78 



good hay ; about three hundred acres are woodland, 

 and the rest arable. There is a castle or capital 

 mansion on it, which I believe was the chief motive 

 for taking it. The rent agreed for was about ninety- 

 five pounds a year. The lessee, who is engaged in 

 other pursuits, told me he should try the experiment 

 of working the land by hired annual labourers, to be 

 paid in money. He proposed to keep a flock of 400 

 Merino sheep, and a dairy of fifty milch cows, for 

 the butter of which he flattered himself he should find 

 a vent in the neighbouring manufacturing towns. 



These two last instances appeared to me to be 

 exceptions to the general rate of value of rented 

 land ; and I should rather estimate the average to be 

 .much nearer that price at which the lands of the 

 Government are let. There is, in fact, scarcely any 

 of that class of capitalists, which is familiarized to 

 us in England by the term Farmer. The state of 

 society is totally different. 



Among the real Poles, there are no regular grada- 

 tions of ranks between the noble proprietor and the 

 wretched peasantry. There may be, and visibly are, 

 differences in the condition of the peasantry, depend- 

 ing on the personal character of their lords, and upon 

 the more or less embarrassed state of the property on 

 which they may be settled. There is also a differ- 

 ence between the landed proprietors, owing to the 

 different degrees of activity, economy, and attention 

 that they exercise ; but there is not a middle class of 

 Poles. The Polish gentry are too proud to follow 

 any course but the military career ; and the Govern- 

 ment, by its large standing army, encourages the 

 feeling, though the pay is scarcely sufficient to supply 

 the officers with their expensive uniforms. The 

 Church has too few prizes, among many thousand 

 blanks, to induce any but the lower classes to enter 

 on that profession. The offices of Government can 

 employ but few, and those are ill paid, and said to 



