t crops of wheat; and his
clay fields were made among the most productive in Scotland by his
system of combined sanding, draining and fertilizing.

One of his secrets was that he treated his laborers with justice and
consideration. His harvest-homes were famous in their day. When he found
that certain old-fashioned games caused some of his weak teetotalers to
fall from grace, he changed them for others; and, instead of beer and
toddy, provided abundance of tea, coffee, strawberries, and other
dainties. When the time came for dancing, he took the lead, and could
sometimes boast that he had not missed one dance the whole evening. In
addressing a public meeting of farmers and landlords in 1861, he spoke
on the subject of improving the cottages of farm laborers. These were
some of the sentences which fell from his lips:--

"Treat your laborers with respect, as men; encourage their self-respect.
Never enter a poor man's house any more than a rich man's unless
invited, and then go not to find fault, but as a friend. If you can
render him or his family a service, by advice or otherwise, let it be
more delicately done than to your most intimate associate. Remember how
hard it is for a poor man to respect himself. He hears the wealthy
styled the respectable, and the poor, the lower classes; but never call
a man low. His being a _man_ dwarfs, and renders as nothing, all the
distinctions of an earthly estate."

The reader sees what kind of person this George Hope was. He was as
nearly a perfect character as our very imperfect race can ordinarily
exhibit. He was a great farmer, a true captain of industry, an honest,
intelligent, just, and benevolent man. He was, moreover, a good citizen,
and this led him to take an interest in public matters, and to do his
utmost in aid of several reasonable reforms. He was what is called a
Liberal in politics. He did what he could to promote the reform bill of
Lord John Russell, and he was a conspicuous ally of Cobden and Bright
in their efforts to break down the old corn laws. He remembered that
there were about five thousand convictions in Great Britain every year
under the game laws, and he strove in all moderate and proper ways to
have those laws repealed.

And now we come to the point. A certain person named R. A. Dundas
Christopher Nisbet Hamilton married the heiress of the estate to which
the farm of George Hope belonged. He thus acquired the power, when a
tenant's lease expired, to ref