292 LAND REFORM 



decline of our home trade is looked upon with un- 

 concern by manufacturers, while the working classes 

 do not seem, as yet, to realize the vast amount of 

 employment they are deprived of by the decay of 

 agriculture. 



Landlords' rents during the periods under con- 

 sideration have been largely reduced, though, as we 

 have shown, these reductions are reductions from the 

 inflated scale of rents which ruled during- the old 

 prosperous times. But this affords small consolation 

 to the present landlords. During the time of pros- 

 perity, settlements, mortgages, jointures were made, 

 establishments provided, etc., all on the presumption 

 that the good times would last. Now and again there 

 appeared an owner of the class whom the Duke of 

 Bedford describes as "the fool or the spendthrift," 

 whose worthless career encumbered the estates more 

 or less permanently. Many landlords spent large sums, 

 in the form of improvements, buildings, homesteads, 

 etc., on their farms — sums larger, in many cases, than 

 the present value of the freehold of the holdings. 

 The result is that landlords who have inherited their 

 estates have, as a rule, no spare money to spend on 

 them. There is, therefore, no hope in that direction 

 for improvements in the cultivation of the land. 



The remedy which Mr. Harris proposes is to put 

 a duty on imports of manufactured goods, on barley, 

 oats (not on wheat or maize), and on the smaller 

 articles of food. With the proceeds of these duties 

 he would give bounties for home-grown wheat, and 

 reduce, or remit, duties on other necessary articles of 

 living, including tea and tobacco. The weak point in 

 the scheme is that the proposed bounties would fail to 

 produce the desired effect so long as the farmer is a 



