92 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



we were vociferously propounding a multitude of ques- 

 tions, without settling any, they were quietly working out 

 theirs, and now we both come forth from the trial, they 

 strengthened and we weakened. 



Before entering upon the subject of the respective crises 

 which have further increased the distance we have shown 

 as already existing between us, it is important to examine 

 into the causes of the superiority in English agriculture up 

 to 1847. These causes originate in the history and entire 

 organisation of the two countries. The agricultural con- 

 dition of a people is not an isolated fact, but part of a 

 great whole. The responsibility of the imperfect state of 

 our agriculture does not attach altogether to our cultiva- 

 tors ; its ulterior progress depends not solely upon them, 

 or, rather, it is not by fixing their attention on the soil 

 that they will altogether be able to avail themselves of 

 the phenomena there presented, but by endeavouring 

 again to rise to the general laws which govern the eco- 

 nomical development of communities. 



Hitherto they have had little taste for such studies ; 

 they reject them almost unanimously, as practically use- 

 less and dangerous : I believe them to be mistaken, and 

 I hope to prove it to them. Practically, there can be no 

 good agricultural without a good economical condition ; 

 the one is the effect, the other the cause. 



