170 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



slightest apprehension of any change on either side. A good 

 tenant is evidently almost as important to his landlord as his con 

 tinuance on the estate can be to himself ; and where, under such 

 circumstances, substantial and permanent improvements are to be 

 made, the landlord himself bears a portion of the expense. In 

 draining, for example, the landlord furnishes the tiles, and the 

 farmer makes the drains and lays them. A skilful and intelligent 

 farmer, worth having as a tenant, would hardly be found willing 

 to take a farm for a year, without an expectation of a much 

 longer continuance, arid certainly would not, under such an oc 

 cupation, attempt any improvements but at the risk or expense 

 of the landlord. In Scotland, where leases are, in general, for 

 nineteen or twenty-one years, if the farmer has seven years of 

 unexpended lease, he is expected to pay a third of the expense 

 of any permanent fixtures or improvements ; if fourteen years, he 

 is expected to pay two thirds, and the landlord one ; if the whole 

 term, the whole expenses are deemed properly chargeable to him. 

 I confess, under the best circumstances, I should greatly prefer 

 being an owner or freeholder, to being a tenant. There is an 

 excessive caution which characterizes some shrewd calculators, 

 who consider the value of a property diminished, where the lease 

 is limited even to nine hundred and ninety-nine years ; but, with 

 out any sympathy with such persons, there is, at least, a gratifica 

 tion to a man s self-esteem, to feel that he is &quot;the monarch of 

 what he surveys,&quot; and that whatever improvements he makes 

 upon his estate will enure to the lasting benefit of himself or his 

 heirs. In a pecuniary view, however, it is really matter of in 

 difference whether the occupant pays a reasonable rent for the 

 land as tenant, or, as the owner of it, loses the interest of the cap 

 ital invested in the purchase of the soil. There are few cases, as I 

 have before observed, where the rents paid equal the legal interest, 

 of the money which the lands would command, if offered for sale. 

 Certainly, as far as my observation goes, and I have seen some 

 what both of landlords and tenants, there prevails a disposition, 

 and there are the strongest inducements, to cultivate a mutually- 

 good understanding between the parties. There is, in general, 

 no more reason to fear that landlords will be oppressive and 

 unjust, than that tenants will be wasteful, negligent, and fraudu 

 lent. Power is always a hazardous possession, and always lia 

 ble to abuse, and cannot, therefore, be too much guarded and 



