3 1 8 History of the English Landed Interest. 



considerable drop in the amount of the poor-rate would 

 probably have occurred had it not been immediately, almost 

 simultaneously, checked by the Act of 1782. The causes for 

 the increased distress were fairly evident ; but then few of 

 them were capable of being remedied by State interference. 

 It is true that many were asking whether the growing prices 

 of wheat were not incompatible with the protection of com 

 husbandry, and the proletariat was becoming daily more 

 mutinous against the corn laws. But the authorities who 

 had recently withdrawn the bounty on exportation, were not 

 disposed to entirely withhold a protection which was not merely 

 promoting the conversion of wastes into corn-producing soil, 

 but hurrying this process forward with giant strides. Davies 

 sums up the general view of this question in a few words. 

 "Without doubt," he says, " a high price is the greatest en- 

 couragement to the farmer to raise plenty of corn, and 

 therefore no undue means should be taken to keep the price of 

 it from advancing with that of other things. But on the other 

 hand it seems absurd to grant bounties for encouraging the 

 exportation of what we cannot spare." 



If the Legislature was not disposed to meddle with the corn 

 laws, it could hardly have been expected to interfere with the 

 increase in the population ; another cause to which the high 

 prices were attributed. State-aided emigration would have 

 found but few advocates at a time when we regarded all our 

 male population as fighting material for the French war. 

 And, indeed, opinions were not unanimous that the population 

 was increasing. Dr. Price, basing his arguments on the 

 statistics of the window tax, asserted that an actual decrease 

 had taken place. ^ All, however, that he could substantiate 

 from such a source was a decrease in the number of houses, 

 which might easily be accounted for by the process of engros- 

 sing. 



A short explanation of this practice will enable the reader to 

 see that no restriction to population occurred from this cause. 

 Landowners, in order to render their incomes adequate to the 



* Essay on the Population of England, etc. Eichard Price, 1780. 



