XIV INTRODUCTION.

intervention of the legiflature. But what is full more hurtful, leafes of very fhorf periods can only be granted; from which circumftance fuch lands muft conftantly remain under very imperfect fyftems of management.

The poffeffion of lands under deeds of entail may likewife be confidered as pre-

judicial in the fame way; as in{uch cafes no inducement is held out for the expen-

diture of money, and the confequent improvement of fach property.

But obftacles of a more general and powerful nature are found in the various indefinite claims that are made on lands. The payment of tythes in kind, from its operating diredily as a tax on the capital and productive labour of the farmer and land-proprietor, as well as from its being vexatious in the mode of its collection, is a meafure that impedes the improvement of the art of hufbandry in a very ferious degree. Inthe cultivation of arable farms, efpecially if the land be in fuch a con- dition as to require the expenditure of large fums of money in the purchafe of manure, and confiderable labour and exertion in other refpecis in order to bring it into the ftate of producing abundant crops, its effects are. experienced in the moft injurious and oppreffive manner. The efforts of the hufbandman in this cafe hate been“ compared to thofe of a labourer, who fhould make confiderable exertions during the hours of relaxation throughout the day, in order that he might obtain a bit of fomething hot for fupper; and when he was juft preparing to enjoy his hard-earned morfel, he had it taken away from him by a neighbour, who ftood by idle all day, and now came, by means of a legal authority he had obtained as a reward for fome exertions of his predeceflors, when the ftate of fociety rendered fuch a mode of remuneration the eafiett of any that could then be devifed, to feize that which the poor man gained. by the fweat of his brow. Though the poor man is forced to give up his morfel in this cafe, it is impoflible for him to yield it without reluctance, or ever after to view his neighbour with a favourable eye. It provokes an inviduous parallel to be drawn between the two parties, which eftranges them the more from each other.‘The confequence is, that although, in this particular circumftance, the one gains juft as much as the the other lofes; yet it tends very little on the whole to the emolument of the receiver; becaufe the loofer fays within himfelf, fince I cannot enjoy my own morfel myfelf, I can at leaft prevent my neighbour from getting it, for nobody can compel me to earn it but if I pleafe. So down he fits in indolence; and neither of them enjoys the blefling that might have refulted from induftry*.”

* Anderfon’s Effays, Vol. IIT.