THREATS TO AGRICULTURE
SIR,—Professor Trevelyan's English Social History contains judgements on the repeal of the Corn Laws which ought to be compared with his remarks on the same subject it, some of his earlier writings. On page 541 of English Social History the professor says, "Free Trade completed its work by destroying the prosperity of British Agriculture," and on page 553, "Least of all did the late Victorians see any need to grow food in the island to provide for the necessities of future wars." This attitude does not appear in the History of England or in British History in the Nineteenth Century, although such an attitude does appear in the epilogues to recent editions of both these works. It is of special interest, however, to turn to the professor's Life of John Bright. We have on page 48, with reference to the end of the Napoleonic War, " It was then that it seemed good to the wisdom of Parliament to set about starving the people by law in real earnest." Of the troubles of 1842 we have (p. 78), " If no remedy had been applied, a great part of the people of England must, like the Irish of that day, have been compelled to seek new homes across the Atlantic, and the growth of Great Britain in wealth, population and power must have been checked, with the most fatal results to her future position in the world." On the question of providing for the necessities of future wars, the matter could
hardly be better put.—Yours faithfully, , ARTHUR KNIGHT. 5 Muswell Hill Road, N. zo.
Previous page
