"When self the wavering balance shakes
'Tis rarely right adjusted."
The tenants, I think, are naturally averse to borrowing money which
brings interest in perpetuity over them, and enables the landlord to
say, "I made the improvements myself." Into these improvements enters
the tenant's labor, as well as the perpetual interest.
A good man, a minister, not Mr. Brown, reasoned with me that the
landlord was sleeping partner with the tenant, that he gave the land,
the tenant the labor, and both should share the profit of improvement.
If the land was rent free I could see that partnership just, but as long
as a man paid the rent value of the land as he got it, the improvement
made by his labor and means through the slow years should be his own. I
might think differently if I had an estate with daughters to portion,
sons to establish in life, a castle to build, a fine demesne to create,
or even a gambling wife or horse-racing sons tugging at my purse
strings.
Whatever good and sufficient reasons may be found for skinning eels
alive, nothing will ever reconcile the eels to it.
The companies of Derry, who are great landlords there, the Fishmonger's
company, the Mercers, &c.
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