XIV

IMTRODU'CTION'.

intervention of the legifiatnre. But what is ftill more hurtful, leafes of very (hortperiods can only be granted ; from which circumftance fuch lands mutt conftantlyremain under very imperfeCl fyfiems of management.

Thepofleffion of lands under deeds of entail may likewife be confidered as pre-judicial in the fame way; as in fuch cafes no inducement is held out for the expen-diture of money, and the confequent improvement of fuch property.

But obftacles of a more general and powerful nature are found in the variousindefinite claims that are made on lands. The payment of tythes in kind, from its■operating direCtly as a tax on the capital and productive labour of the farmer andland-proprietor, as well as from its being vexatious in the mode of its collection, isa meafure that impedes the improvement of the art of hufbandry in a very feriousdegree. In the 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 ofmanure, and confiderable labour and exertion in other refpeCts in order to bringit into the ttate of producing abundant crops, its effeCts are experienced in themott injurious and oppreffive manner. The efforts of the hufbandman in thiscafe have been u compared to thofe of a labourer, who fliould make confiderableexertions 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 preparingto enjoy his hard-earned morfel, he had it taken away from him by a neighbour,who flood by idle all day, and now came, by means of a legal authority he hadobtained as a reward for fome exertions of his predeceflors, when the ftate offociety rendered fuch a mode of remuneration the eafieft of any that could then bedevifed, 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 impofliblefor him to yield it without reluCtance, or ever after to view his neighbour with afavourable eye. It provokes an inviduous parallel to be drawn between the twoparties, which eftranges them the more from each other. The confequence is,that although, in this particular circumftance, the one gains juft as much as thethe other lofes; yet it tends very little on the whole to the emolument of thereceiver; becaufe the loofer fays within himfelf, fince I cannot enjoy my ownmorfel myfelf, I can at leaft prevent my neighbour from getting it, for nobody cancompel me to earn it but if I pleafe. So down he fits in indolence; and neitherof them enjoys the blelfing that might have refulled from induftry*.”

* Anderfon's Efiays, Vol. III.