RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 169 



payment of the rent. This prompts to watchfulness, skill, ex 

 periment, and improvement j and especially it gives to farming a 

 commercial or mercantile character, and obliges the farmer to 

 keep accounts, and so to learn the exact pecuniary result of his 

 operations a matter in which the farmers of the United States, 

 as far as my observation goes, who are the owners of the farms 

 which they occupy, are almost universally deficient. The strict 

 responsibility to which the farmers are here held by their land 

 lords, is undoubtedly a material element in their success. At the 

 same time, where the occupation is from year to year, and leases 

 are refused on the part of the landlords, as is generally the case in 

 England, though in Scotland leases are almost universal, the 

 effect must be to prevent or discourage substantial improvements, 

 as few persons will be inclined to make such improvements with 

 an uncertainty of continuance. It is a fact, however, which may 

 create some surprise, that many farmers are unwilling to take 

 leases when landlords would be willing to grant them. But this 

 happens only when there is a perfect confidence on both sides ; 

 the tenant has entire reliance upon the honor and liberality of the 

 landlord, and the landlord is equally confident of the good con 

 duct and management of his tenant. An excellent landlord, in 

 Lincolnshire, says he considers himself bound to continue his old 

 tenants and their children in possession, in preference to any 

 other tenant, as long as they choose to remain, unless some 

 extraordinary contingency presents itself; and virtually admits 

 on their part a property in the soil. The great length of time 

 during which families, on his estates, have held their possessions 

 from father to son, shows that he acts upon the most liberal prin 

 ciples ; and the condition of his tenants, and their great improve 

 ments, evince that his honorable conduct secures their entire 

 confidence. It cannot be doubted, however, that the uncertainty 

 of continuance, the absolute power of discharge on the part of 

 the landlord, the risk of his caprice, and the possibility of a new 

 one coming in possession, &quot; who might not remember Joseph, but 

 forget him,&quot; must have some effect in preventing or discouraging 

 improvements. 



A farm which is well managed cannot change tenants without 



great inconvenience and evil on both sides. On several very large 



estates, which I have visited, the occupancy had been in the same 



families for a large portion of a century, and there seemed not the 



15 



