THE LANDLORDS 321 



positive loss to their owners, and it may be doubted whether 

 agricultural property pays the possessor a return of 2 per 

 cent, per annum ; which is as much as to say that the land- 

 lord furnishes the tenant with capital in the form of land at 

 that rate for the purpose of his business. What other class is 

 content with such a scanty return ? They are often charged 

 with not managing their estates on business principles, and no 

 charge is worse founded. It would be a sad day for the 

 tenants on many an estate if they were managed on com- 

 mercial lines. One of the first results would be that many 

 properties would be given up as a dead loss. They could 

 only be made to pay by raising the rents or cutting down the 

 ever-recurring expenditure on repairs and buildings which are 

 necessary for the welfare of the tenants. The Duke of 

 Bedford, in his Story of a Great Estate, has said that the 

 rent has completely disappeared from three of his estates. 

 On the Thorney and Woburn estates over ;^7 50,000 was 

 spent on new works and permanent improvements alone 

 between 1816 and 1895, and the result, owing to agricultural 

 depression and increased burdens on the land, was a net loss 

 of ;i^7,ooo a year ; and every one with any knowledge of the 

 management of land knows that this is no isolated case, 

 though it may be on an exceptionally large scale. Where 

 would many tenants be if commercial principles ruled on rent 

 audit days ? The larger English landlords of to-day are as 

 a rule not dependent on their rent rolls. To their great 

 advantage, and to the advantage of their tenants, they gener- 

 ally own other property, so that they need not regard the land 

 as a commercial investment. They can therefore support the 

 necessary outlay on a large estate, the capital expenditure on 

 improvements of all kinds, and thus relieve the tenant of any 

 expense of this kind. The farms are let at moderate, not rack 



year. On the Earl of Ancaster's estates in Lincolnshire, of 53,993 acres, 

 ;^ 689,000 was spent in twelve years, or lu. "jd. an acre each year; and 

 many similar instances are given. — Parliamentary Reports^ Commissioners 

 (1897), XV. 287-9. 



