xviii Synopsis of Chapters. 



PAGE 



institutions in various parts of the kingdom — The beneficial 

 results of increased chemical knowledge on English husbandry 

 — The improvements in Norfolk farming evidenced by a com- 

 parison between the sj^stems common in Young's days and 

 those in the time of Bacon and Caird — The increase in the 

 yield per acre of all kinds of farm produce, and the advanced 

 economy practised by farmei's on the Holkham estate — Their 

 excessive use, however, of nitrate of soda deprecated — A brief 

 glance at the general agriculture of the entire country, and the 

 natural resources of the Northern Counties compared with 

 those of the Southern — The effects of better locomotion on 

 farm receipts, and the benefits derived from carrying instead 

 of driving livestock to the Metropolitan meat market . . 423-446 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS ON LEGISLATION. 



Rights of property detrimental to good husbandry — The improve- 

 ments in farming shown to necessitate fresh legislation — The 

 drawbacks to the prevailing tithe system — Economic objections 

 and universal dislike to tithes in kind — Various remedies sug- 

 gested in the earlier decade of the present century — Sir Robert 

 Peel's Bill and Lord Melbourne's Tithe Commutation Act of 

 1836 — The object of the legislature in substituting a rent- 

 charge for payments in kind — The effects of the repeal of the 

 corn laws on this form of propertj" — The extraordinary tithe 

 charge — The drawbacks to agricultural improvements occa- 

 sioned by the family settlement and limited ownership — The 

 cautious procedure of the Government in dealing with this 

 subject — The Drainage and Settled Land Acts enable the land- 

 lords to borrow capital for permanent improvements — The 

 defects of these statutes gradually remedied by subsequent 

 legislation — The s.ystem of leases deprecated and the rights of 

 the tenants to unexhausted improvements upheld — The Agri- 

 cultural Holdings Acts shown to have obviated the necessity 

 for leases — The State's traditional reluctance to interfere with 

 freedom of contract and vested interests, finally overcome by 

 its sense of obligation regarding any interference with the free 

 flow of public wealth — Inconsistency of statesmen regarding 

 interference with freedom of contract instanced by the entire 

 repeal of the Statute of Labourers in 1814 — Short history of 

 game laws further illustrative of this inconsistency — Exces- 

 sive game preservation deprecated at the same time that the 

 seignorial privileges are upheld 447-472 



CHAPTER XXI. 



COBBETT AND MLL. 



The boyhood of Cobbett contrasted with that of Mill — The effects 

 of their early training on their respective characters — Their 

 hostilitj^ to the seignorial monopoly— Cobbett's exaggeration of 

 facts, and the use to which he puts the experiences gained in 

 his rural rides — His dislike of rents, tithes, and taxes — Fooiish 



