CHAPTER III 



HOW AGRICULTURE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED — THE 

 CONTENTIONS OF ANTI-FREE-TRADERS 



It is in the two discordant notes in the Free-trade "Hymn 

 of Praise," referred to at the end of the last chapter, that all who 

 do not belong to the Free-trade party are intensely interested, 

 and it is this part of the question that will be dealt with first. 



Anti- Free-traders contend that not only did agriculture not 

 advance during the long Victorian era, but, on the contrary, that 

 it showed considerable and alarming retrogression ; and it is held 

 that because of this destructive backward movement — and only 

 because of this — has that dread mantle of poverty been flung 

 over those " who are hidden away in back streets and alleys," 

 encircling these unfortunates with its foul folds as the constrict- 

 ing serpent enfolds its victims in its deadly embrace. It is 

 maintained that in sacrificing agriculture on the altars of Com- 

 mercial-Industrialism, Cobden made his first false move and 

 committed his great fundamental blunder, an economical error 

 which has become monumental. 



Agriculture necessary to support other Industries 



It is pointed out by anti-Free-traders tliat the greatest of 

 all industries should have been carefully conserved and nour- 

 ished by every conceivable means ; that it is, and must be, 

 regarded, even in Great Britain, as the primal industry ; as the 

 people's chief source of employment, the mainspring of national 

 wealth, and the birth-place of national virility. It is held that 

 there was not the slightest necessity to have sacrificed agricul- 

 ture, or even to have subordinated it to manufacturing indus- 

 tries, when developing the internal resources of tlie country and 

 building up the great home and foreign trade : the great land 

 industry should have been run side by side with manufactures, 

 both of them being interdependent, and, therefore, necessary 

 to each other's existence. It is said that, had agriculture been 



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