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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



LANDLORDS AND THEIR DUTIES. 



" Shall a hunting, bumpkin squire so presume ?" 

 asked a critic of other days, when a country gentle- 

 man dared to write a book about something or other. 

 And, no doubt, the world went very much with him in 

 his indignant astonishment. The country squire — at least 

 of those other days — had few recognized duties beyond 

 hunting, shooting, and drinking. The parson or his 

 ■wife wrote his letters, and the steward managed his 

 property. If there was an unprofitable creature 

 in it, 'twas sure to be the great man of the 

 place. " What," asked the old play, with subdued 

 satire, " is a gentleman without his recreations ?" And 

 everybody of course was ready to answer — A cipher, 

 a nonentity, a fish-out-of-water. So long as he was 

 only true to this standard of excellence— so long as he 

 rode and drank like a man, and spent his money like 

 a prince, nobody complained. He was born to enjoy 

 himself, and brought up to hold in becoming contempt 

 anything approaching to matters of business. 



But we have gradually improved upon this primeval 

 condition. The country gentleman of this era has plenty 

 of duties, and lots of business, if he will only attend 

 to it. There is no shame, nor disgrace either, 

 in doing so. People, indeed, like him all 

 the better for it. Now, the first of these duties natur- 

 ally begin about his own home. If he has ability or 

 inclination enough to be useful anywhere, it is very 

 odd if he cannot be of some service here. He may 

 do something better by this than meet his tenantry 

 for a mere drinking bout, or scatter his indiscrimi- 

 nate bounty amongst the poor of the parish. In 

 fact, he is looked upon to do more. There is 

 something of an example to set, and some- 

 thing of an aid to give beyond that comprehended 

 in pounds, shillings, and pence. And so the country- 

 gentleman figures prominently at country meetings of 

 all kinds, but especially at those encouraging the use- 

 ful arts of a rural life. He identifies himself above all 

 else with the progress of agriculture ; inciting, by no 

 passive approval, but by his own personal exertions 

 and experiments, others to join with him in forwarding 

 the good work. 



We have latterly had to compliment the land- 

 owners of the kingdom for their conduct in this way. 

 There is scarcely an Agricultural Society, from that of 

 the great national one down to the smallest local 

 gathering, but where their presence and support have 

 been of the most marked advantage, both to their 

 tenantry and to themselves. They have so learnt more 

 and more to feel what facilities good farming really re- 

 quires, and have come the more readily to provide 

 what, with less personal experience of the pursuit, they 

 might have long hesitated to allow. In short, we might 

 venture to take it as a sound principle, or even self- 

 evident truism, that the more a landlord knows of the 

 cultivation of his property, and the better he is ac- 



quainted with his tenantry, the better will it bo, not only 

 for him and his, but for the agriculture of the district 

 generally. 



Curiously enough, however, it is not so. Landlords 

 have no business at agricultural meetings. They are 

 far better away. They can send their agents and their 

 subscriptions if they please; but as for themselves, 

 farming and farmers will do a vast deal better without 

 their interference than with it. We arrive at this opin- 

 ion, and have a rather striking commentary upon it, 

 within the proceedings of the past week. In bearing 

 testimony, a short time since, to the manner in which 

 the country gentlemen had been fulfilling their duties 

 at these meetings, we had to instance one particular 

 exception. It was that of the Durham Society, which 

 we had the authority of The Durham Advertiser for 

 declaring the landlords did not support, at least with 

 their presence. Their absence had gradually become 

 more and more marked, until at length there appeared to 

 be only one left to fill the chair, or make a speech to the 

 other order of subscribers. This was Mr. J. H. Spear- 

 man, a gentleman we have had more than once to 

 congratulate on the ability and energy he has displayed 

 on these occasions. We will not stay to discuss 

 whether he was even wanted here or not, but 

 we will go on to show what the farmers 

 themselves thought of it. On Tuesday, Nov.' 10, then, 

 there was another agricultural dinner at Durham. 

 This was not in the due course of the Society's celebra- 

 tions, but as an especial compliment to Mr. Spearman, 

 who was the invited guest of the occasion. He received 

 this honour in acknowledgment of-~as the resolution 

 calling the meeting declared — "the deep interest he 

 has ever evinced in promoting the prosperity of the 

 agriculture of the county of Durham, and for his long 

 and valuable services in connexion with the Durham 

 County Agricultural Society." 



So said some three hundred fjrmers and others who 

 supported this resolution with their presence. But it 

 seems they knew very little of what they were about. 

 As merely a land-owner Mr. Spearman has little to do 

 with the prosperity of the agriculture of the county, 

 and if possible even less still with the County Agricul- 

 tural Society. Mr. Spearman evidently felt this, when 

 in returning thanks he thus expressed himself: — "I 

 contend it is the duty of all owners of the soil to con- 

 tribute as best they may at all times towards the pros- 

 perity of the agriculture of the county or district in 

 which their lot may have fallen, and most of all to 

 contribute towards the success and prosperity of the 

 actual occupiers of the land and cultivators of that 

 soil which belongs to us (loud applause). This being 

 my opinion, I must say that I was surprised to see 

 it mentioned the other day, in a very able London 

 journal, of which I have been a constant and greatly 

 benefited reader, that the landowners had no more 



