Mr. Barclay, too (M.P. for Forfarshire), openly asserted that the
distress was greatly due to the trammels on the tenant-farmers, whose improvements had been confiscated by their landlords; and that it was quite as impossible for farmers to compete with foreign countries, under such circumstances, as it would be for cotton-spinners if surrounded by the restrictions which fettered the farmer. On the whole, the debate of yesterday week was all the better for having cut itself loose from the sterile Irish controversy, which has been ground to powder. It was agreed on all hands that while local taxation might be better adjusted so as to press less heavily on the farmer, and while rent must fall, neither local taxation, which could hardly be altered by more than ls. 6d. an acre, nor even rent, are the main elements -of the question. Farming capital must be made more efficient ; and if it could be made more efficient, . the effect would be greater than any result of lowered rents and better adjusted local taxation put together. But under the present Land-laws, a thoroughly efficient use of capital in agriculture is not to be expected.
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