15 



that if they did not enable their labourers to sup- 

 port themselves and their families in this state, 

 they would soon pay more dearly by pauperising 

 the industrious, and destroying the motive to energy 

 and efficiency : it is, too, because they knew that 

 the leaven of dissatisfaction was at work among 

 the mass of them, and they feared to do otherwise, 

 lest their property should be destroyed by the in- 

 cendiary. Rent and labour, except in some of the 

 southern counties, where the poor rate is so enor- 

 mous, are far the heaviest outgoings to which the 

 occupiers of the soil is liable ; and the present 

 price of agricultural labour is higher than can be 

 maintained, unless the occupier be greatly relieved 

 in some other directions. 



I fear, however, after considering the subject 

 carefully, we shall find, that in addition to the 

 greatest reductions which can be made in the 

 charges on land which the law imposes, consider- 

 able reductions must be made in the two great 

 outgoings wages and rent. One, or other, or 

 both these expenses of production must be reduced 

 to meet the present prices of agricultural produce 

 is certain. And who with a true patriotic and 

 philanthropic spirit does not wish that the hard lot 

 of poverty should be mitigated as much as pos- 

 sible, and would lament that the earnings of the 

 peasant, which now enable him to maintain him- 

 self and family with barely a comfortable supply 

 of the necessaries of existence, should be reduced. 

 The Committee rightly consider it a subject of 



