Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/386

350 may be said that it is absolutely necessary to avoid the expense and trouble of building in regard to cottages and mills; but it will be shown hereafter, that cottages form the species of property of all others which should be kept in a landlord's power; and in regard to mills, there are many circumstances which will be found to repay very amply any extraordinary attention or expense which a landlord may be induced to bestow upon them in the common course. Where the question occurs about any extraordinary undertaking, the magnitude of the improvement will justify a distinct and separate consideration, to be confined to that one object only. Why is agriculture to be made the subject of gambling? It is of all others the profession which should be regulated by the most even justice.

"Lastly, as to the character of a good landlord. Indiscriminate indulgence, which generally gives the character of a good landlord, never fails to be attributed to its true motives, namely, either ignorance, timidity, or indolence. Since farming has become a trade, it ceases to become an object of liberality more than any other trade. It requires a capital equal to what most trades do. The question with a farmer is no longer simply what the ground produces, but what interest he can make of his capital in such ground and such a situation, all circumstances considered; besides what can be made by speculation upon the fluctuation of markets, in the manner of merchants and often of stockjobbers. A man is counted a sorry farmer who does not take all this into consideration.

"In regard to the landlord, farmers of course make the best bargain which they can. They are necessarily a shrewd, sagacious, advantage-taking description of men, who have but one thing to think of; whose common interest it is to keep down the value of land, and who have a perpetual communication with each other at markets. They have no education, and no character to preserve, except what is material to their dealings with