78 MR. COKE OF HOLKHAM 



England was better provided with means of inland naviga- 

 tiont ban any country except Holland. At first new means 

 ■of communication depressed the wage-earning labourer. 

 Wages were generally low where food was cheap ; increased 

 facilities of transport equalised the price of meat, bread, 

 cheese, butter ; but wages were slow to follow the rise of 

 prices, and it was fifty years before the balance was restored. 

 Increased facilities of communication accelerated the 

 rapid development of manufactures. When once the home 

 markets were thrown open, agriculture received an extra- 

 ordinary stimulus from the high prices of farm produce, 

 and the increased demand consequent on a growing 

 population and an improved standard of living. Napoleon 

 became the Triptolemus of the farmer. The stoppage of 

 foreign gi'ain supplies, war prices, the corn laws, made land 

 a profitable investment for capital. Even the fall of prices 

 in 1814 only excited agriculturists to renewed efforts. 

 New implements were tried ; labour was economised by 

 the inventions of Small and Meikle ; cattle shows and 

 ploughing matches were held throughout the country ; 

 prizes were offered to local breeders ; farmers' clubs and 

 provincial societies were established. Great landlords took 

 the lead in improvements. It is said that Walpole always 

 opened the letters of his farm steward before he broke the 

 seals of letters on State affairs. Bolingbroke caused his 

 house at Dawley to be painted with trophies of ricks, 

 spades, and prongs, and read Swift's letters between two 

 haycocks with his eyes to heaven, not in admiration of the 

 dean, but in fear of rain. The later generation were more 

 earnest or more practical. In 1 723 a society of ' Improvers 

 in the Knowledge of Agriculture' had been formed in 

 Scotland; in 1777 the Bath and West of England Society 

 was instituted, the Highland Society in 1784, the Smith- 

 field Club in 1793. In the latter year Pitt, at the instigation 



