58 The Landed Interest. 



part of the land, and may here be regarded as 

 householders only. The property of the land- 

 owners, independent of minerals, yields an 

 annual rent of sixty-seven millions sterling, and 

 is worth a capital value of two thousand 

 miUions. There is no other body of men in the 

 country who administer so large a capital on 

 their own account, or whose influence is so 

 widely extended and universally present. From 

 them the learned professions, the church, the 

 army, and the public services are largely 

 recruited. 

 The The tenant-farmers are the second class, and 



tenant- 

 farmers; a much more numerous one. Their business is 

 the pro- 

 portionate the cultivation of the land, with a capital quite 



extent of 



their hold- independent of that of the landowner. They 



ings, and 



the emula- occupy farms of very various extent, 70 per 



tion that '- ^ ^ ' / r 



exists cent, of them under 50 acres each, 12 per cent. 



among -^ ' '■ 



™" between 50 and 100 acres, and 18 per cent, farms 



of more than 100 acres each. 5,000 occupy 

 farms of between 500 and 1,000 acres, and 600 

 occupy farms exceeding 1,000 acres. Many of 

 them are men of liberal education, and some 

 of these are found in most parishes and in every 



I 



