which could not be yielded
by one country, must be yielded by many. In that
proportion increase the probabilities that a number will
have no surplus. And, secondly, from the widening
distances, in that proportion increases the extent of
shipping required. But now, even from Mr Porter, a most
prejudiced writer on this question, and not capable of
impartiality in speaking upon any measure which he
supposes hostile to the principle of free trade, the
reader may learn how certainly any great _hiatus_ in our
domestic growth of corn is placed beyond all hope of
relief. For how is this grain, this relief, to be
brought? In ships, you reply. Ay, but in what ships? Do
you imagine that an extra navy can lie rotting in docks,
and an extra fifty thousand of sailors can be held in
reserve, and borne upon the books of some colossal
establishment, waiting for the casual seventh, ninth, or
twelfth year in which they may be wanted--kept and paid
against an "_in case_," like the extra supper, so called
by Louis XIV., which waited all night on the chance that
it might be wanted? _That_, you say, is impossible. It
is so; and yet without such a reserve, all the navies of
Europe would not suffice to make up such a failure of
our home crops as is likely enough to follow redundant
years under the system of unlimited competition.--See
PORTER.

But enough, and more than enough, of THE nuisance. It will be
expected, however, that we should notice two collateral points, both
wearing an air of the marvellous, which have grown out of the nuisance
during the recent session. One is the relaxation of our laws with
respect to Canadian corn; a matter of no great importance in itself,
but furnishing some reasons for astonishment in regard to the
disproportioned opposition which it has excited. Undoubtedly the
astonishment is well justified, if we view the measure for what it was
really designed by the minister--viz. as a momentary measure, suited
merely to the _current_ circumstances of our relation to Canada. Long
before any evil can arise from it, through changes in these
circumstances, the law will have been modified. Else, and having,
regard to the remote contingencies of the case (possible or probable)
rather than to its instant certainties, we are disposed to think, that
the irritation which this little anomalous law has roused amongst some
of th