Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, Number 414, April, 1850Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, Number 414, April, 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
the Legislature not diminished the profits of agricultural investment.
A more revolutionary change, a more sweeping reform of the law of
landlord and tenant, I do not think was ever mooted.
The measures proposed I do not at present mean to consider; I notice
just now the immensity of the change--"These, I would say to my
brother farmers, these are practical questions, which have a direct
bearing on the condition of tenants, and are worthy of our attentive
consideration. Happily, they have not yet been appropriated by any
political party." These questions certainly have a direct bearing
on the condition of tenants; but it humbly appears to me that they
have _a more direct bearing on_ landlords, and _are well worthy of
their very attentive consideration_. These questions have not been
appropriated by any political party, and I fear will not soon be. It
is an appropriation which I believe the Free-Trade legislators of
Parliament, who own landed property, will most religiously shun. It
would seem that there is nothing for it, but that you should enter
Parliament yourself, and plead the cause of the liberal covenant.
Parliamentary enactments, even to the extent indicated, will not
secure all the conditions of the liberal covenant. The enlarged and
improved farm-buildings are not provided for in any of the above
measures, and yet without these, for the object in view, the liberal
covenant is wholly abortive and incomplete. But you tell Messrs
Watson and Dudgeon "that there is nothing to prevent them, _with the
assistance of their landlords_, to have equal accommodation for their
stock and their manure," (p. 13.) You make no doubt of the assistance
of the landlords. On this subject you speak with a prompt and easy
assurance. But that assistance may not be given. I have not heard of
one proprietor tendering the Auchness covenant. Not without reason,
the proprietor may refuse. In this case, you will allow that another
act of Parliament becomes requisite, to render it compulsory upon
landlords to rebuild or remodel and enlarge farm-buildings, so as that
the necessary accommodation of the liberal covenant may be secured.
We begin now to see some of the conditions of the liberal covenant,
and to understand the extent of legislation requisite to pave the way
for its adoption. You tell us, in large letters, that the liberal
covenant is to the farmer an element "indispensably requisite, to
insure success under reduced prices." High farming by itself won't do;
and you justly contend that the several conditions prescribed by you
must be fulfilled, before it can be proved that your remedy has failed,
(p. 7.) Be it so. But you know that your liberal covenant at present
is a nonentity--that it exists nowhere but at Auchness, and perhaps
one or two other favoured localities. Nay, you seem to allow that
absolutely it cannot, and will not, be got without the intervention of
Parliament. In that I believe you to be right. And, of course, until
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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