to which agriculture in this country is exposed, and amidst the distress which unhappily, exists, it is a consolation to your committee to find that the general condition of the agricultural labourer in full employment is better now than at any former period, his money wages giving him a greater command over the necessaries and conveniences of life.

As an illustration of this fact, it may not be inexpedient to institute a comparison of the condition of the labourer in some one county at the present moment, contrasted with his condition in 1821, when the last general inquiry was instituted into this subject.

At that time Mr. Hanning, a gentleman from Somersetshire, appeared before the committee, and gave the following evidence:

Has there been a change in the food of the labourers within the last two years?-Unquestionably: I see the labourers, being constantly moving about my own farms; I see them now almost wholly supplied with potatoes; breakfast and dinner brought to them in the fields, and nothing but potatoes.

Were they in the habit, in better times, of consuming a certain quantity of animal food?-Some certain portion; for instance, bacon and cheese, which they do not eat

now.

Has there been a decrease in their use of malt liquors ?-In my neighbourhood it is principally cider. As to malt liquor, I only state the information of a tenant or two of my own, who have alehouses and inns, who say they do not sell so much as they used to sell, but I cannot vouch for that.

Will not the increased consump. tion of potatoes you have men

tioned, account, in a great degree, for the reduced price of wheat? The lower orders, from necessity, eat less wheat.

Of course, then, a less consumption of wheat will produce a depreciation?-I think their poverty drives them to eat a worse food.

By your committee, on the present occasion, Mr. Western Peters was called, a gentleman residing at Petherton, in the county of Somerset, occupying 600 acres of land, partly his own property, and agent to Mr. Portman, who possesses large estates in that county. By him the following evidence is given on this point:

Do the tenants employ less labour on their lands than they used?-No; I think they employ every labourer in the parish; there is not one unemployed.

What is the rate of their wages now ?-I suppose they average about 8s. a-week; then the farmers find them potato-ground; and, in most of our parishes, they have allotments of about 40 perches a man independent of that.

What used to be their wages eight or ten years ago?-About the same; the shepherd and carter have generally got about 9s. aweek.

Their money wages are reduced about 1s. per week, all the other allowances remaining the same? -Yes, and most of the farmers, I cannot say for all, but a great many, supply their labourers with wheat under the market prices besides.

Those allowances have not changed within the last eight or ten years? No, I apprehend not.

The reduction in the moneywages is about 1s. a-week?-It was reduced 1s. a-week; but I think it is about the same again

now.

What is the condition of the labourer now, considering the price he pays for the articles he consumes, compared with his condition eight or ten years ago, when he got 1s. a-week more wages? It is a great deal better. And the agricultural labourer in Somersetshire is better off than he was?-Yes, I think so.

Is it apparent in his condition that he is better off?-Yes, 1 think it is; most of them now keep a barrel of cider, and a pig besides, which they used not to do; malt liquor is not much used in Somersetshire, on account of the large number of orchards.

They used not to have cider in their cottages?-No.

Have they now pretty generally? -There are exceptions, and so there are to wages, because one man deserves more than another; but speaking generally to their wages, I should say from 7s. to 9s.

You say generally that their condition is better than it was?Yes.

Have most of them cider in their houses?—Yes; and besides, the greatest part, I think, of those men who have from 7s. to 9s. aweek have three pints of cider aday generally allowed, and in

summer more.

You mean to say, that at the present time they are more in the habit of having a small cask of cider in their houses than they used to be?--Yes, now they have. The labouring poor, you think, are in a better condition than in dear times?—Yes.

You state the farmers have reduced the scale of their living; have the labourers reduced theirs? -I do not think they have,

Do they eat more meat than they did ?-I think they do.

To what extent ?-I cannot say. Formerly, if they got a pig, they used to sell it to pay their rent, now they feed and kill it.

How often will a farm labourer in full employ in Somersetshire eat meat in the course of the week?— Nearly every day, I should suppose, the best labourers.

What kind of meat?-Generally bacon, and when they go to market they buy coarse pieces of beef in the evening.

Do they not in the course of the week get some beef or mutton? I think they generally get some beef.

Used they formerly to have some meat in the course of the week?-No; I think the labourers have had much more meat latterly than they used to do.

You think, that though the farmers have suffered by alteration of prices, the labourers are better off?-Yes.

Is your knowledge of the situation of things during high prices in the war sufficiently accurate also to enable you to speak to the condition of the labourer then and now?-Yes; I can recollect when the labourer ate barley-cake without meat or cheese. I was then quite young, living with my father, but I recollect seeing the men

rality of the labourers in Somersetshire have meat every day; are you speaking of the single man, or are you speaking of a man with a wife and two children? -The greatest part of the best labourers have meat every day.

The committee may collect from your evidence that the labourers are better off now than they were before, from whatever cause arising?-Certainly.

This is an instance taken from a particular county, but it is no unfair sample of the improved condition of the labourer in full employment.

At the same time, it appears from the general tenor of the evidence, that in many districts of the country the supply of agricultural labour is greater than the demand, and that this disproportion mainly arises from the inability of the farmer to employ that quantity of labour on the land which would be requisite for its perfect cultivation; yet even where labour is thus redundant, the alarming increase of the poorrate has fixed attention on the condition of the labourer. By grants of land attached to cottages, by a more judicious distribution of labour throughout the parish, con verting into productive that which had been unproductive, coupled with due attention to the character of the party relieved, and a more provident distribution of the relief itself, the growing evils of pauperism have been partially arrested, and in some cases by timely interference have been absolutely overcome.

In Scotland, where rent and wages of labour are the only outgoings borne by the tenant, the farmer on the whole appears to have suffered less than in England

from the fall of prices, and corn rents, which have lately come into more general use in that country, protect the tenantry under lease from the effects of a falling market; but the labourer in Scotland being paid principally in kind, and receiving only a small portion of his wages in money, has not gained so much as the labourer in England by the altered value, although his nominal earnings have not been much reduced; on the other hand, the demand for his labour as yet continues unabated, and the law of settlement in Scotland does not impede its free circulation.

In Ireland, as far as the growing demand of the English market extends, agriculture is improving, the growth of wheat is rapidly increasing, and the gross amount of produce is considerably augmented.

The demand for lime and for manure is great throughout the province of Leinster; new roads have been formed: the inland navigation has been improved ; the soil is fertile; and a progressive increase of the supply of wheat from Ireland may be anticipated.

With the war, however, the great contract for salt provisions, which were drawn from Ireland, terminated; and it is doubtful whether any present demand from England for corn compensates for the loss which Ireland thus sustained.

The minute subdivision of farms, the system of con-acre, especially in Connaught, and the consequent increase of population, have a strong tendency to enhance the value of land throughout Ireland, and to lower wages by the same competition which reduces both

Emigration has taken place from all parts of the United Kingdom, and continues increasing from year to year; in some instances local contributions have been raised to defray the expense of the passage of pauper families, and the parishes where this measure has been adopted with due precautions have experienced some relief; but in many cases, without such assistance, the poorest and least able remain, while the more efficient and richer depart, taking with them small accumulations of capital, and thus rather impoverishing than benefiting the district which they leave.

In the counties of England, where yeomen heretofore abounded, occupying their own estates, which estates in many cases had been transmitted from father to son, a great change of property has recently taken place. The high prices of the last war led to speculation in the purchase, improvement, and inclosure of land; money was borrowed on the paternal estate for speculations of this nature, which, at the time, were not considered improvident, Prices have fallen, the debt still remains, or the estate has changed owners, and the interval between the fall of prices and the adjust ment of charge and of expenditure to the altered value of money has been most pernicious to this body of men.

In rural districts, from the absence of competition, the small tradesmen have been enabled to keep up their prices, although perhaps bad debts and diminished custom have not added to their profits; but the means of the yeoman have diminished more rapidly

come, and on him have fallen all the evils of an income progressively decreasing, without a corresponding reduction of charge.

The landlords in every part of the United Kingdom, though in different degrees, have met the fall of price by a reduction of rent, except where during the war the rents on their estates had not been raised, or where by a large expenditure of capital permanent, improvements have enriched the nature of the soil itself.

The spread of the drill system of husbandry, a better rotation of cropping, a more judicious use of manures, especially of bones, extensive draining, improvement in the breed, both of cattle and of sheep, have all contributed to counterbalance the fall of price, and to sustain that surplus profit in the culture of the soil on which rent depends.

Where the fixed incumbrances are heavy, and the family settlements founded on the war rentals are still in operation, large reductions of rent must necessarily occasion the most serious embarrassments, and the effect produced has already been an extensive change of proprietors throughout the kingdom.

It is impossible to overlook, and it would be criminal to disguise, the fact, that the depreciation and restoration of the value of money, consequent on the bank restriction of 1797, have unsettled the habits, disturbed the fixed engagements, and injured, alternately, the interests of large classes of the community.

In the words of the agricultural committee of 1821, "the general effect of the restoration of our currency has been, in some degree, to

derange the markets of every part of the civilized world:" and, as bearing on British agriculture especially, that report contains the following passage, in the truth of which your committee fully con

cur:

The departure from the ancient standard, in proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of money and persons dependent on fixed incomes, was a benefit to the active capitals of the country; and it cannot be denied, that the restoration of that standard has, in its turn, been proportionally disad vantageous to many individuals belonging to the productive classes of the community, and especially to those who had engaged in speculative adventures of farming or of trade.

Fluctuations of price, whether they arise from alternations in the value of money, or from changes of the corn-laws, cannot fail to produce evils in every branch of rural economy, which, independ ently of these disturbing causes, must ever remain exposed to griev. ous vicissitudes from the uncertainty of seasons. These artificial fluctuations, however, only aggra vate the natural evil; they render the income of the landlord precarious, the fixed rent of the farmer a hazardous speculation, and the wages of the labourer an uncertain remuneration.

Steadiness of price, which is conducive to settled habits, and forms the basis of all fixed engagements, is the primary object never again to be overlooked; and your committee cannot fail to remark, that there has been, coincident with the present system of corn-laws, a steadiness in the price of corn of which there has been rarely, if ever, an experience in

any former period of equal duration; and, as during the same period there has been a very considerable difference in seasons, and in the actual amount of corn produced, it is but just to ascribe to the present system a great degree. of that steadiness of price which has unquestionably prevailed.

Rents are now rapidly approximating to the level of these prices; and whatever embarrassments may have been produced by former changes, and however grievous the weight of existing burthens, fresh experiments in the value of money, which must affect the price or agricultural produce, which might shake public confidence, and which must lead to the derangement of all settled contracts, ought, after past experience, to be viewed by the legislature with peculiar caution.

Your committee are of opinion, that the present reluctance to purchase land, or to take it on lease, is to be ascribed to losses recently sustained in agriculture, and to the uncertainty supposed to exist with regard to the present cornlaws; and uncertainty on a subject of such vital importance, where stability and confidence are essential, produces effects hardly less disastrous than change itself.

The price of wheat for the last five years, notwithstanding several deficient crops, has not, on the average, exceeded 61s. 8d. per quarter; the highest price within the same period was 76s. 7d., the lowest 51s. 3d.

Before the year 1790 there are no official returns of the prices of corn in England. The prices at Eton College have generally been quoted as affording the surest data antecedent to that period; but they afford no just criterion of