"farmer is lost in that of the speculator and the mo"nopolist, to the great injury of the public." He goes on and says,-" In confirmation of this report I "have to observe, that at this very time no less than "sixteen farms in consolidation are occupied by a

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man near the Devizes, who formerly took a six"teenth share, and maintained himself and his family "in credit and comfort, as did the other fifteen, who "are now dispersed in poor-houses, dwindled into

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day labourers, with grief aggravating toil, or wholly "annihilated. Another instance occurs in the parish "of Winchcomb, of a person occupying twenty66 seven small farms consolidated into one. Indeed "the like examples are obvious to every traveller who "is seriously intent upon rural affairs." A still more terrible destruction of farm-houses, and, consequently, of depopulation, appears in a parish of Leicestershire. My informant, who not long since surveyed the parish, says, it contains four thousand acres of rich land, a very small proportion of which is in tillage; and that in the whole parish there is only one farm-house remaining out of fifty which were formerly there.

The conclusion of one of Mr. Pratt's quotations. from a most respectable author*, runs thus:-" Was "it not formerly owing to the small occupiers of land, "that many of the necessaries and comforts of life "were to be procured in such abundance, and sold at "such a moderate rate? The opulent farmer may in

* Dr. Mavor.

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"deed raise enough to secure an ample profit to him"self, after bringing up his family in a luxurious manner; but as his wealth and credit enable him to keep "back his stock of corn, &c. on every emergency, so "he will be cautious of overstocking the market at all times, because, if one load can be made to fetch the price of two, he knows that he has all the labour and 66 expence of producing the surplus without any compensation. Hence the evils of which the poor most "justly complain; and which even the rich, who are "not connected with agriculture, find in the severest "degree. Hence the enhanced expence of living, "the increased wages of labourers and manufactu

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rers, which are still, however, inadequate to their "wants; and all those scenes of misery, those expres❝sions of dissatisfaction, those popular tumults, which "humanity can neither repress with severity, nor "policy suffer to proceed."

Another author †, says,-" An opinion prevails throughout the country, that the real cause of the "presént dearness of the articles of life is the mono"poly of farms. It is so extensive, that a very few "farmers in every county have it in their power to "starve half the community in it at their pleasure. A "few years ago, when the land was in more hands, "when there were little farms of fifty and one hun"dred acres each, the country was better inhabited,

and better cultivated; our markets were supplied

*Mr. Nicholls in his Admonition to the great Landowners on the Monopoly of Farms. Printed Southampton 1800.

"not only with corn, but poultry, eggs, and butter, "more plentifully and reasonably: the little farmer

having no more land than he could superintend, "raised more turnips, and, by good management, "had more grass, fed more sheep, and of course grew 66 more corn. Those little farmers could not hoard up "their stocks; necessity obliged them to bring them "to market, and that necessity produced plenty'; but now they are swept from the face of the earth, and

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great farmers, like huge cormorants, stalk over their "ruins." I might multiply quotations on this head, but one more shall suffice, which is from a foreigner* of note.-" Agriculture is the great support of morality and religion; it renders marriage easy, necessary and happy; it contributes towards raising a numerous projeny, which it employs as soon as they "are able to crawl, in collecting the fruits of the earth, "or in tending the flocks and herds; but it bestows "those advantages only in small landed property. "Small possessions double and quadruple in a coun"try both crops, and the hands that produce them. "Great estates, on the contrary, in the hands of one

man, transform a country into vast solitudes. They "inspire the wealthy farmers with a relish for city "pride and luxury, and with a dislike of country em"ployments; hence their daughters are bred up as "ladies, and their sons as lawyers and divines." My opinion, however, was not formed from the writings of others, but from my own experience and observa

*St. Pierre's Studies of Nature.

tions, my poem having been written before I had seen any of these. Indeed, the bad effects of this system are so obvious, that it must appear to a superficial observer, that on the large farms the land (a considerable part at least) is not cultivated to the best advantage; and on a close inspection it will appear an evil of much greater magnitude than was at first supposed. There is much land in the occupation of large farmers within the compass of my observation, on which there is no husbandry bestowed, being left as it were in a state of nature, partly over-run with furze, fern, bushes, or brambles, or half covered with enormous, and, from their size, one might suppose antedeluvian, ant-hills, many of them being three or four feet diameter at the base. Other lands have but little or very indifferent husbandry bestowed on them; and on some large farms 30, 40, 50, or more acres, are known to lie fallow frequently for two years together; so that I verily believe, and am backed in my opinion by those whose observation and information are more extensive than my own, that there is but a small proportion, of what is denominated cultivated land, that is well cultivated; nor can there be upon the present system, for the great farmers do not, nor will they em ploy nearly hands enough for the purpose; indeed, if they get a crop upon but half their lands, while they can manage to get double the price for their goods they formerly did, or that they ought to have for them, they will not care if the remainder produces little or nothing. In a distant part of the county, where the farms are chiefly of a moderate size, an in

telligent man, who is esteemed by his landlord, and by his neighbours as a very good farmer, lately informed me, that there might be twice as many labourers in husbandry employed to advantage in that district; and if to the farmer's advantage, of course to the advantage of the public at large, by getting an increased produce; and I am fully satisfied that there are considerably more in proportion employed in that district, than in many others where the farms are larger. I am persuaded that this saving maxim, as the farmers account it, very generally prevails, though upon due consideration it will appear, according to the old adage, " penny wise, and pound foolish;" for if the farmer raise the price of his commodities, his landlord must, in his own defence, raise his rent; the poor-rates will inevitably increase, the price of labour be augmented, and every article he is obliged to purchase must get dearer; therefore his gains at the end of seven years, I presume, will not exceed what it might have been, had he followed a more generous plan: but whether he is an ultimate gainer or not, it is a terrible source of evil to the community at large.

This monopoly of farms is also productive of bad effects in the cyder counties, in what they call a bearing year, when they have an abundance of fruit, some persons having from five to fifteen, or twenty orchards; the consequence is that much is wasted, having neither casks sufficient to hold their cyder and perry, nor house or cellar room for it, if they had casks enough. This was demonstrated in many instances in 1801, notwithstanding the increased facility of disposing of