384 History of the English Landed Inte^'est. 



tion of the laws of realty in 1844 and 1845,^ to the Repeal of 

 the Corn Laws in 1846,^ and to the complete abolition of a 

 property qualification for members of the House of Commons 

 in 1858.3 



A hundred years had created a vast alteration in the circum- 

 stances of the National Husbandry. In 1696 the annual yield 

 of wheat had been estimated at 2,000,000 quarters; in 1796 

 it was probably double that amount. Pepys speaks of corn as 

 a miracle of cheapness, of farmers who were ready to fling up 

 their holdings, of landlords eager to sell their estates for six- 

 teen years' purchase. Houghton prices good beef at 2s. per 

 stone, and mutton at 2s. 4d. But when Young was writing 

 his Annals a hundred 3'ears later, farmers were paying heavy 

 premiums for entering on their holdings, land was seldom 

 valued under thirty-three years' purchase, and often up to fifty 

 years, and wheat, mutton and beef were double their old 

 prices. Outsiders began to regard with envy the apparent 

 prosperity of the landlord and farmer, and to contrast their 

 affluence with the want and poverty of the rural labourers, 

 who were just then beginning to advertise their distress in the 

 form of bread riots. 



We propose in this chapter, therefore, to examine the Landed 

 Economy of the period from the aspect of the manufacturer. 

 Unfortunately, we shall have to regard with suspicion and 

 examine critically all objections emanating from this source, as 

 being tainted with prejudice and prompted by self-interest ; for 

 by now a marked and growing tension was clearly visible 

 between the landed and commercial classes.* The to'A'n 

 politician regarded every attempt to defend the vested interests 

 of realty as prompted by what Macaulay has called " the 

 passions and prejudices raging without control in vicarages, in 



1 7 and 8 Vict. c. 76, and 8 and 9 Vict. c. 106. 



^ 9 and 10 Vict. c. 22. ^ 21 and 22 Vict. c. 26. 



^ An antagonism which has not died out yet, alas ! " I wish you every 

 success," telegraphs a E.adical merchant to a candidate for Parliamentary 

 honours in this very year, 1893. '" We have been represented long enough 

 by owners of land whose property has been made what it is by the outlay 

 of our capital." Vide Standard ^ March 2, 1893, sub voc. " Election In- 

 telligence." 



