Book IV. MANAGEMENT OF LANDED PROPERTY. 759 



BOOK IV. 



MANAGEMENT OF LANDED PROPERTY. 



4624. The management of an extensive landed estate, like tliat of every other great pro- 

 perty, is a business both of talent and integrity. In former times, when every proprietor 

 may be said to have cultivated the w^hole of his agricultural territory, it constituted his 

 w^hole occupation, when not engaged in war; or required a host of managers, if he was 

 a man of the first rank. On the continent, and especially in Russia and Hungary, 

 where estates are of enormous extent, and wholly farmed by the proprietor, the largest 

 estates, as we have seen (621.), are managed by a court of directors, and an executive 

 department, with a numerous body of superintendent officers, artists, and artisans. A 

 better system is now adopted in this country, in consequence of the creation of profes- 

 sional farmers, who, taking large portions of territory from the owner for a certain num- 

 ber of years at a fixed rent, and on certain stipulations for mutual security, occasion little 

 more trouble to the proprietor, during that period, than receiving payments. Hence it * 

 is that the management of estates in Britain, though important, is a more simple busi- 

 ness than in any other country. 



4625. Where there are only tenanted holdings, the bvisiness of management is very 

 simple ; where there are woodlands, it requires a person to look after that department ; 

 and where there are waters, quarries, and mines, a greater number of subordinate 

 officers are requisite. But what often occasions most expense, and at the same time is 

 attended with the least profit, is the management of the abstract rights belonging to an 

 estate ; such as manorial rights, quit-rents, and other feudal or antiquated trifles or 

 absurdities, which require courts to be holden, and lawyers and other officers to be called 

 in to assist. The only British author who has digested the business of managing 

 estates into a regular system is Marshal, and we shall follow him in considering this 

 subject : 1st, as to the superintendents on the executive establishment of an estate j 

 and, 2dly, as to the general business of management. 



Chap. I. 

 Superintendents, or Executive Establishment of an Estate. 



4626. Though every man who cannot manage his own estate in all important matters, 

 deserves to lose it, yet, as extensive proprietors generally have their properties situated in 

 different parts of the country, and have, besides, public duties to attend to, certain sub- 

 ordinate managers become necessary. In The Code of Agric^dture it is stated, that no 

 individual having a large estate is equal to the task of managing it, unless he is in the 

 prime of life, dedicates his whole time to the business, and gives up every other occupa- 

 tion. It is there stated to have been found expedient, by the proprietor of an estate of 

 great extent, to nominate two or three commissioners to assist him in its management. 

 Under the superintendence of such commissioners, it is said, the aifairs of a great pro- 

 perty would be as well conducted as on the best managed small or moderate-sized 

 estates ; while the duties of the proprietor would principally be to carry the exercise of 

 true benevolence into effect, which would consist in softening severe decisions ; or in 

 granting those marks of approbation and reward which, when bestowed by the proprietor 

 himself, are the most likely to produce beneficial consequences. {Code, ^c. App. 58.) 

 Such may be the case on a few estates in the British isles not yet brought into a regular 

 system of improvement, and about to be remodelled, of which a grand example occurs 

 in the immense property of the Marquess of Stafford ; but, in the great majority of cases, 

 to each estate a manager of qualifications suited to its extent and duties, and a general 

 receiver and controller in the capital or metropolis (if the proprietor and his banker can- 

 not effect these duties between them) are all that is requisite. We shall first offer a 

 few remarks on the qualifications and duties of managers, and next on the place of busi- 

 ness and its requisites. 



Sect. I. Steward or Manager of an Estate, and his AssLntants. 



4627. The head manager of an estate ought unquestionably to be the proprietor him- 

 self, or his representative, if a minor or otherwise incompetent. Next to the proprietor 

 is his acting man of business, with proper assistants ; together with such professional 

 men as advisers as the circumstances of business may render necessaiy. A tenanted 

 estate differs widely from other species of property ; as giving power and authority over 

 persons as well as things. It has, therefore, a dignity and a set of duties attached to it, 



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