THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 349 



" His Lordship proposed that the lease should 

 extend to an indefinite number of years, con- 

 sisting of fixed periods, at the end of each of 

 which a rise of rent should take place, with 

 permission for the tenant, at the period of each 

 of these rises of rent, to give up his farm, if he 

 shall see proper ; and granting a similar power 

 to the landlord, upon proper terms, to resume 

 his land, if he shall think fit. The particulars 

 of this contract, and the grounds on which they 

 rest, are as under. 



" He assumes it as a postulatum, that a land- 

 lord and tenant are capable of forming a tolera- 

 bly just estimate of the value of the land in 

 question for a short periM of years, such as it 

 is customary to grant leases for in Scotland : say 

 2 1 years. And having agreed upon these terms, 

 which, for the present, we shall call lool. rent, 

 the tenant expresses a wish to have his lease ex- 

 tended to a longer period. To this the proprie- 

 tor objects, on this ground, that it is riot possi- 

 ble to form a precise estimate of what the value 

 the ground may be at the end of that period. 

 He has already seen that ground for the last 2 1 

 years has increased much more in value than 

 any person at the beginning of that period could 

 easily have conceived it would have done, and 

 therefore he cannot think of giving it off jusc 

 now for a longer period, as a similar rise of va- 

 lue may be expected to take place in future. 

 This reasoning appears to be well founded, and 

 therefore, to give the landlord a reasonable gra- 

 tification, he proposes that ir. should be stipu- 

 lated, that if the tenant should agree to give a 

 certain rise of rent at the end of that period, 



