174 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



classes increased one-fifth ; and exportation, which is the 

 fortune of England, having remained in a flourishing 

 state, the demand for labour increased, while the num- 

 ber of poor receiving public aid diminished. 



One great interest, however, seemed likely to suffer 

 from this crisis namely, that of farming and landed 

 property. Noisy reclamations were not wanting from 

 that quarter, and doubts were for some time entertained 

 respecting the future of this reform. Now the question 

 is settled, and henceforth the reform is accepted even by 

 those who combated it with the greatest acrimony. Its 

 effects have been seen, and the exaggerations of the first 

 moment have disappeared. 



In the first place, people saw that agriculture, properly 

 speaking, had not so much to do with the question as 

 income from property. The high price of food serves 

 more than anything else to cause a rise in rent, and, 

 provided rent falls in proportion to the fall in prices, 

 the farmer, properly speaking, becomes almost a disin- 

 terested party. This simple distinction has sufficed to 

 separate the farmer's interest in the question from that 

 of the proprietor. Lower your rents ! was the cry against 

 property from all quarters, and farming will not suffer. 

 The argument was all the more powerful, because for 

 fifty years past high prices had raised rents, and even 

 after a considerable reduction they would still be above 

 those of 1800. In the impassioned language of the 

 moment, they called this reduction a partial restitution 

 of what had been unduly levied by the proprietors upon 

 the subsistence of the public for the last fifty years. 



In the second place, it was argued that that which 

 occasions the prosperity of landed property is industrial 

 and commercial wealth. Now, if the price of food rises, 

 or if it be only maintained at the established price that 



