1 8 ©4 • On -the -Shortijefi of L eefcs* - 4P7 



fdlion extefids only from year to year, from. crop to crop, they 

 will never have any thing farther in view, than to take as much 

 from the land as it will yield for the time, regardlefs of the Hare 

 into vvliich it is brouglit, or in which it is left, ^fhus, where- 

 ever the cuftom of very (liort leafcs, or of no leafes, prevails, 

 we may lay our account that the country will continue a dreary 

 and barren waile in perpetuity. The granting of leafes, then, 

 muft be evidently the advantage of the proprietor, as W' 11 as of 

 the public. Indeed, I confider that it is to the permanent leafes 

 that were begun to be given foon after the beginning of lad cen- 

 tury, that we owe the foundation of the great improvements 

 that have been fmce made in Scotland. 



When the late Emprefs of Ruflia, in the inflru6lions that fhe 

 gave to the commilTioners appointed to frame a new code of laws 

 for the Ruffian empire, wrote with her own hand, * that agri^ 

 culture could never profper in a country where the cultivator 

 pofTcfTed no property, ' flie raifed herfelf above the level of her 

 fex, and above the ideas of the people whom Ihe ruled over. 

 With certain modifications, I fear that the enlightened obferva- 

 tion of the Emprefs may apply to the people in fome dillricls of 

 Scotland at this day. Without property, or the means of ac- 

 quiring property, I fufpedl that their condition is not raifed ma- 

 ny degrees above that of the peafants in RuQ'ia. Kept in a llate 

 of perpetual fubje(5lion and dependency, I doubt their enjoy- 

 ment of liberty confifts too much in the name. 



I am not by any means ignorant, that the evil of which I here 

 complain, of fnort leafes, or the total want of leafes, prevails 

 on fome of the largeft eftates, and in fome of the bed cultivat- 

 ed diftricls in England. And although I am clear that the prac- 

 tice muft be attended with very bad confequences even there, 

 yet, as there is a greater mafs of wealth in the hands of the 

 body of farmers in England, than there is yet in the hands of 

 thofe in the mountainous and remote diftri£fs in Scotland, the 

 pernicious cuftom does not appear with fo much prominency in 

 the one country as in the other. But, on the other hand, we 

 juniformly fee, that where a fufficient length of leafe is given, 

 it immediately operates as a ftimulus to the imoft fpirited and 

 fubftantial improvements \ as inftances of which, I need only 

 mention thofe made by the farmers on the Duke of Norfolk's 

 eftate in the neighbourhood of Sheffield in England, and thofe 

 made by the farmers on the Duke of Queeniberry's eftate in 

 Peeblesflnre in Scotland. 



1 deny not, that on fom^e eftates, both in England and Scot- 

 land, the tenants continue to poiTefs, at leaft very lately did pof- 

 fefs, the lands without leafes, from year to year, and yet feena 



D d 3 contented 



