i8oo. Curfory Remarks on Increafifig Refits. 41 



greateft poverty. Fletcher of Salton, who wrote at that pe- 

 riod, defcribes them as funk into the moll abjeft degree of 

 wfetchednefs; and Lord Kames declares, that, before the Uni- 

 on, they were fo benumbed nvith opprejfion^ that the moft able in- 

 ftru(Slor in huibandry would have made no imprefiion. It is 

 well known, that, betwixt the beginning of this century and 

 the year 1750, landlords found a great dilHculty in procuring 

 tenants who could (lock their farms, and fecure theni in pay- 

 ment of any rent at all ; and that, when they found one of this 

 defcription, he got any length of leafe he pleafed. Thefe long 

 leafes, which at thpt tim.e were univerfally granted, gave a fpur 

 to the a6livity of the tenantry, and, togetiier with the growing 

 profperity of the country, enabled tenants to recover and in- 

 creafe their capitals. If thefe capitals are again wrefted from 

 them, it does not require the fpirit of prophecy to predict, that 

 fimilar confequences mull again take place; and that the king- 

 dom, from a fiouriftiing condition, will return to that flate of 

 wretchednefs and mifery in which it was before the Union. 



We have a llriking inftance of what necefiarily accompa- 

 nies a deprefTed hufbandry, in the prefent low condition of 

 Spain. The profpericy of any country does not depend fo 

 much upon the quantity of gold and filver it contains, as it 

 does on its internal induftry, and the diffufion of capital for 

 carrying it on among all ranks of the State. Whenever, there- 

 fore, the capital of the hulbandman is difiipated, the chain is 

 broken, and, as in France before the Revolution, a luxurious 

 landed intereft, rich merchants, and monied men, opulent con- 

 tra6lors, and farmers-general, may be found, while the face of 

 the country lies uncultivated for want of capital, and the mafs 

 of the people are reduced to the mofh abject condition. 



Whether matters are in a train for bringing about fuch a 

 change in the flate of tliis country, we prefume not to fay •, 

 but it is certainly true, that the great increafe of rents and 

 public burdens, and the augmented charge for every article of 

 labour, muft necefl'arily injure the tenant's capital, unlefs 

 prices of every kind of produce rife in an equal proportion. 

 That this, for an average of years, has not been the cafe, we 

 believe v/ill not be difputed ; and that farmers have been able 

 to go on, muft be attributed to the fuperior fkill generally 

 difplayed in the management of rural atFairs, and to the ca- 

 pital formerly accumulated, when rents, taxes, and labour, 

 were comparatively lefs. 



Under the prefent exorbitant rents, the greateft part of te- 

 nants live in a conftant dread of a fall in the value of produce, 

 which, in a few years, would ftrip them, of their capital, and 

 reduce themfelyes and families to beggary. Nor can they have 



the 



