8 The Landed Interest, 



gives him an advantage equal to the present 

 average rent of his land, and forms some 

 reasonable compensation for the higher taxes 

 and wages which he has to pay as com- 

 pared with his competitors in most foreign 

 countries. 

 Agricul- The total home produce can now be very 



tural statis- 

 tics of the correctly calculated from the annual agricultural 



United 



Kingdom, returns. The collection of these returns was 

 instituted in Ireland at the time of the potato 

 famine in 1847, ^^^ they have been published 

 continuously since that time. The information 

 is collected by the constabulary, a semi-military 

 force, stationed in all parts of the country, and 

 is arranged by the Registrar-General, and 

 annually printed. 



Not for twenty years afterwards were there 

 any complete returns from Great Britain. After 

 long perseverance I succeeded in obtaining a 

 Resolution of the House of Commons in favour 

 of the collection of agricultural statistics, which 

 was in consequence carried out for the first time 

 in 1867, the collection of the returns being made 

 by the officers of the Inland Revenue, and their 



