'LANDLORD AND TENANT.' 119 



inclosurc eases the pressure for awhile ; and like the 

 rising water-mark of a flood, the plough-line steals up 

 the mountain-side higher and higher yet, it grates 

 upon the bare rock and stops. But what has hap- 

 l>ened meanwhile in the rich valley ? Industry, skill, 

 I>erseverance, prudence, self denial, far-sightedness, 

 all, some, or one of these qualities have made indi- 

 viduals or their lucky heirs owners of more than 

 they can cultivate themselves. The last bit of moor 

 or mountain-side was the measure of the extreme 

 point at which cultivation would pay : that bit, hang- 

 ing between earth and heaven, in more than one sense, 

 was the balancing-point, the test of cultivability . It 

 just pays for tillage ; and nothing more. A man per- 

 chance may ask your leave to dig or plough it : but 

 for that leave he offers you no return no Reddcndum 

 in modern English, no RENT. 



Here then is the origin of that curious thing whose 

 definition has sorely puzzled the Political Economists. 

 And well may it have puzzled : for it is the basis of 

 one of the most complicate and peculiar relations that 

 has come to exist between man and man. Mutuality 

 of object, antagonism of interest, upon the same 

 ground, raise a demand upon each of the parties for 

 one of the most difficult things that human nature can 



