shamefully executed,[1] that they only serve to multiply their numbers, to lower the few feelings they have left, and to stifle every exertion on their part.
"The agent, who has always his own advantage in leasing, will say that the cottages will tumble. Let the landlord build them. The custom now is for a wealthy farmer, tradesman, or mason, to pay a fine to a lord of the manor or any other landlord, for a small spot of ground, on which he builds a cottage, and hucksters it out to whatever poor men will give the most for it, no matter whom; by which means poachers, smugglers, thieves, and even highwaymen are sure to find a receptacle, where they are independent, and out of the power of anybody, till they become subjects of legal conviction; on their road to which they commit a variety of crimes, before a prosecuting officer or the law can reach them; whereas were the landlord to keep the cottages in his own hands, he would necessarily have a wholesome and natural authority over the poor, could govern their morals, and preserve the peace of the country in case of riots or any public disturbances, as numbers must decide. Again, by this means you will be welcome on your estate; your estate will be your own, your influence your own, and, what is more than all, the most numerous class of people will be your own, instead of your being an unwelcome stranger surrounded by upstarts and beggars.
"The second indispensable rule in regard to farms is, to make no promise whatever direct or indirect by word of mouth, but by writing, either yourself or by your agents; trusting nothing to memory, but insisting on no man being suffered to take possession without executing the instrument, whatever it may be, under which he is to hold. There is nothing so disagreeable as to trust, at least in business, to another man's word and consequently to his memory, except it be to have any man trust to yours. It compromises you perpetually with low people, who must
- ↑ See the speech of Mr. Gilbert, March 27th, 1775, in moving for a Committee on the Poor Laws.—Parliamentary History, xviii. 541. Compare Lord Shelburne to Jeremy Bentham. Bentham's Works, x. 88.
