SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE, 1812 TO 1845 89 



legacies and portions for younger children. Yet the land 

 seemed to stand the strain. Eents were doubled and 

 cheerfully paid by farmers who made fortunes out of the 

 war prices. Throughout the war the efforts of legislators 

 were directed to the maintenance of high prices of home- 

 grown grain. Heavy duties were imposed on foreign corn 

 in 1804; they were increased in 1813, again in 1814, and 

 again in 1815. It is, however, noteworthy that the last 

 increase was not passed without a protest from ten peers, 

 entered upon the journals of the House. The same policy 

 was continued from 1815 to 1845. One argument, strongly 

 urged upon Parliament throughout the whole period of 

 Protection, was that, if prices fell, the land newly brought 

 under the plough must necessarily fall out of cultivation. 

 An extraordinary stimulus was thus given to enclosures ; * 

 601 Acts were passed between 1810 and 1814, and at 

 the same time the wheat-growing area was enormously 

 increased. During this war period money was drawn 

 together in masses in the hands of saving farmers and 

 traders. A significant proof of the growing wealth is 

 afibrded by the amount of capital paying legacy duty? 

 which rose from 1,116,680Z. in 1797 to o3,118,281Z. in 

 1820. 



But while all who sold produce profited by the artificial 

 prices of commodities, the wage-earning population sank 

 lower and lower. Agricultural labourers had lost their 

 commons ; their wages were supplemented not by their 

 industry, but by their pauperism ; and the poor rates 

 exactly doubled between 1801 and 1813. 



At the close of the war distress prevailed over the 

 whole of Europe. Throughout the progress of the struggle 

 England, owing to her insular position, had sufiered less 

 ' See Appendix V., Enclosures. 



