8o THE LANDED INTEREST. 



to make, in order to keep his property abreast of 

 the advance in agricultural practice. This was 

 pressingly felt at the time of the repeal of the 

 Corn Laws, and the withdrawal of protective 



Expe- duties from native produce. Parliament, there- 

 clients 

 adopted to f ore when it enacted a free import of the neces- 



overcome 



this. saries of life, instead of abolishing settlement 



provided State loans on favourable terms to the 

 landowners for the drainage and reclamation of 

 their estates. 



The potato disease of 1846 and 1847 was a 

 serious calamity at the time, but it was the 

 occasion from which arose the great stride made 

 in agricultural enterprise in this country during 

 the last thirty years. It led at once to the 

 removal of all protective duties on foreign agri- 

 cultural produce, and obtained for the people of 

 this country access to supplies from foreign 

 lands, where wages were lower and good land 

 more abundant. Landowners and farmers be- 

 stirred themselves to meet the inevitable com- 

 petition to which they became exposed ; and 

 their efforts were promptly aided by the State 

 with reproductive loans to tide them over the 



