[30] The paternal care which our Government takes of agriculture leaves us to grope our way by mere guess-work in all statistical questions affecting it. For want of a better guide, we may refer to Mr M'Culloch's often-quoted estimates, according to which, it would appear, that there is one labourer to each 13½ acres of arable land in England, one to each 19 5⁄7 acres in Scotland—almost exactly the proportion assumed by Mr Laing.
[31] Observations, p. 39.
[32] Previous to Hardenberg's administration, the peasants enjoyed the dominium utile of their lands, (bauern hofe, as they were called,) but subject to the payment of a certain quit-rent or feu-duty to the superior lord; and the scope of the change was to make these quit-rents redeemable, by the cession of a certain fixed proportion of the land and to vest the absolute property of the remainder in the vassal. It is obvious, therefore, that there is not the slightest analogy between the case of the Prussian feuar (as we should call him in Scotland) and that of an ordinary tenant-at-will or lessee of land, and that the commutation we have described has no similarity whatever to the schemes of "tenant-right," of which we now hear so much.
[33] We are glad to observe, in the recently published Report of the Royal Commission presided over by Lord Langdale, some indication of progress towards supplying the want of a system of Registry in England,—a want which, as the Commissioners truly affirm, operates as a heavy burden on land property, and a material diminution of its value.
[34] Evidence of Lords' Committee on the Burdens affecting Land, p. 423.
[35] Observations, p. 154.
[36] Notes, p. 287.
[37] Observations, p. 153.
[38] The estimate for this country is clearly too small. Out of one hundred acres in England, seventy-eight are under cultivation, or in meadow. For the British Islands, the proportion is about sixty-four to one hundred. As to the extent of uncultivated but available land in Prussia, see the Evidence of Mr Banfield before the Committee of the House of Lords on Burdens affecting Land.
[39] Modern State Trials: Revised and Illustrated, with Essays and Notes. By William C. Townsend, Esq., M.A., Q.C., Recorder of Macclesfield. In 2 vols. 8vo. Longman & Co. 1850.