each 100 of these relapsed criminals, 56 have appeared once before at the bar of criminal justice; 20 have appeared twice before; 9 have appeared three times before; and 15 have previously appeared four times or more to answer for offences.

The fact that so many ill-disposed persons are continually let loose upon society to prey upon the honest, and to corrupt the weak and ignorant, is a circumstance which loudly calls for remedy on the part of government, which would surely be justified in removing the pestilence, and indeed would seem to be under an obligation of duty to do So. The degree in which this duty is incumbent upon the government was placed in a very strong light by the highest criminal judge in the kingdom, when he expressed a doubt whether any government is fully justified in awarding punishments for crimes, unless it has previously taken every moral precaution within its power for their prevention.

According to the Gaol Returns for 1834, the number of persons who became inmates of prisons in England and Wales during that year, amounted to within a very small fraction of 100,000, of whom 15,270 had on one or more previous occasions been subjected to punishment. Many of the offences for which this large number of persons were committed were of a comparatively trivial character. Vagrancy, assaults, want of sureties arising out of cases for breaches of the peace, trespasses, acts of petty pilfering, poaching, offences against the revenue laws, disorderly acts on the part of apprentices and workmen, and various other offences for which magistrates have the power of passing summary sentences of imprisonment for periods varying from a week to twelve months-these form the large majority of the causes of confinement; but even these offences-it would be harsh and unjust to call them crimes-are, through a culpable want of care on the part of those in authority, unintentionally, it is true, but unavoidably visited with the severest degree of punishment, in the destruction, by confinement in a prison, of all those moral and religious restraints which chiefly prevent men, whose natural good feelings have not been strengthened by education from becoming nuisances to society.

The Gaol Returns of 1844 show that in 10 years there has been an increase of more than 25 per cent. to the number of persons passing through the prisons of England and Wales; the numbers for that year having been 126,000, of whom 28,841 had on one or more previous occasions been committed to a prison, an increase of nearly 90 per cent. upon the number of récidives in 1834. It is to be hoped that this progress is caused, in part at least, by more vigilant police arrangements. We have, at any rate, the satisfaction of knowing, from the reports of the chaplains and governors of some of the principal gaols, that a great improvement in their discipline has been brought about, and that con

finement in a prison is not so certain now as it was formerly to consummate the ruin of those who enter it.

If the contagion of bad example and vicious instruction could be avoided, the restraint of a prison might perhaps prove, when applied to minor offences, as good a corrective as any other punishment capable of general application, and especially when a system of irksome labour is engrafted on it. The suggestion already made of sending away criminals to labour in situations where none would be within the noxious influence of their evil precepts or example would take away from imprisonment, when inflicted on less grave offenders, the reproach to which it is now liable, and which renders it the most unfit instrument that can possibly be employed for correction, both as regards the individuals upon whom it is inflicted and society at large.

Since the year 1824, a considerable establishment of convicts has been kept up in the Bermudas, employed in constructing a breakwater, and in perfecting some fortifications at Ireland Island. The number at present so maintained is about 1000. The works upon which they are employed will, it is expected, be shortly completed, when the convicts will be withdrawn, as it is not intended to make the Bermudas a penal settlement. The suggestion that has been offered in regard to the employment of convict labour on the continent of North America is thus not unsupported by precedent, although the nature of the labour upon which the Bermuda convicts have been engaged is somewhat different from that suggested as desirable in the back-woods of Canada or New Brunswick. If good has been found to result from this experiment on the part of the government, there can be no reason to doubt that an equal benefit would follow the plan now recommended, as a means both of saving a considerable expense and of producing a good moral effect upon the idle and dissolute among the lower classes in this country.

SECTION II.-PRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

AGRICULTURE.

Impossibility of importing any large proportion of Food for the Population-Importations of Wheat, 1801 to 1849-Comparative smallness of its amount Numbers fed with Wheat of Home and of Foreign Growth-Increased Productive Power of Great Britain -Means whereby this increase has been effected-Deficiency of statistical information connected with Agriculture in England-Improvements in Scotland-Inclosure Bills and Average Prices of Wheat since 1760-Corn-Law of 1815-Conflicting testimony as to Agricultural Distress given to the Committee in 1833-Increased Rents since 1790Adaptation of the Steam-Engine to the Draining of Fens-Effect upon Agriculturists of the restoration of a Metallic Currency-Land brought under Cultivation since 1760Compared with Increase of Population since 1801-Surface of cultivated, uncultivated, and unprofitable Land in each division and County of the United Kingdom in 1827— Proportion of cultivated Land to the Population at different periods during the present century-Probability of Population outstripping the productive powers of the soil -Supposed influence upon this question of the extensive construction of RailroadsEstimate of the Number of Horses, the employment of which may by that means be rendered unnecessary.

In every country the condition of its agriculture must be a subject of the very first importance. An inconsiderable state or colony may, it is true, without much danger or inconvenience, exist under circumstances which oblige it to be habitually dependent upon the soil of other countries for the food of its inhabitants; but a very little inquiry, and a very simple calculation, would suffice to convince us that this can never be the case with a numerous people. To supply the United Kingdom with the single article of wheat would call for the employment of more than twice the amount of shipping which now annually enters our ports, if indeed it would be possible to procure the grain from other countries in sufficient quantity; and to bring to our shores every article of agricultural produce in the abundance we now enjoy, would probably give constant occupation to the mercantile navy of the whole world.

These are assertions which every one can in a moment verify or disprove, by estimating the average consumption of each inhabitant of the kingdom, and multiplying its annual amount by the numbers of the population. If they are true, it must be equally true that every country which makes great and rapid progress in population must make equal progress in the production of food. A trifling addition to the number of the people might be met either by importations from abroad

or by a diminution of the proportion of food which they consume.

But

the first of these expedients is impossible when any great accession is made to the population; and it is a proposition, the truth of which will hardly be questioned, that where the people are deprived of any considerable proportion of their accustomed supply of food, it is highly improbable that their numbers should increase.

It has been shown in the previous section how greatly and how rapidly the population of the United Kingdom has increased since the beginning of the present century. During the forty years that intervened between the census of 1801 and that of 1841, that increase amounted to 10,700,000 souls, and at the present time (1850) may have reached 13,000,000, a number probably equal to the entire population of Great Britain in 1811.

This increase of inhabitants would be sufficient, as already remarked, to contradict the idea of any great inadequacy in the quantity of food, if the observation and experience of every one did not enable him otherwise to disprove such a position; and as it is equally impossible to believe that the increasing wants of the people, during the above-mentioned period of forty years, were in any material degree met by supplies from without, the conviction is irresistibly forced upon us that a most important increase in the amount of agricultural products must have taken place within the kingdom. It is not necessary for us, however, to rest satisfied upon this point with reasonings and calculations, however convincing, since we are enabled to ascertain with precision, from custom-house returns, the entire quantity of grain that has been imported into the kingdom for each one of a long series of years. It is equally unnecessary to load these pages with numbers and lengthened tables of figures, in order to make good the position that has been here advanced. The following short statement of the quantity of wheat and wheat flour that has been imported for consumption in each year of the present century will suffice to show how insignificant, when compared with the wants of the community, have been the supplies which we have drawn from foreign countries:

*The exports of wheat in this year exceeded the quantity imported.

It appears from this statement, that in the ten years from 1801 to 1810, the average annual import of wheat into the kingdom amounted to 600,946 quarters; and as the mean number of the population during that period was 17,442,911 souls, this quantity would afford a very small fraction above a peck for the annual consumption of each person. The average importation in the ten years between 1811 and 1820 was 458,578 quarters; and as the mean number of the population had in that period advanced to 19,870,589, that number of quarters would afford each person one gallon and a half towards the year's consumption. In the third period, between 1821 and 1830, the average annual importation advanced to 534,992 quarters; but the population had advanced in an equal proportion, so that the annual share of each person in the foreign supply remained the same (one gallon and a half) as last stated. The average amount of importation in the ten years from 1831 to 1840 rose to 907,638 quarters; and the mean number of consumers in this period having been 25,601,119, the importations, if fairly divided among them, would have given annually to each about 24 gallons.

In each of the three periods of ten years into which the foregoing statement has been divided, up to 1830, there were two years of large importation arising from deficient harvests, and in the last decennary period there occurred four years of this character. If those years were excluded from the calculation, the average importations would of course be materially lessened.

During the last nine years of the series, viz., from 1841 to 1849, the average quantity of foreign and colonial wheat and wheat flour taken for home use advanced to 2,588,706 quarters per annum, which quantity, divided equally among the increased number of consumers, would afford nearly 6 gallons per annum for each person.

It will be fresh in the memory of most persons that, in addition to several years of somewhat deficient grain harvests, we have, during the period included in these nine years, been visited by one of the severest calamities arising from the influence of seasons which it has been our misfortune ever to encounter. The famine caused in Ireland by the destruc