356 LAND REFORM 



parity of the agricultural industry was unbounded. 

 Read by the light of experience, the following short- 

 sighted assertions and predictions appear amazing : 

 *' We do not contemplate deriving one quarter less 

 corn from the soil of this country." " Not an acre of 

 land would go out of cultivation." " So far from 

 throwing land out of use, and injuring the cultivation 

 of the poorer soils, free trade in corn is the very way 

 to increase the production at home." These, and other 

 sayings of a like kind, led up to the following rhetorical 

 climax : " I believe that when the future historian 

 writes the history of agriculture he will say, ' In such 

 a year there was a stringent Corn Law passed for the 

 protection of agriculture. From that time agriculture 

 slumbered in England, and it was not until, by the 

 aid of the Anti-Corn Law League, the Corn Law was 

 abolished, that agriculture sprang up to the full vigour 

 of existence in England, to become what it is now, 

 like her manufactures, unrivalled in the world.'" 



Political economists of the time shared Cobden's 

 views. The great authority referred to, speaking of 

 agriculture, says : " It would be absurd to suppose 

 that in a state of things such as has been here con- 

 templated, with a constantly increasing number of 

 customers, our agriculture must not share in the 

 general prosperity, and that they should, under any 

 circumstances, fail to obtain a return for their capital 

 equal to that realized by all other classes in the com- 

 munity ; beyond this they can have no right to claim 

 any advantage."^ 



For a number of years after the Corn Laws were 

 abolished there seemed to be some ground for these 

 views. A distinguished writer, so late as 1878, 



1 "i'rogress of the Nation," 3rd edition, 1851. 



