Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/190

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( 180 )

¬political occonomy. Until you come into the* full enjoyment of what wisdom is sure to bestow, you must, of course, have temporary arrange- ments according to circumstances, that provi- sions may be alwa} r s obtained at steady and reasonable rates; but, in the meantime, your undoubted policy is universal cultivation", and when that is accomplished, or so far ad- vanced as to feed your people, not a blade or seed, or grain of any description ought to be permitted to enter the ports of your country, times of famine or scarcity excepted ; and even then the quantity should be measured by the decision of some high and responsible tri- bunal, to secure unfluctuating prices, not so high as to distress the poor, nor so lozv as to throw them out of bread, when the landholders, who employ them, are undersold by general and jobbing importations. ¬" To speak plainly — It is my clear opinion that this cannot be accomplished in the present state of things, except by protecting duties, ¬which ¬