[588] _A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool by an Old Tory_, 1822. The Committee on Agricultural Distress found that farmers were paying rent out of capital (_Parliamentary Reports. Committees_, v. 71), and that leases fixed on the basis of the high prices of the war meant ruin to the farmer if held to his engagement. [589] _Parliamentary Reports, Committees_, ix. 138. [590] Cobbett, _Rural Rides_ (ed. 1885), i. 3, 16. [591] _Report of the Committee on Agricultural Depression_ (1822), pp. 3, 4. [592] Walpole, _History of England_, ii. 23. [593] _Hansard_, ix. 1544. [594] Ibid. x. 1, 2. [595] Ibid. xii. 1. [596] _Rural Rides_, ii. 199. [597] Walpole, _History of England_, ii. 526. The distress was aggravated by rot among sheep, which is said to have destroyed one-fourth of those in the kingdom. See _Parliamentary Reports, Commissioners_ (1836), viii (2), p. 198. [598] Tooke, _History of Prices_, ii. 227. [599] _Report_ of 1833, p. 6. [600] Tooke, _History of Prices_, ii, 238. [601] Imports fell considerably at this date; they were: 1832 1,254,351 quarters. 1833 1,166,457 " 1834 981,486 " 1835 750,808 " 1836 861,156 " 1837 1,109,492 " 1838 1,923,400 " There were also considerable exports: 1832 289,558 quarters. 1833 96,212 " 1834 159,482 " 1835 134,076 " 1836 256,978 " 1837 308,420 " 1838 158,621 " McCulloch, _Commercial Dictionary_ (1847), p. 438. [602] Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, p. 151. [603] See Duncumb, _General View of Herefordshire_, (1805). [604] Rural Rides, ii. 348. [605] London, _Encyclopaedia of Agriculture_ (1831), p. 1156. [606] Cobbett, _Rural Rides_, i. 149. The average, however, now was about 9s.; see _Parliamentary Reports_, v. 72. [607] _A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool by an Old Tory_ (1822), p. 16. [608] _Rural Rides_, i. 18. [609] Moore, _History of Devonshire_, i. 430. [610] By this Act and the various amending Acts the law of settlement, so long a burden on the labourer, is now settled thus: a settlement may be acquired by birth, parentage, marriage, renting a tenement, by being bound apprentice and inhabiting, by estate, payment of taxes, and by residence.--Stephen, _Commentaries on the Laws of England_ (1903), iii. 87. [611] Hasbach, _op. cit._ p. 217. [612] _R.A.S.E. Journal_ (1901), p. 9. CHAPTER XX 1837-1875 REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE.--THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.--CORN LAW REPEAL.--A TEMPORARY SET-BACK.--THE HALCYON DAYS The revival of agriculture roughly coincided with the accession of Queen Victoria.