460 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



3rd. The Beklem-rcgt, being indivisible, prevents compulsory 

 or injurious subdivision. If the division is beneficial, the landlord 

 consents to it in consideration of a share in the profits to be 

 gained by it. 



4th. The Beklem-regt precludes the immoderate increase of the 

 population, because, on the one hand, it limits the number of farms, 

 and, on the other, because the farmer himself being in good circum- 

 stances, his sons are not likely to allow themselves to fall into distress. 



5 th. By this mode of tenure a number of well-to-do quasi- 

 proprietors are made to reside in the country, cultivating the land 

 with capital and science, whereas if the landlords were to hold the 

 land themselves, they would go and live in the towns, and let their 

 estates to tenants at ruinous rents. 



Thus instead of tenants with the fear of losing their holdings 

 always before their eyes, and ground down by ever-increasing 

 rents, this system, derived from the Middle Ages, has created a 

 class of semi-proprietors, independent, proud, simple, but withal 

 eager for enlightenment, appreciating the advantages of education, 

 practising husbandry not by blind routine and as a mean occupa- 

 tion, but as a noble profession by which they acquire wealth, 

 influence, and the consideration of their fellow-men ; a class ready 

 to submit to any sacrifice to drain their lands, improve their farm- 

 buildings and implements, and looking for their well-being to their 

 own energy and foresight alone. 



Systems of tenure of land similar to the Beklem-regt used to 

 exist in the Channel Islands and in Brittany by the name of 

 domaine conge'ablc, in Lombardy by the name of contratto di 

 livello, and in Portugal by that of aforamento} As long as the 

 hereditary tenants cultivate the land for themselves, the Beklem- 

 regt is attended only with beneficial effects ; but as soon as they 

 sub-let it becomes subject to the drawbacks of common leases, 

 with the difference that in that case the sub-tenant must pay a 

 double rent viz., the fixed one to the landlord, and a variable 

 one to the hereditary tenant. 



Could the goodwill in Ireland be converted into Beklem-rcgt or 

 aforamento, the country might perhaps be saved by it. But then 



1 See the note on aforamento at the end of original essay. El). 



