probably have taken many years to lay to heart. The railway fever of 1845, and the subsequent disastrous panic, do not fall within the scope of the present subject.

Steamships.

A steamship, as we have seen, was already plying on the Clyde before George Stephenson built his first locomotive. The progress, however, of the steamship was slower than that of the railway. America may, perhaps, claim the lead, as the first steamship which actually crossed the Atlantic, in 1819, was American. This vessel, however, was not able to accomplish the whole journey under steam, a feat first achieved by two British vessels in 1838. After that, progress became comparatively rapid; and in 1839 and 1840, four Ocean steamship lines were started. The record-holding steamships of to-day race from England to New York in about one-third of the time taken by the first steamers. A more startling illustration of the advance in the speed of transport is to be found in the fact that in the days of sailing ships the normal time occupied in a voyage to India was about six months; whereas, by the overland route, Bombay may now be reached in about a fortnight. This, however, is, of course, in part due to the opening of the Suez Canal; the steamship following the old route would be timed in weeks, where the sailing vessel was timed in months. Commercial activity was further considerably increased by the development of rapid and frequent correspondence. In the old days, commercial houses interchanged rare budgets of instructions and advice with their agents in remote parts of the country at considerable intervals of time, the mere conveyance of the letters occupying many days. The multiplication of letters was checked by the mere expense, although mail coaches were among the institutions inaugurated by William Pitt. The development of railways made possible the establishment of the penny post in 1840; and in two years after that date, the number of letters dispatched had more than doubled. Forty years later, it had increased more than tenfold; and the writer of a letter in London dispatched to almost any point in Great

Penny Post.

Britain, could calculate on receiving an answer, if sent by return of post, within forty-eight hours.

Of less real importance, perhaps, as far as concerns internal communication, was the development of the electric telegraph; in matters of business the great influence Telegraphy. of telegraphy was chiefly felt where greater distances were involved. Telegraphic correspondence with the Continent, with India, America, and Australia, established a new condition of affairs. The first public telegraph was set up between London and Slough in 1844; and from that time telegraphy in England advanced rapidly. The first submarine cable was laid between Dover and Calais in 1851. In 1857 came the first attempt to lay an Atlantic cable; but though this was completed, it subsequently broke down. The successful Atlantic cable was not laid till 1866. Ten years later the first telephones were patented, of which the development has made it possible to conduct business operations by actual conversation at immense distances. But the telephone has hitherto been a convenience rather than a force in the expansion of business and commerce. The same thing may be said of the application of electricity as a motor in place of steam; it has not materially modified as yet the methods either of production or of distribution.

CHAPTER XX

THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

THE creation of machinery, the birth of the factory, the portentous development of the towns, the vast network of railways carrying huge freights and millions of passengers, are the conspicuous features of the change which passed over England and the south of Scotland, between 1770 and 1850; a change which we may summarise by the statement that a population hitherto primarily agricultural and commercial became primarily industrial and commercial, occupied more with the product of manufacture than with the product of the soil. But agriculture was already moving along a course of change which was perhaps accelerated by the industrial revolution, but was not actually caused by it; and to this rural revolution we shall now give our attention.

We saw that in the medieval period the whole country was practically under the open-field system, modified only by the tendency for the lords of the manor to Summary consolidate their demesne lands so as to make of the Past. their own acres contiguous. The bulk of the occupiers held their lands in villeinage, though a proportion of them were freeholders, or held their land subject only to some comparatively insignificant claims on the part of the lord of the manor. Villeinage passed away because rents were more convenient than services, and the substitution of rent for service tended to the general disappearance of conditions of serfdom. Then, during a century or so, which terminated in the earlier years of Queen Elizabeth, came the great period of enclosures, when pasture was expanded partly at the expense of tillage, and partly by the enclosing of common

and waste lands. Broadly speaking, when this process was brought to an end by the equalisation of the profits of tillage and of pasture, about half the arable land was still unenclosed; that is, it remained under the open-field system. Much of it was held by freeholders and copyholders with a permanent heritable title. Much, on the other hand, was now held by tenants-at-will, who were technically liable to be ejected at short notice, but ordinarily expected to remain where they were planted, with only occasional modifications in the terms of the tenancy.

Vis Inertiae.

Now, these were conditions which did not encourage progress in husbandry. The open-field system virtually precluded all experiment on the part of the individual. The bucolic mind proverbially looks askance on any kind of innovation, clinging to the ancient ways, and contemning whatsoever is newfangled. The vis inertiae of a group of uneducated bucolic minds is invincible collectively, even when individually they might be capable of being moved; and consequently the progress in agriculture and in agricultural methods was slow. The actual displacement of labour due to the conversion of arable land into pasture had come to an end before the seventeenth century opened. The rural population settled down into a decent degree of comfort. The small farmer made a subsistence which was eked out by the hand-loom and the spinning-wheel. The labourer supplemented his wages by the produce of his own croft and by the spinning-wheel. He had no ambitions, and his few wants were not difficult to satisfy. In effect there was no incentive to enterprise and progress.

Landlords.

But the eighteenth century, like the sixteenth, witnessed a development of the commercial spirit among the larger Progressive landowners. The successful man of business aimed at improving his social status and his political importance by becoming a landowner; and he was inclined to apply to the land the principles which had made him successful in business. He wanted to make his land pay. It was indeed from men of this type that the

initiative in agricultural improvements was to be expected; for they were not prejudiced against innovations, and they had the will and the means to follow up new methods which were conspicuously advantageous. Hence, through the first half of the eighteenth century, considerable developments were in progress on many of the larger estates whereby the productiveness of the soil was greatly increased, and great advances were made in the breeding of sheep and cattle. But these things did not touch the small occupiers The Small who were prejudiced against innovations, were Holder. hampered by the open-field system, and could not afford to adopt methods which could not really pay unless applied on a large scale. These were difficulties which applied to the immense majority of small occupiers, whether they were freeholders, copyholders, or tenants-at-will. But this last group had yet another obstacle to face. The security of their tenure depended on their relations with the landlord. The average landlord was not in the least likely to take an unfair advantage of his tenant. But death, debt, and other inconveniences forbade the tenant, with the best of landlords, to act on the assumption that he would always be certain of generous, or even of just treatment. If he spent money on permanent improvements, the landlord might, though he probably would not, raise the rent; and it was not worth while to take the risk. So the small occupier struggled on along the old ways while the large proprietor produced richer crops and improved cattle and sheep at less cost.

Now it is easy to see that these conditions must inevitably have had a double tendency; to urge forward the enterprising big proprietor, and to damp the courage Renewal of of the small holders. The success of the big man Enclosure. made the struggle all the harder for the small one when he carried his goods to market, and made him less reluctant to part with his land. The big proprietor could turn more land to account provided that he could enclose it. Enclosure continued but slowly during the first half of the eighteenth century. For definite statistics, we are left to those effected.