"LANDLORD AND TENANT." 143 



pure unmitigated selfishness, on the part of its 

 Owners and Occupiers, and all who come between 

 the two. The signs are not easily mistakable ; 

 beggared land, beggared laborers, beggared parish- 

 funds, and beggared public finances can be recog- 

 nized afar. They reach every sense ; the eye can 

 see it, the ear can hear it, the nose can smell it, the 

 hands can handle it. In time the perception reaches 

 the inner senses : and the mind begins to under- 

 stand that this corruption is the work of mistaken 

 selfishness. The laws of Nature and Society press 

 gently and agreeably around a man, till he oifends 

 them by long neglect, and the selfish notion that 

 they can be starved and stinted, harmlessly. Then 

 they come in force : and evince their presence and 

 reality by pain, instead of pleasure. Then the 

 great problems of society begin to work themselves 

 out under high pressure. 



In the early stages of the world they are simple 

 enough. "When every man tilled his own field, the 

 duties of Landlord and Tenant needed small defini- 

 tion. But advancement complicates relations : pres- 

 ently the time comes when you begin to see one 

 man cultivating the soil of another : and that not 

 only without wages, but paying the owner for 

 leave and license! Mouths have increased upon 



