most assuredly revert, were we to follow the counsels of our friends the Fair Traders. From what they tell us, one would suppose that such things as agricultural and commercial depression were unknown in those happy days, and that they only came into being with the advent of Free Trade in 1846. I will now quote to you, by way of illustration, a few passages from the article in the October number of the Nineteenth Century, entitled "The Proposals of the Fair Trade League," from the pen of Mr. T. P. Whittaker, to which I have already referred.
"In 1816 the poor rates at Hinckley, Leicester, were 52s. in the pound.
"It was stated in the House of Commons in 1817 that at Langdon in Dorsetshire, a parish containing 575 inhabitants, 409 were receiving relief. And at Ely three-fourths of the people were in receipt of relief.
"In 1817 wheat averaged 94s. 9d. a quarter. In 1822 wheat fell to 43s. 4d. a quarter. In 1819, 1820, and 1822, agriculture was in a state of universal distress, bordering on bankruptcy, and petitions for relief were presented to Parliament from all parts of the country. In 1822 a Parliamentary Committee was appointed to inquire into the cause of the distress. Farmers were ruined by thousands. One newspaper in Norwich advertised 120 sales of stock in one day. This was when the Corn Laws were in full force, and the price fixed by law for importing corn was 80s. a quarter.
"Again, ten years later, agricultural distress was great. The Marquis of Stafford used to take his rents in the value of corn, and in 1827 he abated 30 per cent, and in 1828, 26 per cent. In 1829, the workhouses in some parts of the country were so crowded, that at times four, five, or six people had to sleep in one bed.
"In 1829, families in Yorkshire were reduced to live on bran, and in Huddersfield 13,226 were reduced to semi-starvation.
"Sir Richard Phillips, in his "Facts" (published 1832), says:—'The dear corn years, from 1809 to 1818, swelled the list of crimes from 5,350 in 1809 to 14,254 in 1818. In 1839 wheat went up to 70s. 8d. a quarter, and averaged 67s.
