THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 135 



ing import duties. From the time, towards the close 

 of the XVIIIth century, when England ceased to 

 produce sufficient corn for her own consumption, this 

 regulation of prices became a potent force in rural life. 

 Numerous Acts of Parliament, the Corn Laws l as they 

 were called, were passed in the first half of the 

 century to limit importation of corn and keep up 

 prices and there were also similar duties on stock. 

 Now it is obvious that this regulation of prices by 

 legislation, carried with it the power to make or 

 mar the career of every farmer in the country, and 

 so served to attach the farmers to their landlords by 

 a strong bond of interest. The policy of import duties 

 was attacked by the town politicians, and a strong 

 movement, the Anti-Corn-Law League, founded in 

 Manchester in 1838, carried on a well organized and 

 effective agitation until the introduction of Free Trade 

 in corn in 1846.2 Against this movement landlords 

 and farmers stood, as a rule, shoulder to shoulder. 

 This alliance, strengthened as it often was by personal 

 friendship and other social considerations, and cemented 

 by the assistance generously given by landlords to their 

 tenants on many occasions in times of difficulty, outlived 

 the abolition of the corn laws and became a tradition 

 in the English country-side. Farmers and landlords, 

 the modern representatives of the two classes that 

 were almost at war in the XlVth century, generally 

 stood together in the XlXth. As a result England has 

 been free from the struggles between these two classes 

 that served to embitter Irish rural life. But this alli- 

 ance had another effect, for it often meant that these 

 two classes combined to oppose the interests of the 

 labourers. A clear understanding of these points throws 

 1 See Appendix, pp. 172, 173. Ibid. p. 173. 



