In presenting to the House the mass of evidence collected from various parts of the United Kingdom, your committee are restrained by the vast extent of the subject, and by the discursive nature of the inquiry, from attempting a minute analysis of the testimony which it has been their duty to examine. The witnesses who have appeared before your committee have, with very few exceptions, been immediately connected with the cultivation of the soil; most of them are either rent-payers or surveyors of land, some of them are landowners, few of them not practically experienced in the detail of the matters to which they have deposed; and it is impossible not to remark a rare concurrence both of statement and of opinion, on the part of witnesses brought together from the most distant quarters. It is due to them to state, that they have generally given to your committee the fullest information in the most open manner, and the frankness of the exposition of their views is no less remarkable than the ability with which they have made and supported their state ments. Having thus disclaimed the intention of giving even a summary of the evidence, your committee assure the House that they are deeply impressed with the caution which appears to them necessary in drawing any general conclusions, or in offering any positive opinions, where national interests of such vital importance are concerned, where doubts so reasonable exist, and where errors so fatal may be committed: they remember "that the agriculture of the kingdom is the first of all its concerus, the foundation of all its prosperity in every other matter by which that prosperity is produced;" and they cannot forget what Mr. Burke has so truly stated, "that it is a perilous thing to try experiments on the farmer-on the farmer, whose capital is far more feeble than commonly is imagined, whose trade is a very poor one, for it is subject to great risks and losses; the capital, such as it is, is turned but once in the year-in some branches it requires even three years before the money is repaid;" and although it is in the power of the legislature to do much evil, yet it can do little positive good, by frequent interference with agricultural industry. If these be general principles, which are true in ordinary times, the peculiar circumstances of the present moment require also peculiar caution. On looking back at the report of the committee in 1821, to whom the petitions complaining of the depressed state of the agriculture of the United Kingdom were referred, it will be found that the report commences by stating "that the complaints of the petitioners are founded in fact, in so far as they represent that, at the present price of corn, the returns to the occupier of an arable farm, after allowing for the interest of his investment, are by no means adequate to the charges and outgoings, of which a considerable portion can be paid only out of the capitals, and not from the profits, of the tenantry." The average price of wheat for the year 1821 was 54s. 5d. per quarter. The average price of the present year is 53s. Id.; and, although some of the charges connected with general taxation have been reduced since 1821, yet the local burthens, such as poor-rate and county rate, have, in most parts of England, been grievously augmented, The committee of 1821 arrived at the conclusion, "that the returns of farming capital were at that time considerably below the ordinary rate of profit;" and no evidence adduced before your committee of diminished outgoings, contrasted with the change of prices in the interval, would warrant, at this moment, a different conclusion. 66 The committee of 1821 expressed a hope that the great body of the occupiers of the soil, either from the savings of more prosperous times or from the credit which punctuality commands in this country, possess resources which will enable them to surmount the difficulties under which they now labour," Your committee, with deep regret, are bound rather to express a fear that the difficulties alone remain unchanged, but that the savings are either gone or greatly diminished, the credit failing, and the resources being generally exhausted; and this opinion is formed, not on the evidence of rentpayers, but of many most respect able witnesses, as well owners of land as surveyors and land-agents. The committee of 1821 assumed "what they believed to be then true, that the annual produce of corn, the growth of the United Kingdom, was upon an average crop about equal to the annual consumption." Your committee, on the contrary, is satisfied by the strongest concurrent testimony from different parts of Great Britain, that the occupiers of the inferior soils, especially of heavy clay land, have of late expended less capital and labour in their cultivation. This neglect, arising from low profit and prices inade quate to the cost of production, combined with a series of wet seasons, peculiarly disadvantageous to land of this description, has caused a diminution in the gross amount of produce, and the discontinuance of the use of artificial manures, together with a system of overcropping; has impaired the productive power of these inferior soils; and, in some cases where the poor-rate is heavy, their cultivation has been entirely abandoned. Moreover, it is not unworthy of observation, that these clay lands are in many instances proved to be ancient corn land, on which wheat has been grown from time immemorial; and in the Weald of Sussex a remarkable instance was adduced, where rent and poor-rate together amounted now to the same charge per acre as before the war of 1792; but these burthens had changed places: the 8s. an acre, which was rent in 1792, is now poor-rate; the 4s. per acre, which was the poor-rate then, is now the rent. But the diminished growth of wheat cannot be considered apart from the amount of stock on hand; and the evidence of Mr. Jacob on this subject is no less striking than important, especially since his general view is confirmed by the local experience of occupying farmers throughout England. Mr. Jacob's evidence.-Do you conceive, taking the dealers from the great dealers in seaport towns to the small dealers in market towns, there is a lessening in the stocks such persons hold?-Certainly, of Euglish wheat. Could you state in what proportion to the time the stocks were considered high?—I did suppose at one time, when we had a harvest in 1816 which was so very deficient, we had then six months' consumption in the country; I do not think there has been a month's consumption in the country at the time of the harvest since 1829. Can you form any opinion of what was the cause of the reduced stock in the hands of the farmers? -I suppose, in some measure, the reduction of capital; they have been paying a great deal of rent out of their capital. You say, that, in 1816, preceding, the bad harvest of that year, you think there were six months' consumption in store, and recently not more than one month; supposing the harvest of 1816 was to come over again, from whence do you contemplate the supply?-It could not be supplied from all the world. My opinion is, that if we were to diminish the growth of English wheat by one-tenth part of that now produced, we should not be in a safe state in case of a deficient harvest, for all the world could not make up the deficiency. We are now about four weeks in the year deficient in our growth on the average; last year the har vest was one month earlier than the year previous, so that we were enabled to get to the end of the year. The harvest of 1832 ought to supply thirteen months, and I dare say it will do so; but if we have a deficient harvest, and the next harvest gives us but eleven months' supply, and, owing to bad weather, it be deficient one-tenth more, there would then be such a deficiency as all the world could not easily supply at any price, for wheat is not the food of man in any other country to the same extent as in England. In France, even, where wheat is much more used than in the north and east of Europe, Chaptal states, that there are only about 17,000,000 of quarters a-year grown, of which near 3,000,000 are wanted for seed, and that for a population of 30,000,000 persons, whilst we require nearly as much for half that number of persons. On this branch of the subject, after the most full inquiry and the most careful consideration of the evidence, your committee have formed a decided opinion, that the stocks of home-grown wheat in the hands of the farmer and of the dealer, at the time of harvest, have gradually diminished; that the produce of Great Britain is, on the average of years, unequal to the consumption; that the increased supply from Ireland does not cover the deficiency; and that, in the present state of agriculture, the United Kingdom is, in years of ordinary production, partially dependent on the supply of wheat from foreign countries. Your committee has already glanced at the increase of certain out-goings borne by the farmer, which it is clearly established in evidence have not been compensated by a corresponding reduction of his fixed money payments; on the contrary, while the profitable returns from land have generally decreased, the burthens to which it is subject have been augmented. The poor-rate is heavier, the county-rate is heavier, the highwayrate has increased; and the evidence would lead to the conclusion, that the out-goings of the farmer are generally larger than he can afford to pay during the present prices of agricultural produce, without a sacrifice of the profit on his capital which he is entitled to realize; those out-goings, however, which the law does not impose, are placed beyond the control of the legislature, are private bar gains, open from time to time, and regulated by competition; and where Parliament cannot interfere, any recommendation or opinion pronounced by your committee would certainly be inefficacious for good, perhaps, even, productive of evil. Who are to judge what profit, rent, and wages ought to be? Certainly, no legislative authority; for these are matters of convention dictated by the reciprocal convenience of the parties, and silently, indeed, but surely, adjusted by their reciprocal necessities. In proportion as both rent and wages are excluded from the cognizance and the control of the legislature, it becomes important that Parliament should watch with jealousy those burthens which are imposed by law on land, and which it is within their competency to revise and modify. The whole subject of the countyrate is particularly worthy of a separate consideration. The improved arrangement of the gaols, admitting of the classification and separation of criminals; the payment of the costs of prosecutions, both at the assizes and quarter sessions, not only of felonies but of misdemeanours, whereby the want of a public prosecutor in England is now supplied; the vast expenditure on bridges for the improvement of the great inland lines of communication, an object of national importance; all these are growing charges imposed by law, levied by county-rate, and borne principally by land, anomalous from the circumstance that purposes of general utility are thus defrayed by local taxation subject to abuse, because placed under the control of authorities not personally responsible, and requiring, therefore, in the opinion of your com mittee, the early and deliberate attention of the legislature. Your committee, in their inquiries, have not overlooked the subject of tithes, a burthen which materially affects the outlay of capital in the improvement and cultivation of the soil; and they report, with satisfaction, that, on the part both of the laity and of the clergy, of the tithe-owner and of the tithe-payer, the desire of a fixed commutation' is very generally expressed. The removal of an obstacle to the outlay of capital on land, which a permanent commutation of tithe on moderate terms would effect, is a national object of the highest importance, for the attainment of which the temper of the present moment would seem to be favourable. The tithe-owner would be relieved from the cost of collection and would gain by the substitution of a certain for an uncertain income, while the tithe-payer would be exempt from collection in kind, and from the discouragement of industry inherent in a system which gives a certain share of the produce to a party who partakes neither in the risks nor in the losses of production. The administration of the poorlaws in England affects so directly the condition of every class in society connected with land, that it is impossible for your committee to leave the subject unnoticed, especially since, in the course of their inquiries, much useful information has been elicited on this point. A special commission having been appointed by the crown for the purpose of investigating the administration and operation of the poor-laws, and the final report of this commission having not yet been presented, your committee abstain from offering any suggestions in detail; but they earnestly recommend to the attention of the House the evidence of Mr. Smith Woolley, who details the success of Mr. Beecher's plan of management, which has been adopted in 50 parishes in Nottinghamshire, and which has produced a large diminution of the rate, and a positive increase of comfort and independence among the labouring poor. It is, however, necessary to observe, that Mr. Beecher's plan is calculated rather to arrest the early progress than to eradicate the inveterate evils of a system of maladministration. The evidence of Mr. Blamire is most satisfactory with respect to the northern counties of England, where able-bodied men still maintain themselves and families on wages without the aid of the poorrate; and the great abuse would seem to be more prevalent in the southern counties, where wages are paid out of the rate, where the system of roundsmen has been longest established, where the father of the family receives an increased allowance on the birth of each child, where the supply of labour is redundant, and where a premium is thus indirectly offered to improvident marriages and to an increase of population. The labour-rate has been introduced in these districts as a palliative to evils which had become intolerable; its effect has produced temporary relief; but the measure must be viewed with suspicion and 'adopted with caution, since it is contrary to every sound principle, interfering directly with the natural demand for labour, levying, in many cases, the wages of labour from those who are not its employers, and absolutely destroying the distinction between pauperism and independence. It is also worthy of consideration, whether in parishes where the supply of labour is greater than the demand, the law of settlement, as it now exists, may not aggravate the evil. Its tendency is to prevent the free circulation of labour, to chain it to the spot where it is not wanted, and to check its natural flow to the place where it is required. The labour of the poor man is his only commodity, and the reasons should be cogent indeed which justify any legal impediment to his carrying it to the best market he can discover. Dr. Adam Smith, in the "Wealth of Nations," has dwelt with peculiar force on this particular subject; he has laid down, with his accustomed accuracy, the general principle, that "the property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable." After stating the law, he points out the evil as it still exists in England in these emphatic words "The scarcity of hands in one parish cannot always be relieved by their superabundance in another, as it is constantly in Scotland, and, I believe, in all other countries where there is no difficulty of settlement;" and he sums up the statement with this remarkable expression, which is true to the present day-"There is scarce a poor man in England of 40 years of age, I will venture to say, who has not, in some part of his life, felt himself most cruelly oppressed by this ill-contrived law of settlement." Amidst the numerous difficulties |