254 AGKICULTCKE. 



population and wealth, which is constantly consuming land 

 by buildings, pleasure-grounds, roads, railways, docks, and 

 cemeteries, and in which the possession of land is a pride 

 and a passion. Nor do we believe that the revenue de- 

 rived from real property can be permanently diminished. 

 The British landowner never felt himself to be a rich man, 

 as compared to a person deriving an equal income from 

 other sources, because, whatever might be his personal 

 frugality, he has always been subject to the temptation of 

 expending his savings on his property, and it has been 

 quite as often on blunders and fancies as on improvements 

 which added to his revenue. It may be that for a period, 

 now commenced or at hand, he may have to season the pride 

 of his position with somewhat of increased pressure, be- 

 cause he is always in debt. He has been the shuttlecock 

 of those legislatures who have sported with the currency; 

 struck up to a giddy height from 1797 to 1815, from which 

 height he has been let down by successive subsidences to 

 his present depressed condition. Mr. Johnston, in " Eng- 

 land as it is," reckons the " indebtedness " of real property 

 in England at one-half of its absolute value, and the 

 annual charge of such indebtedness at one-half of its 

 revenue. But for the circumstance that this debt, both as 

 to principal and interest, is a "fixed, amount of money" 

 the statement would amount to no more than this that 

 the apparent owners of the real property in question only 

 own one-half of it, and that somebody else owns the other 

 half. "But," as Mr. Johnston justly observes, "when we 

 take into account debts or fixed engagements of any kind, 

 a change in the currency must disturb the balance of justice; 

 and when the change is such as to increase the value of 

 money, it is a severe measure of oppression upon the 

 weaker and indebted class, while an undue advantage is 

 given to those who are least in need of it." Under this 

 oppression the present race of landowners are struggling ; 

 and, on the whole, manfully. A certain amount of change 

 in the ownership of land is always in progress, and is no 



