The Hon. F. W. C. Villiers, Northamptonshire landlord, has just
expelled Mr. Job Smeeton, a tenant, from his farm. Mr. Smeeton and his father had paid rent for sixty years, and his only -offence was refusing to make a church-rate, or to pay his quota when it was made. He had, however, subscribed " cheerfully" towards the restoration of the parish church. Mr. Smeeton, who writes like a man of culture in a final remonstrance with his 'landlord, satirically congratulates him on that he " will have the satisfaction of being one of the last of English landlords who turned out of his farm a tenant because he refused to pay Church- Rates." Evidently Mr. Villiers is a disciple of Mr. Carlyle. He has been reading "Shooting Niagara ; and After," and struck with the philosopher's advice to " use his power of banishment," he has followed it, and will probably regret it for the rest of his life. Next year the representatives of Northamptonshire will probably remember Mr. Smeetou's penal expulsion.
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