Agricultural Statistics. 
583 
1854, the first year of trial in that county. In his letter 
to the Poor-Law Board, dated January 5, 1855, Mr. Farnall 
says : — 
" The inquiiy into the Agricultural Statistics of the West Riilino; of York- 
shire is completed ; and it appears to me that it is as perfectly and satisfactorily- 
completed as its gi-eat importance deserved, and as my opinion of its feasibility 
led me to anticipate. Immediately ou receiving your instructions to institute 
the inquiry, the necessary documents prepared for its prosecution were issued 
to every board of guardians in the district, and in a fortnight afterwards each 
of those boards had cordially resolved to co-operate iu the imdertakiug by 
foiTDing ' statistical committees,' and by appointing their clerks and other 
olScers ' enumerators and classifiers ' of their respective unions. 
" At the meetings of the boards the objects of the inquiry were freely dis- 
cussed and became thoroughly imderstood, while their importance was duly 
appreciated, so that my suggestions were readily carried out by the different 
boards, there being only four guardians in the ten unions named who ex- 
pressed any dissent whatever to the measure. 
" In the mean time the boards of guardians, which it was out of my power 
to attend, passed resolutions, I believe unanimously, to adojjt the recommenda- 
tions contained in a circular letter which I had the honour of addressing to 
their chairman. 
" In most instances both landlords and tenants rendered effective assistance 
in the conduct of the inquiry ; but I ascribe the satisfactory character of the 
results ])rincipall}' to the apt and nearly complete machinery which the boards 
of guardians and their officers supplied.* The influence and authority of the 
former, and the zeal and tact coupled with the oiScial position of the latter, 
have tlius enabled me to complete the collection of Agricultural Statistics for 
this district, and to realize the expectation which I led you to adopt in the 
event of such an inquiry being instituted in the West Fading." 
Mr. Manwaring says, 
" in all the unions, incorporations, and parishes, which were comprised in the 
district under my superintendence as Poor-Law Inspector, with but one excep- 
tion, I met with the co-operation of the boards of guardians, which was 
also generally of a cordial character." 
Had all the Reports proved of this complexion, the Agricul- 
tural Statistics of England and Wales would ere this have been 
accomplished, and the singular idea of attempting their collec- 
tion through the medium of the most unpopular machinery, in 
every one of its departments, that has ever, in our days, been 
connected with the revered name of Law in this country, have 
been justified at least in its results. We must now, however, turn 
with reluctance to the other side of the picture, beginning with 
a passage from Sir John Walsham's Report to the Poor Law Board, 
describing his experience in Norfolk and Suffolk : — 
" I must confess to feeling mortified that after perusing the remarkable 
Eeport of the 23rd January, in which Mr. Hall Maxwell describes the entire 
success of the Scotch experiment, and after adverting also to some of my own 
* On Mr. Farnall's subsequent examination before the House of Lords' Com- 
mittee, this passage is referred to by Lord Stradbroke, and the ground of Mr. 
Farnall's apparent change of opinion as to the utility of boards of guardians 
elicited. See infi-u, p. 589. 
