44 TENANTRY. 



Mr Wordsworth has a numerous tenantry, 

 but under a tenure which can yield neither 

 profit to the landlord nor benefit to themselves ; 

 they have no leases, but plough and sow from 

 year to year, the landlord receiving for rent a 

 portion of the produce in kind. His portion 

 is ascertained on the field after the crop is 

 reaped, and is delivered by the tenants at an 

 appointed barn where it is instantly thrashed 

 out and the straw given to the winds. 



Such a system must be a bar to every im- 

 provement ; it in fact operates as a prohibit 

 tion of all exertion and expenditure by the te- 

 nant for encreasing the fertility of his farm, it 

 being unreasonable to expect that any tenant 

 will use exertions or lay out capital, where the 

 landlord is to reap, certainly a large share of 

 the benefit thence accruing, and from the 

 precariousnessof the tenure perhaps the whole. 

 Mr Wordsworth therefore may go on to draw 

 his share of the pittance of grain which his te- 

 nants may under present circumstances be 

 able or disposed to raise, but he must lay his 

 account that in these circumstances nothing 



