288 BrJTAIN FOR THE BRITON 



the House of Commons complainino; of the distress and of the 

 exhaustion of airricultural capital, of high rents and rates and of the 

 poverty of the farmers, whose rents had been based on the assump- 

 tion of the higher prices to be secured under the Coru-hiws." * 



"A good harvest in 1835 reduced wheat to 355. per quarter. 

 Farmers were despondent, and coinphiined that they would be ruined 

 by the plentiful crop, since they could not pay then- rents." t 



So much did the agricultural distress of the times and the 

 ^vretched state of the industry appeal to the reformers of those 

 days, that it afforded them, indeed, a justifiable basis for that 

 political propaganda which culminated in the repeal of the Corn 

 Laws and the establishment of Free-trade. Had the British 

 plan of running its agricultural industry on the " territorial 

 aristocracy " system been all that is claimed for it ; had " the 

 strength and durability of our Empire " depended upon " our 

 territorial constitution," surely the reformers of the " forties " 

 could have found no excuse for overthrowing it: yet, strange to 

 say, it supplied Cobden and his followers with the very fulcrum 

 upon which they worked their great rtcform lever. 



"The present system robs the earth of its fertility and the 

 labourer of his hire, deprives the people of subsistence and the 

 farmer of feelings of honest independence." X 



Speaking of the excessive poverty of the agricultural 

 labourers under the old " territorial aristocracy " system, he 

 said— 



" What sort of consumers of manufactures do you think agricul- 

 tural labourers would be with the wages they get ? There are 

 1)60,000 agricultural labourers in England and Wales, and each of 

 them does not spend 30s. a year in manufactures on his whole family, 

 if the article of shoes be excepted, I would ask what can they pay 

 on 8s. a week to the revenue ? " § 



PiiooF OF Failure 



Here, then, is a brief sketch of the " territorial aristocracy " 

 system in action under " Protection." Neither the old Corn 

 Laws nor the enormous influence of the landowners in the 

 I'arliament of the times was of the slightest avail in saving 

 the country from terrible distress, resulting from an agricul- 

 tural system as unsuited to the requirements of the people as 

 Arctic snows would be to tro])ical vegetation ; and this fact stands 

 out with startling abruptness. 



* Cobden's speeches, " The Free-Trade Movcmeut," p. 57. 



t Hid., pp. Gl G2. X Ibid., p. 8G, § Ibid., p. 87. 



