culture, science, and art. It would not be easy to find more striking philosophical poetry than the lines on "Will," the "Higher Pantheism," "Wages," "Flower in the Crannied Wall," the "Two Voices," and especially "In Memoriam." As to "Wages," it is surely true that Virtue, even if she seek no rest (and that is a hard saying), does seek the "wages of going on and still to be." An able writer in "To-day" objects to this doctrine. And of course an Agnostic may be, often is, a much more human person-larger, kinder, sounder than a believer. But the truth is, the very feeling that Love and Virtue are noblest and best involves the implicit intuition of their permanence, however the understanding may doubt or deny. Again, I find myself thoroughly at one with the profound teaching of the "Higher Pantheism." As for "In Memoriam," where is the elegiac poetry equal to it in our language? Gravely the solemn verse confronts problems which, mournful or ghastly, yet with some far-away light in their eyes, look us men of this generation in the face, visiting us with dread misgiving or pathetic hope. From the conference, from the agony, from the battle, Faith emerges, aged, maimed, and scarred, yet triumphing and serene. Like every greater poet, Tennyson wears the prophet's mantle, as he wears the singer's bay. Mourners will ever thank him for such words as, ""Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all"; and, "Let love clasp grief, lest both be drowned "; and, "Our wills are ours, we know not how; our wills are ours, to make them Thine"; as for the lines that distinguish Wisdom and Knowledge, commending Wisdom as mistress, and Knowledge but as handmaid. Every mourner has his favourite section or particular chapel of the temple-poem, where he prefers to kneel for worship of the Invisible. Yes, for into the furnace men may be cast bound and come forth free, having found for companion One whose form was like the Son of God. Our poet's conclusion may be foolish and superstitious, as some would now persuade us; but if he errs, it is in good company, for he errs with him who sang, In la sua voluntade e nostra pace," and with Him who prayed, "Father, not My will, but Thine."

The range, then, of this poet in all the achievements of his long life is vast-lyrical, dramatic,* narrative, allegoric, philosophical. Even strong and barbed satire is not wanting, as in "Sea-Dreams," the fierce verses to Bulwer, "The Spiteful Letter." Of the most varied

I have just read the Laureate's new plays. They are, like all his best things, brief: "dramatic fragments," one may even call them. "The Cup" was admirably interpreted, and scenically rendered under the auspices of Mr. Irving and Miss Ellen Terry; but it is itself a precious addition to the stores of English tragedy-all movement and action, intense, heroic, steadily rising to a most impressive climax, that makes a memorable picture on the stage. Camma, though painted only with a few telling strokes, is a splendid heroine of antique virtue, fortitude, and self-devotion. "The Falcon" is a truly graceful and charming acquisition to the repertory of lighter English drama.

measures he is master, as of the richest and most copious vocabulary. Only in the sonnet form, perhaps, does his genius not move with so royal a port, so assured a superiority over all rivals. I have seen sonnets even by other living English writers that appeared to me more striking; notably, fine sonnets by Mr. J. A. Symonds, Mr. Theodore Watts, Mrs. Pfeiffer, Miss Blind. But surely Tennyson must have written very little indifferent poetry when you think of the fuss made by his detractors over the rather poor verses beginning "I stood on a tower in the wet," and the somewhat insignificant series entitled "The Window." For "The Victim" appears to me exceedingly good. Talk of daintiness and prettiness! Yes; but it is the lambent, water-waved damascening on a Saladin's blade; it is the rich enchasement on a Cœur de Lion's armour. Amid the soul-subduing spaces, and tall forested piers of that cathedral by Rhine, there are long jewelled flames for window, and embalmed kings lie shrined in gold, with gems all over it like eyes. While Tennyson must loyally be recognized as the Arthur or Lancelot of modern English verse, even by those among us who believe that their own work in poetry cannot fairly be damned as "minor," while he need fear the enthronement of no younger rival near him, the poetic standard he has established is in all respects so high that poets who love their art must needs glory in such a leader and such an example, though pretenders may verily be shamed into silence, and Marsyas cease henceforward to contend with Apollo.

RODEN NOEL.

THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LANDED

GENTRY.

IN

Na debate last Session upon the affairs of Egypt, when a member of the Opposition had spoken inaccurately of the condition of the fellaheen as being more pitiful than in the days of Ismail, I observed concerning their indebtedness that it was small compared with that of the landed gentry of the United Kingdom. Perhaps there is no more important factor in the immediate future of domestic politics than the magnitude and the consequences of this debt. At the re-commencement of a Session, in which by a great measure of Reform supplementary to the Franchise Act, the long-continued supremacy of the landed gentry is to be disestablished, I propose to look into the amount, the security, and the probable results of this enormous obligation.

We may estimate the total sum at £400,000,000. I cannot find any evidence of probability that the debt is less than that vast amount. Authorities in England and Scotland have told me that six times the gross estimated rental may be taken as a fair average, although many estates are probably charged with three times that burden. Evidence is scattered throughout many Blue Books. The most trustworthy is that of the "family solicitors," and from among that class I take Mr. Bartle Frere, of Lincoln's Inn, as one of the widest practice. Before the Select Committee on Land Titles and Transfer, Mr. Frere, in reply to Mr. Gregory, another eminent solicitor, gave it as his opinion that estates in England are charged as heavily as estates in Ireland, and Mr. Gregory did not appear to differ from this statement. In Ireland the indebtedness of the landed gentry has been more closely investigated. English and Scotch landowners shrink from inquiry which Irish gentlemen have accepted in order to strengthen their complaints against the Land

Act of 1881. From Ireland there is a volume of evidence. I take only the most valuable, that of Mr. Hussey, who has dealt for many years with an agricultural rental amounting to a quarter of a million sterling. Mr. Hussey estimates the agricultural rental of Ireland at £14,000,000. It is important to notice that the highest assessment of Ireland, that of 1881, under Schedule B of the Income Tax, in respect of the occupation of land, is £9,980,694. In 1882, before the Lords' Committee, Mr. Hussey replied to Lord Cairns that the encumbrances and charges upon Irish land amounted to more than six times the gross rental—that is, to more than £84,000,000.

What was the agricultural rental of Great Britain at the time to which this estimate applies? No one will dispute the authority of Sir James Caird as to England and Scotland. He stands generally upon the figures of Schedule B, which, according to Mr. Hussey, and to evident probability, are considerably below the actual figures. In 1878 the assessment to Schedule B for the United Kingdom was £69,172,300, which was thus divided:-England and Wales, £51,566,035; Scotland, £7,669,584; Ireland, £9,936,681. In that year Sir James Caird estimated the annual rental of agricultural land, excluding all mineral rents and all holdings under 10 acres, at £67,000,000, and the capital value of that rental at £2,000,000,000. If we adopt this as a basis, and take the calculation of six times the rental as the average debt, the result is in excess of £400,000,000.

I think we may assume that the indebtedness of the landed gentry reaches that amount, and that the annual charge is about 4 per cent., or £18,000,000. We have now to deal with three facts of the case: (1) That rents are falling; (2) That the selling value of land has declined far below Sir James Caird's estimate; and (3) That this great debt is very unequally distributed. We must not take reductions of rent which have been granted to sitting tenants as the full measure of the landlords' loss. The average reduction in Essex since 1878 is said to have been about 13 per cent. But the loss has been far greater. A letter from an Essex tenant affords an illustration. After complaining that his landlord makes an insufficient reduction, he proceeds :-" But last year I took on lease another farm adjoining my own, which had been let at £300 a year; the terms are: no rent for the first year, £75 for the following three years, and for the rest of the term £150 a year." If the lease is for 14 years, that is a reduction of nearly 60 per cent., and if the farm was mortgaged for two-thirds of its former value, a sale would not satisfy the claim of the mortgagee. The President of the Land Surveyors' Institute stated in November that reductions had amounted in Huntingdonshire to 59.2 per cent. ; in Worcestershire to 51 per cent. ; and in Northamptonshire to 40 per cent. A tenant writing from the Midland Counties says that " new tenants are taken at 40 per cent. reduction."

Tenants who have obtained reduction of 15 per cent. are crying out against the inhumanity of landlords in forcing them to choose between giving notice to quit, which may involve a certain loss upon their stock-in-trade, and remaining at the rental from which they claim a reduction equal to that gained by new tenants. The Scottish farmers have commenced an agitation for power to break their leases by giving two years' notice, or to obtain a revaluation of their holdings at rates accepted from incoming tenants. According to trustworthy evidence, there are farms to let in most counties, and upon these the landlords' loss must be generally very great. Much land has been unprofitably converted into pasture; and some, but not much, has gone "out of cultivation," a term which means allowing the growth of nature to take place upon the unlevelled furrows of the plough. Mr. Page Wood, speaking lately at an Essex meeting, referred to a calculation that there are now 60,000 acres of land in that county" which are either uncultivated or return no rent to the landlord." He mentioned a good average farm-Kelvedon Hall-formerly let at £400 a year, but now held rent free; another in Thaxsted, which a tenant who held it on condition of paying the tithe only, had been forced to surrender, "as he could not make cultivation produce even the tithe;" a third, which he himself had taken at the nominal rent of 5s. per acre, but found unprofitable, and which is now let rent free; a fourth, at Rivenhall, which had been in good cultivation for many years, and "is now lying without a tenant."

The depreciation in the selling value of land is, in proportion, far greater than the average reduction of rental. But no possible depreciation would make the agricultural land as a whole bad security for a debt of £400,000,000. It is good and right that land should be charged with loans. But of this debt only a small portion has been expended in improvements. In a letter dated last month, Mr. Bailey Denton believes that no more than 4,000,000 acres have been effectively drained by private funds, involving an outlay of perhaps £30,000,000. Sir James Caird says that no more than £15,000,000 have been expended in improvements under official inspection. Altogether he does not believe that in twenty of the most prosperous years the whole cost of landlords' improvements has exceeded £60,000,000. Of the load of debt, a heavy part consists of charges for the benefit of members of the family, and another part may be consequent upon the extravagance of the present or some former life tenant. But in respect to all, the liability of the estate remains notwithstanding the depression, and while the present life tenant sees his narrow margin falling, the claims of relatives and mortgagees have to be met, if possible, with punctuality and without reduction.

In further consideration of this indebtedness, we must pass to those who are the holders of security. Generally speaking, they