every testimony concurs
to prove that its increase, if it has increased, has been very slow. In
the controversy which the question has occasioned, Dr Price undoubtedly
appears to be much more completely master of his subject, and to
possess more accurate information, than his opponents. Judging simply
from this controversy, I think one should say that Dr Price's point is
nearer being proved than Mr Howlett's. Truth, probably, lies between
the two statements, but this supposition makes the increase of
population since the Revolution to have been very slow in comparison
with the increase of wealth.

That the produce of the land has been decreasing, or even that it has
been absolutely stationary during the last century, few will be
disposed to believe. The enclosure of commons and waste lands certainly
tends to increase the food of the country, but it has been asserted
with confidence that the enclosure of common fields has frequently had
a contrary effect, and that large tracts of land which formerly
produced great quantities of corn, by being converted into pasture both
employ fewer hands and feed fewer mouths than before their enclosure.
It is, indeed, an acknowledged truth, that pasture land produces a
smaller quantity of human subsistence than corn land of the same
natural fertility, and could it be clearly ascertained that from the
increased demand for butchers' meat of the best quality, and its
increased price in consequence, a greater quantity of good land has
annually been employed in grazing, the diminution of human subsistence,
which this circumstance would occasion, might have counterbalanced the
advantages derived from the enclosure of waste lands, and the general
improvements in husbandry.

It scarcely need be remarked that the high price of butchers' meat at
present, and its low price formerly, were not caused by the scarcity in
the one case or the plenty in the other, but by the different expense
sustained at the different periods, in preparing cattle for the market.
It is, however, possible, that there might have been more cattle a
hundred years ago in the country than at present; but no doubt can be
entertained, that there is much more meat of a superior quality brought
to market at present than ever there was. When the price of butchers'
meat was very low, cattle were reared chiefly upon waste lands; and
except for some of the principal markets, were probably killed with but
little other fatting. The