There are plenty of landlords who would be only too glad to get the rich Mr .-- -- to manure and deep-plough their lands; but there are comparatively few Mr .-- --'s whose rent-day payments can be implicitly relied on.

Mr .-- --, in point of fact, gets all the sweets of the country gentleman's life, and leaves the owner all the sour.

He has no heir presumptive to check his proceedings; no law of entail to restrain him; no old settlements to bind him hand and foot; none of those hundred and one family interests to consult which accumulate in the course of years around a landed estate, and so seriously curtail the freedom of the man in possession, the head of the family.

So far as liberty and financial considerations go, he is much better off than his landlord, who perhaps has a title.
Though he knows nothing of farming, he has the family instinct of accounts and figures; he audits the balance-sheets and books of his bailiff personally, and is not easily cheated.

Small peculations of course go on, but nothing serious.