CORN LAWS LEAS-ES. 



It is otherwise with farmers, because the soil has long 

 been entirely occupied, and it does not expand with an 

 increase of population. Indeed an opposite rule seems to 

 apply to this profession, skill and capital enabling an indivi 

 dual to manage a greater extent of land. These circum 

 stances, joined to the natural desire mankind have to till the 

 soil, have created much competition for renting land. 



The corn-laws have been denominated a bread-tax, but 

 they ought to be named rent laws, as their practical effect 

 has been to raise the rent of land without benefiting any one 

 engaged in agriculture, except a few farmers during an exist 

 ing lease. They are a tax on the community for the benefit 

 of landholders, so admirably devised, that it is levied without 

 expense, farmers acting as gratis collectors, and paying the 

 proceeds in the name of rent. Corn-laws have long given a 

 fictitious value to farm produce, and created delusive hopes 

 in farmers which led to their own ruin. At present they are 

 injurious to the agricultural labourer and farmer, because 

 while they continue and are subject to change, rational data 

 for renting land and investing capital in its cultivation cannot 

 exist, and their abrogation will sooner or later be effected by 

 public opinion. 



The present defective leases of farms continuing fixed for 

 nineteen years, are injurious, by giving rise to an improving 

 mode of agriculture at the commencement, a stationary mode 

 in the middle, and a deteriorating system at the termination 

 of the lease. Thus, the fertility of a farm fluctuates, instead 

 of progressing unchecked till the end of time. A nineteen 

 years lease is often hurtful to a farmer, by binding him to a 

 bad bargain for such a length of time, and involving his 

 heirs in the difficulty which, in case of a young family, 

 is a more serious step than binding himself. Leases have 

 also tended to lessen the landlord s interest in his property, and 

 estrange him from the tenantry. So much is this the case, 

 that at the present time many landlords are altogether unac 

 quainted with their tenantry, and a good feeling does not 

 always exist between them. Were land occupied on proper 

 terms, with a proper lease, the case would be different. The 

 landlord would then have a direct interest in the cultivation 



