152  Supplementary  Memoranda  to  the  Report  of 
present  crisis  in-  the  agriculture  of  the  country,  a crisis  which  for  intensity, 
acuteness,  and  extent,  has  never  before  been  experienced  in  this  country,  and 
one  which  involves  the  very  basis  of  the  country’s  welfare  and  prosperity. 
Our  Sub-commissioners  have  corroborated  the  existence  of  this  most  unfortunate 
state  of  affairs  in  nearly  every  county  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  I am 
certain  that  if  the  seventh  year,  1881,  was  taken  into  account,  the  losses  in 
that  year  would  be  by  far  the  heaviest,  and  if  the  history  of  the  agriculture 
of  this  countiy  for  the  last  seven  years  was  written,  that  of  the  past  year 
would  form  one  of  its  blackest  pages.  Both  arable  and  hill  fanners  are  in 
the  same  condition ; for  the  high  rents,  the  deficiency  of  marketable  produce, 
and  the  increased  cost  of  labour,  have  brought  many  of  them  into  the  bank- 
ruptcy list,  while  many  others  have  been  brought  to  that  position  that  they 
have  not  capital  left  for  the  ordinary  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Hill  farmers, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  heen  able  to  hold  out  longer,  but  tow,  with  the  price 
of  wool  reduced  to  one-half  of  the  former  average  price,  which  formed  part  of 
the  .sheep-farmer’s  basis  for  calculating  the  rent  which  he  could  afford  to  pay, 
his  prospects  are  almost  as  dark  as  those  of  the  arable  farmer,  especially  if  the 
serious  decrease  of  stock,  and  the  damage  that  was  done  to  the  flocks  by  the 
unparalleled  severity  of  winter  of  1880-81,  are  taken  into  account.  The 
well-known  definition  of  rent  is  “the  surplus  yielded  by  the  land  after  all 
legitimate  expenses  connected  with  its  cultivation,  interest  on  capital,  and 
reward  for  industry,  have  been  sufficiently  allowed  for."  IV hen  there  is  no 
surplus,  the  rent  has  to  be  paid  out  of  the  tenant’s  capital,  when  an  unpre- 
cedented succession  of  bad  seasons  occur,  such  as  we  have  lately  experienced, 
for  which  no  human  calculations  could  have  been  made ; it  is  only  a question 
of  time  how  long  the  present  tenants  can  have  it  in  their  power  to  pay  any 
rent  at  all.  A re-adjustment  of  rent  is  most  urgently  required  by  the  large 
majority  of  the  farmers  in  the  country,  and  it  is  for  the  interests  not  less  of 
landlords  than  of  tenants  that  a re-adjustment  should  take  place  at  once  to 
meet  the  altered  circumstances  with  which  farmers  have  now  to  contend. 
The  Report,  in  my  opinion,  should  distinctly  recommend  such  re-adjustment 
of  rent  for  the  adoption  of  the  landlords.  An  abatement  of  rent  for  one  or  two 
years  will  not  meet  the  difficulty,  or  allow  tenants  to  recoup  themselves  and 
do  justice  to  the  land  ; what  is  required  is  a permanent  reduction  of  rent  to 
give  the  tenants  some  hope  of  regaining  their  lost  capital,  and  an  impetus 
to  increase  the  fertility  of  their  farms  by  the  continued  high  cultivation  of  the 
land. 
Sir  James  Caird  puts  the  rise  of  rent  in  England  for  the  last  18  years 
at  21  per  cent.,  and  in  Scotland  at  26  per  cent.,  but  I have  no  doubt  that  if 
we  went  back  25  years  the  rise  would  be  25  per  cent,  for  England,  and 
30  per  cent,  for  Scotland.  The  case  is  so  urgent  and  pressing  that  nothing 
less  than  a reduction  of  rent  of  from  20  per  cent,  to  30  per  cent,  will  save  the 
present  tenantry  from  ruin ; and  in  cases,  on  estates  where  the  fatal  policy  of 
rack-renting  has  been  adopted,  in  that  case,  35  per  cent,  will  not  meet  the 
tenants’  requirements.  Evidence  has  also  been  given  that  rents  have  been 
unduly  forced  up  by  class  laws,  false  and  inflated  competition,  also  by  the 
letting  of  farms  by  tender,  and  screwing  out  of  tenants  more  than  what  could 
honestly  be  paid  from  the  produce  of  the  soil. 
3.  The  abolition  of  the  law  of  entail  should  have  been  recommended  in  the 
Report,  for  it  prevents  landlords  who  hold  their  estates  under  entail  from 
making  sufficient  allowance  for  the  younger  members  of  the  family  and  from 
having  the  interest  that  they  would  otherwise  have  in  the  permanent  im- 
provement of  their  properties,  and  the  law  on  that  account  prevents  the  free 
progress  of  agriculture,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  more  than  ever  under  the 
altered  circumstances  of  the  present  time.  This  law  has  had  a direct  influence 
in  retarding  the  skilful  cultivation  of  the  soil,  for  it  has  the  effect  of  inducing 
