414 



LEAGUE OF THE PIUNCES LEASE. 



o, that nothing hill tlic interference of Gustavus 

 Adolphus saved tin- 1'rotestant princes. 



LEAGUE OF THE PRINCES. See Confedera- 

 tion of the Princes. 



LBANDER. See Hero. 



I.F.ASE. A lease is a demise of lands or tene- 

 ments, or permission to occupy them for life, or a 

 oTtain number of years, or during the pleasure of 

 the parties making the contract. The party letting 

 the lands or tenements is called the lessor; the party 

 to whom they are let, the lessee; and the compensa- 

 tion or consideration for the lease, the rent. There 

 is a great difference in the habits and usages of dif- 

 ferent communities, as to the modes of occupying 

 lands, and the usual interest and title of the occu- 

 1 ant*. A great part of the cultivated territory of 

 Europe is occupied by lessees, and rents constitute 

 an immense proportion of the income of persons liv- 

 ing upon profits, as distinguished from those who 

 depend partly or wholly upon the fruits of their own 

 labour ; so that, in all economical speculations in 

 Europe, in regard to agriculture and the profits of 

 lands and tenements, as distinguished from other 

 species of property and income, the lands are always 

 spoken of as being occupied by lease-holders; where- 

 as, in America, though the tenements in the large 

 towns are usually occupied by lease, and, in the 

 country, many farms are cultivated by those who 

 have only a temporary interest in the soil, yet a great 

 part of the territory is in the possession and occu- 

 pancy of the proprietors. The general habit and 

 prejudice is in favour of the occupant possessing the 

 fee, and if his capital is not adequate to an indepen- 

 dent and unincumbered ownership, he generally pre- 

 fers to purchase, though he mortgages the land as 

 security for the purchase-money, rather than to hire. 

 This mode of occupying would seem to excite a much 

 more general disposition towards permanent improve- 

 ments, since the person making them has not only in 

 view the immediate advantage of the increase of pro- 

 ducts, but also the remote advantage of the increase 

 of the value of the estate. Where leases prevail, how- 

 ever, it is the policy of the proprietors, as well as 

 tenants, to extend the terms to long periods, and 

 thus to give the parties a joint interest in improve- 

 ments. The state of agriculture, in many parts of 

 Europe, where the system of leases prevails, shows 

 that this system is not so unfriendly to improvements 

 in cultivation as to prevent agriculture from being 

 brought to great perfection under it. But still, ail 

 things else being equal, it is quite evident that the 

 proprietor himself will have the strongest motives to 

 a mode of cultivation which adds to the permanent 

 value and productiveness of the soil. It does not, 

 however, follow, that occupancy and cultivation by 

 proprietors are, on the whole, to be preferred, in all 

 possible states of the arts, population, and wealth of 

 a community. The prevailing occupancy by pro- 

 prietors has the necessary effect of dividing the ter- 

 ritory into small farms ; the preference of one system 

 or the other will, therefore, depend partly upon the 

 kind of production carried on ; for there is no doubt 

 that some species of cultivation can be conducted 

 more effectually, and so as to yield the greatest 

 aggregate of products, if they are conducted on a 

 large scale. In all kinds of industry, whether agri- 

 cultural, commercial, or manufacturing, a great sav- 

 ing may be made, and greater results produced by 

 the same labour, by combining the operatives in a 

 large system. This is undoubtedly promoted by the 

 system of leaseholds, since the wealthy are thereby 

 induced to invest their capital in lands, as the safest 

 property, and yielding the most secure income. The 

 result will be, that the territory will be owned and 

 leased in large tracts. This is the reason why the 



leasehold system, instead of checking the progress 

 of agriculture, probably, on the whole, contributes to 

 it, notwithstanding the fact that a lessee, though for 

 a long term, has less interest in increasing the 

 permanent productiveness and value of the soil, than 

 the proprietor himself. There is, however, one dis- 

 advanUige in the leasehold system, and a correspond- 

 ing advantage in small proprietaries, as the former 

 creates a population of mere labourers, called cotta- 

 gers in England, and peasants in the rest of Europe, 

 who, in general, depend wholly upon their wages for 

 subsistence, and who naturally become very numerous, 

 in proportion to the demand for their labour, so that, 

 by their competition for employment, their wages 

 become reduced to the means of a bare subsistence. 

 The labour in which they are employed is the rudest, 

 and requires the least skill and previous instruction 

 of all the different species, excepting, perhaps, fish- 

 ing'. The consequence is, the raising a great popu- 

 lation, of a rude, uncultivated character, without 

 property, and with very little self-respect or consi- 

 deration with the rest of the community, and who 

 finally become detached from the rest of the society, 

 and have no avenue of escape from their humble 

 condition, so that all generous emulation and enter- 

 prise die away from among them. It is true, that 

 this class is not usually a restless, turbulent, or dan- 

 gerous part of the community ; and it is convenient, 

 perhaps, to those who do not happen to fall within it.. 

 But those who desire to see human nature only in a 

 condition of existence admitting of moral and intel- 

 lectual culture, and whose philanthropy makes them 

 wish that the whole population may participate in 

 the general mass of intelligence, knowledge, and 

 accomplishments, as equally as is practicable, would 

 prefer that no such class should exist as a distinct 

 body, for precisely the same reason that they would 

 not wish to see any part of the population reduced 

 to servitude. A division of the territory into small 

 proprietaries, and a consequent infusion, through the 

 mass, of a desire of saving, and of possessing some- 

 thing, and the stimulus afforded to enterprise, by 

 opening to every individual, even the lowest, access 

 to the next higher class, excites an independence of 

 spirit, an energy and activity, whereby the character 

 of the people is elevated. But whatever may be, 

 abstractly, most desirable, the condition of the vari- 

 ous members of the community is governed, in a 

 great degree, by the operation of economical causes, 

 the influence of which cannot be controlled. The 

 power to lease will necessarily depend upon the ex- 

 tent of the lessor's estate in the land or tenement to 

 be leased. A proprietor who has only a life-estate 

 can, of course, lease his property only during his life. 

 This is the case with a great part of the landed 

 estates of Europe, the very object of entailments, and 

 other limitations, being to secure the property against 

 alienation, and against incumbrances to the prejudice 

 of the heir or successor to the inheritance ; and yet, 

 if the incumbent could not make a lease for a certain 

 time, it would be a great abridgment of the value 

 of the estate to himself, as well as to his successor. 

 The laws, therefore, provide, that certain proprietors 

 of estates for life may lease, on certain terms, for any 

 time not exceeding a certain period, as twenty-one or 

 forty years. The English common law makes a dis- 

 tinction as to the dignity of leasehold estates, which, 

 in many cases, does not correspond to their com- 

 parative value and importance, the maxim being-, 

 that a life-estate, being a freehold, is greater, or 

 of more dignity, than a lease for ever so many 

 years, as a hundred or a thousand. A freehold is 

 real estate ; whereas a lease is but a chattel interest, 

 though the term may be longer than the longest life. 

 The laws prescribe certain forms for the conveyance 



