Adam Smith, as being the one calculated "to render all classes more
industrious, and to augment at the same time the mass of wealth and
the scale of enjoyment."

The effects of the system are seen in the enormous rents contracted to
be paid for the use of small pieces of land at a distance from market,
the failure in the payment of which makes the poor cultivator a mere
slave to the proprietor. How the latter use their power, may be seen
by the following extract from a Canadian journal of 1851:--

"A Colonel -----, the owner of estates in South Uist and Barra, in
the highlands of Scotland, has sent off over 1100 destitute tenants
and cotters under the most cruel and delusive temptations; assuring
them that they would be taken care of immediately on their arrival at
Quebec by the emigrant agent, receive a free passage to Upper Canada,
where they would be provided with work by the government agents, and
receive grants of land on certain imaginary conditions. Seventy-one
of the last cargo of four hundred and fifty have signed a statement
that some of them fled to the mountains when an attempt was made to
force them to emigrate. 'Whereupon,' they add, 'Mr. Fleming gave
orders to a policeman, who was accompanied by the ground officer of
the estate in Barra, and some constables, to pursue the people who
had run away among the mountains, which they did, and succeeded in
capturing about twenty from the mountains and from other islands in
the neighbourhood; but only came with the officers on an attempt
being made to handcuff them, and that some who ran away were not
brought back; in consequence of which four families, at least, have
been divided, some having come in the ships to Quebec, while other
members of the same families are left in the highlands.'"