114 Extracts from the Replies to 



the bill, though I perfectly remember the fallacy of his argument, which was only, 

 " That labourers ought to make the most money they can of their labour, without 

 " any restraint laid upon them ;" very well, we will grant all that, but the opposer 

 of the bill did not know, perhaps, that those men can earn lO^. a day in reaping, 

 where they will not get above 5s. at canal cutting ; but the fact is, they dont like 

 reaping quite so well, because they are obliged to work a few more hours in tlie 

 heat of the day, whereas, in their own trade of embankment, they leave off work 

 at two o'clock, and work no more till next morning. As the war has drained the 

 country so much of labourers, those ablebodied men would be found extremely 

 useful in the month of harvest. Perhaps if the bill was introduced a second time, 

 (and I seriously recommend the introduction of it to the Henourable Board of 

 Agriculture) it might not meet with the same opposition; even if it did, the 

 calculation derived from its benefits, summed up, might be sufficient to confute 

 any arguments that could be brought forward against a bill so essential to the 

 interests of agriculture. I have not a single doubt but the opposition made to 

 the aforesaid bill originated with some u?idertaker of canals, v/ho thought, that 

 whilst his gangs were engaged at harvest-work, he should be losing his own profits, 

 ARISING FROM THEIR LABOUR. The harvcst of the year 1803 was a very 

 favourable one ; had it been a bad, (or what we here call a slack harvest) cer- 

 tain I am, that half the corn in those levels must have been lost for the want of 

 money, znd labourers to get it in; and after the most favourable harvest, what has 

 it done for the farmer ; what kind of profit has it left behind when all expenses are 

 paid? As fairly as I can calculate, an acre of oats (after a fallow) will leave the 

 farmer a clear profit of about £1. 135. 



I must also (with your Lordship's permission) beg leave to mention another 

 most important difficulty, a truly serious oppression to every occupier of land ; I 

 mean the surprising increase of the poor and other parish rates, which, from the 

 year 1790 to the year 1803, have increased nearly double, though tlie price of corn 

 in those two years was very near equal. If any one asks what can make the farmer 

 so poor, or what must prove their ultimate ruin at last, I can only say, it must be 

 the extreme dearness of labour, and the excessive increase of parochial rates ; for 

 compared to them the rents are nothing, and the assessed taxes a matter too trifling 

 to be noticed; and unless some timely lemedy is applied, through the wisdom of 

 parliament, inevitable ruin must be the consequence, I confess myself totally 



