l rent, with the
right to distrain, and covenants of re-entry. But one class of these
leases gives the tenant a right at any time to demand a deed in
fee-simple, on the payment of a stipulated sum; while the other gives
him no such privilege. Thus one class of these leases is called 'a
durable lease with a clause of redemption;' while the other is a simple
'durable lease.'"

"And are there any new difficulties in relation to the manor rents?"

"Far worse than that; the contagion has spread, until the greatest ills
that have been predicted from democratic institutions, by their worst
enemies, seriously menace the country. I am afraid, Hugh, I shall not be
able to call New York, any longer, an exception to the evil example of a
neighbourhood, or the country itself a glorious country."

"This is so serious, sir, that, were it not that your looks denote the
contrary, I might be disposed to doubt your words."

"I fear my words are only too true. Dunning has written me a long
account of his own, made out with the precision of a lawyer; and, in
addition, he has sent me divers papers, some of which openly contend for
what is substantially a new division of property, and what in effect
would be agrarian laws."

"Surely, my dear uncle, you cannot seriously apprehend anything of that
nature from our order-loving, law-loving, property-loving Americans!"

"Your last description may contain the secret of the whole movement. The
love of property may be so strong as to induce them to do a great many
things they ought not to do. I certainly do not apprehend that any
direct attempt is about to be made, in New York, to divide its property;
nor do I fear any open, declared agrarian statute; for what I apprehend
is to come through indirect and gradual innovations on the right, that
will be made to assume the delusive aspect of justice and equal rights,
and thus undermine the principles of the people, before they are aware
of the danger themselves. In order that you may not only understand me,
but may understand facts that are of the last importance to your own
pocket, I will first tell you what has been done, and then tell you
what I fear is to follow. The first difficulty--or, rather, the first
difficulty of recent occurrence--arose at the death of the late Patroon.
I say of recent occurrence, since Dunning writes me that, during the
administration of John Jay, an attempt to resist the payment of rent was
made on the manor of the Liv