CONCLUSION. 265 



not number above two hundred aud fifty thousand, 

 out of a population of twenty millions ! ] 



Mark the consequence. Instead of the soil being, 

 as it was meant to be, the first and best of Savings' 

 banks for capital of every size ; to the Peasant and 

 the Yeoman, as well as the Duke and the Squire, 

 you assume the audacious office of readjusting natu- 

 ral and common right, and pronounce for a system 

 which agglomerates land into hands that may 

 monopolize, but after all cannot themselves use it, 

 and cut down the whole interest of the rest of the 

 " agricultural community " to the rank and position 

 of "Tenant farmers." They do not, as a class, 

 penetrate the folly or the mischief of it ; they are 

 " to the manner born," and think it " all right," if 

 they could only get "Tenant-right ; " (as if the hirer 

 of an article of limited supply, could have any 

 "right" but what the owner pleases to give him!) 



But then a LEASE! What is the use of a Lease 

 for the purpose of investment, unless it be of long 

 duration 2 Nay, it is often urged against leases, 

 that under a good landlord farms pass from father 

 to son and grandson, better without a lease than 

 with one : then why not as property at once! Why 

 keep up the form and farce of " ownership," if its 



very excellence consist in a virtual surrender of its 

 J 12 



