AGRICULTURAL REVIEW OF THE WEEK But, while MR. WATT quoted extensively from MR. WILSON FOX's report to the effect above described, he forgot to quote, also, the statement of the complaint of many of the farmers, that rents have not been sufficiently reduced to meet the times. MR. WATT apparently carries his admiration of the large-estate to the extreme of rejoicing over the absorption of the little estate of the "statesmen" of Cumberland into the big ones. He quotes, with approval, MR. FOX's statement to the effect that the Underley Estate, which is, in great part, made up of farms once owned by their cultivators, yields more than "double of what the land was capable of when divided and ill-managed." Such a story requires confirmation, although there appears to be no doubt as to a great deal of money having been spent on the estate by the late owner. The "statesmen" have been steadily dying out for generations, partly because they encumbered their little estates too heavily, and partly because they could get enough money by selling their land to enable them to hire much larger farms. On economic grounds, the change was probably prudent; but still the extinction of our old yeomanry is to be regretted. As to large estates, it is no doubt, better to be under a great landlord than under a small one, as a rule, and especially in bad times, and in the existing state of the land-tenancy laws; but uncomfortable doubts will arise as to whether the system is one to foster independence or enterprise. There is too close an approach to a benevolent despotism on many of the great estates to please a lover of freedom and independence. ==========================================