196 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



The subject is even under the consideration of Govern- 

 ment. 



For the farmers, leases of twenty-one years are asked, 

 which will allow them to make the necessary advances, 

 with a certainty of reimbursing themselves. At the same 

 time it is proposed to do away with the farms of too 

 limited extent where the tenants have not sufficient 

 capital, and to effect a subdivision of the too large for 

 the same reason. Those farmers who have not sufficient 

 capital drop off like the involved proprietors ; such as 

 remain close the ranks as in a combat, and in a short 

 time all will disappear. 



All this, no doubt, constitutes an immense revolution. 

 Agriculture changes from a natural, and becomes more 

 and more a manufacturing process ; each field will 

 henceforth be a kind of machine, worked in every sense 

 by the hand of man, pierced below by all kinds of canals, 

 some for carrying off water, others for bringing manure, 

 and who can tell \ perhaps also to convey hot or cold 

 air as required, for effecting the most rapid changes on 

 its surface ; the steam-engine sends forth its columns of 

 smoke over the green landscapes celebrated by Thom- 

 son. The peculiar charm of the English fields threatens 

 to disappear with the green fields and hedges ; the feudal 

 character is weakened by the destruction of the game ; 

 parks themselves are attacked as depriving the plough 

 of too much space. At the same time, property is un- 

 dergoing a change ; it is being divided, and in part pass- 

 ing into new hands ; while the farmer, with long leases, 

 becomes more and more enfranchised from the authority 

 of his landlord. 



There is involved in all this more than an agricultural 

 question the whole body of English society is affected 



