I30 AMERICAN FARMS. 



to do SO, as in past days in England, it must have been at 

 the expense of others. 



In the days of monopoly in English agriculture the 

 lands of England assumed a value which they could not 

 maintain. Consequently, in comparing the condition of 

 agriculture there now with former periods and with other 

 countries, we must conclude that in England a more 

 normal condition, even under a chronic disorder, is being 

 reached for a time ; while in America an abnormal condi- 

 tion increases, while a chronic disorder is being produced. 



When was the English farmer in a more miserable con- 

 dition than just prior to the repeal of the corn laws ? 

 Lardner's Annual Retrospect, of 1831, stated that the 

 most interesting topic touched upon in the king's speech, 

 was that contained in the paragraph which informed Par- 

 liament that " the export of British produce and manu- 

 factures in the last year had exceeded that of any former 

 year." It lamented that " notwithstanding this indication 

 of active commerce, distress should prevail among the 

 agricultural and manufacturing classes in some parts of 

 the United Kingdom." Says our authority ' : " The 

 country gentlemen brought reports to Parliament 'of 

 the sufferings among the tenantry and laborers, that 

 rents could not be paid, and poor-rates had absorbed 

 the profits of the farmers. One petition to Parliament, 

 from Bedfordshire, stated that the laborers were receiv- 

 ing wages which gave them barely the means of pro- 

 tracting a cheerless existence, deprived of all the comforts 

 and almost all the necessaries of life ; that there are 

 parishes in the country purely agricultural, where fifty 

 to ninety able-bodied men, destitute of other work, 

 are employed by the parishes, and receiving four shil- 

 ' The Financial Reformer, of Liverpool. 



