ON THE THEOET OF RENT. 553 



that remuneration can be gained only by a raising of the cost of trans- 

 port, which may, to some extent, restore to this country the advantage 

 of its own market. 



But in India the one element of the exchange dominates the whole 

 question. If to-day the rupee were worth in London what it is worth in 

 Calcutta, the price of Indian wheat would unquestionably rise to a point 

 which would render its competition with British wheat much less disas- 

 trous to the latter than at present it is. Whether bi-metallism or mono- 

 metallism be the more scientific or logical system need not be discussed 

 here, but it does not seem probable that a system of bi-metallism which 

 is neither scientific nor logical, and is certainly not salutary, can perma- 

 nently be maintained by the British Government in portions of its 

 dominions practically much less remote from each other than Scotland 

 was from England sixty years ago ; and, whether the necessary unifor- 

 mity be established by the remonetisation of silver or by the readoption 

 of the gold standard in India, it seems a safe prophecy to predict that 

 the existing system will soon become intolerable, and either alteration 

 would materially aifect the position of British agriculture. 



With so many elements to be reckoned with, caution ought to be 

 exercised in accepting as essential what may be only accidental, and in 

 adopting as permanent and definite conditions due to circumstances them- 

 selves contingent and temporary. 



And my faith in the future of British agriculture, when relieved from 

 those economic evils which afflict it, in common with all other industries, 

 rests on the testimony which the past bears to the fertility of British 

 soil, and to the indomitable skill, energy, and perseverance of the British 

 farmer, and on my belief that this age, so prolific in production, will not 

 always be sterile in profit. Adversity is a harsh teacher, but its lessons 

 are the seed of prosperity. In other times and in other industries the 

 blows that seemed destined to crush have forged and annealed the 

 weapons that ultimately won success. Give back to British agriculture 

 its hope, and the confidence which hope begets, and though the methods 

 of its operation may be diSerent, and the relation of the tillers to the soil 

 they till may be widely altered, I feel confident it will not deny to the 

 more scientific cultivation of the sons the harvest it yielded to the 

 industry and skill of their fathers.^ 



' It is assumed that, if the cultivation of the future is to be pastoral, there will 

 be little room for scientific farming : that is a great mistake ; there is a wider scope 

 and a more remunerative field for science and skill in the growth of meat than in 

 the growth of grain. The farmers who have made the breeds of British cattle 

 famous throughout the world may find ample scope for their patient skill in deter- 

 mining how best to co-operate with nature in producing the best beef, mutton, and 

 milk at the least possible cost, and that co-operation will be advantageously effected 

 only by those who are familiar with the practical science that is necessary to enable 

 each man for himself to determine what conditions are best in each district for the 

 speedy and profitable creation of the largest amount and best quality of the meat 

 which the district is best suited to raise. If British agriculture is to return to the 

 growth of beef, mutton, and wool, the profit will fall in even larger proportion to the 

 most scientific grazier than the profit of grain-raising does now to the most scientific 

 cultivator. 



