INTRODUCTION. XVil

where there isa want of permanent fecurity for the enjoyment of thofe advantages that may be derived from them.

It has been juftly remarked by Mr. Donaldfon, that“that man would certainly be juftly fubjeGted to the reproach of being rafh and inconfiderate in his conduct, who fhould expend money and labour on the improvement of any farm, where his certainty of continuance does not entitle him to look forward with a confident aflurance to the period when his exertions are to be rewarded. It is a well-known fact, that the hope of reward fweetens labour; take that away, and the fpur to labour ceafes. It is that alone that calls forth indufiry, and is the fpring of all ex- ertion. What object then can a farmer have to hazard his capital, and devote the moft vigorous and adtive part of his life to the improvement of a farm which he holds on no more certain tenure than the will, or, in other words, than the whim or caprice of his landlord? In every fuch fituation, the prudent farmer muft be retrained from any fpirited expenditure, however much he may be fatisfied that the improvements, ahienn might thereby be effe&ed, would, under other circumfiances, prove beneficial to the public, the landlord, and himfelf. Have not inftances oc- curred, where tenants fo circumftanced have been obliged repeatedly to agree to pay advances of rent rather than remove; w hile, from the uncertainty of the tenure on which they heid their farms, they were debarred from making thofe ex- ertions which an advance of rent demanded, and which almoft uniformly takes place in fuch cafes when leafes are granted?”

From an examination of the excellent furveys that have lately been made of the agricultural ftate of the kingdom under the dire€tion of the Board, it appears that by far the greateft part of the land in many counties is held by tenants merely at the will of their landlords, who of courfe may deprive them of their farms, on proper notice being given, whenever they pleafe; and in cafes where leafes are granted they do not extend further than from five to nine years, except in a very few in- {tances indeed, in which they may be protracted to the period of nineteen or even twenty-one. And even fuch leafes as thofe are for the moft part clogged with fuch reftriGtive claufes and conditions as put a ftop to improvement, and confine the cultivator in methods of management that are frequently far from being the moft advantageous*.

In the firft cafe, indeed, the farmer is kept in fuch a ftate of dependence as is not only highly degrading, but muft effectually damp and reprefs his exertion and in- duftry. And the tenants under fhort leafes are not in fituations much more defirable, as they cannot with fafety or propriety enter into any extenfive beneficial

* Modern Agriculture, Vol. IV. aa