BOOK little ftock which they might fave from their III. own share of the produce, because the lord, who

laid out nothing, was to get one-half of whatever it produced. The tithe, which is but a tenth of the produce, is found to be a very great hindrance to improvement. A tax, therefore, which amounted to one-half, must have been an effectual bar to it. It might be the interest of a metayer to make the land produce as much as could be brought out of it by means of the stock furnished by the proprietor; but it could never be his intereft to mix any part of his own with it. In France, where five parts out of fix of the whole kingdom are faid to be still occupied by this fpecies of cultivators, the proprietors complain that their metayers take every opportunity of employing the mafters cattle rather in carriage than in cultivation; because in the one cafe they get the whole profits to themselves, in the other they share them with their landlord. This fpecies of tenants ftill fubfifts in some parts of Scotland. They are called fteel-bow tenants. Those ancient English tenants, who are faid by Chief Baron Gilbert and Doctor Blackstone to have been rather bailiffs of the landlord than farmers properly fo called, were probably of the fame kind.

To this fpecies of tenancy fucceeded, though by very flow degrees, farmers properly fo called, who cultivated the land with their own stock, paying a rent certain to the landlord. When fuch farmers have a lease for a term of years, they may fometimes find it for their intereft to

lay

II.

lay out part of their capital in the further im- CHAP, provement of the farm; because they may fometimes expect to recover it, with a large profit, before the expiration of the leafe. The poffeffion even of fuch farmers, however, was long extremely precarious, and still is so in many parts of Europe. They could before the expiration of their term be legally outed of their lease, by a new purchaser; in England, even by the fictitious action of a common recovery. If they were turned out illegally by the violence of their master, the action by which they obtained redrefs was extremely imperfect. It did not always re-inftate them in the poffeffion of the land, but gave them damages which never amounted to the real lofs. Even in England, the country perhaps of Europe where the yeomanry has always been most refpected, it was not till about the 14th of Henry the VIIth that the action of ejectment was invented, by which the tenant recovers, not damages only but poffeffion, and in which his claim is not neceffarily concluded by the uncertain decifion of a fingle affize. This action has been found fo effectual a remedy that, in the modern practice, when the landlord has occafion to fue for the poffeffion of the land, he seldom makes use of the actions which properly belong to him as landlord, the writ of right or the writ of entry, but fues in the name of his tenant, by the writ of ejectment. In England, therefore, the fecurity of the tenant is equal to that of the proprietor. In England befides a leafe for life of forty fhillings a year value is a

freehold,

III.

BOOK freehold, and entitles the leffee to vote for a member of parliament; and as a great part of the yeomanry have freeholds of this kind, the whole order becomes refpectable to their landlords on account of the political confideration which this gives them. There is, I believe, no-where in Europe, except in England, any inftance of the tenant building upon the land of which he had no leafe, and trufting that the honour of his landlord would take no advantage of fo important an improvement. Those laws and customs so favourable to the yeomanry, havė perhaps contributed more to the present grandeur of England, than all their boasted regulations of commerce taken together.

THE law which fecures the longest leases against fucceffors of every kind is, fo far as I know, peculiar to Great Britain. It was introduced into Scotland fo early as 1449, by a law of James the IId. Its beneficial influence, however, has been much obftructed by entails; the heirs of entail being generally reftrained from letting leases for any long term of years, frequently for more than one year. A late act of parliament has, in this refpect, fomewhat flackened their fetters, though they are still by much too ftrait. In Scotland, befides, as no leafehold gives a vote for a member of parliament, the yeomanry are upon this account lefs refpectable to their landlords than in England.

IN other parts of Europe, after it was found. convenient to fecure tenants both against heirs. and purchasers, the term of their fecurity was

ས

11.

95

ftill limited to a very short period; in France, CHA P. for example, to nine years from the commencement of the leafe. It has in that country, indeed, been lately extended to twenty-feven, a period ftill too short to encourage the tenant to make the most important improvements. The proprietors. of land were anciently the legiflators of every part of Europe. The laws relating to land, therefore, were all calculated for what they supposed the intereft of the proprietor. It was for his intereft, they had imagined, that no leafe granted by any of his predeceffors fhould hinder him from enjoying, during a long term of years, the full value of his land. Avarice and injustice are always fhort-fighted, and they did not forefee how much this regulation must obstruct improvement, and thereby hurt in the long-run the real intereft of the landlord.

THE farmers too, befides paying the rent, were anciently, it was fuppofed, bound to perform a great number of fervices to the landlord, which were seldom either specified in the lease, or regu lated by any precife rule, but by the ufe and wont of the manor or barony. These fervices, therefore, being almoft entirely arbitrary, fubjected the tenant to many vexations. In Scot land the abolition of all fervices, not precisely ftipulated in the leafe, has in the courfe of a few years very much altered for the better the condi. tion of the yeomanry of that country.

THE public fervices to which the yeomanry were bound, were not lefs arbitrary than the private ones. To make and maintain the high

roads,

III.

BOOK roads, a fervitude which still fubfifts, I believe, every-where, though with different degrees of oppreffion in different countries, was not the only one.

When the king's troops, when his household or his officers of any kind paffed through any part of the country, the yeomanry were bound to provide them with horfes, carriages, and provifions, at a price regulated by the purveyor. Great Britain is, I believe, the only monarchy in Europe where the oppreffion of purveyance has been entirely abolished. It ftill fubfifts in France and Germany.

THE public taxes to which they were subject were as irregular and oppreffive as the fervices. The ancient lords, though extremely unwilling to grant themselves any pecuniary aid to their fovereign, easily allowed him to tallage, as they called it, their tenants, and had not knowledge enough to foresee how much this muft in the end affect their own revenue. The taille, as it ftill fubfifts in France, may serve as an example of thofe ancient tallages. It is a tax upon the fuppofed profits of the farmer, which they eftimate by the ftock that he has upon the farm. It is his intereft, therefore, to appear to have as little as poffible, and confequently to employ as little as poffible in its cultivation, and none in its im provement. Should any stock happen to accumulate in the hands of a French farmer, the taille is almost equal to a prohibition of its ever being employed upon the land. This tax befides is fuppofed to dishonour whoever is fubject to it, and to degrade him below, not only the rank of a gen