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tenant ran too long ; he pulls up another too short. Uneasily 

 conscious that his knowledge is limited, he mistakes suspicion 

 for caution ; he is parsimonious where he should be generous, 

 a spendthrift when he ought to be a miser. He is not in the 

 same position as an ordinary landlord. His children cannot 

 inherit the glebe lands. Not only is he a life tenant, but he 

 does not know his successor. His duty to his family prevents 

 him from laying out private capital to benefit a stranger. 



The personal disadvantages of glebeowners are increased by 

 professional and legal difficulties. I have already spoken of the 

 dilemma on which glebeowners are perpetually impaled, and 

 the risk which they always run of losing their income or 

 their popularity, or both. He is disinclined to be strict in 

 enforcing agreements lest he should quarrel with his parish- 

 ioners ; at the same time he cannot afford the risk of having 

 his land unlet. But in other ways the clergyman is pro- 

 hibited by his profession from fair competition with lay 

 farmers. If he farms himself he is forbidden by law to buy or 

 sell in public markets. At a sale of stock he cannot punch a 

 beast in the ribs with his own clerical fist ; samples of wheat or 

 barley must not be drawn from the clerical pocket. On every 

 sale or purchase he has practically to pay commission. If he 

 buys, he must make his bargain by deputy, and. the bailiff ia 

 known as the parson's man ; if he sells, the auctioneer puts up 

 his stock as the parson's beasts. He is less well served by his 

 men. The master's eye is more than ever necessary in farming. 

 In some districts, for instance, of Northants the able-bodied 

 men have been drafted into the iron-stone works ; those who 

 remain are idle, lie-about fellows, who only work by compul- 

 sion. The quality of the agricultural labourer has universally 

 deteriorated. Everywhere he works less hard, and is less 

 generally useful. The employer is only master on Saturday 

 night. No clergyman can afford the time to be always with his 

 men, and, if he is not, the wages are not earned. If the glebe- 

 owner lets his farm he does not attract the best class of tenants. 

 Many farmers deserve every consideration for their honourable 

 efforts to keep their engagements ; but to give them a chance of 

 farming successfully they demand a large outlay of capital in 

 buildings, drainage, and improvements. They know that glebe- 

 owners are, as a rule, unable to afford the expenditure, and for 

 this aiid other reasons they do not compete for glebe 

 fai-ms. Consequently parsons are very often compelled to 

 fall back upon inferior tenants. Numbers of farmers 

 merely skin and rob the land by improper cultivation, and 

 then throw up their holdings. Farming to leave has become 

 a profession. A midland county land-agent overheard an alter- 

 cation between an outgoing and incoming tenant. "Don't tell 



