Freedom and Progress 81 



paid his butter bill, and the consequent ruin of the dealer. The 

 calves were taken to points on the great roads, and put into 

 immense vans two stories high, accommodating thirty or forty 

 of the poor creatures. These huge machines, drawn by half 

 a dozen horses, and doing much of the journey by night, were 

 the terror of the stage-coachmen. The drivers slept, and even 

 if they were awake would not take the trouble to keep their own 

 side of the road. The coachmen had their revenge. When the 

 place was convenient they would alight and turn the calver's 

 horses into a cross-road, or even right round, when the driver 

 upon waking found himself home again.' By 1850 the railways 

 had removed from the roads many stage-coaches and many 

 wagons which carried farm-produce. The lower prices for corn 

 did not hold long. They rose in 1853, and on the outbreak of 

 the Crimean War in 1854 a further rise took place. Between 

 1854 an d 1871 wars occurred in Europe and in the United States 

 at short intervals. They interfered with production and trade 

 on a smaller scale than the Napoleonic wars, but still sufficiently 

 to increase and maintain agricultural prices. The period from 

 1853 to 1876 was one of the most prosperous in the history of 

 British farming. 



Under this prosperity a problem which had arisen at two 

 previous times made its appearance. It affected the relations of 

 landlords and tenants. When profits in farming were high com- 

 petition for farms became keen, and frequently old tenants were 

 turned out of their holdings to make room for men who offered 

 higher rents. The hardship and injustice seemed all the greater 

 because very often the tenants who were turned out had im- 

 proved their holdings, and it was the appearance of the farms 

 due to this improvement which attracted competitors. This 

 was an evil of long standing. Writers in the time of the Tudors 

 had dwelt on the mischief caused by the exaction of excessive 

 rents. There were three periods when the problem became 



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