WEST DEVONSHIRE. 47 



farms of improper fizes, he has no oppor- 

 tunity of adjufting or altering them. He 

 can have no hope of two or three adjoining 

 tenants dying at the fame time. Nothing 

 lefs than the plague, pelHlence, or famine, 

 can affifl him in a mcafure fo falutary, 

 both for himfelf and the community. 



Thefe difagreeable circumftances have 

 induced feveral men of property, to fuffer 

 the life leafes of their eftates to drop in j 

 and, afterwards, to let theii* lands for an 

 annual rent, agreeably to the'pradiice of 

 the reft of the kino-dom. 



o 



This delirable change, however, can 

 only be eifecfted by men whofe incomes 

 are not wholly dependant on this fpecies 

 of property. Neverthelefs, any man who 

 is pofleiled of fuch property, and is not in 

 diftreiled circumftances, may releafe the 

 fmaller farms from this unprohtable and 

 impolitic ftate ; and, in the courfe of two 

 or three generations, the whole might be 

 fet at liberty, without fenlible inconve- 

 nience to the proprietors. 



|t is obfervable, however> that there is 



fome- 



