SSS 
and, in general, any power not intellectual or me- 
chanical, which produces visible effects. In the 
moral or metaphysical sense—which is the fun- 
damental sense, or that whence all the other 
meanings of the word are derived—every being 
endowed with any degree of intelligence is an 
agent whenever he acts, and man, most eminently 
is an agent, not only when acting, but when 
thinking, | 
AGENT. An inferior officially acting for a 
‘superior in the management of an estate, of a 
farm, or of part of a farm. Agents are of vari- 
ous classes, and have various powers ; and some- 
times two or three of the same class, or with the 
same powers, have different names. ‘'T'o remove 
confusion, therefore, we shall here notice all the 
principal ones, and shall make references to this 
article at the several alphabetical places where 
their designations occur. 
Persons who conduct the business of an estate 
| are the most important class of agents, and are 
usually called agents in Ireland, factors in Scot- 
land, and stewards, land- stewards, or resident 
managers in England. They are of three classes, 
—the agents, factors, or stewards of absentee 
landlords,—the agents, factors, or stewards of re- 
_sident landlords, who, from nonage, ignorance, 
disinclination, or other cause, take no interest 
in the details of management,—and the agents, 
factors, or stewards of resident landlords, who 
exercise personal inspection: over their estates, 
maintain personal acquaintance with the condi- 
| tion of their farms and tenants, and bestow con- 
siderable time and care on all the more important 
departments of business. The first class usually 
wield all the power of the proprietor without any 
effective control ; the second class wield all the 
proprietor’s power, subject occasionally to a con- 
trol more mischievous than beneficial ; and the 
third class are rather the assistants of proprietors 
than their representatives, and possess only lim- 
ited and indirect powers of either achieving good 
or inflicting evil. Any farmer will see at a glance 
that an estate under the third kind of agency is 
likely to be incomparably better managed for the 
interests of both the proprietor and the tenant, 
than an estate under the first or the second kinds ; 
and that, so far from being exposed to the priva- 
tions and mischiefs of mere delegated power, it 
enjoys or ought to enjoy all the advantages of the 
proprietor’s personal supervision, aided by that 
of an intelligent assistant. But agents of the 
first and the second classes possess responsibility 
of the highest order, and wield powers which are 
likely to have a heavier influence upon tenantry 
than the direct powers of proprietors ; and hence, 
except when they are men of high qualifications 
and fine moral character, they rarely fail to be 
more or less scourges of society, and to earn for 
themselves an inglorious reputation. A large 
proportion of land-stewards are mere men of busi- 
ness or legal practitioners, without any fair de- 
gree of acquaintance with rural affairs, far more 
AGENT. 
67 
solicitous to obtain prompt payments of rent than 
well informed as to the kind of treatment by which 
these are best secured,—and generally ignorant 
respecting at once the wise management of ten- 
antry, the real resources of estates, and the true 
interests of proprietors ; and they, in consequence, 
become capricious, short-sighted, domineering, 
and oppressive, driving good tenants into diffi- 
culties, privations, or despair, provoking worth- 
less tenants into litigiousness and acts of wanton 
damage, and converting their very zeal for re- 
gular and large proceeds of rent into the certain 
and rapid impoverishment of at once the tenantry, 
the estate, and the rent-roll. In Ireland especially 
this is felt to be the case in a great proportion of 
instances. “ The agent’s duties generally,” said a 
witness, himself a barrister-at-law, in evidence 
before the Parliamentary Commissioners in Sep- 
tember 1844, “an agent’s duties generally con- 
sist in enforcing the rents by the aid of his bail- 
iffs, and putting money into his landlord’s pockets, 
and a per-centage into his own, and in nothing 
else.” Other land-stewards, however, besides 
being, in all respects, professionally qualified 
for their responsible office, are either so strictly 
gentlemen as to scorn every thing paltry or dis- 
honourable, or so truly christian as to be in- 
capable of any conduct but such as is just, gen- 
erous, or noble ; and such men have, in not a 
few instances, acquitted themselves to the full 
as wisely and patriotically as if they had been, in 
their own persons, the very best of landlords. See 
articles AbsentEEISM and Mippie Men. 
Every land-steward ought to possess skill in 
accounts, acquaintance with the law of landlord 
and tenant, considerable knowledge of human 
nature, large experience in negotiating with 
equals and inferiors, perfect integrity of moral 
character, much suavity and firmness of temper, 
and a full knowledge of practical agriculture, of 
land-surveying, of planting, and of all the por- 
tions of science and mechanics which are con- 
nected with the explanation of agricultural phe- 
nomena, and the promotion of agricultural im- 
provement. His skill in accounts is requisite 
for the correctness and good order of his numer- 
ous pecuniary transactions, not alone with the 
tenantry, but in connexion with his general man- 
agement ; his acquaintance with law is necessary 
for avoiding litigations, and inducing a liberal 
construction of the conditions of leases ; his know- 
ledge of human nature, and his experience in 
general society, are requisite for successful deal- 
ing with the variety and the occasional knotti- 
ness of character which he may have to encoun- 
ter among tenants; his uprightness in moral 
principle and conciliatoriness in general manners, 
are essential for his commanding the respect of 
his people, dissuading them from folly and vice, 
and inducing them to resort to him as their coun- 
sellor and peacemaker ; his knowledge of practi- 
cal agriculture is requisite for his acting intelli- 
gently in the details of agricultural management 
