134 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



time had the rent of land in England recovered 

 the heavy fall it experienced at the close of the 

 war in 1815. It was not until the vast develop- 

 ment of industry, under a policy of Free Trade, 

 had so increased the general prosperity, that the 

 value and rent of land began steadily to rise. 

 It then became plain that under the operation 

 of a law intended simply to encourage agricul- 

 tural improvement, the community, represented 

 by the Church, are gradually losing a part of 

 their natural inheritance. The same change is 

 in operation in the vicinity of the great cities 

 and towns, where population and wealth increase 

 and accumulate. An acre of land in such situa- 

 tions, which yielded in its natural state a rent to 

 the landowner of ^3, and to the tithe-owner 

 of i os., when converted to building may produce 

 a ground rent of 300, besides the reversion to 

 the landowner at the end of a long lease of the 

 whole of the property erected on it by his lessee. 

 No doubt, since the Reformation, the Church 

 has been limited by law to the agricultural 

 increased produce, and was not entitled to 

 demand a share of the building value. But 



