180 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ANCIENT GREEK LEASE. 



roads, we believe the true cause to be in the en- 

 tire inapplicability of the steam-engine, in its yet 

 cumbrous construction, to the purposes of motion. 

 The friction and enormous weight of so monstrous 

 a mass of iron, coal, and water, added to the load 

 of the usual train of wagons, is calculated to de- 

 feat even the stupendous jiov/ers of the steam en- 

 gine. A locomotive engine may be justly com- 

 pared to a moving animal, the load of iuel and 

 of water corresponding to the provender and wa- 

 ter of the horse ; and a steam coach or a locomo- 

 tive engine on a railway, moves under the disad- 

 vantage of a horse burthened, in addition to a load, 

 with his own supplies of water, provender, and 

 corn. The wear of locomotive engines upon the 

 Manchester and Liverpool railway, has, from this 

 cause, proved so expensive, as materially to de- 

 feat the advantages of this great work , for an en- 

 gine of the value of one thousand pounds docs not 

 endure for a period of three months, and tliirty- 

 six locomotives are required to be maintained, to 

 supply the daily complement of six. Previously 

 to the opening of the Manchester railway, no just 

 experiment had indeed been made of the cost of 

 locomotive steam power, and until the steam en- 

 gine shall be yet vastly simplified in its construc- 

 tion, we hold that its cost will be fatal to its use, 

 and that the interests of the shareholder and the 

 public require, that for the present it should be 

 abandoned. 



When reduced to their lowest practicable cost 

 for conveyance, boundless indeed will be the results 

 of the railways, which, at an early day, will throw 

 their giant arms across the commercial divisions 

 of this great empire. Cities now covei'ing a cir- 

 cumference of miles will die away — dispossessed 

 of their peculiar advantages, from the vicinity of 

 harbors, rivers, coal, and the useful metals; the 

 most inland districts will enjoy the advantages cf 

 sea-port towns ; and property will become equal- 

 ized in value to the most distant portions of the 

 kingdom. The rail-road projected from London 

 to Dover will alone overturn the grandeur, and 

 even the very foundations of the modern Babylon 

 — for it will assign to Dover the entire shipping 

 business of London, and finally close the Thames. 

 The expensive and circuitous navigation of the 

 Downs and the river will be avoided — millions per 

 annum, now paid for pilotage, dock dues, and the 

 innumerable charges of the Thames, will be sav- 

 ed to the commerce of the kingdom — the sea-far- 

 ing population will be draAvn off from the pesti- 

 lential haunts of the port of London — and the 

 plough will soon pass over the ancient and filthy 

 towns upon the Thames ; the banks of which will 

 exhibit a beautiful, still, and natural scene — a 

 most desirable view, altliough anticipated by Vol- 

 ney with great regret. For London is one im- 

 mense monopoly — engrossing through the court, 

 the East India Company, the Bank of England, 

 and the various departments of the government, 

 the expenditure of almost all the revenue of the 

 country ; draining and weakening the provinces. 

 The distribution, and not the accumulation of 

 wealth, should be the true object of all commer- 

 cial legislation — and the rail-road projected from 

 Dover to Birmingham should receive the most 

 zealous support of the government, if only to scat- 

 ter the stagnant treasures of London through the 

 impoverished and distant inland districts of the 

 kiiiffdom . 



It is, indeed, to be most deeply regretted, that 

 the opposition experienced in the upper House of 

 Parliament should cast so disheartening a prospect 

 upon these splendid undertakings. Upon tlie Bir- 

 mingham and London rail-road alone, the parlia- 

 mentary e?cpenses have already amounted to the 

 vast sum of £ 40,000, and it is not reduced to a cer- 

 tainty, that the expenditure of double that sum 

 will ensure the passing of the bill. This forms so 

 great a proportion of the expense to be incurred 

 ior the entire undertaking, that we would suggest 

 to the directors of that and similar works, that 

 measures may be taken to obviate the necessity of 

 applications to Parliament at all. The immense 

 sums thus expended, would abundantly suffice for 

 carrying a railway, by a private company, though 

 by a more circuitous course, and through the 

 lands of consenting proprietors. When it is re- 

 membered that the splendid canal undertakings of 

 the late Duke of Bridgewater were executed by 

 one private fortune, and without any parliamenta- 

 ry advantages whatever, we cannot doubt that, 

 amongst the wealthy speculators in this great na- 

 tion, there are abundant resources for the intersec- 

 tion of the kingdom with railways, carried on from 

 town to town by private individuals, or small com- 

 panies alone. It is indeed devoutly to l;e wished, 

 that in the present stagnant condition of our com- 

 merce, these works may be seen to pi'oceed with 

 rapidity, and that the renovated spirit of our re- 

 formed institutions may influence the progress of 

 a system, the results of v,'hich Avill be boundless 

 to the future welfare of mankind. 



Ancicsit Greeli Lease. 



From the Foreign Qiiarterly Review. 



The attention of the learned world has recently 

 been called to some inscriptions of unquestionable 

 authenticity, brought from Greece many years 

 since, and now in the University of Leyden, which 

 had hitherto been most strangely overlooked, that 

 contain not merely an allusion to the practice of 

 letting land in Attica, but leases actually entered 

 into. One of these inscriptions was found near 

 Mount Hymettus, and is dated in the fourth year 

 of the 108th Olympiad, or 345 years before the 

 christian era. It is a lease by the Aexonians, the 

 town's people, or demos of Aexone, of a piece of 

 land called the Philais, near Mount Hymettus, to 

 a father and his son, for forty years, for 152 drachms 

 a year. But as the inscription is exceedingly 

 curious and instructive, we lake the liberty tosub- 

 join the following translation of it, which we be- 

 lieve Avill be found to be sufficiently exact : — 

 " The demos of Aexone let on lease the Phi- 

 lais, to Autocles, the son of Auteas, and to Auteas, 

 the son of Autocles, for forty years, for 152 

 drachms a year ; the said land to be farmed by 

 them, or planted with trees, as they please; the 

 rent to be paid in the month of Aecatombason. If 

 they do not pay it, they forfieit their security, and 

 as much of the produce as they stand in arrear. 

 The Aexonians, not to sell nor to let the land to 

 any one else, until the forty years have elapsed. 

 In case of a loss on the part of the tenants by hos- 

 tile invasion, no rent to be paid, but the produce of 

 the farm to be divided between the Aexonians and 

 the tenants. The tenants are to deliver up half 

 the land fallow, and all the trees upon the land ; for 

 the last five years, the Aexonians may appoint a 

 I vine dresser. The lease to begin with respect to tlae 



