chap. XVI. AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF 343 



a provision which, in many cases, may occasion 

 a delay of improvement for many years. The 

 act likewise bears, That every proprietor of an 

 entailed estate shall be a creditor to the succeed- 

 ing heirs of entail for three-fourths of the mo- 

 ney which he shall lay out upon improvements. 

 But as the profits arising to himself from the 

 improvements specified, must be inconsiderable, 

 especially if made at an advanced period of life, 

 it is scarcely to be supposed that he will sink 

 money, to any great amount, upon the estate, 

 three-fourths of which only can be reclaimed ; 

 when, by a different application, he may have it 

 in his power to enlarge the sum, and to dispose 

 of the whole at his own pleasure. It is provid- 

 ed by the act, That the claim against the suc- 

 ceeding heir shall not exceed four years free 

 rent of the entailed estate, as at the term of 

 Whitsunday after the death of the heir who ex- 

 pended the money. But it is well known, that 

 there are many estates, which twice that sum 

 would be insufficient to put into any tolerable 

 order. And the effect of this limitation, as a 

 bar to improvement, is the greater, that by an- 

 other clause in the act, it is provided, that, when 

 a sum equal to four years free-rent shall have 

 been expended, and shall remain a subsisting 

 charge against the succeeding heirs, it shall not 

 be lawful for the subsequent heirs to expend 

 any more under the authority of this act. This 

 being the case, is it to be supposed that the suc- 

 ceeding heir, burdened with a debt equal to four 

 times his yearly rent, having, perhaps, a young 

 family to support and educate, and obliged to 

 live in a style, in some measure, suitable to his. 



