I 



Sir H. S. Meijsey TJiompson, Barf. 525 



The agricultural state of England immediately after the Great 

 War was deplorable — high taxes and the incidence of local 

 taxation weighed heavily. Over-trading in agriculture was cut 

 short by a disastrous fall in prices, and official documents in 1816 

 present some such pathetic picture as this : bankrupt squires, 

 pauperised tenants, and starving poor ; willing hands idle a-fieldy 

 empty cattle-yards at home ; tradesmen clamouring in vain for 

 money which their customers had not ; whilst confidence reigned 

 only on the hardened faces of poachers and of vagrants. The 

 landed interest began to wish for better Parliamentary repre- 

 sentation. In 1822 the consolidation of local burdens was 

 refused ; next year advance was made in the direction of Free- 

 trade — free-trade in labour was virtually established by the repeal 

 of the Combination laws. The monetary crisis of 1825 still 

 further complicated agricultural difficulties ; money was not to 

 be had. Now, in the darkest hour, the dawn was near, for the era 

 of association began with the revolutionary year of 1830. Po- 

 litical Unions, first established in Birmingham, soon reared their 

 heads in every town in England ; and distrusted by science, but 

 promoted by association and afterwards nourished by gold dis- 

 covery, this year saw the birth of the equalising British Railway 

 system — that genii of the West — that was and is destined to pro- 

 duce such incalculable social and political results. The condition 

 of the southern counties Avas deplorable — the farmhouse divided 

 against itself. A servile war raged ; the labouring people looked 

 upon the upper classes as their foes ; farm property far and near 

 was fired by the torch of the agrarian incendiary, but he even would 

 gladly pause in his vindictive course to gloat over the wreck of 

 the then recently introduced threshing-machine. Reform agita- 

 tion followed, aided by the dissatisfied landed interest, and then 

 came the Reform Act of 1832. Two years later the effects of 

 new Currency laws were felt ; the spirit of association grew and 

 waxed exceedingly ; Joint-stock Banks and their branches were 

 established everywhere, and many Railway Bills were promoted ; 

 but the agricultural class still suffered. The price of all rural 

 produce was very low ; agriculture was threatened with total 

 ruin. In Ireland the tithe-sheaf of the farmer was literally 

 gathered on the point of the soldier's bayonet. The Irish Tithe 

 Act was followed in 1836 by the English Act ; then English 

 agriculture was freed for ever from uncommuted tithe — a tax on 

 improvement unknown in Scotland. A devouring plague of 

 agricultural England disappeared for ever with predial and mixed 

 tithes, together with offerings, oblations, and obventions. Thus 

 in a period of extreme depression an absolutely essential clearing 

 was made for the foundation of high farming, and for the advent 

 of the great English agricultural associations. 



