RENT. 



linen yarn, fi(h, &c. ; in a word, they are more the (laves of 

 the landlord than their own mailers. 



Thefe are (liameful feudal prafticcs, which tlic proprietors 

 of fuch lands fhould remove as foon as poffible, a:; without 

 it their interells mull fuffer greatly from the lands remaining 

 without improvement. Beiides, it is a fpecics of bondage 

 highly uifgracefid to civilized fociety. The able author of 

 the Agricultural Report of the county of Argyle in Scot- 

 land, thinks that all fervices, whether paid to the mailer or 

 to any under him, fliould be entirely abolifhcd ; and all 

 rents formed into one fum of money, including public 

 burdens, fuch as minilters' llipends, fchoolmallers' falary, 

 road money, &c. Thus, fays he, the tenant would have 

 always a clear view of the amount of his rent, and fave time 

 and trouble, and perhaps expence, by having to fettle with 

 one only inftcad of many. His time is precious, and fhould 

 never be thrown away without neceffity. 



In regard to the parliamentary and parochial taxes, they 

 may be faid to be paid, the firft writer fays, by the tenants 

 over the greated part of botli kingdoms ; and many leafes 

 contain a claufe, he obferves, binding the tenants to pay, 

 not only all the taxes that are impofed, but alfo all that 

 may be impoled. But, he thinks, that it appears abfurd 

 that the proprietors, whofe interell it is to attend to tiie 

 increafe or decreafe of all fuch taxes as more immediately 

 concern their property, (liould devolve the payment of thofe 

 taxes on their tenants. They mud know, that whoever pays 

 them in the lirll ixftance, to them the lands are of lefs value, 

 in confequence of fuch taxes iiavmg been impofed. Tlicy 

 ought alfo, he thinks, to confider that their influence might 

 be the means of keepnig the mod extravagant of them, fuch 

 as the tithes and poors' rates, within more reafonable bounds, 

 than it is to be expefted the utmoll exertions of the tenants 

 can be able to effett. And that, further, proprietors could 

 afcertain the value of their property with more minute 

 exaftnefs, were they, on the one hand, to receive fi-om 

 their tenants the full rents which their lands are wortli, and, 

 on the other, pay all taxes to which they are fubjc&cd. 

 The interell of agriculture, and the eafe and comfort of the 

 farmers, would at the fame time, he thinks, be effentially 

 promoted, were they relieved from thefe teafmg exactions 

 and compoficions with wlrich they are fo frequently molefted, 

 particularly in this part of the kingdom. 



And he fuggelU, in refpeft to the general price of rent- 

 ing lands, that when 'it is confidered how many circum- 

 ilances operate in determining' the rent of land, and how 

 much thefe frequently vary in the f?.me parifli or lordfliip, 

 it will be found impolTible to form any correft idea in regard 

 to the renti payable by the acre for the various kinds of 

 foil over the whole illand. Any conjedlure that may be 

 formed (for the fubjeft admits, he fays, no more) muft 

 be vague and incorreft. It is fuppofed, that the remark- 

 able change that has taken place in the iituation of the 

 kingdom and the manners of the people, by the abolition 

 of the feudal fyllem, the increafe of commerce, manufac- 

 tures, and agricultural improvements, with the immenie 

 additional quantity of paper-money introduced within thefe 

 few years into circulation, have had the ctt'efi oi enhancing 

 both tlie value and rent of lands. While thefe flourith, and 

 paper-money fupports its nominal value, lands in property 

 or leaie mult neceflarily, he tlunks, continue to advance. 

 But that, fliouId any crols accident interrupt the tormer, 

 or deprefs the value affixed to the latter, the recent great 

 advance in the rent of lands, in various parts of the ifland, 

 would render fuch calamities more univerfal in their eftefts, 

 and of courfe of more ferious confequence to the country. 

 The rent of land is kept up by a great varietv of local 

 Vol. XXIX. 



caufes, as the particular nature of tlie farm*, their extent!, 

 the goodnefs of ilie roads and markets, the convenience of 

 canals and other forts of water carriage, and many other 

 circumllances of a fimilar nature. In dairy and grafs dillridts, 

 as well as fome others, rents arc kept up by the particular 

 modes of occupation, m many inftanccs. Many little advan- 

 tages are connefted witli the former; while the latter has 

 not any heavy expences to contend with. Small farms are 

 conilantly higher rented than thofe of the larger kind. 

 Convenient carriage and large markets are always favour- 

 able to rents. Local convenience has invariably great in- 

 fluence in raifing the rent of land. In Ihort, it has been 

 fuggelled by an able writer, that every fort of improvement 

 in agriculture, as well as manufaflures, has a tendency to 

 advance the rent of land ; and that, if, to the practical ex- 

 cellence of the former, improvements in the latter fliould be 

 added, with a more extended conuncrce, rents may be raifed 

 to an extraordinary degree. While the contrary of thefe 

 matters is calculated to reduce the quantity of wealth, and, 

 of courfe, to lower the rent of land ; confequently rent 

 rifes and falls with the profperity or dechning ilate of the 

 agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce of the 

 country, the former of which is only to be preferved by 

 peace. 



But though the rents of land have been greatly increafed 

 within thefe few late years, it is probable that they muft 

 leel the efleds of the vail load of taxation and other charges 

 whicii bear fo hard upon agriculture at prefcnt. 



But the afcertaining of the rents of lands in the different 

 dillridts of the kingdom is a point of confiderable import- 

 ance both in a pohtical and agricultural view, as by fuch 

 means the produce of them may be better and more certainly 

 calculated. 



Mr. Smith, in his valuable Agricultural Survey of Ar- 

 gylefliire, flates, tliat the quality of the foil is there ex- 

 tremely different ; fo that fuch valuations as have been lately 

 made, differ, fometimes on the fame farm, from 2s. to izs. 

 the acre of arable ground. The pafture, too, being partly 

 green hill, but moflly heath, diners no lefs in its quality 

 tiian the arable land. Some of it is valued below 4^. and 

 fome above 4J-. the acre. In the neighbourhood of Camp- 

 belton, a few fpots of arable land let from 2/. to 3/. the 

 acre. But this price may be faid to be put, not altogether 

 upon the land, but partly upon the accommodation. B-ut 

 what proportion the rent of a farm fliould bear to its pro- 

 duce, depends fo much on foil, climate, fituation, and 

 other circumftances, that no general rule can, he thinks, be 

 laid down on the fubjedt. In regard to arable lands more 

 particularly, it is a common, though perhaps not a juft re- 

 mark, that one-third of the produce fliould go for rent, one- 

 third for expence and management, and one-third -for the 

 farmer's profit, interell, &c. 



But Mr. Middieton remarks, that the method pxactifed by 

 fome gentlemen, of eftimating the produce of land by 

 trebling the rent, is very fallacious : three times the rent is 

 not by any means equal to the value of the produce of the 

 land under the belt fyllem of hultandrv now in ufe ; tliough 

 under the old exploded courfe of tallow, wheat, oats, in the 

 fcanty produce of common fields, and when taxes and the 

 expences of living were at one-half of the prefent amount, 

 it was not very dillant from the truth. But under the 

 more improved courfes of hufbandry on land, at and under 

 twenty fliillings an acre, the produce is now, he thmks, more 

 generally worth from five to feven times the rent. 



In the North Riding of Yorklhire, as Hated in the report of 

 that dillrict, the average rent of farm? of pretty good fod is 

 from 15^-. to 21s. fit acre, in winch there may be land rated 



4S at 



