SACRIFICE OF AGRICULTURE 17 



" It was not all at once that agriculture began to die. 

 Just as a man may, by some foolish course of living, sow 

 in his system the seeds of death, and yet continue for 

 some years afterwards in fair and apparent health, so it 

 was with English agriculture. The ' natural protection ' 

 of distance, which Cobden promised to the English far- 

 mer, did shield agriculture for a time. The prairies of 

 North and South America were as yet sparsely em- 

 ployed in arable cultivation, and apart from the com- 

 parative smallness of the foreign wheat supply avail- 

 able, a lack of facilities for transportation, and the high 

 charges for freight, did give the farmer protection against 

 foreign competitors, even after the duties were removed. 

 But all through the intervening years the foreign wheat 

 lands have been developing, railways have made a mesh 

 over them, and the seas are now so crowded with ships 

 that they are carrying grain across the Atlantic for a 

 penny a bushel, and in some cases actually as ballast." 



It was then that the country commenced to feel the Emigration 

 loss of its great staple industry. Labour difficulties be- Starvation 

 came acute and employment hard to obtain, and it soon 

 became apparent that despite the lavish optimism of 

 the Cobdenites, our much vaunted manufactures and 

 world commerce were not capable of giving employment 

 to the whole of the workers of the kingdom, and that 

 vast numbers would either have to starve or emigrate. 

 They chose the latter course, and a tide of emigration 

 set in which has deprived the Kingdom of millions of its 

 best and strongest, for we must always bear in mind it 

 is the hardy, strong and vigorous who emigrate, and not 



the timorous, weak and shrinking. 



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