9112. WHEAT, British prohibition of.
—The prohibition of our wheat in England
would, of itself, be of no great moment, because
I do not know that it is much sent there.
But it is the publishing a libel on our wheat,
sanctioned with the name of Parliament, and
which can have no object but to do us injury,
by spreading a groundless alarm in those countries
of Europe where our wheat is constantly
and kindly received. It is a mere assassination.
If the insect they pretend to fear be the Hessian
fly, it never existed in the grain. If it be the
weevil, our grain always had that; and the experience
of a century has proved that either the
climate of England is not warm enough to hatch
the egg and continue the race, or that some
other unknown cause prevents any evil from it.—
To Mr. Vaughan. Washington ed. iii, 38.
(P.
1789)
