Page:The Three Prize Essays on Agriculture and the Corn Law - Morse, Greg, Hope (1842).djvu/12

 that it is this prosperity which makes agricultural produce of more value in Britain than in any other country in the world. But unless we are contented with the great natural advantages we possess in our proximity to the market, we shall assuredly starve to death "the goose that lays the golden eggs." It is matter of history that the farmers and gardeners in the neighbourhood of London keenly opposed in parliament bills that were introduced for the purpose of repairing and extending the public roads, because they said it would deprive them of their "natural monopoly" of the market of the metropolis; they said they paid much higher rents, and labour was much more expensive than what it was in the country,—precisely the arguments now used against the admission of foreign corn; but, fortunately for themselves, they were not listened to. London has grown and increased in size, and land and its productions have become of more value than ever. It is thus that the landlords themselves will be benefitted in the end; for may we not anticipate the same improvement and increase of population as has taken place in London for the kingdom at large, when the highways to it shall be cleared, not only of sliding scale bills, but of all turnpike charges for the exclusive benefit of any party whatever?

There is one reason often urged against the possibility of cultivating the soil and raising crops in this country without a monopoly of the home market, viz., the expenses of cultivation. I solicit the attention of my brother farmers to this question. It is admitted that the nominal price of labour is much lower on the continent than here, but when the quantity of work done is taken into account, this difference vanishes. In the principal wheat-growing countries, the labourer is at least four months in the year confined within doors, by the intense frost which seals up his rivers, and the snow which covers the ground; the burning heat of summer equally incapacitates him from the heavy labours of the field; whilst here both men and horses are actively employed on the farm every day in the year. And with perhaps the exception of America, where money wages are much higher and grain lower than here, there is no country in the world where the labourers bring the same spirit, activity, and intelligence to their work as they do in Britain; so that a far less proportion of produce is consumed by the labourers and cattle together, in raising any given quantity of grain, than what is required on the continent. But without insisting on this, I hold that, in farming operations in this country, the actual expenditure, in money, irrespective of the price of produce, is not by any means so large as to render necessary the present prohibitive system. I confess that, personally, I am but little acquainted with the methods of