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The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



has increased — while they are no longer 

 content with the plain fare of but a 

 short while ago. Education also has played 

 no small part in raising the status of all 

 classes of society, notably that of the upper 

 and middle classes of operatives, throughout 

 the country ; and we all know that the refin- 

 ing influence of knowledge works very won- 

 derful reforms in the ideas and thoughts of 

 men, and that while the ignorant and un- 

 learned are often content with a mean and 

 squalid mode of living, the educated minds 

 seek after better things — for more improved 

 surroundings, and for more of the amenities 

 of life both in their dwellings, their persons, 

 and their general mode of living. Then, 

 again, "knowledge is power 3" and while 

 we see the intelligence of the country greatly 

 advanced during late years, we also see that 

 more power has fallen into those hands which 

 have most largely profited by education. 

 One other influence I must be allowed to 

 mention as bearing greatly upon the rela- 

 tions which must subsist between landlord 

 and tenant in the future, and must be taken 

 gravely into consideration by all who con- 

 template the holding of land. I refer to the 

 labour question, which has lately exhibited 

 itself in a manner so unmistakably through- 

 out the country. That all trades should 

 thrive and all classes benefit under our ad- 

 vancing civilization and progress, and that 

 but one should remain stationary, is a con- 

 dition that could hardly have long existed ; 

 therefore it is not surprising that the agricul- 

 tural labourer should desire to move on- 

 wards with his fellows. Nevertheless it is a 

 matter which must operate seriously upon the 

 farmer, and render it more than ever necessary 

 that he should receive increased protection in 

 his holding; for it can hardly be expected 

 that the rent of land should recede. It is 

 not probable that such will be the case ; at 

 the same time it is but natural that the farmer 

 should look for some compensating influence 

 as a means of meeting his enhanced outlay ; 

 for whether it be regarded as the increased 

 cost of living and of the social amenities 

 incidental to the age in which we live — to 

 the enhanced value of land, or to the in- 



creased cost of labour and of every material 

 required in the working of a farm — or again 

 to that extra outlay to which agriculturists 

 must now be stimulated in order to meet the 

 growing wants of the age — I say, having re- 

 gard to all these disabilities which weigh 

 upon the British farmer, it is but the barest 

 justice that his interest in the soil should be 

 protected in a manner which will afford him 

 the best means of overcoming them, viz., by 

 security of tenure. 



THE LAXITY AND STRICTURES OF LEASES. 



That the time has arrived when land must 

 be held on fair commercial principles, no 

 one, I think, will be disposed to deny. That 

 fine old flavour of retainership appertaining 

 to the holders of the soil, which whilom e 

 bound together the lord and his vassal in 

 bonds of sentiment much closer than any- 

 thing which could be obtained by the most 

 carefully compiled " conditions " of our own 

 day, is now, for better or for worse, no more. 

 The system- of the feudal ages has given way 

 through many a change and gradation to a 

 condition of things more nearly allied to the, 

 spirit of the times in which we live ; but it 

 may be remarked that while trade and com- 

 merce have in nearly every quarter of the 

 globe established themselves on a just and 

 equitable base, the relations existing between 

 the proprietor and the occupier of the soil are 

 even often now of the flimsiest and most un- 

 commercial character ; and, unfortunately, it 

 is often the tenants themselves who, by an 

 unpardonable indifterence, exhibit the most 

 carelessness, while incurring the grave re- 

 sponsibility of investing their capital and 

 making for themselves a hc.'^e. Leases are 

 compiled and conditions drawn out which 

 are frequently never even read by an inbind- 

 ing occupier, notwithstanding he has been 

 careful to sign them; and, on the other hand, 

 stipulations and covenants are made which 

 are never enforced, and penalties provided 

 which are never insisted upon ; and what is 

 the consequence ? A feeling is engendered 

 that the holding of land can be undertaken as 

 it were happy-go-lucky — for better for worse. 

 A certain looseness of idea exists in the hir- 



