RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 167 



men of Burns. This is not the place for me to describe the differ 

 ent breeds of stock shown at either place, or the various imple 

 ments exhibited. This I propose to do in another part of my 

 Reports, with all the particularity which my friends can desire. 

 The stock shown at Dundee would bear a comparison with the best 

 stock shown any where ; and the fact is too well known to need 

 any confirmation of mine, that in point of intelligence and agri 

 cultural skill, and in point of success, the best test of intelli 

 gence and skill, the Scotch farmers yield the palm to none. 



XX. RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 



The holdings of many of the Scotch farmers are very large : 

 and their farms are generally held under leases of nineteen and 

 twenty-one years. One would be led to infer that the terms on 

 which the landlords live with their tenants, in Scotland, must be 

 honorable and just to both parties, since renewals are common : 

 the same estates have been, in many instances, in the same fam 

 ilies for a century, and the expenses incurred, in some cases, by 

 tenants, in the erection of permanent buildings and other fixtures, 

 are very heavy ; showing the confidence of the tenant in his 

 landlord. One farm was pointed out to me where the tenant had 

 recently died, leaving only one child, an infant son. In this case, 

 that the lease might be retained in the family, three of the neigh 

 boring farmers had agreed to take the whole management of the 

 estate until the young man came of age. In such cases, there is 

 very little difference between a lease and a freehold in fee-simple. 

 I cannot say, however, that the tenant is raised above all depend 

 ence on his landlord, or that removals do not sometimes take 

 place under circumstances of great hardship. In one case, which 

 came under my knowledge, a farm had been withdrawn, or, 

 rather, the renewal of the lease refused, though it had been in 

 the occupation of the same family for many years, on the ground 

 of political opposition and prejudice, the avowed opinions and 

 votes of the tenant not coinciding with those of the landlord. 

 It is easy to believe that this may often happen, though any 



