AGRICULTURE. 



affords considerable facility for these, and 

 promotes, therefore, the object which the 

 blindness of former times supposed to be 

 counteracted by it. Abundance is ascer- 

 tained to be secured by the very means 

 which the contracted policy of departed 

 legislators imagined necessarily to defeat 

 it. Such naiTow views are, however, in 

 general exploded. And though in coun- 

 tries, where, as in Great Britain, the sub- 

 sistence of the population is inadequately 

 provided for by the natural produce, even 

 in the best of seasons, there is less reason 

 on this subject for complaint, than would 

 operate in other circumstances, it is still 

 an invariable and invaluable maxim, that 

 no lands can be cultivated to their high- 

 est point of perfectibility, where restraints 

 are permitted to operate on the disposal 

 of their produce. 



The operation of the tythe system must 

 be considered as one of the most serious 

 impediments on the subject under consi- 

 deration. This odious and oppressivemode 

 of providing for a class of persons, whose 

 peculiar duty it is to polish the uncouth- 

 ness of savage man, to inculcate on the 

 world the principles of conciliation and 

 kindness, furnishes a most singular dis- 

 sonancy between the means and the end of 

 those who instituted it ; and its unmitiga- 

 ted continuance to the present day is a 

 reflection on the sagacity, the energy, or 

 the patriotism of the British legislature. 

 Regulations, by which those who have no 

 share whatever in the expense of im- 

 provement should participate in its advan- 

 tages, are not mere topics of theoretical 

 absurdity, but attended with serious de- 

 triment in their operation throughout 

 this country, in a moral, a religious, and 

 what is most of all to the present purpose, 

 an agricultural point of view. With all 

 the respect due to the representatives of 

 a mighty empire, and with the most deci- 

 ded detachment from all points of vague 

 and general innovation, this important 

 subject can not be too frequently present- 

 ed to parliamentary attention. Human 

 wisdom and human virtue will, it is 

 hoped, be at length found equal to the 

 correction of an absurdity at once so gla- 

 ring and so prejudicial. 



The want of due estimation of the oc- 

 cupation of husbandry, is in many coun- 

 tries a grand impediment to it progress. 

 Where the cultivation of the soil is re- 

 garded with contempt, or as beneath the 

 attention of men of rank and education, it 

 will be entrusted to the management of 

 persons of narrow capitals, and still nar- 

 rower minds. Such prejudices operate 





in various places. They till lately exist- 

 ed to a great extent in France, and are 

 yet deplorably prevalent in Spain. In 

 England, fortunately, they are every day 

 rapidly dissipating. Agriculture is ascer- 

 tained to be the road to wealth and re- 

 spectability ; and men of high connections 

 and distinguished fortunes think them- 

 selves honoured, instead of being degra- 

 ded, by a regular and assiduous applica- 

 tion to it, and by establishing their sons 

 in situations, in which they may look to it 

 as the means of maintaining families, ac- 

 cumulating property, and doing service 

 and honour to their country. 



Agriculture is very injuriously checked 

 by the occupier of land not possessing in 

 it a requisite interest. Even in this coun- 

 try, large portions of land are held by 

 communities of persons, the individuals of 

 which have no right to any particular spot 

 of it, and are not only thus precluded 

 from personal and active cultivation, but, 

 by the scanty right and profit which they 

 possess in the general property, possess 

 no sufficient motive to enforce correct 

 management and improving cultivation on 

 those persons by whom it is actually oc- 

 cupied. Family entails and short leases 

 are likewise eminently hostile to full cul- 

 tivation, upon the obvious principle, that 

 men will ever apply their capital and ex- 

 ertionsonly in proportion to then-expecta- 

 tion of advantage. Even when leases are 

 granted of a reasonable number of years, 

 restrictive clauses are too frequently in- 

 troduced, by which the progress of im- 

 provement is arrested, and a mode of cul- 

 tivation insisted upon contrary to the views 

 and the interest of the occupier, and not 

 by any means more beneficial to the own- 

 er, than what was designed to be adopt- 

 ed, often inexpressibly less so. Preju- 

 dice and caprice in theproprietorare often 

 substituted for the judgment of experi- 

 ence; and a routine of practice compelled 

 upon the cultivator, in consequence of 

 which, curious research and attentive ex- 

 periment are rendered nearly superfluous. 

 Superior knowledge, which would in 

 these circumstances be almost useless, 

 ceases to be sought for, and stupid ac- 

 quiescence is substituted for lively obser- 

 vation. It is however of importance, that, 

 towards the close of a term, the series of 

 cropping should be regulated by covenant, 

 as the inducement to exhaust land, to the 

 extreme injury of the owner and the pub- 

 lic, would otherwise be seldom resisted. 

 Beyond thisobject, it is unwise to enforce 

 restriction, or to yield to it, and whatever 

 discoveries are made by the personal ex- 



