[ 65 J 



exist for grappling with this growing evil of indebted- 

 ness. 



Much has been said about tenures in connection 

 with this matter, and many have ascribed the origin 

 of the present depressed condition of the peasantry 

 to mistakes perpetrated in regard to these. 



No doubt many errors have been here committed, 

 and no doubt, other things being as they are, these 

 have powerfully contributed to bring about the present 

 lamentable state of affairs. But the root of the evil 

 is not here, and but for other and utterly distinct mis- 

 takes, these errors, though involving in some cases 

 injustice or hardship to individuals, would have 

 brought about no general indebtedness of the agricul- 

 tural classes. 



It has already been remarked that we have wasted 

 on an elaborate, cumbrous, and unsuitable system of 

 civil jurisprudence, money that ought to have been 

 employed in improving our agriculture and increasing 

 the material comforts of the masses ; it may now be 

 added that the system on which it was expended has 

 been the chief and direct cause of the major portion 

 of the indebtedness and impoverishment of our agricul- 

 turists. 



Errors as to tenures ; forcing proprietary rights 

 upon people incapable of appreciating or understand- 

 ing them ; forcing upon districts where one system 

 of landholding was indigenous a wholly different, 

 exotic, and therefore unsuitable one; the want of 

 elasticity in our system of realising the revenue ; un- 

 limited subdivision of holdings, and a dozen other 

 causes, may be indicated as having, our courts being as 



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