England as it is ... in the middle of the Nineteenth Century

Front matter

ENGLAND AS IT IS, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND INDUSTRIAL, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 5By WILLIAM JOHNSTON, Esq., barrister at law. IN TWO VOLUMES— Vol. I. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1851. " It behoves us ever to bear in mind that, while actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of right and wrong, the judgment which we pass upon men must be qualified by considerations of age, country, situation, and other incidental circumstances, and it will then be found that he who is most charitable in his judgment is generally the least unjust." Socthet, Book of the Ciiurclt. )

Preface

. The Essays contained in these volumes had their origin in a design of writing letters to a friend on the Continent, in order to make him acquainted with the present state of England. It is hoped that a considerable amount of authentic information on subjects of public interest will be found collected in these pages. An Index is supplied in order to facilitate reference to the statistical facts, which have been gleaned from a great mass of public documents. These uocuments are not difficult of access, but they are so unwieldy as to be troublesome to consult, and often repulsive from the painful elaboration of their details. It is hoped that, by selecting some parts, and abridging others, of the ponderous books in which public information is officially registered, some service may have been done in the promoting of useful knowledge.

The writer is aware that, as essays upon the important subjects of which he has treated, some of his papers must appear meagre, and all of them incomplete. It was not his object, however, to discuss these subjects fully. If he had done so, he must have written a library instead of two volumes. His object was to supply materials for present reflection and future history. Eor this purpose he has sought the most authentic information he could obtain ; and where a2

PREFACE.

. he has thought it necessary to state his own views, he has refrained from stating them at length. For the political tone of the book the writer does not think it necessary to make any apology. Though he does not take what is called tbe popular side, he yields to no one in ardent desire to elevate the minds, and to better the condition, of the people. His dislike of liberalism is founded on his earnest conviction — be that conviction right or wrong — that the doctrines of liberalism are directly adverse to the happiness of the great bulk of the population. He is very little disposed to flatter the rich and great of any political party, but he would seek a remedy for existing evils, rather by inducing an earnest and generous sense of duty in every rank of life, than by promoting democratic progress, which throws power and advantage into the hands of the wealthy, the busy, the bold, and the unscrupulous ; but leaves the humble, the conscientious, and the sincere, without help, without justice, and without hope.

It may perhaps be proper to add that a part of the papers on Revenue, and on Trade, has already appeared in the ' Quarterly Review.' ( v ) CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. Chap. Page s. The Rural Aspect of England . . . . 1 II. Statistics ok the Land — Farmers and Gentry . 10 III. Population — Occupations of the People . . 21 IV. Taxation — Revenue — Expenditure . . .35 V. Foreign Trade 51 VI. Theory of " Progress" < i-t VII. Present Conditio.-j otthe People — Physical . 73 VIII. Present Condition ok the Peopi e — Moral . . 83 IX. Condition of the People — it* political Danger . 90 X. ( riminal Offenders 98 XI. Manners — Conversation 119 XII. Rich and Poor 131 XIII. The Blue Books 142 XIV. Marriages, Births, and Deaths .... 148 XV. Sir Robert Peel 160 XVI. The Present Time 213 XVII. The Press 219 XVIII. Modern Science 242 XIX. Railways 260 XX. Public Education 286 XXI. The Tenth of April, 184b 341 b VOL. 1. ENGLAND: POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND INDUSTRIAL.

Chapter I. The Rural Aspect Of England

Looking to the rural parts of England, it may be said that there nre few countries for which Nature has done more, and none for which Art has done so much. In the grandeur and beauty of city architecture England cannot compare with continental kingdoms ; but nowhere else in the world can the country parts boast of so much ornamental cultivation. In some of the less picturesque districts, careful culture and judicious planting have pro duced a beauty and home-felt charm of their own ; while in the romantic regions, though instances of bad taste struggling to improve upon nature may now and then be seen, yet upon the whole the delightfulness of natural beauty has been enhanced by the association of shelter, comfort, and not inappropriate skill. So it is, then, that, whether we gaze upon the mountains of Westmoreland, " from base to summit," making it our occupation and delight — ' VOL. I. B Chap. I. 2 RURAL ASPECT OF ENGLAND.

" To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower, That intermixture of delicious hues Along so vast a surface, all at once In one impression, by connecting force Of their own beauty imaged in the heart," — or take our journey to the south — " To some low cottage iu a sunny bay, Where the salt sea innocuously breaks, And the sea breeze as innocently breathes On Devon's leafy shore," — we find such beauty as Switzerland and Italy only can surpass ; and such variety within our own land as neither Switzerland nor Italy could by itself supply. They who remember travelling in England before the mode of transit by railways was invented, can bear witness to the wondrous beauty of scenery, or the touching rural charm of villages and hamlets, which, in favourable weather, made an easy seat on the outside of a mail or stage-coach so enviable a position.

They can call to mind " the groves, the gardens, the farm-houses, the showy equipages flitting along from one fine mansion to another — the country houses, the village steeples peeping up from their embosoming oaks, the noble cathedrals rising up from the bosom of the towns like a mighty mother with her children clustering in circles around her," all of which they passed in their cheerful journey. And thev who have sojourned at a country inn of the olden time (bow unlike the real pomp and affected precision of modern railway hotels !), and have taken advantage of a leisure day, in spring or autumn, to ramble over hill and dale in the neighbourhood, have they not been ready to exclaim with Dyer, " Ever charming, ever new, When will the landscape tire the view ? The fountain's fall, the river's flow, The woody valleys, warm and low ; The windy summit, vild and high, Roughly rushing on the sky!

The pleasant seat, the ruin'd tower, The naked rock, the shady bower, The town and village, dome and farm, Each gives each a double charm, As pearls upon an Ethiop's arm." It is pleasant to reflect that there is scarcely an aspect of our country which has not been depicted in delightful verse ; which will live as long as men live in England who have hearts capable of appreciating the true and the beautiful in nature and in language. Nor do I allude now to the more noble and striking forms of majestic nature which have been depicted in some of the most memorable passages of Shakspeare, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth ; but even the more homely forms of beauty, which no great vigour of imagination or elevation of feel ing is required to appreciate. Perhaps when the old feelings of England proper have passed away under the influence of modern " improvements" and mercantile calculation, they who still speak the tongue in which Cowper wrote may, in far off lands of Western Canada or of Southern Australia, have their hearts softened and their minds turned back to tbe land of " their forefather's grave," by the simple yet most natural and accurate descriptions of our rural scenery which Cowper has so admirably given : — " I have loved the rural walk through lanes Of grassy swarth, close cropp'd by nibbling sheep, And skirted thick with intertexture firm Of thorny boughs ; have loved the rural walk O'er hills, through valleys, and by river's brink, E'er since, a truant boy, I pass'd my bounds To enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames."

The Task, book i. B RURAL ASPECT OF ENGLAND. Chap. I. 4 Or take the following, of an English common, such as may even yet be found without travelling very far from London : — " The common overgrown with fern, and rough With prickly gorse, that, shapeless and deform'd, And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom, And decks itself with ornaments of gold, Yields no unpleasing ramble ; there the turf Smells fresh, and, rich in odoriferous herbs And fungous fruits of earth, regales the sense With luxury of unexpected sweets." The Task, book i. One great charm in the general tone of the English landscape arises from the abundance of timber all over the face of the cultivated land. From one end of the civilized world to the other, the hedge-rows and hedge row timber of England have been, and are, the admira tion of the traveller.

A great destruction of this timber is, however, now in progress, and it appears likely to increase. In order successfully to compete with foreign farmers, who are now as free to bring their produce into English markets as English farmers are, scientific agri culturists declare that it is expedient to make our fields larger and more open to sun and air, by removing hedges and fences ; that the shade of trees is injurious to the ripening of grain, and therefore that they should be removed ; that " timber-smothered " land is a reproach to scientific and economical farming ; that to keep pace with the advancement of agricultural knowledge, and to meet the activity and competition of the age, the hedge -rows, which have heretofore been considered the beauty of England, must, from considerations of utility, be aban doned ; that land must be looked upon as nothing else than a manufactory of agricultural produce ; and that farmers who think of anything else than profit, are little better than fools.

Such are the theories of those who bring the wisdom of city counting-houses, or scientific lecture-rooms, to bear upon rural affairs. The love of rural life, however, and the taste for its charms, seem to be deeply seated in the character and affections of the common people of England ; and it may be hoped that, notwithstanding the advance ofthe mercantile spirit, and the devotedness to profit among the middle class, there will long continue among the great body ofthe people a feeling for what is fresh, and sweet, and beautiful, in country life. The late Dr. Arnold, who appears to have had a pas sionate admiration for the grand and picturesque in English scenery, could not find delight in the plainer aspect of the agricultural and pastoral country. This seems to me to indicate some defect in his sympathies, which, in such a man, is rather surprising.

He found the country about Rugby " positively dull ;" and says he regarded it as a mere working place. His supreme delight was in the wildness of Westmoreland ; yet that he had a relish for less exciting scenes appears in his fond ness for his other residences. " As for my coming down into Westmoreland," he writes, " I may almost say that it is to satisfy a physical want in my nature, which craves after the enjoyment of nature, and for nine months in the year can find nothing to satisfy it. I agree with old Keble that one does not need mountains and lakes for this : the Thames at Laleham, Bagley Wood, and Shot over at Oxford, were quite enough for it. I only know of five counties in England which cannot supply it, and I am unluckily perched down in one of them. These five are Warwick, Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford ; I should add, perhaps, Rutland, and you cannot add a seventh ; for Suffolk, which is otherwise just RURAL ASPECT OF ENGLAND.

Chap. I. as bad, has its bits of sea-coast. But Halesworth, so far as I remember it, would be just as bad as Rugby. We have no hills, no plains — not a single wood, and but one single copse — no heath, no down — no rock, no river — no clear stream — scarcely any flowers, for the lias is particularly poor in them — nothing but one endless monotony of en closed fields and hedge-row trees." Notwithstanding this testimony, I think I have seen and enjoyed extremely picturesque forest scenery in Northamptonshire ; and in the rich undulating grounds of Warwickshire I have found much delight. But let us take a working silk weaver's description of that sort of country which probably Dr. Arnold would have found nnpicturesque and dull.* It is John Bamford, the " radical," who is trudging through Leicestershire on a fine morning in August.

" We were now," he says, " in a right farming country, where large stacks, barns, and cattle-sheds were quite common on the * I cannot refrain from quoting here Cowper's admirable picture of the ordinary, and, as it were, tamer sort of English scenery : — " Thence with what pleasure have we just discern'd The distant plough slow moving, and beside His labouring team, that swerved not from the track, The sturdy swain diminish'd to a boy ! Here Ouse, slow winding through a level plain Of spacious meads with cattle sprinkled o'er, Conducts the eye along his sinuous course Delighted. There, fast rooted in their bank, Stand, never overlook' d, our favourite elms, That screen the herdsman's solitary hut ; While far beyond, and overthwart the stream, That, as with molten glass, inlays the vale, The sloping land recedes into the clouds ; Displaying on its varied side the grace Of hedge-row beauties numberless, square tower, Tall spire, from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear, Groves, heaths, and smoking villages, remote." ■ road sides.

The roads were broad and in good condition; and there were very often wide slips of good land on each side, apparently much trodden by cattle. Occasionally we came to a neat homely-looking cottage, with perhaps a large garden and a potato-ground attached, and with rose-shrubs and honey-bines clustering around the door. These were specimens of our real English homes ; there vas no mistaking them ; in no other country do such exist ; and he or she who leaves this land expecting to meet with like homes in foreign ones will be miserably disappointed. In England alone is the term home, with all its domestic comforts and associations, properly under stood. May it long continue the home of the brave, and eventually become the home of the really free ! There had been some rain a few days before ; the Trent had been flooded, and, of all the verdant pastures I have ever beheld, none have surpassed the rich vivid green of tbe meadows betwixt Shardlow and Kegworth.

As the sweet air came across them, cooling one's dewy brows, one almost felt tempted to stop and seek an abiding-place in that delicious valley." Bravo, honest silk-weaver! there was no sulky, self-sufficient Radicalism in your heart on that delightful summer morning ! Long may such rural homes as you describe be found in our land, and long may we have men in the humbler classes of society who feel an affection for their rural homes, which no love of change can dissipate, and no rage for hasty improvement destroy ! The earlier letters of Southey give us some delightful descriptions of scenery, which one quotes in preference to descriptions taken from works of fiction, because there is no reason to believe that tbe pictures in these letters were at all " got. up " for the sake of effect, Writing from the beautiful county of Brecon, he says — " What have I seen ?

RURAL ASPECT OF ENGLAND. Chap. I. 8 —woods, mountains, and mountain-glens, and streams ! In these words are comprehended all imaginable beauty. Sometimes we have been winding up the dingle side, and every minute catching the stream below, through the wood that half hid it, always hearing its roar ; then over mountains where nothing was to be seen but, hill and sky, their sides rent by the winter streams ; sometimes a little tract of cultivation appeared up some coomb-place, so lovely, so beautiful: they looked as if no tax-gatherer ever visited them. I have longed to dwell in these solitary houses in a mountain vale, sheltered by the hills and the trees that grow finely round the houses ; tbe vale rich by the soil swept down the hills, a stream before the door, rolling over large stones — pure water, so musical too !"

Take another picture — a De Wint after a Salvator ; not by way of companion, but by way of contrast — the scene six miles from Norfolk — Yarmouth. "This part of England looks as if Nature had wearied herself with adorning the rest with hill and dale, and squatted down here to rest herself. You must suppose a very Dutch looking Nature to have made it of such pancake flatness. An unpromising country — and yet, Edith, I could be very happy with such a home as this. I am looking through a window over green fields, as far as I can see — no great distance. The hedges are all grubbed up in sight of the house, which produces a very good effect. A few fine acacias, white thorns, and other trees are scattered about ; a walk goes all round, with a beautiful hedge of lilacs, laburnams, the Gueldres rose, barberry shrubs, &c. &c. Edith, you could not wish a sweeter scene ; and being here, I wish for nothing but you.

Half-an-hour's walk would reach the sea-shore." How charming all this is, and with what pleasing un conscious art the figure is brought into the second picture to give it life and feeling. With " Edith " in the fore ground, who indeed could wish a sweeter scene ? The lofty mountain and the romantic glen, the over banging wood, the picturesquely scattered rocks, and the bounding river attract all eyes and all hearts among those to whom Nature has given a conception of the grand and a sense of the beautiful ; but to the full enjoyment of the merely rural scenery of fields and country lanes, it seems that some knowledge is necessary of the wild flowers and picturesque weeds, which actually escape the observation of the uninformed or the negligent. A correspondent of Constable, the eminent painter of English rural scenes, points out to him the minor details which should appear in one of his summer pictures.

" I think," he says, " it is July in your green lane. At this season all the tall grasses are in flower — bogrush, bulrush, teazle. The white bind-weed now hangs its flowers over the branches of the hedge ; the wild hemlock and carrot, flower in banks of hedges, cow-parsley, water-plantain, &c. The heath hills are purple at this season ; the rose-coloured persi caria in wet ditches is now very pretty ; the catchfly graces the hedgerow, as also the ragged robin ; bramble is now in flower, poppy, mallow, thistle, hop, &c." This very enumeration seems to carry us into the country, and to place us among the watchers of Nature's less prominent beauties. In fine, notwithstanding the occasional harshness and dampness of our climate, there are perhaps few countries in the world where more enjoyment may be had in habitual intercourse with Nature in the open air.

Once we get out of our smoky, toilsome towns, and beyond the prim ness and overdone snugness of the region immediately around them, Nature is in this country generally found most bountiful of her various beauty. b Chap. II. 10 STATISTICS OF THE LAND- CHAPTER IT. STATISTICS OF THE LAND — FARMERS AND GENTRY. We learn from Mr. Porter's ' Progress of the Nation,' and sundry other books, that the land of the United Kingdom, including the Channel and the Northern Islands, amounts to 77,394,433 acres, of which 46,522,970 are under some sort of cultivation. Llere is his table: — These, again, are divided into 19,135,990 acres of arable land and gardens : 27,386,980 acres of meadows, pastures, and marshes ; 15,000,000 acres of waste land capable of improvement, but in its present state estimated at the value of 5,000.0007. sterling a year; and 15,871,463 acres incapable of improvement.

Mr. Spackman estimates the rental of the land of the United Kingdom at 58,753,615/., and adds that the direct and local taxation applicable to it amounts to 18,314,908/., of which 13,881,911/. is paid by the landed interest, and 4,432,997/. by the manufacturing interest. The capital embarked in the cultivation of the soil he estimates at Acres Cultivate*!. Acres Uncultivated. Acres Unprofitable. Total. Sngland . . . •Vales .... Scotland . . . Ireland . . . British Islands 25,632,000 3,117,000 5,265,000 12,125,280 383,690 3,454,000 530,000 5,950,000 4,900,000 166,000 15,000,000 3,25C,000 1,105,000 3,523,930 2,416,664 569,469 32,342,400 4,752,000 19,738,930 19,441,944 1,119,159 77,394,433 46,522,970 15.871,463 250,000,000/. There is, however, no accurate statistical information of the state of agriculture in England and Scotland.

In Ireland it is better known, the rural constabulary having been employed to furnish it.* Pebrer, quoted by Alison, gives the following as bis estimate of the agricultural produce of the United Kingdom : — Grain of all sorts ..... £80,700,000 Hay, grass, field turnips, vetches, &c. . 113.000,000 Potatoes 19,000,000 Gardens, orchards, and nurseries . . 3,800,000 Timber cut down, hops, seeds, &c. . . 2,600,000 Cheese, butler, eggs, &c 6,000,000 Manure and labour in rearing cattle . . 3,500,000 Hemp and -wool, labour included . . 12,000,000 £246,000,000 Mr. Porter makes the produce more valuable : — 19,135,000 acres at 7/. per acre . . . £133,945,000 27,000,000 acres at 6l. per acre . . . 162,000,000 1 5,000,000 acres wastes .... 5,000,000 £.300,945,000 Mr. Spackman's estimate is only 250,000,000/. for the annual produce of the land ofthe United Kingdom, though It should be borne in mind that all the calculations of the money value of produce which were made before the repeal of the corn laws came into action, were based upon prices 30 per cent, higher than they !>een during the last two years.

The amount of the crops in Ireland has been officially ascertained of late years, but doubts have been thrown upon the accuracy of the official returns. Mr. James Maco±ueen estimates the annual agricultural produce of the United Kingdom to have been 686,524,132/. under protection prices, and 470,580,485/. according to the prices of 1850 ! The annual value of the land of Great Britain, as assessed to the income-tax in 1848, was 41,179,713/. It appears to me that, if the value of the produce be taken at five or six times the rentreturning value of the land, it is as high an estimate as may be safely made. Chap. II. 12 STATISTICS OF THE LAND— he takes wheat at 60s. the quarter, and all other grain at 30a- His calculation is — 22,000,000 qrs. of wheat . • .£66,000,000 34,000.000 qrs. of all other grain . . 51,000,000 Hay, seeds, garden, and green crops 30,000,000 2,000,000 head of cattle . . . 30,000,000 10,000,000 sheep and lambs . . . 15,000,000 Potatoes 25,000,000 Wool 8,000,000 Butter 5,000,000 Cheese 5,000,000 Poultry, milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables 3,000,000 200,000 horses 3,000,000 Pigs 2,000,000 All other animals .... 1,000,000 Hops 1,500,000 Timber 2,500,000 Value of uncultivated wastes and woods. 2,000,000 £250,000,000 Mr. Spackman estimates the yield of wheat in England at 18,000,000 quarters; of barley, 6,000,000 quarters; of oats, rye, beans, and peas, 12,000.000 quarters : at the value of 54,000,000/. for wheat, 9,000,000/. for barley, and 18,000,000/. for tbe other sorts of grain and pulse.

Mr. M'Culloch (On Taxation, p. 389) gives his estimate of the corn grown in England as follows : — Wheat, 14,000,000 qrs. at 50s. . . . £35,000,000 Barley, 5,000,000 qrs. at 30s. . . . 7,500,000 Oats, peas, and beans, 12,000,000 qrs. at 25s. 16,000,000 £58,500,000* * The 'Edinburgh Review' (April, 1850) states that Mr. M'Cullocus calculation in 1844 gave the following results for the "three kingdoms Produce from arable land . . , £132,021,548 Pasture and uncultivated land . . . 89,750,000 £227,771,548 And —being 22,500,000/. under the estimate of Mr. Spackman. Mr. M'Culloch estimates the entire landed rental of England and Wales at about 34,000,000/. (On Taxation, p. 119); but soon afterwards, on discussing the uicome tax, he estimates the landed rental of England and Wales at 40,000,000/. to 41,000,000/.

(p. 147). When he arrives at p. 389 of the same book, he says the rental of the whole landed property of Great Britain is certainly under 40,000,000/. As no one has studied such matters more than Mr. M'Culloch, I mention these inconsistencies as illustrating the difficulty there must be in arriving at any positive conclusion. Mr. Spackman, in his Appendix, gives the gross rental of England and Wales as amounting to 40,167,088/. ; that of Scotland to 5,586,628/. ; and that of Ireland to 13,562,946/. ; making a total of 59,316,662/., from which deductions of 563,047/. are made, leaving a net total rental of 58,753,615/. for the United Kingdom. It is to be feared that, from what has taken place in Ireland during the last three years, the rental there has fallen off in a very serious degree. In the House of Commons, on the 19th of February, 1850, Mr. Disraeli, in his very elaborate speech on the burdens which affected the landed interest, based some calculations on the as sumption that the rental of England was 60,000,000/., a-year.* I know not where he found this statistical fact ; but no doubt he had an authority.

It appears that the average of rent per acre in England and Wales in 1842-3 was 1/. Is. 8^d., having risen to that sum from 18s. 6jrf., which was the rate in 1814-15. f In all the English And this the reviewer fancifully divides into the following proportions : — Cattle, cattle-food, and roots, not subject (as he says) to foreign competition . £137,295,009 Cereal crops (exposed to competition) . 90,476,539 report, Feb. 20, 1850. t Spackman, Appendix, 185. Chap. II. 14 STATISTICS OF THE LAND— counties but five, there appears to have been some in crease. These counties are Durham, Middlesex, North umberland, Oxford, and Surrey. It is curious that in Middlesex the decrease of rental is very considerable, being 14s. b\d. per acre. The next in degree is North umberland, 2s. 9d. per acre. The other three have de clined only a few pence per acre each.

Very different views are taken of the amount of capital required for the cultivation of land : 5/. to 6/. an acre is a common estimate ; but the high farming of modern times is calculated to require almost double that sum.* * In Mr. Doubleday's Financial History the following table of the expense of cultivating 100 acres at different periods is given The first three columns are taken from the information furnished to a Parliamentary Committee. The last is furnished by a Durham farmer, and I suspect not an economical one. The expense of seed is set down as considerably more in 1835 than in 1790, though the price of wheat was less in 1835. Certainly it has been the practice of good farming to use less seed of late years than was formerly thought necessary'. 1790. 1803. 1813. 1835. Rent . . .

Tithe . . . Rates . . Wear and tear Labour Seed . . . Manure . Team . . . Interest Taxes . £. j. d. 88 6 3J 20 14 if 17 13 10 15 13 3i 85 5 4 46 4 10J 48 0 3 67 4 10 22 11 111 £. t. d. 121 2 7i 26 8 Oi 31 7 7| 22 11 10i US 0 4 49 2 7 68 6 2 80 8 Oi 30 3 8-J £. s. d. 161 12 7i 38 17 3i 38 19 2J 31 2 10J 161 12 Hi 98 17 10 37 7 Oi 134 19 8J 50 5 6 18 1 4 £. r. d. 150 0 0 30 0 0 30 0 0 20 0 0 180 0 0 53 0 0 20 0 0 120 0 0 16 0 0 5 0 0 Total . . . Deduct rent . 411 15 11| 88 6 3i 547 10 Hi 121 2 7i 771 16 4j 161 12 7£ C10 3 9j 624 0 0 150 0 0 Net expenses . 323 9 8£ 426 8 4J 474 0 0 s. 46 per qr. s. d. 56 9 per qr. t. d. 1108 9 per qr. s. d. 44 2 per qr. Price of wheat Although it appears to be now adopted as a legislative theory that we should not attempt to trust to our own supplies of corn, but should encourage the import of all kinds of food from foreign countries, it is not to be in ferred from thence that we have by any means reached tbe limit of our powers of production in this country.