31 



change will be imposed upon them by a neces- 

 sity irresistible in its nature, although not in- 

 capable of material and early alleviation; and 

 when a conviction of this necessity shall have 

 once arisen, the sentiments of kindness and of 

 honour by which the landlord's connexion with 

 his tenantry has been generally cemented, will 

 again prompt him to regard their comforts with 

 little less solicitude than his own interests. 



When expenditure exceeds receipt, the more 

 usual, because the more agreeable, operation 

 or attempt, is to restore the level by the in- 

 crease of receipt. Till that attempt has become 

 hopeless, the consideration of the practicability 

 of effecting the same end by the reduction of 

 expenditure but rarely occurs. But the alter- 

 native no longer exists. A diminished, a ma- 

 terially diminished income is all the land will 

 now supply. The quantum of necessaries of 

 life, of comforts, of conveniences, and of lux- 

 uries, which this diminished income will com- 

 mand, is the one material object that a prudent 

 landlord has to make inquiry into. The rent 

 of land must in many cases, perhaps generally, 

 undergo as it were the process of recomposi- 

 tion *. If it was originally set at an assump- 



* The newspapers of the day have communicated to the 

 public, that Earl Fitzwilliam and the Marquis of Stafford 

 have already carried this principle into effect, and other less 



