31 
LOW ON LANDED PROPERTY. 
Many others are about to appear; hundreds 
of others have appeared and disappeared ; we 
have pointed out these as having peculiar dis- 
tinguishing characters, and having made their 
noise in the floral world. As any come across 
us we may be inclined to add them to our list, 
but the very few we should choose would be 
comprised in a less number than we have 
described. 
LOW ON LANDED PROPERTY.* 
There has been no lack of writers who could 
tell us what should be clone to improve land, 
and increase the value of estates. "We have 
ourselves given useful lessons on this import- 
ant subject ; but writers of this description, 
and Ave include ourselves, remind one of the 
council of Mice ; there was no difficulty in 
deciding what should be done, the question 
was, who should do it? A very young mouse 
would be wise enough to know that if the cat 
had a bell round her neck, it would give all 
the mice notice of her approach ; but it was 
far more difficult to get any one to bell the 
cat. Now Mr. Low, who has in a previous 
work told us all that should be done by a 
farm, has, in his present volume, told us what 
portion should be done by the tenant, and what 
by the landlord. He has informed us that the 
cat ought to have a bell round her neck, and 
more, he has decided who ought to do the job. 
In other words, besides informing us what 
should be done for estates, he gives us a pro- 
per notion of who ought to do it. As he 
observes, in the very preface of the work: — 
" There are two classes of persons con- 
nected with the land of the country, upon each 
of whom devolves a peculiar set of duties, — 
the Landowners, who possess the rights of 
property, and the Tenants, who advance the 
funds required for cultivation. It is of the 
first importance that the latter class be duly 
instructed in the knowledge which their pur- 
suits require ; but it must not be forgotten, 
that the means of applying this knowledge to 
successful practice, must be primarily supplied 
by those who enjoy the right of property in 
the land itself. The tenants must have suit- 
able farms, and buildings, and other append- 
ages necessary for the occupation of these 
farms ; and they must be permitted to possess 
the land which they are to cultivate, under 
such conditions as shall insure the safety of 
the funds which they advance, and afford 
them the means of employing their labour with 
advantage." — Pref. p. v. 
There is in these few lines " a bit of good 
truth." The tenant to be induced to invest 
* On Landed Property, and the Economy of 
Estates. Ry David Low, Esq., F.R.S.E. Lon'don : 
Longman, "Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1844. 
his money, must have some assurance that he 
will obtain a corresponding advantage in a re- 
turn of it in some shape. It is where a tenant 
feels that every pound he expends he gives 
to the landlord, that he neglects his farm; and 
much of the neglect that may be seen all over 
the country may be traced to the uncertainty 
in which the tenants are kept by the nature 
of their tenures, and the hopelessness of deriv- 
ing any advantage from money actually sunk. 
This is a truism which none shall dispute ; 
and we wish there were less room to complain 
than there is upon this subject. Mr. Low, 
however, goes a little beyond this ; and he is 
not so happy while discussing the question of 
slave-labour, as when he contents himself with 
subjects which he evidently understands better; 
the application of labour without caring how 
the quantity is performed. The propo- 
sition which all his readers understand, is, 
that there are certain duties which must be 
done to make the best of an estate, that these 
should be performed by landlord and tenant ; 
and the author is not far wide of the mark in 
the portions which he gives to each. It is 
clear that the land, under good farming, im- 
proves ; but the tenant is, in too many in- 
stances, under great disadvantage ; he feels 
that he is expending his capital on land not 
his own. 
" It is," as Mr. Low says, " the property 
of another, who, in the end, will profit by all 
the improvements which the skill of a tem- 
porary possessor can make upon it. The 
manufacturer receives, directly, the profits of 
his stock in trade ; the farmer must share 
those profits with another, who undergoes no 
part of the labour and risk ; his industry is 
fettered by conditions imposed upon no other 
class of traders ; and the inconveniences of 
obtaining returns for a present expenditure 
more slowly than in any other profession, are 
frequently aggravated by the uncertainty 
whether he will ever have the power of reco- 
vering the capital advanced. Certain draw- 
backs must always exist, when a man employs 
his capital on the property of another, for the 
use of which he pays a yearly price, not easy 
to be adjusted with relation to the value of 
the returns ; but these inconveniences must 
all be greatly increased where insecurity exists 
with respect to the future, and where the pos- 
sessor cannot employ his funds in the manner 
which his interest requires. When we con- 
sider the condition of the farmers of the greater 
part of the British Islands, in certain cases, as 
in Ireland, oppressed by rents which scarcely 
any efforts of incessant labour can make good, 
and which cut off all the means of accumu- 
lating funds for the proper culture of the 
farms ; in other cases, as in the midland and 
southern counties of England, where security 
