324 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AND POOR LAW 



are now estates," says Glover, 1 " in the most fertile parts of England, 

 nay even within 50 miles of London, which are an absolute loss 

 to the possessor." The natural reluctance of landlords to lower 

 rents may have involved tenants in their fall ; but by 1816 

 they are stated to have lost 9 millions a year by rent reductions 

 alone. 2 



For the next twenty years the same record of depression is con- 

 tinued. The attention of Parliament was continually called to 

 the distress of the landed interests. Petitions covered the table of 

 the House ; innumerable pamphlets and letters demanded remunera- 

 ting prices for agricultural produce. Some exaggeration there 

 probably was, for the struggle of Free Trade against Protection had 

 begun. But the account which has been given of farming conditions 

 in the years 1814-16 was substantially confirmed by numerous 

 witnesses who gave evidence on the continuance of the distress 

 before a series of Select Committees in 1820, 1821, 1822, 1833, and 

 1836. Rural conditions were deplorable. Even as late as 1833, it 

 was stated that, in spite of rent reductions, which in Sussex amounted 

 to 53 per cent., there was scarcely a solvent tenant in the Wealds of 

 Sussex and Kent, and that many farmers, having lost all they had, 

 were working on the roads. Violent fluctuations in prices con- 

 tinued to overthrow all calculations ; the wheat area alternately 

 expanded and contracted ; the sliding scale of 1829, soon exploited 

 for their own profit by foreign importers, only increased the specu- 

 lative character of the agricultural industry. On heavy clays less 

 capital and less labour were expended ; wet seasons prevented 



1 Observations on the Present State of Pauperism in England, by the Rov. G. 

 Glover (Pamphleteer, vol. x. p. 384). 



2 If this statement is correct, it approximately restored the rental of land in 

 Great Britain to the figure at which it stood in 1806. In that year a sub- 

 division for the first time was made of the classes of property the income of 

 which was assessed under Schedule A to the Property Tax. 



Annual Income from 1806 1814 



1. Property from Lands 



2. Property from Houses 



3. Amount of Tithes 



4. Profits from Manors 



5. Fines on Leases - 



6. Profits of Quarries 



7. Profits of Mines - 



8. Profits of Iron Works 



9. General Profits, etc. 



29,834,484 39,405,705 



11,913,513 16,259,399 



2,012,064 2,732,898 



43,521 71,672 



72,502 216,546 



32,456 70,378 



363,853 678,786 



84,615 647,686 



477,762 65,260 



44,834,770 60,148,330 



