What does Rider Haggard say?
That the present deplorable condition of the English poor began with 1874.
How, then, can that condition be connected with the Corn Law repeal?
May it not be logically connected with legislation of more recent date?
Or may it not be connected with economic developments elsewhere?
Tremendous changes in the conditions of people in Europe and America have been brought about by financial legislation much more nearly contemporaneous with 1874 than the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
Then, again, the vast addition to the wheat and corn areas in the United States alone have had a mighty influence on prices in Great Britain.
It may be that rents are so high in England that the tenant farmer finds it impossible to pay his tribute to the land monopolist, compete with American grain fields, and have anything left for himself.
Indeed, Mr. Haggard states that one of the reasons why the agricultural laborer is so disheartened in England is that there is no chance for him to become the owner of land.