[592] Walpole, History of England, ii. 23.

[593] Hansard, ix. 1544.

[594] Ibid. x. 1, 2.

[595] Ibid. xii. 1.

[596] Rural Rides, ii. 199.

[597] Walpole, History of England, ii. 526.  The distress was aggravated by rot among sheep, which is said to have destroyed one-fourth of those in the kingdom.  See Parliamentary Reports, Commissioners (1836), viii (2), p. 198.

[598] Tooke, History of Prices, ii. 227.

[599] Report of 1833, p. 6.

[600] Tooke, History of Prices, ii, 238.

[601] Imports fell considerably at this date; they were: 

1832 1,254,351 quarters. 1833 1,166,457 " 1834 981,486 " 1835 750,808 " 1836 861,156 " 1837 1,109,492 " 1838 1,923,400 "

There were also considerable exports: 

1832 289,558 quarters. 1833 96,212 " 1834 159,482 " 1835 134,076 " 1836 256,978 " 1837 308,420 " 1838 158,621 "

McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary (1847), p. 438.

[602] Porter, Progress of the Nation, p. 151.

[603] See Duncumb, General View of Herefordshire, (1805).

[604] Rural Rides, ii. 348.

[605] London, Encyclopaedia of Agriculture (1831), p. 1156.

[606] Cobbett, Rural Rides, i. 149.  The average, however, now was about 9s.; see Parliamentary Reports, v. 72.

[607] A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool by an Old Tory (1822), p. 16.

[608] Rural Rides, i. 18.

[609] Moore, History of Devonshire, i. 430.

[610] By this Act and the various amending Acts the law of settlement, so long a burden on the labourer, is now settled thus:  a settlement may be acquired by birth, parentage, marriage, renting a tenement, by being bound apprentice and inhabiting, by estate, payment of taxes, and by residence.—­Stephen, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1903), iii. 87.

[611] Hasbach, op. cit. p. 217.

[612] R.A.S.E.  Journal (1901), p. 9.

CHAPTER XX

1837-1875

REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE.—­THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—­CORN LAW
REPEAL.—­A TEMPORARY SET-BACK.—­THE HALCYON DAYS

The revival of agriculture roughly coincided with the accession of
Queen Victoria.

It was proved that Scotch farmers who had farmed highly had weathered the storm.  Instead of repeatedly calling on Parliament to help them they had helped themselves, by spending large sums in draining and manuring the land; they had adopted the subsoil plough, and the drainage system of Smith of Deanston, used machinery to economize labour, and improved the breed of stock.  This was an object-lesson for the English farmer, and he began to profit by it.  It was high time that he did.  In spite of the undoubted progress made, farming was still often terribly backward.  Little or no machinery was used, implements were often bad, teams too large, drilling little practised, drainage utterly inefficient; in fact, while one farmer used all the improvements made, a hundred had little to do with them.  But better times were at hand.