10 Decr 1801

Maximum

6. Scarcity Crops

2

Here as before, the Hon: Gentleman having wrapped up his argument in an interrogation, at the peril of the charge of misconception and misrepresentation, I find myself obliged to make a proposition for the Hon Gentleman which I do with all imaginable diffidence and reluctance, prepared and resolved to discard it /turn it out of doors/ the very instant he disowns it: protesting most sincerely that if this be not what he means I am altogether unable to conjecture what else it can be

{ In this paragraph a proposition will I think be found eventually included /assumed/ a proposition, which the Hon:ble Gentleman upon further /maturer/ reflection, to the Hon: Gentleman himself will, I am inclined to think appear untenable:} This is – that the price of corn ought at all times to be of such a height, as to afford something not much less than living profit to a farmer whose crop has “almost totally failed”. I could wish the proposition were /had been/more determinate: but had I made it so, I might have been accused /taxed/ not without ground, of misrepresenting it. This, if the Hon.ble Gentleman will take the trouble /have the goodness/ to take pen and ink to it, or even without pen and ink bestow a little thought upon it in the line of calculation is what he will find rather an expensive mode of insurance.