INTRODUCTION xi 



The question ot agricultural depression is one that 

 is always with us. Discussions on the subject in Par- 

 liament, in the Press, and in agricultural societies have 

 been almost innumerable. But nothing has been done 

 worth consideration, certainly nothing of an effective 

 kind, to provide a remedy for an evil the existence of 

 which is universally admitted. Successive Govern- 

 ments, as far as Great Britain is concerned, may be 

 said to have shown an almost absolute indifference to 

 a matter that should have had the foremost place in 

 their programmes. 



Up to about sixty years ago the landed interest — 

 or rather, the landlord interest — was paramount in 

 Parliament. Since that time (at least in the House 

 of Commons) that power has steadily declined, and 

 the commercial and urban influence has as steadily 

 increased. The manufacturing school of that day 

 unfortunately regarded agriculture, if not with antag- 

 onism, at least as of secondary importance. They 

 had need of the support of agriculturists in order to 

 carry out their free-trade policy, and they secured 

 that support by foretellings which have never been 

 fulfilled and by assurances — no doubt sincerely given 

 — which have never been realized. The effect of 

 that policy was to bring the British farmer into com- 

 petition with the whole world, and to leave him there. 

 No attempt was made, by readjustment or removal of 

 the special burdens on land, or by any other means, 

 to enable farming to adapt itself to the new conditions 

 it had to face. 



The manufacturing classes declared land to be "a 

 raw material," but they left it subject to those rates 

 and charges which they took care should not be 



