302 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



The rough walls were left naked, except on special occa- 

 sions, when tapestry was temporarily hung against them. 

 The floors of the rooms were strewed with rushes or 

 straw, and the beds were of the latter material. Re- 

 siding in the midst of his retainers, the feudal lord was 

 supplied with provisions, either from the produce of the 

 land surrounding his dwelling, or from the contributions 

 of his more remote tenants. " His expenses consisted 

 in the exercise of a rude hospitality ; and the few foreign 

 luxuries which the habits of life then rendered necessary 

 to enjoyment v/ere obtained in exchange for the woo), 

 the hides, &c., of his flocks and herds, in which, from 

 the great extent of pasturage, the country abounded.'"^ 



Whilst the feudal system gradually gave way before 

 the increasing size of towns, the extension of trade and 

 commerce, and the accumulation of wealth, and grants 

 of corporations and guilds, with their exclusive pri- 

 vileges, were obtained from the sovereign or the baronial 

 chief, in return for loans, market-tolls, and other similar 

 equivalents, the landed proprietor was acquiring 

 an extension of power from another source, which 

 has since ripened into a despotism as injurious 

 to society as feudalism. This was the practice 

 of creating boroughs for returning members tb 

 parliament. The property of these boroughs being in 

 most instances vested in the neighbouring baron or peer, 

 they were as much under his influence as if the inhabi- 

 tants possessed no rights whatever. By this means, and 

 by the return of men of influence (because they were 

 men of leisure) for the counties, the parliament became 

 the property, if we may use the term, of the landed 

 interest. And this was at length, by the Act of the 9th 

 of Anne c. 5, confirmed to them by law ; and from that 

 period to 1832, when the Reform Bill passed, the quali- 

 fication for a seat in parliament consisted of an income 

 of £300 per annum, arising exclusively from land. 

 Thus was a power and influence acquired which amply 

 compensated the landed interest for the loss of the feudal 

 system, with its many useless, and some ridiculous, 

 privileges. The preponderance of that interest in par- 

 liament, although curtailed by the infusion of commer- 

 cial and monied men into the Legislature, is still too 

 apparent in national affairs. 



There still, however, remains a sufficient residuum of 

 feudalism in the legal institutions of this country to 

 fetter the progress of land in its freedom of action. The 

 law of real property, by which the descent of landed 

 estates by primogeniture is enforced, and which was the 

 very stronghold of feudalism, is as much in force as 

 ever ; and the principle of an inalienable possession held 

 under the Crown upon condition of " suit and service " 

 is still retained in the text of our law books. Virtually, 

 also, as a national custom, it is made the basis by the 

 landed aristocracy of all their family arrangements. 

 This unjust — because unnatural — law of primog-eniture 

 acts in various ways to the detriment of society at 

 large, as well as to the families of the aristocracy. It 

 prevents the proper management of estates, by compel- 

 ling the owners to avoid investing their capitals in them 



Introduction to British Husbandry, U.K.S., p. 17. 



in order to make provision for the younger branches of 

 their families, who would otherwise be left destitute at 

 their decease. On the other hand, it disinherits those 

 younger branches ; and, in case of the failure of male 

 issue, alienates the property altogether, and awards it to 

 a nephew or a cousin, or perhaps some still more dis- 

 tant relative previously unknown to any of the family. 

 It throws a numerous class of persons, unused to, and 

 unfit in most cases for, business of any kind, upon the 

 public, who, by the influence of the landed interest in 

 parliament, find all places and emoluments worth having 

 usurped and appropriated by, and for the benefit of, 

 these scions of nobility — in most cases incapable of, and 

 in all above, fulfilling in a proper manner, the duties 

 attached thereto. By this means every department of 

 Church and State — the law, the army, and the navy — 

 are totally deprived of that fair competition which elicits 

 talent and excites emulation. By it also the pension 

 list has been absorbed for the benefit of persons wholly 

 unworthy of it, being filled with the names of every 

 aristocratical grade, from the noble peer, who purchases 

 his pay by his sycophancy, and receives it with kid- 

 gloved hand and a contemptuous sang froid, down to 

 the lady, who, as a celebrated orator expressed it, 

 "humbleth herself that she may be exalted." It is 

 impossible, with the great increase of commercial 

 wealth, the enlightenment of the agricultural class, the 

 changes that are taking place daily in the political and 

 social condition of the country, and, above all, the de- 

 clining preponderance of the landed interest in the 

 Legislature, that this enormous evil can long continue 

 to disgrace the statute book. It would be a graceful act 

 of justice if the landowners would themselves take the 

 initiative and annul it. From the lawyers it cannot be 

 expected to originate. Their emoluments arising from 

 it are too great to allow us to expect them to advocate 

 a reform which would sweep away a large portion of 

 their revenues. 



Two remarkable consequences have arisen out of this 

 relic of feudalism, which have, in fact, produced an ex- 

 tensive change in the character of the occupancy of land. 

 The first is, the annihilation of the class of yeomen by 

 the absorption of the small estates into those of the 

 neighbouring aristocracy. The second is, the extension 

 of the class of tenant farmers holding under the large 

 proprietors on different tenures, but for the most part 

 " at will." These two events require further explana- 

 tion. It is a singular feature in the history of Europe, 

 and of the present era, that, whilst under the despotic 

 governments of the continent there is displayed a con- 

 stant tendency to subdivision of the land, in England, 

 under a free government and limited monarchy, the 

 tendency is in the opposite direction, and to the aggre- 

 gation of the land into large estates. The following ob- 

 servations of an intelligent and well-informed writer* 

 will put the reader in possession of the facts relating to 

 this singular feature of the times : — 



" In Flanders, Holland, Frieslund, about the estu- 

 aries of the Scheldt, Maese, Rhine, Ems, Weser, Elbe, 



' Lfiing's "Notes of a Tour," &c. 



