Mr. Walter Long, the President of the Board of Agri-
culture, spoke at Wantage on Wednesday on what the Government had done for agriculture. He pointed out that they had done something to render the carriage of agricultural products cheaper and easier by promoting the construction of light railways ; that they had averted the danger of bringing disease to English cattle, by prohibiting the importation of cattle and turning the import into one of dead meat,—a change which it was said would raise the price of meat, whereas the price of meat had fallen slightly since the Act was passed,—and had diminished the relatively heavy pressure of the rates on English agriculture. He did not deny that the relief would be greatest where the rents were highest, and least where the rents had fallen most, but they had to choose between not relieving agriculture at all and relieving it most where there had been least disaster ; and as for the assertion that the landlord would get all the benefit of the relief, it was obvious that whether the landlord or the farmer or the labourer profited most by the Act, the relief would in each of the three cases leave the class relieved in a better position to improve the land he was engaged in tilling, and to stimulate the declining industry in which he was engaged. The speech was a very sensible one, and did not, as has been alleged, surrender the case for the Agricultural Rating Act at all. How does it follow from admitting that because relief is not at its highest point where it is most wanted,—a very difficult thing to compass,—relief is of no use at all?
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