128 on leases. Aug^ \. 



our neighbours upon the continent, in general, from 

 the same circumstance, have had the progrefs of their 

 agriculture prodigiously retarded, in comparison of 

 what it might otherwise have been*. The Nether- 

 lands is a singular exception to this rule ; and their 

 progrefs in rural improvements has been proportion- 

 ally rapid. 



The progrefs of Scotland in agriculture, whea 

 compared with England, has been piodigiously re- 

 tarded from the same cause. For many centuries 

 back the security of tenants in England was nearly 

 the same as at present. In Scotland it is only of late 

 that our courts of law have begun to give that va- 

 lidity to jjpntracts of lease that they ought to have 

 had. And it is only since that period, that our te- 

 nants have begun to think, and to act, as free agents, 

 whose property, as well as that of the land owners, 



upon a rich m.n's fhoulders thjt he was uaable himself to beir. He de- 

 volved his authority upon deputies an.1 subdeputies, whose busincfs it was 

 to opprefj thos,; below them, and to cheat those above tliem ; which pro- 

 duced an enJlefa train of evils that it would be unpleasant to recount. N« 

 spirited agriculture can, in these circum^^tances, ever prevail. The clafsi- 

 cal reider, who has turned his attention to the private life of the ancicntSj 

 will easily, from this source, be able to explain an infinite variety of par" 

 ticulars that have occurred in the coarse of his reading, which, witiiout 

 adverting to these, will appear to be totally inexplicable. 



• In most parts of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Rufsia, 

 the stock employed for cultivating the land, is the property of the bnd- 

 - lord, frequently of the crown; the tenmt having only a temporary us; of 

 it. It is easy to see, that, in order to secure the landlord's property, in these 

 circunr.stances, it becomes necefsiry to confer upon him an authority over 

 his tenants, that is totally incons'sent with freedom. This is felt evc« 

 in the most clviliied states in the above list ; and where the greatest 

 stretches have been made to secure the lower orders of the people from 

 opprefsion. In many cases, thos* who cultivate the S)il are little better 

 •*han slaves, at this hour. 



