§ Mr.Renniebegged to ask the right hon. Baronet opposite whether it were the intention of Government, in regulating the supply of corn, to establish some means of ascertaining as correctly as possible the number of acres sown with grain every year in the United Kingdom, specifying the different kinds of grain sown, and the quantity produced, so that when the right hon. Baronet's measure came into operation, it might be competent in persons to form an estimate as to whether, with an average crop, there would be sufficient for the consumption of the United Kingdom.
§ Sir R. Peelsaid, the House was aware that, in connection with the Board of Trade, there was a department of which the business was, to obtain statistical information on the trade and exports of the United Kingdom; and to this department there had recently been added another, for the purpose of obtaining statistical information in reference to agriculture; but the object was strictly to collect facts, and not estimates; and he thought it would be very unwise on the part of Government to sanction any publication of this information, for the purpose of enabling individuals to form estimates one way or the other, as to whether there was, or was not, a sufficient supply of corn. This was a matter which would be much better left to the natural operation of commerce. The interference of Government, he conceived, in such a matter, was altogether to be deprecated.