302 



proverbially disinclined to see good in any systems 

 other than their own, do not believe in peasant-pro- 

 prietary tenures, because, they no longer exist in 

 England because they are Continental and be- 

 cause they cannot understand them.* 



Or, were the transaction presented in the form 

 of an agreeement or bargain, that is to say were 

 Government to say to the landholders, " We will 

 fix your land assessments for ever, giving you not 

 only all the surplus profits and fruits of your 

 own industry and outlay of capital, but such 

 security of title, such property in the soil, as by 

 enabling you to raise money, will place you in a 

 position so to improve your land that, in a few 

 years to come, instead of returning you as at 

 present 10 per cent, on your outlay or purchase 

 money, it will yield you 30 or 40 per cent., 

 provided that when that day comes, instead of 

 giving us, as now, 5 per cent, or half your 

 profits, you will give us 10 per cent, or one third, 

 or one fourth of your profits, in whatever form 

 may be most convenient or most agreeable to 

 yourselves/' the arrangement would be a very 

 desirable one for all parties. But such was not 

 the shape of the measure of 1793, and, con- 



* Those who would wish to know something- on the subject of 

 peasant- proprietors may consult, with advantage, the Continental 

 travels and other works of Arthur Young-, those of the elder Laing, 

 of the thorough Englishman Howitt, the Educationist Kay, the 

 French Economist Sismondi, the English Economist Mill &c. 



