DISTRESS, DISCONTENT, AND DISTURBANCES 325 



farmers from getting on the land, and caused the discontinuance 

 of manure, excessive cropping, and the impoverishment, even the 

 abandonment, of the heavier soils. To add to the difficulties of 

 clay farmers, the rot of 1830-1, which is described as the most 

 disastrous on record, " swept away two million sheep." Every- 

 where wages were lowered and men dismissed. Work became 

 so scarce that, in spite of the fall of prices, starvation stared the 

 agricultural labourer in the face. Distress bred discontent, and 

 discontent disturbances, which were fostered by political agitation. 

 Wliile the Luddites broke up machinery, gangs of rural labourers 

 destroyed threshing machines, or avenged the fancied conspiracy 

 of farmers by burning farm-houses, stacks, and ricks, or wrecking 

 the shops of butchers and bakers. In the riots of 1830-31, when 

 " Swing " and his proselytes were at work, agrarian fires blazed 

 from Dorsetshire to Lincolnshire. 



The evidence before the Select Committee of 1836 shows that 

 prosperity was beginning to revive. But the long period of 

 depression left its permanent mark on the relations of landlord 

 and tenant, as well as on the conditions of rural society. It was 

 not merely that progress had been lost, or that much of the land 

 was impoverished, or that farm buildings fell into ruinous con- 

 dition. A great expenditure was needed to reorganise the industry, 

 and it was the owner of the land who found the money. Necessity 

 compelled landed proprietors to realise their position. Tenants 

 had little capital left ; they were also more cautious of risks. 

 Recent experience had created a profound distrust of long leases. 

 Without security of tenure for a prolonged term of years, no man 

 of ordinary prudence would make an outlay on the costly works 

 which his predecessors had eagerly undertaken. It was now that 

 the distinction becomes clearly marked between landlord's and 

 tenant's improvements. Even in the latter class, it was already 

 evident that, where the benefits were not exhausted at the expira- 

 tion of the tenancy, compensation was payable, and that local 

 customs afforded insufficient protection. On these new lines agri- 

 culture once more began to advance. At the accession of Queen 

 Victoria the worst of the crisis was over. Rents had been adjusted 

 to changed conditions. The industry had been relieved from some 

 of the exceptional taxation. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 

 had removed a great obstacle to progress. The new Poor Law of 

 1834 reduced the burden of the rates, and began to re-establish the 



