saving labour and the unusual monopoly of the commerce of Europe
which has been thrown into our hands by the war. When these
inventions spread and Europe recovers in some degree her industry
and capital, we may not find it so easy to support the competition.
The more strongly the natural state of the country directs it to the
purchase of foreign corn, the higher must be the protecting duty or
the price of importation, in order to secure an independent supply;
and the greater consequently will be the relative disadvantage which
we shall suffer in our commerce with other countries. This drawback
may, it is certain, ultimately be so great as to counterbalance the
effects of our extraordinary skill, capital and machinery.

The whole, therefore, is evidently a question of contending
advantages and disadvantages; and, as interests of the highest
importance are concerned, the most mature deliberation is required
in its decision.

In whichever way it is settled, some sacrifices must be submitted
to. Those who contend for the unrestrained admission of foreign
corn, must not imagine that the cheapness it will occasion will be
an unmixed good; and that it will give an additional stimulus to the
commerce and population of the country, while it leaves the present
state of agriculture and its future increase undisturbed. They must
be prepared to see a sudden stop put to the progress of our
cultivation, and even some diminution of its actual state; and they
must be ready to encounter the as yet untried risk, of making a
considerable proportion of our population dependent upon foreign
supplies of grain, and of exposing them to those vicissitudes and
changes in the channels of commerce to which manufacturing states
are of necessity subject.