Vickipedia

ROTATION OF CROPS. The plants like the animals of the farm differ much in their habits, and in the different sorts of food on which they subsist. The broad-leafed clovers, turnips, and mangold abstract from the air a large proportion of the materials of their growth; whilst the narrower-leafed grains and grasses, especially if their seeds are ripened, partake more largely of mineral food withdrawn from the soil. The cereals require for their healthy nutrition large supplies of phosphoric acid and silica; leguminous plants devour a large share of lime; turnips, carrots, and clover take up a great amount of potash. Corn-crops, occupying the ground during the greater part of the year, favor the growth of weeds; well-tended root-crops, on the other hand, afford better opportunity for deep culture, for the extirpation of weeds, for the convenient application of manures; whilst, being in great part consumed on the land, they raise its fertility. Mainly’ from such considerations, the farmer of arable land is led to grow a succession of dissimilar plants, or, in other words, to adopt a rotation of crops. The cereals exhausting the farm, en account of their ripened seeds being sold off. are generally alternated with fallow, root, or cleansing crops, or with beans and peas, which occupy a kind of intermediate position between the cereals and the roots; whilst clovers or grasses are taken at intervals of six or eight years. The rotation most suitable for a particular farm is, however, greatly modified by various circumstances, and especially by the nature of the soil, climate, markets, available supplies of extra manures, amount of live-stock kept, £c. That course of cropping is evidently the most desirable which will economically secure, with thorough cleanness of the soil, a high and increasing state of fertility.

Many rotations are based upon the Norfolk or four-course system, which consists of (1) Clover or mixed grass seeds; (3) Wheat, or in many parts of Scotland, oats; (3) Turnips, Swedes, mangold, potatoes, or bare fallow; (4) Barley. The details of this system are generally as follows. The clovers or grasses are mown or grazed; when cut, they are either used green or are dried for hay; the second crop is carted home for the cattle or horses; near towns, it is sold off; or it is consumed on the ground in racks by sheep, which on most highly cultivated farms receive besides a daily allowance of cake or corn. In districts where town-manure can be obtained, a top dressing is applied as soon as the first crop of grass is cut. On the poor and worse cultivated soils, the grass-crop occasionally remains down for two, or even three years, thus extending a four into a five or six years’ rotation. The clovers or mixed seeds are ploughed up in autumn, and followed generally in England by wheat, and in Scotland by oats. These crops are now usually drilled, to admit of horse and hand hoeing. After harvest, the stubble is, if possible, cleaned by the scarifier, grubber, or plough and harrows; or, where the management for several years has been good, any patches of couch-grass or other weeds are best forked out by hand. The land, especially if heavy, or intended for mangold drilled on the flat, as practised in the drier parts of England, may then be manured and deeply ploughed : the grubber and harrows, in April or May, suffice to prepare for the drilling of mangold or Swedes. Heavy land, intended either for roots or barley, should, in spring, be ploughed or disturbed as little as possible. In Scotland, and the cooler moist climates of the north and west of England, turnips and potatoes are grown on raised drills or balks, in which the manure lies immediately underneath the plant.

Frequent horse and hand hoeing should insure the thorough cleaning of the crop. Unless in the neighborhood of towns, where it is greatly more profitable to sell off the whole of the root-crop, part of the Swedes or mangold is taken home for the cattle, but the largest portion is consumed by sheep in the field. After the fallow or cleaning crop, another cereal crop is grown : under the Norfolk system, this is generally barley, with which the clovers or seeds are sown out. Where sewage or tank water is available, Italian rye-grass is often used, and on land in high condition, early large and repeated cuttings are obtained; but rye-grass has the disadvantage of being a worse preparation than clover for the wheat-crop which usually follows. The chief failing of the four-course system consists in the frequent recurrence of clover, which cannot be successfully grown oftener than once in six or eight years. To obviate this difficulty, one-half of the clover quarter is now often put under beans, peas, or vetches, thus keeping the grass or clover seeds eight years apart.

The Norfolk four-course system is unsuitable for heavy land, where a large breadth of roots cannot be profitably grown, and where their place, as a cleaning crop, is taken by bare fallow, vetches, or pulse. Bare fallows are, however, less frequent than formerly, being now confined to the most refactory of clays, or to subjects that are so hopelessly full of weeds as to require for their extirpation several weeks of summer weather, and the repeated use of the steam or horse ploughs, the scarifier, grubber, and harrows. In such circumstances, winter vetches are often put in during September or October, are eaten off by sheep and horses in June or July, and the land afterwards cleaned: this practice is extensively pursued on the heavier lands in the mid-land and southern counties of England.

In such localities, the following system is approved of—(1) The clover leas are seeded with (2) wheat; then come (3) beans, pulse, or vetches, manured, horse or hand hoed; (4) On good land, wheat succeeds; (5) Oats or barley often follow, but, to prevent undue exhaustion of plant-food, this system requires considerable outlay in artificial manures, cake, and corn; (6) A fallow, or fallow crop, deeply and thoroughly cultivated, and well manured, comes to restore cleanness and fertility; (7) Barley or wheat is drilled, and amongst this, the clover-seeds are sown. On the heavier carse-lands in Scotland, the following plan of cropping is generally practiced—(1) Clover; (2) Oats; (3) Beans; (4) Wheat; (o) Bare fallow or fallow crop, usually including a considerable breadth of potatoes; (6) Wheat; (7) Barley, with which the clovers or mixed grasses are sown. Under this system, it is difficult, with so few cleaning crops, to keep the land clean; roots, besides, are not produced in quantities sufficient properly to supply either cattle or sheep during the winter. To remedy these defects, roots may be introduced after the oats, and would be followed either by wheat or barley. This extends the rotation from seven to nine years.

In all well-cultivated districts, whether of heavy or light land, stock-farming is extending, and a more vigorous effort, is being made to raise the fertility of the land. Root-crops are accordingly more largely grown; indeed, it is sometimes found profitable to grow two root-crops consecutively; thus, after turnips, Swedes, cabbage, or mangold, well manured from the town or farmyard, and eaten off by sheep, potatoes of superior quality are produced with one ploughing, and a dose of portable manure. Specialities of management occur in almost every locality. In Essex, winter-beans follow wheat, are got off in August, and are succeeded by common turnips. Near London, and in other southern districts, early potatoes or peas are grown for market, and are immediately followed by turnips. In ninny parts of England, where the soil and climate are good, rye or vetches sown in autumn are consumed in early summer, and a root-crop then put in.

Good rotations do not necessarily insure good farming; they are merely means to an end. By carefully removing weeds, by deeply stirring the soil, and by applying appropriate manures, wheat may be grown on the same soil for an indefinite number of years. At Lois-Weedon, in Northamptonshire, the Rev. S. Smith has for twenty years cultivated alternate three-foot strips of wheat and well-forked bare fallow; the land that is wheat this year being fallowed next. Although no manure whatever is applied, and only one-half of the experimental plot is each year under crop, the yield continues to stand at four quarters per acre, which is about four bushels per acre in excess of the average acreable produce of Great Britain.

The Lois-Weedon system, owing to the outlay which it entails for manual labor, probably could not be carried out with profit on a large scale. It demonstrates, however, the inherent resources lying dormant, especially in clay-soils, and indicates how they may be rendered available by thorough cultivation. It is mainly by such cultivation that steam-power proves so serviceable in our fields. The soil is turned up deeply to the disintegrating solvent influences of wind and weather; the necessary operations are rapidly overtaken in good season; much work is accomplished in autumn; treading and poaching of the surface is avoided; whilst a larger breadth of roots is attainable for the healthy and economical support of the sheep and cattle-stock, which not only directly enhance the returns of the farm, but also raise rapidly its manurial condition.

As agricultural education and enterprise extend, fixed rotations will be less regarded. The market-gardener, who extracts a great deal more from his land than the farmer has hitherto been able to do, does not adhere to any definite system of cropping. If the farm is kept clean and in improving condition, there can be no harm in growing whatever crops it is adapted to produce. Cropping clauses are only requisite during the three or four last years of a tenancy. The restrictions found in some agreements, preventing the growth of clover for seed, flax, and even potatoes, are inadmissible. Equally objectionable are clauses against the sale of particular sorts of produce, such as hay or roots.

The farmer, if he is fit to be intrusted with the use of the land, ought to be permitted to grow or sell off any crop he pleases, provided an equivalent in manure be brought back. On well-cultivated land, in good condition, it is now the practice of the best farmers to take oats or barley after wheat; indeed, some of the best malting barley in Essex, on the Scottish carse-lands, and elsewhere, is now grown after wheat. The frequent growth of cereals, and the heaviest of hay and root crops, even when removed from the farm, may be fairly compensated for by large doses of town-dung or of sewage. The plant-food disposed of in the more ordinary sales of the farm is economically restored by the use of bones or superphosphate, guano or nitrate of soda, or by keeping-plenty of sheep, penning them over the land, and supplying them liberally with cake and corn.

SOCIALISM, the name given to a class of opinions opposed to the present organization of society, and which seeks to introduce a new distribution of property and labor, in which organized cooperation rather than competition should be the dominating principle, under the conviction that the happiness of the race, and especially of the classes without capital, would be benefited thereby. Historically considered, Socialism, like many of the significant phenomena of our age, is a product of the French Revolution. That terrible outburst of popular discontent is most properly regarded as an anarchic attack on the social system that had its roots in the feudalism of the middle ages. The furious hatred of the court and the aristocracy, the passionate love of the ‘ people,’ of ‘ humanity,’ of ‘ liberty,’ though called forth by special circumstances, and never formally worked out into a theory of social life, virtually contained in themselves the germs of all later proposed organizations. In the middle ages, the right of freely and fully enjoying life, property, and political independence was limited to a favored few; while the great masses were condemned to dumb servitude, and a perpetual minority. Even the industrial population did not recognize the Socialistic idea. The members of the different guilds or fraternities claimed exclusive right to exercise certain branches of industry, and probably the great majority of the inhabitants of a town remained in a disregarded and dependent state. Amid such social conditions, resting, as they did, on a belief in the necessity of different distinct ranks, the free action of individual life, and even the vital progress of the whole community, became well-nigh impossible.

We have not space here to trace the course of the various minor reforms that weakened the authority of the medieval theory of life; but we must not omit to notice the speculations of the political philosophers of the 18th c. in France, England, and Germany, as operating powerfully in favor of a new social system, in which the idea of humanity (assuming, at the French Revolution, as we have observed, the concrete form of the ‘ people ‘) stands out prominently. Nevertheless, the first shape that the modern spirit of industry took, was not Socialistic, in the strict and proper sense of the term: it was rather individualistic, and found, as it still finds—for it is yet the prevailing theory—its natural expression in such proverbs as, ‘ A fair field, and no favor;’ ‘ Everyone for himself, and God for us all.’ But still, even this lawless individualism is to be regarded as a protest against the false class-legislation of preceding times, and as an assertion of the absolute right of each member of society to a share in the general welfare. That it has not universally commended itself to civilized mankind, as a perfect system, is demonstrated by the appearance and temporary popularity of such schemes of society as those of Owen (q. v.), Fourier (q. v.), St. Simon (q. v.), and the enthusiasm excited at intervals in different parts of Europe by the promulgation of extreme communistic opinions. See communism. It is objected to Socialism, under its various forms, that it makes human happiness too much dependent on material gratifications; that it robs man of that energy that springs from ambition; that it unphilosophically ignores an individualism and inequality to which Nature herself has given her inviolable sanction; and that, by the abolition of social rewards and punishments, it neither holds out any hope to the industrious, nor excites any apprehension among the indolent. On the other hand, we must admit that the vigorous assertion of Socialistic principles has led men to a more liberal and generous view of humanity as a whole. Moreover, it has forcibly called public attention to numerous evils that have sprung up along with the modern development of industry, for which no remedy—not even a name—had been provided; to the vital interdependence of all classes; and to the inadequacy of the individual or ‘ selfish ‘ system, as it has been called, to redress the wrongs or cure the evils that inevitably spring from its own unchecked operation. The recent spread of Socialistic opinions in Germany, taken in connection with the two attempts made on the life of the emperor, has led, in 1878, to special and stringent legislation designed to check the growth of Socialism. In 1878 it was computed that there were in Germany 75 Socialistic publications, with 135,000 regular subscribers.

SOCAGE, or SOCCAGE (originally hlaford-socn, seeking a lord; whence we have also soc, a right, of holding a court), a tenure of lands in England, of which the characteristic feature is, that the service is fixed and determinate in quality, thereby differing both from knight-service and from villeinage. It was originally peculiar to the Anglo-Danish districts of England. At the time when the allodial tenure was converted into immediate dependence on the crown, this tenure seems to have arisen out of the necessity for commendation or seeking a lord. In Domesday, socmen are often mentioned as bound ‘ to seek a lord,’ or free to go with their land where they pleased. The socmen of Stamford are said to be free to seek a lord, being only liable to the king for the toll attached to them as inhabitants of a borough. The obligation of socage in its origin has been compared to the mutual bonds of allegiance of later times so common in the Highlands of Scotland, and known as Bonds of Manrent (see manrent). Three kinds of socage have been enumerated as existing at a later period—viz., free and common socage, socage in ancient tenure, and socage in base tenure. The second and third kind are equivalent to tenure in ancient demesne and copyhold tenure (see DEMESNE, ANCIENT, and copyhold), and the first is what has generally and more properly been denominated socage, where the services were both certain and honorable. Besides fealty, which the socager was bound to do when required, he was obliged to give attendance at the court baron of his lord, if he held one, either for a manor or for a seigniory in gross.

By an act passed during the Commonwealth, and confirmed after the Restoration by 12 Car. II. c. 24, tenure by knight-service was abolished, and all lands except church-lands held in free-alms, were directed to be held in free and common socage, which is now (with that exception) the universal tenure of real property in England and Ireland.

Socage tenures are unknown in Scotland, where, unless at a very early period, they never existed.

REAPING, the act of cutting corn, has been performed from . time immemorial with an instrument called a reaping-hook or sickle. The sickles in use among the ancient Jews, Egyptians, and Chinese appear to have differed very little in form from those employed in Great Britain. The reaping-hook is a curved instrument of about a foot and a half in length, tapering from a breadth of about two inches at the but-end, where it is fixed into a wooden handle. The edge is sometimes serrated, but, as a rule, it has long been made plain and sharp like a knife. In reaping, the harvester takes the corn in his left hand, and then with the hook cuts the stalks as close to the ground as possible; but when a grass crop has been sown down with the grain, the stubble is often left rather longer, in order to preserve the young grass The corn is placed handful by handful in a band usually made of the corn, and when as much has been cut as will form a sheaf, it is tied up by the ‘ bandster.’ The most expert reapers slash down the corn with the hook in the right hand, using the left merely to keep the corn from falling, until sufficient to make a sheaf has been cut, when the reaper places his hook under the corn, and supporting it with his left arm, deposits it all at once in the band. A bandster (one to every three or four reapers) binds the grain, and sets it up in stocks of generally 12 sheaves. It was surprising to see women of sixty years and upwards, handling the ‘ hook ‘ with great dexterity, accomplishing their 20 and sometimes 24 stocks of 12 sheaves each per day. After such a day’s work, these women appeared much fatigued, but a night’s rest seemed to set them on foot, vigorous as ever. They divested themselves of much of their clothing, and really worked hard for their money.

In the principal corn-growing districts of Scotland, a great proportion of the reaping by hand was at one time done by laborers from Ireland, who undertook the work at from 8s. to 15s. per acre, with board and lodging in addition. Their fare was of the simplest kind—consisting in the majority of cases, of porridge morning and evening, and bread and beer for dinner; their lodging at night was the barn or some outhouse, the farmer providing coarse blankets for covering. The quantity of porridge consumed at each meal by those people was sometimes astonishing—no less, as has been proved by actual weighing, than 5 lbs., with 1 ½ lbs. of milk besides. In England, most of the corn was cut by piecework, at prices varying from 10s. to 18s. per acre. On the stronger lands of the midland and southern counties, the stubble is some-times left knee-high, and afterwards at leisure cut by the scythe, or with a long hook, at a cost of 2s. per acre. In Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, and on many of the lighter soils in other counties, the operation of fagging or hacking, to be afterwards noticed, was preferred as being more expeditious than reaping. A good hand cut down from one-third to one-half of an acre of wheat, and often consumed, during his long day’s labor, two gallons of good ale.

The scythe in some counties, more than thirty years ago, was preferred to the sickle. The most common varieties were: the Hainault scythe—an importation from Belgium—the cradle scythe, and the common scythe fitted with a cradle. The Hainault scythe consists of a blade about 2 feet 3 inches long, having a handle 14 inches long. This the mower holds in his right hand, while in his left he carries a hook, with a handle of about equal length. ‘The reaping,’ says the late Mr. Henry Stephens, in his Book of the Farm, ‘is done by pressing the back of the hook with the left hand against the standing corn, in the direction of the wind, and by cutting with the scythe close to the ground against the standing corn with a free swing of the right arm,’ the hook keeping the cut corn from falling until a sufficient quantity to form a sheaf has been cut. This operation was practised in many parts of England, and especially on the lighter soils, under the name of fagging or hacking, the reaper sometimes using in his left band. instead of the hook, a stout crooked stick from 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. Beans and oats were the crops most generally fagged.

The cradle scythe is composed of a blade about 3 1/2 feet long, attached to a principal helve or sned about 4 feet long, into which another helve of about 2 1/2 feet in length is tenoned, thus making two handles. The cradle or bow is a piece of wood joined to the heel of the blade, into which are inserted three or four wooden teeth, in a line with the blade, the object of which is to secure the grain being laid evenly in one direction. As skill at the working of the scythe, however, increased, the cradle or bow was discarded in many cases. By the scythe, corn can be cut at a rather less cost per acre than with the hook; but the work is not so neatly done. As nice a stubble will be left by a good hand with the scythe, and often nicer than by the hook, but the sheaves are not, as a rule, so tidy after the scythe, though they will stack rather earlier. Of a fair working crop, an adept at the scythe would cut 2 or 2 1/4 acres per diem. The average area cut per day with the scythe does not exceed 1 1/2 acres. In fact, if the crop is heavy, that extent is a very hard day’s work. Those who contract for cutting the crops by the scythe, obtain the services of the best men, and thus generally get about 2 acres per day reaped, and reaped very well too. In the midland and southern counties, of England, the scythe, long in general use, was of larger size, and had only one long shaft, on which were fixed two handles. In Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and some of the eastern counties, the whole of the cutting, until the introduction of reaping-machines, was done by these scythes. The harvest operations then, from the cutting of the crop to the thatching of the ricks, cost from 18s. to 25s. per acre.

The process of reaping with either the sickle or the scythe is, however, both tedious and expensive; and hence, during the last three-quarters of a century, many attempts have been made to accomplish the work by machinery—attempts which, in the course of the last twenty years, have been crowned with complete success ‘ Reaping by machinery, however, is no modern invention. Pliny the elder, who was born in the 1st c. of the Christian era, found a reaping-machine in Gaul. He says : ‘ In the extensive fields in the lowlands of Gaul, vans of large size, with projecting teeth on the edge, are driven on two wheels through the standing corn by an ox yoked in a reverse position. In this manner the ears are torn off, and fall into the van.’ Palladius, about four centuries later, found a similar appliance for reaping corn in Gaul. He gives a more detailed but similar description of the machine. The annexed cut, copied from Mr. Woodcroft’s Appendix to the Specifications of English Patents for Reaping-machines, represents what is conceived, from the descriptions, to have been the form of this ancient reaper.

In modern times, the idea of a mechanical reaper appears to have originated with a Mr. Capel Lloft, who, in 1785, suggested a machine something after the pattern of the ancient one above described. Between that time and the Great Exhibition of 1851, in London, from which the general use of mechanical reapers may be said to date, the patents taken out for reaping-machines were very numerous. Among the most promising of these may be mentioned those of Mr. Gladstone of Castle-Douglas; Mr. Smith of Deanston; Mr. Kerr, Edinburgh; Mr. Scott of Ormiston; Mr. Dobbs, an actor in Birmingham; Mr. Mann of Raby, near Wigton; and the late Rev. Patrick Bell of Carmylie, Scotland. In 1826, Mr. Bell constructed an efficient and simple machine, which long continued in use, and several features of which are observable in the reapers of the present day. The inventor of this, the first machine of the kind in Scotland, received a public testimonial from agriculturists, in consideration of the services he thus rendered to agriculture. In America Mr. Hussey and Mr. M’Cormick took out patents for reaping-machines of superior character in 1833 and 1834 respectively.

The movements of the cutters of these machines were various. A few were advancing only, some sidelong and advancing, others reciprocating and advancing, a large number continuous and advancing, and others continuous and alternate. The reciprocating and advancing motion is that now employed on the machines in use. The principal difference in the machines now so largely used for cutting corn is in the form and character of the cutters, and in the mode of delivering the grain after it is cut.

The cutting-knives are of two kinds—one, obtuse-angled and serrated; the other, acute-angled and for the most part plain. Both are attached to a bar, and are made to-work through another bar of iron fitted with hollow fingers, called guard-fingers, which, projecting forwards, catch the standing corn, and retain it firmly until it is cut. The serrated knife saws through it; the plain knife clips it, as it were; the finger-guard forming the fixed blade of the scissors.

The delivery of the sheaves is effected either by manual or mechanical labor; but the vast proportion of the machines in use are what are termed manual delivery-reapers. The delivery of the sheaves by manual labor is now almost at the back of the machine, the side delivery being generally abandoned, unless in the self-deliveries. In delivering the grain, a man, with a short-handled rake in his hand, sits upon the machine almost opposite the cutting apparatus. With this he inclines the grain towards the knife; and when sufficient to make a sheave has been cut, he rakes it off the platform upon the machine, on to which it has fallen, and deposits it on the ground. The cut subjoined will illustrate the method of raking off. In making a neat and squarely-formed sheaf, the raker is greatly assisted by a hinge in the platform, which enables him, by pressure of the foot, to tip the board over, so as to let the corn slide gently down.

With the back-delivery, the sheaves must be tied up and removed out of the way of the machine before it comes round again. Such a reaper, therefore, always requires a full supply of hands to attend upon it. But it is the best for all that. It does require a skilful, careful man to ‘ tilt,’ but the fact that the course has to be kept clear for the horses every round, spurs the laborers, who thus do more work than they would otherwise accomplish. Besides, it is a very doubtful advantage to be enabled to slash down the crops irrespective of the gathering capacities. Moreover, with the self-deliveries, it is the distance gone over, and not the quantity of crops collected, that regulates the size of the sheaf. With uneven crops, this is an inconvenience. Sheaves of different sizes are very troublesome in the stock. They will not stand well, and in stacking it is difficult to keep uniformity in building. Large and small sized sheaves are not equally dried, and are not ready for stacking at the same time. Eight people ‘ lifting’ after the manual-reaper will do as much work as nine following the self-delivery, so that the saving of a man’s labor claimed by the self-delivery is doubtful. The sheaves are rather better formed by the manual machine than by the self-delivery. Each kind, has, however, and will likely continue to have its advocates, though the preponderance is in favor of the manual.

The mechanical or self-delivery machines, as they are generally called, are of two kinds—one lays the cut corn in swaths, the other deposits it in sheaves. The latter is decidedly the best and most fashionable of the two.

The automaton sheaf-deliverers best known to the public are those of Samuelson of Banbury; Hornsby and Son; Burgess and Key; Brigham and Bickerton, Berwick; Howard and Co., Bedford. We give a description of Samuelson’s sheaf-deliverer (largely used in Great Britain), which will be made plain by the accompanying cut. The self-delivering machinery consists of a series of four rakes—two toothed, and two plain—attached to an upright shaft, in such manner as to admit of a free ascending, descending, and horizontal motion. The two toothless rakes, or ‘ dummies,’ are shorter in the arms by six inches than the other two, and are merely employed to incline the grain towards the cutter. The platform upon which the grain fails after it is cut is of quadrant shape, and is surrounded, on the outer edge, by a rim of about a foot deep. The side of the earn next the platform is bent or depressed, so that the rakes on reaching this point, make a sudden fall, or eccentric motion, thus assuming the horizontal attitude necessary to sweep over the platform on the level. The rakes are adjusted so as to lay the sheaves about 12 feet apart, to the side, and out of the way of the horses. This machine has a, double-throw knife—an arrangement which reduces the driving speed, and consequently the wear and tear of the machinery.

In M’Cormick’s automatic delivery-machine, a rake is so used that ‘during one part of the revolution of the gathering-reel, it acts as one of the vanes of the reel in bending the standing corn to the cutting-blades. When the rake reaches the cutting-blades in front of the platform, it ceases to revolve around the reel-shaft (which continues its rotary motion), and is made to move horizontally upon a vertical hinge, to which one end is attached (the points of the teeth being near the surface of the platform), sweeping the cut corn off at the side, and depositing it on the ground in sheaves ready for the binder.’ The Messrs. Brigham and Bickerton’s improved machine has a deep upright board of sheet-iron to keep the corn on the platform. Iron rods on these sheets separate the corn. This firm has thrown off two branches lately. The first offshoot was Messrs. Lillie and Elder, and the last was Bickerton and Co. The three firms make good serviceable reapers. Howard and Hornsby’s reapers are substantially and simply constructed, embracing slight improvements every other year, formed on experience. Prices range from £20 to £35.

The makers of manual delivery-machines are numerous, including in a prominent degree Kemp, Murray, and Nicholson, Stirling; Jack and Sons, Maybole; Harrison, Macgregor, & Co.; Picksley, Sims & Co.; Ransome, Sims and Head, Ipswich; Sam-nelson & Co., Banbury; J. and F. Howard, Bedford; and many others of fame. The manual delivery-machines of the first named firm are very popular, strong and ingeniously manufactured, while those of the Maybole firm are not quite so strong, but work with great ease and tastefulness. Carefully handled, the manual delivery-reaper will take up laid and twisted crops admirably. Indeed, all the reapers nowadays, perfected as they are year by year, now do their work remarkably well, leaving a beautiful stubble and a nice sheaf. The sheaves from the reaper, however, are not so easily dried for the stackyard as those from the scythe, but they defend rain better, and are altogether preferable. The number of reapers now in use in Great Britain is enormous, and is growing rapidly every year. They are a most decided improvement. Indeed, they are one of the most valuable introductions that have been made in rural agriculture in this country. At almost every farm of ordinary or even comparatively small dimensions, there is a reaper, and three or four engaged on the larger holdings. The cost of the manual delivery ranges from £18 to £30.

The cost of reaping by machinery is much less than either by scythe or sickle. Mr. Wilson of Woodhorn, Morpeth, found that the cutting of wheat with the sickle (binding and stocking included) cost him from 11s. to 15s. per acre, and with the scythe 8s., whilst with the machine it only cost him 5s. 9d., exclusive of wear and tear. From data supplied by a large number of their customers, Messrs. Samuelson & Co. make out that the saving by mechanical over hand labor is, as compared with reaping, 4s. per 1 acre, and with mowing, Is. 9d. per acre; and most farmers who have tried reaping-machines set down the saving at from 20 to 30 per cent. Besides, there is about a like economy in time, which is of immense importance in a variable climate like that of Great Britain.—See Woodcroft’s Appendix to Patents for Reaping-machines; Mr. Jacob Wilson’s ‘ Essay on Reaping-machines,’ in Transactions of Highland Society for January 1864; Book of Farm Implements, and Book of the Farm, by Henry Stephens; J. C. Morton’s Cyclopaedia of Agriculture.

PATENT LAWS. Since the introduction of the amended Patent Law in 1852 (see PATENTS), many manufacturers have boldly advocated the abolition of the patent system altogether; on the plea, that the good results, whatever they may be, are overbalanced by the bad. The great majority of advisers, however, call for further reform, not abolition. The Economic Section of the British Association has discussed this matter during a long series of years. The Society of Arts, also, have had many discussions on the subject; and the arguments pro and eon. will be found at length in the Transactions of these bodies. The various Chambers of Commerce throughout the kingdom have likewise debated the subject at length. The actual operation of the system may be briefly illustrated. Mr. Bennett Woodcroft, in 1864, examined 100 patents out of those which had been applied for in 1855. Of the 100, he found 96 frivolous in character, of little or no value as to the merit of the inventions; 4 of moderate value; and not one of striking promise. Out of the 100 applications, 70 patents were granted, of which one became void at the end of six months, 51 more at the end of three years, and 15 more at the end of seven years—because the patentees declined to pay the successive instalments of fees. There were therefore, in 1863, only 3 patents left out of the 100 which had been applied for in 1855. Mr. Woodcroft finds that about the same ratio is exhibited in the whole of the 3000 or so applied for every year. In 100 of the average applications in 1858, he pronounced that there was not one invention of much value, 3 of some, and 97 of little or no value. In 1862, he found 1 of much, 1 of some, and 98 of little or no value. As to statistics of actual numbers, see patent office, library and museum.

In 1862, a royal commission was appointed to consider the whole subject of the patent laws, and to suggest alterations which might be useful. The commission collected evidence in that and the two following years, and made its Report in 1864. Other commissions and committees have made later inquiries, and offered suggestions founded on the evidence collected; but the opinions expressed, on almost every point, are most conflicting. The divided opinion of practical men has hitherto discouraged any attempt to legislate on their recommendations; and the act of 1852 remains still in force.

PATENT is an exclusive right granted by the crown (in letters patent or open, whence the name) to an individual to manufacture and sell a chattel or article of commerce of his own invention. The policy of the present law of patents has latterly been much canvassed, and it has been suggested that, instead of the present monopoly, with the drawback of litigation to which it uniformly gives rise, the use of all inventions should be dedicated to the public at once, and the inventor rewarded by a pension from the state, according to the merits and utility of the invention. The present law allows the inventor to have a monopoly of his invention for fourteen years, with a further privilege at the end of that time, provided he has not been sufficiently remunerated, to have the patent renewed for a further term of fourteen years. That some mode of rewarding the individual whose perseverance and ingenuity have enabled him to discover a new invention should be established, is universally admitted, but whether it should be at the expense of that part of the public who are purchasers, and therefore benefited by his discovery, or by the public at large in the shape of a pension, is a matter still undecided. The evils of the present law are that there is a great deal of uncertainty in the mode of ascertaining what is a new invention. Hence, when a patent has been granted, if it is of such a nature as to lead to competition, infringements are almost matters of course, and the only mode of discovering and checking the infringement is so tedious, costly, and ineffective, that inventors generally pass their lives in constant litigation, fighting in detail a succession of imitators who often have nothing to lose by defeat, and therefore entail all the greater burden on the legitimate manufacturer.

It has been said that not more than three patents per cent. are remunerative. A royal commission has latterly been engaged in inquiries as to the best mode of remunerating inventors, and improving the law in reference to infringements; but it is doubtful how far the subject is capable of being put on a better footing, so many difficulties being inherent in it. The crown seems always to have enjoyed the prerogative right to grant monopolies, and this had been so greatly perverted in the time of Elizabeth, that the popular clamor led to a statute in the following reign, having for its object to prevent the crown in future making any grants of that kind which should be prejudicial to the interests of trade. By that act an exception was expressly made in favor of new inventions. At first the judges construed grants of monopoly to inventors very strictly; but afterwards it was seen that they were for the benefit of trade, and were dealt with more liberally. An important modification of the law was introduced by a statute of Queen Anne, which required every inventor to describe in detail the nature of the invention in an instrument called a specification. Another statute of 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 83, further altered the law by allowing parties who had a difficulty in separating what was new from what was old in their invention to enter an express disclaimer of that part which was not new. But the most important alteration was made in 1852, by the statute of 15 and 16 Vict. c. 83, which reduced the fees, and otherwise improved the practice attending the obtaining of patents for the United Kingdom. Before stating shortly the substance of this act, it may be observed that there lias always been a difficulty in defining what is an invention that is patentable—a difficulty which no act of parliament can get rid of, for it is inherent in the subject-matter. It lias been held that a patent must be not merely a discovery of a new substance or article of food, but it must be a combination of processes producing some new result, or an old result by different means. It is of the essence of the patent that it be entirely new, that is, that it should not have been described in a published book, or well known in the business of the world, nor publicly used before. The specification must give a full disclosure of the secret, and describe it so that an intelligent person could from the description make the article itself.

There is a patent office in London, in Edinburgh, and in Dublin, but the Scotch and Irish offices have long been used only as places for inspecting copies of patents, specifications. and documents. From 1852 till the new Act of 1883 came into force, the commissioners of patents were the Lord Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, Attorney and Solicitor General of England and Ireland, and the Lord Advocate and Solicitor-General of Scotland. The inventor first presented a petition for a grant of letters-patent, accompanied by a statement in writing of the specification, a copy of which was left at the patent-office. The application was referred, as a matter of course, to one of the law officers of the crown, who might call to his aid a scientific person to be paid by the applicant. A provisional patent might be applied for in the first instance, and the complete patent deferred for six months— the patent dating from the first application. After a patent was granted, and had been in existence for three years, a fee of £50 fell to be paid; and, at the end of the seven years, a fee of £100. The letters-patent extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. The practice with reference to patents, especially as to the drawing of the specification, was too minute to justify an inventor to attempt to take out a patent without professional aid; and a class of persons called patent agents (a business for which no qualifications were required by any constituted authority) devoted themselves to this branch of business—their charges (often exorbitant) being generally ascertained by estimate beforehand. The fees payable to the law officers were as follows : On leaving petition for grant of letters-patent, £5; on notice of intention to proceed with application, £5; on warrant of law officer for letters-patent, £5; on sealing of letters-patent, £5; on filing specifications, £5; at or before expiration of third year, £50; at or before expiration of seventh year, £100. Besides these fees, if opposition was entered to the grant, additional fees were incurred, both by the party applying and the party opposing.

At the date of the passing of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act of 1883, there were nine acts on patents more or less fully in force; and six others on copyright of designs. Now the management of this branch of the public service is put under the Science and Art Department, and the new responsible official, called the Comptroller of "Patents, is an officer of the Board of Trade—from whose decisions, however, there is in certain cases an appeal to a court comprising some of the chief law officers of the crown. There is a paid examiner of patents, to whom applications are first submitted. Heretofore, seven different applications were necessary; now one suffices, and that may be sent through the post. The formulas are simplified, with the hope of enabling the patentee to dispense with the services of patent agents. In contrast with the scale of fees given above, the charges under the new law are : £1 paid down at once, when the provisional specification is lodged at the Patent Office; £3 more after nine months, when the final specification is passed by the Comptroller, and sealed; £50 after the fourth year ; and £100 after the ninth. The latter two payments may be made in annual instalments. (The Board of Trade has power hereafter to reduce the fees, on obtaining the consent of the Treasury.) A register of patents is to he kept, and an Illustrated Journal of Patents officially published. Patents, as formerly, hold for 14 years, and extend to the whole of the United Kingdom.

A patent obtained in this country does not extend to the colonies, but several of the colonies have machinery for granting patents for a like period. In the United States, patents are granted for a term of 17 years. In France, the term is 5, 10. or 15 years, at the option of the applicant; in Prussia, for 15 years; in Russia, for 3, 5, or 10 years; in Spain, for 5, 10, or 15 years; in Belgium, for 20 years; in Holland, for 5, 10, or 15 years; in Austria, not more than 15 years; in Sardinia, 15 years. In all cases, fees are exigible from the patentee. See patent laws and patent office.

POOR, GENERAL laws as to. The fundamental rule as to the relief of the poor was, that each parish in England and Wales is bound to maintain its own poor. For the purpose of providing the requisite machinery, overseers are required to be appointed in each parish every year on the 25th March, or within a fortnight following; and these, along with the churchwardens, who are ex officio overseers, have the duty of providing the requisite funds. See overseers. This is done by means of a poor-rate, which the churchwardens and overseers may levy on all the occupiers of land in the parish, after such rate has been confirmed by the justices. The rate specifies a certain sum in the pound which is to be levied, and the annual value of the various lands is then specified, and the amount is thus easily computed. The rate is thus a local tax on the occupier of the land, and not on the owner, unless he himself is also occupier. In all cases, the duty of raising the funds attaches to the overseers; but the actual distribution and application of them are not always in their immediate control. Owing to the mischiefs arising from the officials of each parish distributing the funds at their discretion, without uniformity of plan, a central controlling power was created in 1834, in the shape of the Poor-law Board; and authority was given to combine various parishes into one poor-law union, for the purpose of greater uniformity as well as economy. When a union is formed, the control of the expenditure is chiefly vested in the guardians of this union, who are elected by each parish, and who supervise the management of the union workhouse. They order the overseers of each parish to raise their due proportion of funds, by a contribution order issued to such overseers, who are thereon bound to levy the amount by including it in the next poor-rate. The guardians are bound to contract for the provisions, clothing, fuel, &c., supplied to the workhouse, by means of sealed tenders, unless the quantity is less than a stated amount. All the controlling powers formerly vested in the Poor-law Board are now transferred to the Local Government Board.

The principle on which relief is administered to the poor is, that the condition of the pauper should not be so comfortable as that of the lowest independent laborer; otherwise, idleness and imposture would be encouraged to an indefinite extent. The guardians profess only to relieve destitution already existing, and not to enable persons to keep off impending destitution. Hence they only supply the bare necessaries of life. They cannot, for example, advance or lend money to set up a poor person in trade. Minute regulations are contained in the consolidated poor-law orders of the Board as to the classification of paupers in the workhouse, mode of admission, diet, discipline, and out-door relief. With regard to out-door relief and able-bodied paupers, it is provided, that every able-bodied person requiring relief from any parish, shall be relieved wholly in the workhouse, together with his wife and family, if any, and if not otherwise employed. But the relief may be given out of doors in cases of sudden and urgent necessity, of sickness, accident and a few other cases. In general, relief is confined to persons actually residing in some place within the union, except in case of casual destitution, or sickness and accident. Whenever out-door relief is given to an able-bodied person, half of it is to be in the form of articles of food or fuel. Relief is given only weekly, where the pauper is not required to be received into the workhouse. No relief is to be given to able-bodied persons while they are employed for wages or hire by any person; and every able-bodied male person, if relieved out of the workhouse, shall be set to work by the guardians, and kept so employed while he continues to receive such relief. The law with regard to the relief of the poor is so far qualified, that wherever a person applies for parochial relief, if he or she has a father or grandfather, mother or grandmother, or child, who is able to maintain such pauper, then the parish officers can obtain an order from justices to compel such relative to contribute a sum towards such maintenance. So husbands or fathers of paupers are bound to contribute to such maintenance. In all cases, the pauper is relieved either in the workhouse or out of the workhouse, according to the regulations of the poor-law orders.

In some cases, the guardians or overseers may employ the poor in public works; but this is seldom done, except on occasions like the Lancashire distress. The law as to the settlement of the poor is somewhat intricate, and gives rise to much ligitation. There are various grounds on which this settlement is acquired. Thus every person has, prima facie, a settlement in the parish where he was born, until, some other is proved; and there are so many other qualifications, that it is seldom a birth-settlement is resorted to. By marriage, a woman immediately acquires the settlement of her husband, if he has one, whether the husband be an Englishman or a foreigner. If the husband has no settlement, then the wife is thrown back on her maiden settlement. Formerly, a person acquired a settlement in a parish by hiring and service, and by residence for forty days under such hiring; but since 1834, no such settlement can be acquired. If any person shall be bound an apprentice by indenture, and reside forty days under such apprenticeship, he or she acquires a settlement thereby. So whoever shall rent a tenement in a parish, and actually occupy the same, and be rated to the poor for one whole year, the rent being not less than £10, and paid by the person so actually occupying the tenement, shall acquire a settlement. So a person acquires a settlement by acquiring an estate in land, however, small in value, and residing forty days in the parish. So. if a person buy an estate, and the consideration amount to £30 at least, he shall thereby acquire a settlement. Formerly, a settlement was acquired by serving a public annual office, such as that of constable, overseer, &c.; but no settlement is now acquired on that ground. Unless a pauper has acquired a settlement on one or other of the grounds before mentioned in the parish or union where he receives relief, he is liable to be removed compulsorily to the parish where he last acquired a settlement. Certain persons, however, cannot be removed, and these are called irremovable paupers. Such are those paupers who have resided for one whole year in the parish or union in which they became destitute.

The mode of computing this one year is, however, somewhat difficult in certain cases. The expense of maintaining the pool-generally is paid out of the common fund, and not by each parish in the union. When a pauper is sought to be removed, it is necessary to take him before two justices of the peace for examination; and on proper evidence of his settlement, the justices will make the order of removal, which is an authority to the overseers to take or send the pauper to the overseers of the parish of settlement. If, however, the pauper is too ill at the time to admit of removal without danger, the justices may suspend the order of removal till lie is recovered. Whenever a pauper is to be removed the removing union is bound to give notice to the union of settlement; and it is on these occasions that so many obstinate and costly litigations take place as to which is the union of settlement. Much litigation was avoided by substituting a union for a parish as the test. The union also may appeal to the Court of Quarter-sessions against the removal order; and the Quarter-sessions may state a case for the opinion of the Court of Queen’s Bench, if any nice point of law should arise, as frequently happens.

In Scotland, there was no systematic provision for the relief of the poor until 1845. when the statute of 8th and 9th Vict. c. 83 was passed. By this statute, a central board (called the Board of Supervision) was established, which controls the parochial board of each parish or union of parishes in a manner similar to the Poor-law Board in England. A settlement can be acquired in Scotland by residence of live years. Children follow the settlement of their parents, and wives that of their husbands; and if no other settlement be proved, then the settlement of birth is liable. In Scotland, the mode of assessment differs from that in England, where only the annual value of lands and tenements can be rated in the hands of the occupier.

The parochial board had the option of three modes of assessment: 1. One half to be paid by owners, and one half by the occupiers; 2. One half to be paid by owners of lands, and the other half to be paid by all the inhabitants, according to means and substance other than lands; 3. Assessing owners of lands and other inhabitants rateably according to their means and substance. But by a later act of 24th and 25th Vict. 37, the mode of assessing means and substance is abolished. It will thus be seen that in Scotland the poor-rate can never be imposed wholly on the occupier as it, always is in England.

In Ireland, a Poor-law Act was also, in 1838, passed, and numerous amending statutes have followed, the code of laws being substantially founded on the English acts.

There are special acts of parliament regulating the conditions on which paupers are removable between England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively.

POST-OFFICE INSURANCE is a valuable addition to the many useful services which our postal establishments has been enabled to render within the last few years. Book-post, sample-post, money-orders, and postal savings-banks, all additions to the original letter-post, and newspaper-post, have been found to work so satisfactorily, that the legislature has been encouraged to intrust to the same organization a new system of insuring lives and granting annuities—specially intended to foster provident habits among persons whose savings can be but small.

In 1853, an act of parliament made an improvement in the then existing state of insurance law, by facilitating the purchase of government annuities through the medium of the savings-banks; and in 1864. another statute gave a great extension to those portions of the system which had been found to work well, effecting at the same time alterations in those which had exhibited certain defects during eleven years’ working. Great facilities are introduced by this act for securing annuities by small payments. Not only may the National Debt Commissioner’s employ the trustees of savings-banks to receive and pay the moneys, at a certain rate of remuneration; but the Postmaster-general joins in the arrangement, acting as a medium between the public on the one hand and the commissioners on the other. Ample tables and regulations have been printed, for the guidance of the Commissioners, the Postmaster-general, and the local postmasters throughout the kingdom. On the completion of these tables and regulations in 1865. the practical working of the system began. The tables of the premiums to be charged for life-insurances, for immediate annuities, for deferred annuities, and for deferred monthly allowances, are sold by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, the government printers, for 5 1/2 d. (the cost of the paper and printing); but similar tables are kept for inspection at the local post-offices without charge.

In regard to insurance, distinct from annuities, persons of either sex may insure through the medium of the post-office. The limited ages are from 16 to 60, and the limited sums from £20 to £100. In order to afford every possible facility in the payment of the premium, minute calculations have been made of the exact sum to be paid at each instalment, by yearly, quarterly, monthly, or fortnightly payments, and terminable or not at a particular age. In order that there may be some limit to the labor thus placed on the postal authorities, no periodical instalment is made smaller than two shillings. No one life can be insured for less than £20 in the whole; but when a life has been insured for £20, further insurances maybe effected on the same life from time to time, until the whole sum for which it is insured amounts to £100. The following is a tabulated example of nine different modes of paying the premium on one particular insurance, to suit the convenience of the insurer. A man in his 30th year may insure £100 to his survivors at his death :

If an insurer who has duly paid all instalments for five years, should desire, or be compelled by circumstances to withdraw from the engagement, a portion of the past premiums will be repaid to him—never less than one-third of the total amount.

In regard to immediate annuities, persons of either sex may purchase annuities of not more than £50, and for lives from 10 years old and upwards. The premiums necessarily vary with sex, age, and amount. Thus, a man aged 65 can purchase an immediate annuity of £10, paid half-yearly, for £88, 18s. 4d.; whereas, a woman of the same age would have to pay £103, 16s. 8d. Two or more small annuities may be purchased for the same life, provided the total amount does not exceed £50. Any two persons may purchase an annuity on their joint lives, with or without continuance of the annuity to the survivor.

Deferred annuities form another element in the scheme. These annuities are very varied iu kind, and the amount of premium depends on a great number of conditions—ainount of annuity; age and sex of the person; length of term for which the annuity is deferred (that is, the number of years which are to pass before the commencement of the annuity); mode in which the premium is to be paid; and the condition whether or not there is to be any return of purchase-money under certain contingencies. As examples, take the following : A man aged 30 may purchase a deferred annuity of £10. to commence on his reaching the age of 60, and due half-yearly, for one immediate payment of £21, 3s. 4d., or an annual payment of £1, 8s. 4d.; in the case of a woman, the immediate or total payment would be £32, 8s. 4d., and the annual payment £1, 17s. 6d. If the person on whose life the annuity is to depend should die before the annuity itself commences, all the premiums paid up to that date may be returned to his or her representatives provided a contract to this effect is made in the first instance. The premiums are necessarily higher for such a contract. The four sums just mentioned, where past premiums are not returnable, would be raised respectively to £40, 9s. 2d., £2, 0s. 10d., £47. 0s. 10d., and £2, 7s. 6d., with the returnable clause included.

Many persons in humble life would prefer that the annuities due to them should come more frequently than half-yearly. To suit this class, a system of deferred monthly allowances is established. A man aged 30 may purchase a deferred allowance of £2, 7s. 3d. per month, to commence when he reaches the age of 60, by a payment of 8s. per month, until he reaches that age; the same monthly payment by a woman would realize a monthly allowance of £1, 16s. 7d. If the returnable clause (above noticed) is included in the contract, the man’s monthly allowance would be £1, 14s. 2d., and the woman’s £1, 9s. 4d., for the like payment of 8s. per month. In regard to married couples, a husband and wife may each be insured to the full amount of £100, and may each purchase an annuity of £50, or a monthly allowance of £4, 3s. 4d.

Persons whose lives are insured, or to whom annuities are granted, through the post-office, have direct government security for the payment of the money at the proper time; and this is one of the many valuable features of the system. It is not necessary here to describe the exact routine of proceedings for making an insurance or purchasing an annuity; the postmasters whose post-offices have been raised to the rank of insurance offices, are fully instructed in the matter, and will give all requisite information to applicants- We may add, that the British Postal Guide, an authorized publication, issued quarterly at 6d., gives a considerable list of tables of premiums payable at various ages for various kinds of insurance and annuity.

PRIZE, PRIZE-MONEY, terms having reference to property captured from an enemy, or to enemy’s property captured from a neutral in time of war. The circumstances under which such capture is justifiable are stated under capture, as regards naval operations; military prize and its distribution to the army are described under BOOTY. It remains only, therefore, to notice the procedure taken in respect to vessels and property captured by the navy. On a ship being taken, she must be sent to a port belonging to the capturing power, where the Court of Admiralty,on full evidence, adjudicates whether she be lawful prize or not. If the decision be affirmative, the prize is then sold; or if a ship-of-war, (a certain allowance per gun is granted by the state. The produce of the sale or grant is lodged in the hands of the Accountant-general of the Navy, for distribution to the officers and men who assisted at the capture. The net produce of the sale or grant is first divided rateably among any ships (if there be more than one) concerned in the capture. The share of each ship is then divided into eight equal parts. If she were employed under the orders of a flag-officer, he gets one-eighth, and the captain two-eighths; if not, the captain has three-eighths; one-eighth is divided among the lieutenants and officers of corresponding relative rank; one-eighth is shared by the junior commissioned officers and warrant officers; one-eighth goes to the midshipmen and petty officers; and the remaining two-eighths among the seamen, marines,and boys.

ABSENTEE’, a term applied, by way of reproach, to capitalists who derive their income from one country, and spend it in another. It has been especially used in discussions on the social condition of Ireland. As long as Ireland had its own parliament, a great portion of the large landed proprietors lived chiefly in the country during summer, and passed their winters in Dublin; thus spending a large portion of their incomes among their dependents, or at least among their countrymen. The Union changed the habits of the Irish nobility and gentry, who were attracted to London as the political metropolis, or were induced, by the disturbed condition of Ireland, to choose residences on the continent. Such Irish landed proprietors were styled ‘ absentees;’ and it was argued that their conduct was the great source of Irish poverty, as it drained the resources of the land, or, in other words, sent money out of Ireland. One class of political economists�among them M’Culloch�maintain that, economically viewed, absenteeism has no injurious effect on the country from which the absentee draws his revenue. An Irish landlord living in France, it is argued, receives his remittances of rent, not in bullion, but in bills of exchange; and bills of exchange represent, in the end, the value of British commodities imported into France. The remittance could not be made unless goods to the same amount were also drawn from Britain. Thus, although the landlord may consume, for the most part, French productions, he causes, indirectly, a demand for as much of British productions; and his income goes, in the end, to pay for them. His residence abroad, then, does no harm to the industry and resources of the country at large, although it is admitted that it may be felt as an evil in a particular locality. The truth of this doctrine, however, in its full extent, is disputed. Among other objections to it, it is argued, that whatever may be true of the amount actually consumed, all the tradesmen and others who supply the absentee’s wants have their profits, and have thus the means of accumulating; and that these accumulations which are thus added to the national wealth of a foreign country, would have been added to the wealth of his native country had he been living at home. The result of the controversy would seem to be, that absenteeism does, to some extent, act injuriously on the wealth of a country, though it is not true that the whole revenues thus spent are so much clear loss, there being several indirect compensations.�On the evil of absenteeism, in a moral point of view, all are agreed; especially in a country in the condition of Ireland, where nearly the whole wealth is in the hands of extensive landed proprietors, with almost no middle class.

FINA’NCE, a French word incorporated with our language, means the art of managing money matters, the person who professes this art being called a financier. Finance, in the plural, is often used for money itself, but still with a reference to the purpose to which it is to be applied, as where the finances of a country are said to have improved or fallen off�that is to say, have become abundant or scanty according to the expenditure of the country. Sometimes the word is applied to private wealth, but it is properly applicable to public funds. We use it in this country rather in a political and economic sense than officially, but in France, there have been, from time to time, comptrollers-general of finance, councils of finance, bureaus of finance, &c. Many statesmen have been spoken of as great financiers, from the talent which they have shown for adjusting national revenue and expenditure, as Colbert, Turgot, and Necker in France, and Go-dolphin and Peel in Britain. As a branch of statesmanship, finance is intimately connected with other branches. In questions of national policy�such as, whether a state can go to war or not �the financier is the person who is expected to count the cost, and say how the necessary funds are to be obtained. In the question, whether an unpopular or oppressive tax is to be abolished, the financier is an authority on the question, whether the government can do without it. Hence, there is a special connection between finance and taxation, which has become closer and stronger since the progress of political economy has shown that the taxes which are the most productive, and even the most easily collected, are not always the best, looking at the gain or loss of a nation, in the long-run. Turgot said that finance was the art of plucking the fowl without making it cry. On this notion, the principle of indirect taxation achieved its popularity. For instance, customs duties seem to fall on no one. The importer and the retailer add them to the price of the article, and the ultimate purchaser only knows that the article is dear without experiencing the sense of hardship felt by one who pays out money directly in the shape of a tax. But many indirect taxes have, on the other hand, been found to affect the trade and the wealth of communities to an extent which has made them very deleterious in comparison with direct taxes. See further on matters connected with finance the heads CUSTOMS; DEBT, NATIONAL; CORN LAWS; EXCISE; FREE TRADE; TAXATION; REVENUE.