for the good of the Colonies; and then you need not fear for the connexion." I believe so too; and I have said that I would have the connexion a permanent one. Yet would I even go further, and say that if we can, in some good measure, (for what great object was ever in this world completely realized?) succeed in rearing in those distant regions of the earth such a progeny as I have imagined our Colonies ought to be, whatever becomes of our definite connexion with them, it will be glory enough for England to have so peopled the world.

It is said by an able writer, that in former times England was content to leave her Colonies nearly independent, caring only to derive pecuniary gain from them; whereas now, on the contrary, we are willing even to pay largely for the pleasure of governing them.* And this is at least a less sordid object than the other; yet it is by no means the best. In the course I have just indicated lies the worthiest national amendment and atonement, even as in much of our former Colonial history which I have laid before you, I should wish to have led you to take part in national repentance, for great national sins.

Finally, let me press upon you one obvious but momentous consideration. If we wish to see our Colonies such as we would have them, not indeed the only rule but one great rule is this-let us look to ourselves, to our own hearts and characters. Such as we are, such, not perhaps wholly, but in a good measure, will our Colonists be. It has been from whatever good qualities are ineradicable in the English character, accompanying

* Merivale's Lectures on Colonization, first Edit. I quote from memory.

*

them across the world, that amidst and in spite of so much that has been defective in our systems of Colonization, the Colonists of England still exhibit so much, of which their ancient mother may well be proud. Let us strive to be such, that it may still be so, and far better yet. For if we can keep our national character unimpaired and elevate it still more, and if, as has been said, we labour to communicate to the Colonies the best of that character, then with the blessing of Heaven we may hope to see those who dwell in them such as they ought to be,-lovers of England and of England's institutions, lovers of God and of man.

* Compare Smith's Wealth of Nations, II. 500.

LETTER TO TENANTS ON RENTS AND

CORN-RENTS.

January 1850.

MY DEAR SIR,-You have been informed that I have directed the payment of your rent to be deferred from the end of the present month till Lady-day. This I have done chiefly, as I did once before, in order that you may be enabled to avail yourself of improvement in the markets for the produce of your farm, should such occur, in the course of that time. But inasmuch as this will deprive me of the opportunity of addressing you, together with my other tenants, which I usually have about this time of the year, I take this method of communicating to you a few remarks which I might otherwise have made in another manner.

At times of low prices, like the present, it is usual with many excellent landlords to make a temporary abatement, a return of part of the rent, generally ten per cent, to their tenants on the rent-day. I am bound to state distinctly that this is a practice which I never shall adopt in any circumstances, as it seems to me to proceed upon very objectionable principles. It is usually done, as it has been recently, after the said low prices have prevailed for not more than a year or a year and a half. If it means anything, therefore, it means that the agreement between landlord and tenant for a fixed rent was made on an implied understanding that if prices were not every year to be up to a given amount, fairness, or at least liberality, required that in any year in which they

were materially below that amount, the agreement should be departed from. Now, in the first place, if such were the case, the result ought not to be all on one side: the landlord ought to be considered as well as the tenant; when the prices for the year exceeded the supposed amount, the landlord ought to receive an increase of rent, as the tenant receives an abatement when they fall below. Did any one ever hear of such a thing being done, or does any one conceive that it could by any possibility be done?

But I entirely deny that rents are, or ought to be, fixed on any such understanding, and I consider that if they were it would be fatal to the interests of agriculture. A tenant ought to calculate what he can afford to pay, according to the average of a long course of years. Leases are, of course, founded upon this principle, and are utterly unmeaning on any other; and it is denied by no one that for a proper system of cultivation a tenant must either have the security of a lease, or some practical equivalent to it. Wherefore, not the fluctuations from year to year, but the average of twenty or twenty-one years ought to govern the agreement by which both landlord and tenant shall be bound. The good years are to make up for the bad. No doubt this requires that a tenant shall be a man with resources which he can lay by and fall back upon; and I know some persons say that this is all very well, but that it cannot be expected that farmers shall have such resources, and that they must needs live from hand to mouth. To this I can only say that I have never found this to be the case with my tenants-that I do not believe it is the case with themand that if I did believe it, I never would do anything

that should tend to perpetuate so rotten and ruinous a system.

It follows that if there is a reasonable prospect of a permanent reduction in the prices of whatever articles enter into the calculation of the letting value of land, the reduction of rents must be permanent also. Any one can see that this is a mere truism; but yet it is by no means consistent with much of the language which is heard on this subject. Landlords are entreated and advised to lower their rents, as if it was a matter of kindness or of moral obligation. But it is no such thing. Rent is value, and must be regulated, like any other value, by the market for the article to which it refers. Now, I know perfectly well that there is not one of my farms which, if it were vacant, I could not let in a fortnight at its present rent. As long as this is the case there is no reasonableness in the suggestion that I, or any one in a similar case, should lower our rents. Of course it is not necessary, in order to ascertain this, that any farm should be actually vacant. I should be sorry to have any of my farms thrown up, but there is no difficulty in any neighbourhood in knowing how any part of the land would let.

I do not mean to represent the relation of landlord and tenant as simply that of a shopkeeper and customer, but as regards the mere price of land it is so. The difference is in the general friendly intercourse, and willingness on the part of the landlord to do all he can to promote and assist in the good cultivation of the land, which applies to the former, and has no parallel in the latter, relation.

I am not, therefore, prepared to make either of the