ON THK TnEOET OF RENT. 5.51 



and likely to receive ultimate sanction, tend in qnite an opposite direc- 

 tion, and denote that alliance between labour and land, and that direct 

 relation of cultivation with ownership, which I have venturer! already to 

 predict ; while the gross injustice which has laid the burden of local 

 taxation exclusively on real estate is likely soon to be rescinded when 

 a system of real local government is introduced, and the anomaly 

 of our present taxation is brought into relief by the necessity of 

 either subjecting the community to the local rule of the lauded 

 interest, or compelling personalty, if it would participate in local govern- 

 ment, to contribute to local taxation. Dismissing the ignis fatuus of 

 agricultural apart from industrial protection, the tendency of future 

 legislation in regard to land can hardly fail to be beneficial to the landed 

 interest. 



Lastly. — Agriculture is the largest industry in the country, and the 

 most widespread. The depression in iron and coal affects, no doubt, large 

 areas — depression in cotton affects Manchester and Liverpool, in wool 

 Bradford and the Tweed, in sugar Greenock, in silk Coventry ; but 

 depression in agriculture is universal, and its eifects recur and arc 

 brought before us with supreme regularity. In other industries failure is 

 disguised by many devices of hope, and capital contributes many a lift to 

 dwindling profit, so that the manufacturer and the coal-owner require to 

 revert to their ledgers to discern the full efiect of depression, and often seek 

 to disguise from themselves, by skilful and hopeful book-keeping, the full 

 effect of their loss. But the farmer has no such solace ; as year by year 

 his returns fall short of his outgoings, a far too simple process announces 

 to him the fatal result, and each recurring season of loss intensifies his 

 depression. I doubt whether in reality agriculture be more depressed 

 than other industries, but the victims of the depression are more 

 numerous, the margin of reserve against loss is narrower, the sense of 

 failure is more acute, and the habit of reticence less natural than in other 

 trades. But again I say we may have confidence in the compensation 

 which natural laws generally provide. In 1844; oats were 30s. Qd. and 

 beef 79s. 4<d. The Corn Laws were then repealed in order to reduce 

 prices, and in 1850 oats had fallen to 15s., and beef to 53s. 8cZ. Speedily 

 the rebound came. In 1860 oats were 23s., and beef 74s. 8c?. ; in 1870 

 oats were 23s. 4cZ., and beef 88s. Ad. ; in 1874 oats were 26s. '?d., and 

 beef 93s. Ad. ; in 1880 oats were 20s. 6(7., and beef 86s. 4cZ. ; in 1886 oats 

 were 17s. and beef 70s. 



In 1850 the complete repeal of the Corn Laws had been effected ; and 

 according to all anticipation, and giving effect to every recognisable 

 cause, agricultural prices should have fallen ; they did not fall, they rose 



pendent of landlords, and exempt from the sordid necessity imposed on other traders; 

 of bargaining for what they desired to acquire ; Free sale, that the existing tenants 

 might have something to sell that they never paid for, and the selection of the 

 tenant be transferred from the landlords to the existing tenants, along with the right 

 to the latter to exact what the former never claimed, a grassum or fine on entry. 

 The extension of the suffrage has broadened the issues involved, and has consigned 

 these and similar proposals to the bourn whence dishonest political cries do not re- 

 turn. The Land Laws are not now likely to be revolutionised simply in order to 

 create an aristocracy of farmers and to confer a monopoly on existing tenants ; but 

 the obvious lesson of these extinct political volcanoes is too valuable to be lost, the 

 community, which has really no interest in the matter (see p. 538), may still be 

 benefited by discerning ere they be forgotten what were the real forces whicli 

 operated in that upheaval which has now subsided. 



