ter night incendiary fires broke out, and emboldened by impunity the
rioters proceeded to pillage by day. In Hampshire they moved in bodies
1,500 strong. A special Commission was appointed, and the disorders
put down at last with a firm hand. In 1828 there had been a relaxation
in the duties on corn, the object of the Act passed in that year being
to secure the farmer a constant price of 8s. a bushel instead of 10s.
as in 1815, and by a sliding scale to prevent the disastrous
fluctuations in prices. The best proof of its failure is afforded by
the appointment of another parliamentary committee in 1833 to inquire
into the distressed state of agriculture. At this inquiry many
witnesses asserted that the cultivation of inferior soils and heavy
clays had diminished from one-fourth to one-fifth.[598] It was also
asserted that farmers were paying rent out of capital.[599] Tooke,
however, thought there was much exaggeration of the distress, which
was proved by the way the farmers weathered the low prices of 1835,
when wheat, after a succession of four remarkably good seasons,
averaged 39s. 4d. for the year. In these abundant years, too, he
asserts that the home supply was equal to the demand,[600] though the
committee of 1833 had stated that this had ceased to be the
case.[601] Another committee, the last for many years, sat in 1835 to
consider the distress; but although prices were low the whole tenor of
the evidence established the improvement of farming, the extension of
cultivation, and the increase of produce, and it was noticed at this
time that towns dependent on agriculture were uniformly
prosperous.[602]

On the whole, in spite of exaggeration from interested motives, the
distress for the twenty years after the battle of Waterloo was real
and deep; twenty years of depression succeeded the same period of
false exaltation. The progress, too, during that time was real, and
made, as was remarked, _because_ of adversity. From this time
agriculture slowly revived.

On one point both of the two last committees were agreed, that the
condition of the labourer was improved, and they said he was better
off than at any former period, for his wages remained the same, while
prices of necessaries had fallen. That his wages went further is true,
but they were still miserably low, and he was often housed worse than
the animals on the farm. 'Wattle and dab' (or mud and straw) formed
the walls of his cottage, the floors were often of