COMPETITION FOR LAND, 335 



person, and every species of annoyance and persecution is 

 hurled against him. A tenant of great enterprise, who had 

 obtained a conventional reduction of rent some years ago, in 

 consequence of a fall in prices, was lately called before an 

 agent and questioned about his management. The tenant 

 maintained his innovation on the common system to be an 

 improvement, but was told by the agent that if it was found 

 he had injured the land, damages must be paid, and if, as 

 was alleged, a discovery had been made, it was fair the land 

 holder should participate in the discovery, and no reduction of 

 rent would be made in future, although prices had fallen 

 thirty per cent since the conventional reduction was granted. 

 About fifteen years ago, eleven tenants resided on a certain 

 estate, and since then the eifects of ten of them have been 

 sequestrated and sold at the instance of the landholder, and in 

 all probability the remaining tenant will remove elsewhere in 

 a few months. On a division of another estate, the tenants 

 have all been twice changed in twelve years, and one of the 

 farms in the same time has had four tenants, three of w r hom 

 became bankrupts. With such examples before their eyes, 

 tenants eagerly seek after farms at rents which cannot be 

 realized from its disposable produce. Their case soon becomes 

 hopeless, but, being bound for nineteen years, they are gene 

 rally held until their funds are exhausted, when they are sacri 

 ficed, according to the partial laws of the country, to make 

 room for a new victim. The original tenants of East Lo 

 thian have been accounted fine gentlemen extravagant fel 

 lows, devouring so much of the produce of the soil that they 

 scarcely leave any of it for the landholder an allegation which 

 is unfounded, and which has hitherto served as a pretext for 

 harshness. It has been suggested that the managers of great 

 estates are fond of power and adulation, and cannot brook the 

 idea of farmers approaching themselves in the refinements of 

 life ; hence the harsh treatment of the tenantry and the suc 

 cess of subserviency. 



There is a prevalent idea that small farms occupied by hard 

 working men afford more rent than possessions of larger size, 

 and on some estates small farms are forming. The effects of 

 a division of labour, skill, and capital must be nearly the same 



