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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 802: REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE.

Early in this session, from numerous petitions presented on the prevalence of agricultural distress, and on the motion of Mr. Gooch, a committee had been granted to investigate this subject. The report of this committee was presented to the house on the 18th of June; and it stated that the complaints of the petitioners were founded in fact, in so far as they represented that, at the present price of corn, the returns to occupiers of arable land, after allowing for the interests of investments, were by no means adequate to the charges and outgoings. It also acknowledged that the committee, after much anxious inquiry, had not been able to discover any means calculated to relieve the present pressure. The report, in fact, when made public, extinguished all hopes which had been entertained from the labours of the committee. It stated, “So far as the pressure arises from the superabundant harvests, it is beyond the application of any legislative provisions; so far as it is the result of the increased value of money, it is not one peculiar to the farmer, but extends to many other classes of society.” This was essentially true; and our legislators, perceiving that they could not alleviate the distress by legislation, left the matter to be ameliorated in the progression of time.