this, the oldest of the agricultural countries of Europe. The right of the proprietor is protected in every way by the law, and it is considered that the master of the soil is the natural person to ordain the treatment that the soil shall receive. Of such liberty as the tenants now clamor for in England, not to say Ireland, nothing is known or recog nized in the Pairia Codicc. The right of the landowner passes before all others. Even, as I have shown, a considerable exer cise of what in other countries would be considered as tyranny, is allowed to him in consideration that (the soil belonging to him self) he will be injured irrevocably if it be dealt with ill. This is surely a juster view than that taken by the modern method of sacrificing the landlord in toto to his tenants and their interests. Whether the mezzadria be a system un der which the landlord really obtains all he might out of his estates is another question. Italians are wedded to it for the most part, and Tuscans will not contemplate the possi bility of any .other mode of culture . When, as in times past, the peasant families dwelt on the same lands for many centuries, and affectionate and feudal ties connected the tnassaio with the padrone, the results of the system were no doubt very much more bene
ficial to both than they are now, when the contadini are constantly changed, like any other servants, and in lieu of any personal attachment have only a keen interest to guide them. Even upon estates where the coloni remain unchanged, the whole system is poisoned by a third factor, of which the law takes no cognizance save when it says that the agent of the landlord is to be accounted as equal in the right to direct and order with the landlord himself. This third factor is the fattore, or bailiff. It is not too much to say that this intermediary is the curse of the rural communities and the cause of most of the ruin that befalls Italian nobles and gentlemen. All the powers that the law accords to the landlord he delegates to his steward. By law the master is the person who is to keep all accounts of debit and credit between himself and his peasantry, all record of work done and of value re ceived. Actually, of course, these are kept by the fattore, who, residing close to the farms ( for if a landlord has several estates he has several fattori ), is always on the spot to see what is done and what is spent or made. The indolence and amiability of Ital ian gentlemen have combined to let entire power slip into the hands of these agents or bailiffs.
