THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 461 



the Irish peasants would, in the first place, have to respect the 

 i7idivisibility of their leaseholds and of the farms for which these 

 are granted. Moreover, they would have to pay to the landlords 

 themselves, not to the outgoing tenants, the price of the hereditary 

 leases for which they would come in. One must add, however, 

 that it would in all probability be very difficult to make them 

 understand and appreciate this mode of tenure. Even in the 

 provinces adjoining Groningen, where the wholesome effects of 

 this system are seen and appreciated, it is not adopted. 



Lawyers, inspired with the ideas of uniformity and simplifica- 

 tion of the French Revolution, are, moreover, opposed to a system 

 which formerly used to prevail in a great part of Europe. It has 

 likewise disappeared in many countries by degenerating from its 

 original form, or by reason of being coupled with improper regu- 

 lations. In Lombardy the contratto di livello, enforcing certain 

 payments in kind, prevented the hereditary farmer from growing 

 such crops as he liked, and thus formed an obstacle to progress 

 in husbandry. Instead of trying to do away with this system, it 

 should be preserved, and even brought into general use, with 

 improvements in its form. 



The Flemish Pachters-regt, or farmer's right, consists in the 

 liability of the incoming tenant to pay the outgoing one for the 

 value of the straw and manure on the land, besides the manure 

 in stock, and the manure and crops on the ground ; being a 

 compensation for unexhausted improvements y but given on a 

 more systematic plan than in England. 



The existence of this custom in Flanders dates as far back as 

 the Middle Ages, which is another instance of the progress the 

 country had achieved, even in those remote days. At present 

 the Pachters-regt varies according to districts, and the differences 

 seem to coincide with the areas occupied of old by the various 

 German tribes. In the neighbourhood of Ypres and Courtrai 

 not more than one-third of the value of the manure from which 

 a crop has already been raised is given ; near Ghent the indem- 

 nity amounts to one-half of that value ; and in the Waes country 

 a fixed rate of twenty-one francs is paid per hectare for the 

 manure simk in the two foregoing years. The total amount of 



