defeated again and again, till in 1847 it passed after a heated struggle.
But machinery was affecting another section of the community at this time, and changing the lot of the agricultural labourer in the country districts. In 1838 the Royal Agricultural Society sprang into existence, with the object of encouraging and improving the land, crops, and agricultural produce. Science was now applied to farming, which was no longer left to the "chance-directed discoveries of unlettered rustics." The rapid growth of manufacture had already given an impetus to agriculture, and wool, mutton, and beef had risen in value. Architects, chemists, geologists were all consulted; money was expended on farm buildings, implements were improved, new varieties of crops introduced, live-stock breeding extended, a new system of manuring tried, while railways had already created distant markets for agricultural produce. All went well with the English farmer till 1846, Then came the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, involving starvation to some four million inhabitants, who had no other food-stuffs to fall back upon. Public opinion was stirred, and legislation was the result Up to this time
