114 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



the debt. But no person takes genuine pleasure in 

 improving another man's property. It is the interest 

 of the tenant to get as much out of the soil as he can, 

 and give as little as he can back to it. When he has 

 exhausted one farm he can take another. Thus, the 

 land, as far as it is cultivated in this way, is under- 

 going a gradual decay; but not more surely than the 

 generous principle in the heart of him who thus occu- 

 pies it, who is perpetually, though perhaps uncon- 

 sciously, under the influence of his interest, engaged in 

 deteriorating his neighbor's property. The owner is 

 under precisely the opposite influence. He strives to 

 render back to the land as much as possible, in return 

 for what he takes from it; for he feels that he is 

 making it the depository of all that his youth and 

 manhood can lay up for the decline of life, for his 

 family and his children. 



Whatever, in this way, is true of the young farmer 

 who has purchased his farm on credit, is still more 

 applicable to him, who, happily, begins life the pro- 

 prietor of the soil which he cultivates. It is particu- 

 larly in reference to him that the subject presents 

 itself in other relations than those of pecuniary calcula- 

 tion, and assumes an aspect, not merely of an eco- 

 nomical, but also of a political question. In general, 

 the inquiry how the land is cultivated derives great 

 consequence from its connection with the political 

 condition of the cultivators. A very considerable por- 

 tion of the political power of every country must be 

 vested in the landholders; for they hold a large part 

 of the property of the country. They do so even in 

 England, where there is such a vast amount of com- 

 mercial and manufacturing wealth. Although the land 

 is, to a considerable degree, in England monopolized 

 by rich proprietors, yet attempts have been made, and 

 vs^ith success, to give political privileges and conse- 

 quence to the tenantry. Still, however, the greatest 



