necessarily have the advantage, and in Ireland it is the foundation of perpetual law-suits, and if a tenant once gets possession, it is at his option afterwards when he will sign his lease or agreement, or whether he will sign at all, by which you lose all the benefit, and he, as the law stands, has all the advantage of the lease.
"The third indispensable rule is to fix no rent whatever, without taking the opinion of at least two different men of business, one upon the spot and one from a distance. As it does not become respectable families to be perpetually raising the rents of the same tenants, where no particular reason calls for it, it is the more incumbent upon them when a landlord or tenant dies or retires, to get the full value; as the advantage afterwards is all on the tenants' side. For this reason it is material to suffer no tenant to make over his interest, or to have any thing to say in regard to his successor. A stranger's opinion is necessary to be added, because it is next to impossible that a resident agent be not under some influence, where he has no interest of his own; which however he most commonly has, or else he has some relations or friends who have, or is governed by the cry of the neighbourhood. Honesty and dishonesty have so many shades, that there are very few men who do not find out some salves for their conscience, especially in their own trade; but by employing two people always, you are sure to do away with a great many shades. Besides, a man from a distance naturally suggests improvements, the result of experience and general practice. I am persuaded myself, that a mixture of men as well as of soils, answers all the purpose of a wholesome fermentation; and a stranger will introduce strangers if necessary.
"The influence of feudalism can still be traced in all the arrangements of English property. We are still living amidst the dregs of it, and the same observation applies to the Governments of most European countries.
"I have been told by persons who have resided in Canada and Russia that the most disagreeable time of the whole year is the interval between winter and summer, when the ice begins to break, the roads for a time become
