Of Tenant-farmers. 147 



so altered the position of the labourer, that he 

 presses for higher wages. When the landowner 

 is offered a higher rent, and the labourer higher 

 wages, or a better chance of improving his con- 

 dition in our colonies, the position of the middle- 

 man who has to meet the demands of both 

 seems a difficult one. He, like any other 

 capitalist, may no doubt withdraw it from an 

 unprofitable business, and carry it to some other 

 country where good land is plentiful and cheap, 

 and where he may become a landowner, and 

 escape at least one of the competing forces to 

 which he is here exposed. 



But if the business has these disadvantages, 

 how happens it that there is such competition 

 for the occupation of land .'' It has many 

 attractions. A country life, personal ease and 

 independence, part ownership of agricultural 

 property, a comfortable home where most of the 

 necessaries of life are obtained at producers' 

 prices, and a freedom from that need to study 

 the feelings and prejudices of customers to which 

 most professions and trades are exposed. The 

 farmer is master of his position, has a certain 



