The holders of land in large blocks are foolish to
sell just now, when a kind of double panic is abroad. Those who buy for investment think they will not get their rents, which is true, if they adhere to the old terms ; and those who buy for social distinction think that the day of landlords' ascendancy is nearly over. Prices, therefore, though they differ violently and even capriciously, between different localities, are, as a rule, unwarrantably low. We hear of land in Essex sold at 210 an acre-20 is a usual price—and we note that Lord Ayles- ford's beautiful property, Boxley Abbey, in Kent, with its fine house, was sold on Thursday for only twenty-six years' purchase. A few years ago it would have fetched thirty-five years. It is, nevertheless, not yet clear, as we have endeavoured to show elsewhere, that farming may not become profitable once more ; while it is clear that with 35,000,000 of industrious people living on two small islands, land must always bear a high value. We are by no means sure about the social question either. The consideration of wealth among us does not decrease, and land is of all forms of wealth the most visible. The land- lord will no longer be able to drive tenants to the poll; but the millionaire never was able, and God knows he retains considera- tion enough. He will be subjected to rates, too, like his rival before long.
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