Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Sir M. RIDLEY WHITE, Bart., of Northumberland, seconded the
resolution. He could undertake to say, from his personal knowledge,
that, in the important county with which he was more intimately
connected, the Free-trade policy had proved most seriously
prejudicial to the agricultural classes. Earl Grey had declared that
he did not consider the value of his property had been diminished by
the adoption of that policy. But he (Sir M. Ridley White) could state
one very striking fact, which, he thought, would show how groundless
was that declaration. The noble Earl possessed, among other fine
farms on his large estates, what might be called the picked farm
of the county, as regarded the production of barley and turnips.
That farm had been tenanted, a few years ago, by an intelligent and
enterprising man, who had hitherto paid for it a rent of L.2240. The
tenant had, some time since, announced that the circumstances of the
times were such that he could no longer pay that rent, and that it
should be reduced to L.1600. That proposal had not been agreed to by
the noble Earl, and the farm had been advertised in all the local
prints, as well as in other portions of England and in Scotland.
One offer had been made for it, which, however, had subsequently
been withdrawn, and the highest sum afterwards bid for it was a
rent of L.1680. That offer had been refused by the noble Earl, and
the result was that that farm, the pick, as it were, of the county,
was at present occupied by the noble Earl himself. (Loud cries of
"Hear, hear.") With such a fact staring the noble Earl in the face,
he (Sir M. Ridley White) supposed he would not again get up in his
place in the House of Lords and say that his property had not been
depreciated by the adoption of the Free-trade system. But he should
proceed to lay before the meeting a number of other facts, the truth
of which he should at any time be ready to substantiate, for the
purpose of showing how much the value of agricultural property had,
of late, been diminished in the county of Northumberland. Many farms
in that county had been recently relinquished in consequence of the
depressed state of the markets for agricultural produce, and the
rentals of those that had been re-let, had, in general, been reduced.
A few instances to the contrary might be cited, but that variation
could be satisfactorily accounted for. In the farm of Berwick Hill,
the old rent had been L.500, the new rent was L.300. In Great Ryle,
in the parish of Whittingham, the old rent had been L.1100, the new
rent was L.855, being a decrease of 22 per cent. In Morwick, in the
parish of Warkworth, the old rent had been L.715, the new rent was
L.533, being a decrease of 22-1/2 per cent. Prestwick East Farm, in
the parish of Dinnington, within five miles Of the populous town
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which had been recently let at L.300, was
re-let this year at L.220, being a diminution of 26-1/2 per cent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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