Page:The corn law question shortly investigated.djvu/20

18 Britain, therefore, contains fifteen millions of acres of uncultivated ground at the present moment, and all of which is fit for cultivation—here then is a field for the true patriot to consider the best means of bringing under cultivation what is now lying a wild waste. A former House of Commons passed a resolution, that no greater benefit could be conferred than by bringing waste lands into cultivation; George III. used to say "that the ground, like man, was never intended to lie idle." Lord Brougham has likewise stated, "that without at all comprehending the waste lands which have been wholly added to the productive tenancy of the island,—not perhaps that two blades of grass grew where only one had grown before, but certainly that five grew where four used to be,—and that this kingdom, which foreigners used to taunt as being a mere manufacturing and trading community, inhabited by a shop-keeping nation, had in reality become, for its size, by far the greatest agricultural state in the world."

It may be said that poor land rarely repays cultivation—this is not supported by fact. Nine-tenths of the land in Scotland is poor land, and this land not only employs a great rural population, pays a good return for cultivation, but exports a great deal of grain, and since steam has been introduced, sends the best beef and mutton to the London market; but which beef could not be sent, were it not raised under a regular rotation of crops, of which grain is a principal. The merest tyro in agriculture knows that poor land will not lay in grass, (which the Repealers recommend), but would grow good crops of whin and broom, of crops certainly neither the most productive nor ornamental, either for the tiller or the proprietor. Such counsel is on a par with what William the Conqueror did, viz., rendered an extensive track desolate, that he might enjoy the pleasure of the chase.