of his feet was crushed in the fall, which, bringing on a lock-jaw, terminated his mortal career. Mr. McCoy was a man universally esteemed and beloved, as far as his acquaintance extended; polite and unassuming in his deportment, and ever ready to oblige, few men have acquitted themselves so well in his station of life.

He died in his 32d year. According to his own desire, his remains have been conveyed to Newry, the place of his nativity, where his wife and two infant children were interred in one grave about welve months ago.

AGRICULTURAL REPORT,

From 20th February till 20th March.

The fine weather has at last set in, and the farmers are diligently emploved in preparing for the different crops of the season; much of the land is yet to plough, and it will require great exertion to accomplish it before the usual time of sowing. The early ploughed ground which was broken up in a wet state, where the soil is inclined to clay, will probably harden so quickly by the dryness of the weather, as to prove extremely difficult to harrow, and those who are possessed of such land, ought to ger it sown immediately, even if they should have to leave some of their less retentive fields untilled, for some time longer.

The long continuance of wet weather has prevented the usual quantity of wheat from being sown, which will probably induce many of the farmers to substitute barley in its place. It might probably be a good speculation to sow flaxseed in some of the Iind designed for wheat; the present obstructions to a commercial intercourse with the ports in the Baltic, and the unsettled state of things between this country and America, seem to point out the propriety of guarding against the recurrence of such a scarcity of flax and seed as was experienced two years ago. It is surely wise and politic in the inhabitants of Ireland to render themselves as little dependant on other countries as possible, especially for the raw material of our staple manufacture.

The prices of grain and oat-meal have not fluctuated much since last report. Potatoes are plentiful in the markets, and at a reasonable price. Hay seems rather scarce, and selling at a rate unusually high in some parts of the country. Coald the occupiers of Land be prevailed on to sow a patch of their farms with the Swedish Turnip for feeding cows during the winter, they would seldom experience a scarcity of fodder in spring, and the cream, milk and butter would amply compensate for the trouble and expense of the culture, whilst the superior condition of their cattle would convince them of the propriety of persevering in the system.

COMMERCIAL REPORT.

Statesmen have been accustomed, when the people complained of taxes, and of the burdens of the war, to represent the flourishing state of trade, and adduce Customhouse returns as vouchers for the facts. When the people are averse front the trouble of thinking, these returns were admitted as proofs of the growing prosperity of the country. But by looking deeper, the fallacy might have been detected. Returns from the custom-house merely stated the gross amount of imports and exports, and even in some cases, as where no duties were payable, these returns were not very accurate. But at best, they only showed the quantity of goods imported or exported, without any referrence to the state of the markets. The combined operation of the British and French governments, hostile in their intentions, but combining in producing similar effects, by orders in council, and decrees, had shut out British manufactures from their accustomed markets, and paralyzed the commerce of these countries. Other markets were sought after, and a delusive opening to trade to South America

was eagerly grasped, and immense quantities of articles sent out to a market, with the nature of which we were unacquainted, where the white population, from which a demand could only be expected, was very small, and where inveterate prejudices and suspicion in matters of trade, prevented a free intercourse. The large stock of goods improvidently forced out to Heligoland lay rotting on the quays, and but a small portion gained a clandestine admittance to the European continent. Even the commerce to Archangel, and the Baltic, under the fiction of neutral colours, became more precarious, and subject to all the caprices and contradictory ukases of the Russian government, of which many of our merchants were convinced to their cost, by the confiscation of their vessels, while Sweden has latterly fallen entirely under French influence, and Denmark been rendered permanently hostile to us, by the attack on Copen hagen, and the spoliation of her fleet. Even a short period of uninterrupted trade, permitted with the United States of North America, did not produce so extensive an open for our manufactures as was expected, for the orders in council, has forced forward American manufactures some years sooner than such a rapid progress would have occurred in the natural course of events. This is the state of our export trade. Let us now view our imports.

Foreign produce was hastily brought in, not,on a calculation to supply the regular wants of trade, but lest if the present opportunity were not snatched, another might not speedily be found. Hence resulted improvident importations, met by a, diminished consumption, and a consequent glut of the market. The capture of the French West-India Islands, added to the stock of colonial produce already too great during the total exclusion from the European continental market, and increased the already existing difficulties. By this train of consequences, all resulting from the war, both foreign trade and domestic manufacture suffered: bankruptcies ensued, and we are now in a crisis of unexampled commercial distress.

At former periods of stagnated trade, as in 1778,1793, and 1797, the causes were of a more temporary nature, and the country had more strength of constitution to facilitate the hopes of convalesence. Now the causes are of a more permanent nature, and are inflicted by a systematic exertion of power, and of a state of things, over which we have little or no controul, while the war continues; for France will not relax in her powerful plans to exclude from the continent of Europe, nor will America be likely to concede while we continue in hostility to the rights of neutrals, and maintain the fiction of a paper blockade, or the right to search neutral vessels. There can be no reliance placed on an adoption of more moderate counsels, or that war will be carried on in a less irritating manner, War and moderation are incompatible. Peace alone appears capable of removing the present distress.

In the mean time, few but feel some share, more or less, of the pressure of the times, from the great capitalists to the lowest tradesinan, from the loan-making Goldsmids and Barings, down to the working hosiers of Nottingham, who for want of employment, to keep themselves from starving, are forced to submit to sweep the streets of that town, and are paid 14s. per week by the corporation for this service. There is a class still lower. It is asserted, that a million and half of paupers in England, now subsist on a parish allowance of 2lbs. of bread per week to each person. Such is the state of the once wealthy and flourishing England, We have our abundant share of misery in Ireland.

To meet the present distresses, a plan is adopted to issue six millions by exchequer bills, as a loan to the merchants and manufacturers in Great Britian. A loan on similar principles had been previously granted in Ireland. The committee of the house of commons, ground the policy of this measure on the good success, which attended a similar measure in 1793. But the times, and the causes of the distress are very、 different. Loans may be useful in a period of temporary stagnation, when there is reason to believe the difficulties may be speedily removed, but the loan will open no new markets, or give any fresh channels for increased consumption. It may increase the stock of manufactured goods, and thus produce an accumulation of the evils by bringing forward a greater glut in the market.

Statesmen can do little for trade but by leaving to it a free course. But wars, which are the statesman's harvest of dishonest gains, do much to derange the operations

of trade. Enlightened policy asks not money from them, but that they would allow us to have peace. Yet the people too often, like their rulers, are fond of war and

are dazzled by its false glitter.

"But war's a game which were their subjects wise,

Kings would not play at."—

Government are now openly by their agents purchasing guineas on the Exchange of Belfast. Will the English believe that the prosecutors of De Yonge, are themselves buying guineas for their purposes, and admitting a trade in Ireland, which they attempt to prevent in England?

The premium on guineas has risen to 10 per cent. Purchases in large quantities are now making by agents of government for the purpose of supplying the foreign stations in Spain, Portugal, Sicily, &c. The unsettled state of South America has prevented the usual quantity of dollars being received, which latterly superseded the use of guineas in the foreign services of the British army and navy. From the high prices they now bear, our stock of guineas, except the small portion which may be hoarded, will propably soon be bought up and removed out of the country.

The high premium on guineas is much lower than the price of bullion in England. Gold is now at £5. per oz. or £1. 2s. 14d, above the coinage price, making an advance of bullion above coin of upwards of 27 per cent. Silver has also risen since the bank fixed their tokens at 5s. 6d. instead of 5s. To explain the curious phenomenon of bullion being so much higher than coin, we must recollect that guineas by being forced to circulate with a depreciated paper currency, and restricted from finding their own level, by being publicly sold as in Ireland lose their value as gold, and are reduced to the standard of the paper in the company with which they occasionally circulate. While in the shape of guineas, gold is subject to the same rate of depreciation, as the paper.

It is another of the evils of the war, that we are reduced to have only a circulation of pa-" per, which cannot be considered as a substantial representation of our former currency, for so long as the national banks are restricted from paying in cash, bank notes are only substi tutes for gold, but cannot be said either politically or commercially to represent it. The overextended issues of bank notes not grounded on payments in specie form another effective cause of the present bankruptcies, Money, such as it was, became too plentiful, and for a time aided speculation. But at length bankers found it necessary to curtail discounts, not from a scarcity of the circulating paper medium which is in too great abundance, but from rational doubts of the securities offered. In 1795, the security was good, but money scarce. These circumstances strongly mark the difference between the two periods, and the dangers which attend sooner or later on a too great extension of paper credit. At page 238, is given at full length the report of the committee on the present commercial distress. In the debate on receiving the report, it is worthy of observation, that the chancellor of the exchequer held a lower tone than usual, and as the case really required, partaking, of despondency and doubt as to the efficacy of the proposed relief. How different from the former boasts of prosperity! Yet there is no room to hope, that either he, or perhaps the nation at large, is sufficiently instructed in the school of adversity, so as to produce a speedy change of the war system, although so bitter are its fruits. In making the next loan, it may be anticipated that he will encounter many difficulties from the depres sion of omnium, and the casualties attending on that circumstance last year.

Our domestic manufacturers languish. The cotton trade is very bad. If in comparison with the cotton trade of Britain, the outcry of distress is less, it is owing to ours never having been in so flourishing a state as theirs, and consequently the reverse is not so great, nor the comparison between present and former times, so strongly marked. The linen trade improves but little. The loss however falls more on the draper than on the manufacturer and weaver. The latter are indemnified by the high prices obtained for brown linens, and are in a better situation than the weavers of cotton, but the draper suffers by the reduced prices at which the sales of white linens are forced in the several markets.

We have one free export trade, which America permits-The ships returning to America from the northern ports of this country are filled with emigrants. When a