10 
Condition of the Agricultural Labourer, with 
ence of the master on the other, the better will it be for both, 
and for the whole c(jmmunity. 
To improve the cultivation of the land by the application of as 
much capital and as much labour as can be profitably employed 
upon it, and to take advantage of the inventions of mechanical 
and the investigations of chemical science, is a certain way to im- 
prove the condition of every class connected with agriculture — of 
the owner and occupier by increased produce, and of the labour- 
ing class by a more extended field for the exercise of their in- 
dustry, and an increase of the fund applicable to wages. One 
improvement naturally leads to another, all operate in the same 
direction, and conduce to the general welfare ; and to neglect 
improvement is therefore a common injury. This truth cannot be 
too thoroughly inculcated upon every class. It is the common 
bond of union and social progression. All are alike interested 
in understanding and acting upon it — the landlord as well as the 
tenant, the farmer as well as the labourer, and the agricultural 
class no less than the commercial class. 
In stating this as a general truth applicable to every class, it 
must however always be borne in mind, that the duty of acting 
upon it and carrying it out to its legitimate results, devolves 
chiefly upon the most intelligent and mfluential class — that is, 
upon the educated and owner class, by whom the privileges of 
property are chiefly enjoyed, and who are bound therefore to be 
forward in fulfilling the duties which its possession imposes. 
One of the first of these duties is to promote the comfort and 
attend to the well-being of the several classes subordinate to them, 
by whose industry their own comforts are provided, and by whose 
labours their property is rendered productive; and this duty is 
more especially imperative as regards the owner of land, his 
subordinates of every grade being in a peculiar manner subject to 
his influence and control. The proprietor of a large domain 
may be said to be almost absolute within its limits. If the land 
be imperfectly cultivated, the tenants poor and ill-inform6d, and 
the labourers in a bad condition — wherever these evils prevail, 
they must be regarded as proofs of the landlord's incompetency 
or neglect ; whilst, on the other hand, well-cultivated farms, a 
thriving tenantry, and orderly and vvell-conditioned labourers, 
afford j)roof that the landlord has exercised the rights and the 
influence of property judiciously, by stimulating improvement 
and encouraging and assisting his tenantry to apply more capital 
and more labour to the land, by means of which the field of 
employment has been enlarged, and the tenants themselves bene- 
fited. 
It may possibly be here objected, that too great a responsibility 
is cast upon the owners of property, and that too much is required 
