exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the
wealth of the nation. The extent of the prosperous commerce of the
nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports, and an important
addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding
increase of importations. It has happened in the vicissitudes of the
seasons that the harvests of all Europe have in the late summer and
autumn fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the
interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has
ensued, a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our
country, and a new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the
husbandman, which for several years has been denied. This accession to
the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our
Union is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single
year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of
time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may
consider it certain that for the approaching year it has added an item
of large amount to the value of our exports and that it will produce a
corresponding increase of importations. It may therefore confidently be
foreseen that the revenue of 1829 will equal and probably exceed that of
1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing ten millions more of
the principal of the public debt.

This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry
which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence is
of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding
from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of
scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection that this
scarcity is in no respect attributable to us; that it comes from the
dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who
permits evil itself only as an instrument of good; that, far from
contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the
alleviation of its severity, and that in pouring forth from the
abundance of our own garners the supplies which will partially restore
plenty to those who are in heed we shall ourselves reduce our stores and
add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate
in the wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to
relieve.

The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, an