will probably rather diminish, owing to
the increasing number and wealth of those who live upon a still more
important surplus [18] --the profits of stock.

The progressive fall, with few exceptions, in the value of the precious
metals throughout Europe; the still greater fall, which has occurred in
the richest countries, together with the increase of produce which
has been obtained from the soil, must all conduce to make the landlord
expect an increase of rents on the renewal of his leases. But, in
reletting his farms, he is liable to fall into two errors, which are
almost equally prejudicial to his own interests, and to those of his
country.

In the first place, he may be induced, by the immediate prospect of an
exorbitant rent, offered by farmers bidding against each other, to let
his land to a tenant without sufficient capital to cultivate it in
the best way, and make the necessary improvements upon it. This is
undoubtedly a most short-sighted policy, the bad effects of which have
been strongly noticed by the most intelligent land surveyors in the
evidence lately brought before Parliament; and have been particularly
remarkable in Ireland, where the imprudence of the landlords in this
respect, combined, perhaps, with some real difficulty of finding
substantial tenants, has aggravated the discontents of the country, and
thrown the most serious obstacles in the way of an improved system of
cultivation. The consequence of this error is the certain loss of all
that future source of rent to the landlord, and wealth to the country,
which arises from increase of produce.

The second error to which the landlord is liable, is that of mistaking
a mere temporary rise of prices, for a rise of sufficient duration to
warrant an increase of rents. It frequently happens, that a scarcity of
one or two years, or an unusual demand arising from any other cause,
may raise the price of raw produce to a height, at which it cannot be
maintained. And the farmers, who take land under the influence of such
prices, will, in the return of a more natural state of things, probably
break, and leave their farms in a ruined and exhausted state. These
short periods of high price are of great importance in generating
capital upon the land, if the farmers are allowed to have the advantage
of them; but, if they are grasped at prematurely by the landlord,
capital is destroyed, instead of being accumulated; and both the
landlord and the country incur a