Of Leases. 15 



litary character. Its principal use was, to express the consent of the 

 proprietor, that the tenant should have possession of his land, subject 

 to military services; and, instead of a mutual deed binding on both 

 parties, it was a mere grant of occupancy to the tenant. At that 

 time the tenantry, had seldom any capital to employ on improvements, 

 and their trifling exertions for that purpose, were insufficient to give 

 importance to their rights. The modern contract of lease is of a very 

 different description. It has become an agricultural contract, by 

 which the tenant stipulates to employ his capital, skill and industry, 

 in the cultivation of a farm, and concerts a plan of operations with the 

 proprietor, from which a profit is likely to be derived, to be divided 

 between them, in proportion to their respective interests, and the 

 contributions of each to the common concern. The interest of the 

 tenant, under such an arrangement, is very different from that of the 

 tenant under the old system of leasing ; and sound policy, as well as 

 justice requires, that while, on the one hand, he shall be fully secured 

 in the possession of the rights, powers and privileges for which he 

 stipulates, so, on the other, he shall be held bound to fulfil the counter- 

 obligations which he has undertaken to perform *. 



We shall proceed to consider the means by which these objects 

 are to be obtained, under the following general heads : 1. The man- 

 ner of settling the contract between the parties ; 2. The terms of 

 entry, and regulations connected therewith ; 3. The duration of 

 leases ; 4. The covenants to be inserted in them ; 5. The form of 

 the lease ; and, 6. General remarks on the stipulations to be enter- 

 ed into. 



1 . Manner of settling a lease. When a lease is to be granted, 

 the first rule which claims attention is, that the new lease should, if- 

 possible, be arranged two or three years before the expiration of the 

 old one. Indeed, whether a new farmer is to be introduced, or the 

 old one continued, this plan is equally advisable. It is another rule, 

 that, on equal terms, the old tenant ought to be preferred, unless his 

 conduct is particularly faulty. His management goes on regularly, 

 and he must be a gainer, whilst the landlord profits, by warding off 

 any attempt at exhausting crops, during the three or four last years of 

 the lease. If an agreement cannot be entered into with him, the pro- 

 per plan for a landlord to adopt is, to have the farm valued near the 

 end of the lease, not perhaps by an entire stranger, but by the most 

 intelligent and experienced person in the neighbourhood ; nor ought 

 a sum, beyond the one thus fixed upon, to be demanded. Let the farm 

 be offered at that rent, for twenty, or any other number of years, first 

 to the tenant in possession ; and if he will not agree to the terms, let 

 that offerer be preferred, who will stipulate to make the greatest ex- 

 ertions for the improvement of the estate, and who will leave it in the 

 best order at the end of his lease. In this way, the interest of the 

 farmer, the proprietor and his family, and the public, " are all com- 

 bined." 



See the Preface to Bell's valuable Treatise on Leases, 4th edit. ann. 1825. 



