CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE DESCENT OF THE LANDLORDS FROM POLITICAL SUPREMACY. 



The French took the opportunity of a wretched harvest in 

 1795 to cut off our foreign grain supplies ; two years later they 

 were menacing our shores with invasion, and the century 

 closed amidst scenes of panic and disaster. The Bank Restric- 

 tion Act of 1797 had suspended cash payments, and the 

 system of unlimited credit which it originated was followed 

 by a rapid but unhealthy growth in every form of British 

 industry. The rise in the prices of all European produce 

 caused the greatest want amongst the lower classes, and though 

 the King in his speech at the opening of Parliament in the 

 autumn of 1801 was able to thank Providence for a bountiful 

 harvest, and his people for their moderation and fortitude 

 under trying circumstances, many parts of the country had 

 already become the scenes of rioting and outrage. 



To deal as we should like with all the events wortliy of 

 notice during the first fifty years of the present century would 

 almost fiU as many chapters. 



Briefly summarised, we maj'' describe the period as one of 

 high prices and rents, of bad seasons and extreme want, of com- 

 mercial enterprise and rash speculation, a combination of circum- 

 stances which brought about, before the period ended, great 

 changes in the social condition of all classes. The quarter of 

 wheat from 1795 to 1814 averaged 89s. 7d., and whenever, as 

 for instance in 1804, it tended to get lower, a cry of distress 

 went up from the agricultural interest, and was responded to 

 in Parliament by measures of increased protection. In 1806 

 Bonaparte again attempted to starve the country into submis- 



II. ^^^ D D 



