Excerpt from The Price of Wheat in Europe: The Past a Test for the Future; Present Prices and Stocks of Wheat in Europe; Agricultural Statistics

The present remarkable condition of the corn markets, not alone ry, but throughout Europe, involves consideration 8 of the deepest interest to the mercantile as well as to the agricul tural classes of this country. The production of grain, whether considered in relation to its paramount importance in connection with the maintenance of the people, or in connection with the extent of the employment which it affords, is unquestionably the most essential industry of this or any other country. The trade in grain, domestic and foreign, is by far the most extensive branch of our commerce. Of foreign grain alone, the value of that imported in some recent sin ls years has exceeded the value of any other single article 0 importation whatever. As a means for the employment of the capital and labour of the country, there is no other article which bears any comparison in extent with grain. It cannot therefore be a matter of surprise that the greatest anxiety should be manifested for such accurate information as can be fairly relied upon, which may tend to ex plain the present depressed condition of that trade, or which may throw light upon its future course. There is no doubt a large and influential party in this country who have a short and single answer to the whole difficulty. With them it is resolved into a simple reference to the Corn Bill of 1846 and the policy of free trade. Now, if the distress complained of were confined to this country, and if neighbouring countries whose produce has been so largely thrown into our home markets during the past year were not only free from similar complaints, but were enjoying an unusual degree of agricultural 1prosperity in consequence of the large new market to which they ad obtained access, then there would be more reason for the conclusion at which that party have arrived as to the true cause of the depression of our com markets. But when it is borne in mind that so far from such being the case, the agricultural condition of France, Belgium, Ger many, Mecklenburg, and other neighbouring countries, is to the full as much depressed as it is in this country, and in some, espe ciall in France, even more, so, it becomes clear to every candid mini that there are other and more general causes in operation than merelarthhe change which has taken place in the laws of this country: at those more general, and as we shall show, more important, causes are, and 'whether they are likely to be perma nent or not, are questions of the highest importance, and as much so in a commercial as in an agricultural view. I We recently received the following letter from an eminent Liverpool merchant, which suggests the great importance of a careful inquiry into this subject at the present time To the Editor of the Econ-um.

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