest, until, in 1812, the rent paid for them was from 45s. to 50s. per acre. This advance has not, it is true, been maintained since the return of peace in 1818 the rent was reduced to 35s., and at the present time is only 20s. per acre, which, however, is still more than double that which was paid in 1790. In Berkshire and Wiltshire there are farms which, in 1790, were let at 14s. per acre, and which, in 1810, produced to the laudlord a rent of 70s., being a five-fold advance. These farms were let in 1820 at 50s., and at this time pay 30s. per acre, being 114 per cent. advance upon the rent paid in 1790. In Staffordshire there are several farms on one estate which were let in 1790 at 8s. per acre, and which having in the dearest time advanced to 35s., have since been lowered to 20s.; an advance, after all, of 150 per cent. within the half century. The rents here mentioned as being those for which the farms are now let, are not nominal rates from which abatements are periodically made by the landlord, but are regularly paid, notwithstanding the depressed prices at which some kinds of agricultural produce have of late been sold. In Norfolk, Suffolk, and Warwickshire, the same, or nearly the same, rise has been experienced; and it is more than probable that it has been general throughout the kingdom.

It is not possible to state the amount of land which has been brought into cultivation under the inclosure acts, of which mention has been made. In a report drawn up by a committee of the House of Commons, which sat in 1797 to inquire into the state of the waste lands, an estimate given of the number of acres which had been comprised in the inclosure bills carried into execution between 1710, when the first inclosure bill was passed in England, and the time of the inquiry. If the estimate of this committee be taken as the basis of a further calculation, it will be found that the whole number of acres brought into cultivation from the beginning of the reign of George III. to the end of the year 1834, has been 6,840,540, viz. :

The following is a statement of the territorial surface of Great Britain, Ireland, and the adjacent islands; exhibiting the quantity of statute acres of cultivated lands, of the wastes capable of being brought into a state of cultivation, and of all other kinds of surface unfit for the production of grain, vegetables, hay, or grasses. Made out in May, 1827 :—

TOBACCO-ACCOUNTS RELATIVE TO TOBACCO.

(Compiled from Parliamentary Returns.)

Manufactured tobacco called negrohead, cigars, and snuff, imported into England, year 1836, ended 5th January, 1837; distinguishing the quantities of each denomination.

Total

52,232,907168,668 13,580 52,415,155*

*Of this quantity 50,943,059lbs. were imported into England; 1,463,644lbs. into Scotland; and 8452lbs. into Ireland.

An account of the number of pounds' weight of leaf tobacco, manufactured tobacco, cigars, and snuff, paid duty upon for home consumption, for the year 1836, ended 5th of January, 1837; also, the rate of duty and the total amount of the same, distinguishing England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Rates of duty, per lb., on tobacco, in the year ended 5th January, 1837:-Unmanufactured, viz., of any British possession in America, 2s. 9d.; of any other place, 3s. Manufactured tobacco and cigars, 9s. ; snuff, 6s.

The number of pounds weight of cut or shag and roll tobacco, rappee, Scotch, and brown Scotch snuff respectively, sent out by permit or certificate by the manufacturers in the United Kingdom, in the year ended 5th of January, 1837, was as follows:

:

In England-11,577,182 lbs. of cut or shag; 1,137,190 lbs. of roll; 298,428 lbs. of cigars; 589,895 lbs. of rappee snuff; 1,175,491 lbs. of Scotch snuff; 203,915 lbs. of brown Scotch snuff; 2648 lbs. of tobacco stalk flour: total, 14,984,749 lbs.

In Scotland-3614 lbs. of cut or shag; 1,707,074 lbs. of roll; 250 lbs. of cigars; 633,507 lbs. of rappee snuff; 18,454 lbs. of Scotch snuff; 163 lbs. of brown Scotch snuff: total, 2,363,062 lbs.

In Ireland-2866 lbs. of cut or shag; 3,205,418 lbs. of roll; 3365 lbs. of cigars; 11,048 lbs. of rappee snuff; 161,231 lbs. of Scotch snuff : total, 3,383,928 lbs.

Total for the United Kingdom, 20,731,739 lbs.

REPORT OF THE SELECT

COMMITTEE

CIVIL LIST.

ON THE

PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 5, 1837. The select committee to whom the accounts of income and expenditure of the civil list, from 1st January, 1831, to 31st December, 1836, with an estimate of the probable future charge of the civil list of her Majesty, were referred, have, pursuant to the order of the house, taken the same into their consideration, and agreed to the following report:In the performance of the duties entrusted to them by the house, your committee have found their inquiries much abridged and simplified by reason of the arrangements made by Parliament on the accession of his late Majesty. By the Act of 1 Will. IV. c. 25, the civil list of the Crown was relieved from those expenses which had no immediate connexion with the royal dignity or personal comfort of the Sovereign, but which belonged rather to the civil government of the state. Under this distribution a sum of upwards of 600,000l., which, during the reign of his late Majesty George IV., had been charged on the civil list and the