66 The Landed Interest. 



Each of To these three classes are committed the 



the three 



classes agricultural interest and industry of the king- 

 constantly 

 recruited dom. The two first have duties entrusted to 



by changes 



ofproperty them by the constitution, for the management 



and em- 



pioyment. q^ ^^ public and local interests of their counties 

 and parishes, in addition to their special busi- 

 ness as landowners and agriculturists. Each of 

 the three classes is constantly being altered and 

 recruited by changes and additions. Landed 

 property of the value of several millions sterling 

 a year changes hands, and as there is necessarily 

 a larger body of persons capable of competing 

 for small properties, there is a natural tendency 

 to subdivision on sale. In every county many 

 farms change their tenants at Lady Day or 

 Michaelmas, new men with new ideas being 

 substituted for the old, some of whom have 

 died, some retired from business, and some 

 moved elsewhere. Labourers move about more 

 than they used to do, and learn something 

 useful in each change, and large drafts of them 

 pass off to the other industrial pursuits of the 

 country, and to the colonies. The feeling of 

 being bound to the soil or the parish of his birth 



