produced a Bill giving still further
protection to corn-growers, which was fortunately not carried into
effect. There was no doubt, however, about the reality of the crisis
through which the landed classes were passing. Many of the landowners
were heavily in debt. Mortgages had been multiplied during the war,
and while prices were high payment of interest was easy; but when
prices fell and the tenant threw up his farm, the landlord could not
throw over the mortgage, and the interest hung like a dead weight
round his neck.[592]

The price to which wheat fell at the end of 1822 was to be the lowest
for some years; it soon recovered, and until 1834 the average annual
prices ranged from 53s. to 68s. 6d., while in 1825 beef at Smithfield
was 5s. and mutton 5s. 4d. a stone.

In 1823 there was a marked improvement, and the king's speech
congratulated the country on 'the gradual abatement of those
difficulties under which agriculture has so long suffered.'[593] In
1824 'agriculture was recovering from the depression under which it
laboured.'[594] In 1825 it was said, 'there never was a period in the
history of this country when all the great interests of the nation
were in so thriving a condition.'[595] In that year over-speculation
produced a panic and agricultural distress was again evident. In 1826
Cobbett said, 'the present stock of the farms is not in one-half the
cases the property of the farmer, it is borrowed stock.'[596] In 1828
all the farmers in Kent were said to be insolvent.[597]

At the meeting of Parliament in 1830 the king lamented the state of
affairs, and ascribed it to unfavourable seasons and other causes
beyond the reach of legislative remedy. Many had learnt that high
protection was no protection for farmers, and it was stated more than
once that the large foreign supply of grain, though only then about
one-third of the home-grown, depressed our markets. At the same time,
it must be admitted that agriculture, like all other industries, was
suffering from the crisis of 1825. In 1830, the country was filled
with unrest, in which the farm labourer shared. His motives, however,
were hardly political. He had a rooted belief that machinery was
injuring him, the threshing machine especially; and he avenged himself
by burning the ricks of obnoxious farmers. Letters were sent to
employers demanding higher wages and the disuse of machines, and
notices signed 'Swing' were affixed to gates and buildings. Night
af