The Revolution in Agriculture 73 



the country. Landlords and farmers did not all want to keep 

 up the price of food by taxation or prohibition of imports, but 

 men hesitated to act on their principles. The conflict which was 

 going on in men's minds may be best seen in a passage from the 

 Report of the Select Committee of 1821. 'If, say the Com- 

 missioners, ' your Committee look to the permanent improve- 

 ments which have been made in the country itself within the 

 same period (since 1773), the bridges which have been built, the 

 roads which have been formed, the rivers which have been 

 rendered navigable, the canals which have been completed, the 

 harbours which have been made and improved . . ., if they look 

 at the same time at the growth of manufactures and commerce 

 in the contemplation of this augmentation of internal wealth, 

 which defies all illustration from comparison with any former 

 portion of our history, or of the history of any other State 

 your Committee may entertain a doubt whether the only solid 

 foundation of the flourishing state of agriculture is not laid in 

 abstaining as much as possible from interference, either by pro- 

 tection or prohibition, with the application of capital in any 

 branch of industry, whether all fears for the decline of agriculture 

 . . . are not in a great degree imaginary, whether commerce can 

 expand, manufactures thrive, and great public works be under- 

 taken, without furnishing to the skill and labour which the 

 capitals thus employed put in motion, increased means of paying 

 for the productions of the land.' 



The Committee described very clearly in the form of a question 

 the situation as it appeared to enlightened men. They came to 

 no decision. But a growing number of men were coming to the 

 conclusion that it would be much better for agriculture and for 

 all other industries if the Government were to abstain from all 

 interference by protection or prohibition. The anti-Corn Law 

 League was formed by free-traders, by the Hon. Charles Villiers, 

 Richard Cobden, and manufacturers chiefly of Lancashire and 



