Compensation for Unexhausted Improvements 



423 



tenant ; there are some places where only a 

 moiety of the capital left upon the farm is 

 awarded such as in Norfolk, where hay and 

 turnips only are taken into consideration by 

 the landlord. Again circumstances differ so 

 vastly in different counties, that what might 

 be an improvement in Lincolnshire, might 

 be exactly the opposite in any other county 

 of different soil, and perhaps climate. How 

 then are all these multiplicity of customs to 

 be . met ? 



There can be no doubt that a Tenant-Right 

 Bill must be to a great extent a Landlord's 

 Right Bill also. There are many short- 

 :sighted landlords who do not seem to 

 recognize the fact that to award compensa- 

 tion for unexhausted improvements to the 

 -outgoing tenant is tantamount to receiving a 

 higher rent from the incoming man. Sup- 

 posing a farmer has received notice to quit, 

 •or has given notice that he will quit, one or 

 two years, or, perhaps, even three or four, 

 before the expiry of his lease, it is, as was 

 ■observed at the Farmers' Club, " contrar}' to 

 human nature " for that farmer to lay out as 

 much money during these last years as he 

 <iid in any of the preceding years of his lease. 

 If, however, he received any assurance that 

 the money he had expended during the last 

 year or two would be recouped to him, he 

 would have no fear, in the face of a valuation 

 ton his going out, to maintain the farm in 

 that degree of fertility which it was in dur- 

 ing the years he had occupied ii. It is 

 ;jiot to be supposed, however, that all land- 



lords will see a Tenant-Right Bill from the 

 same point of view, and it will therefore be 

 necessary either to have a Committee of 

 Enquiry upon the subject, or issue schedules 

 to collect statistics as to local usages. A 

 Committee of Enquiry, at which both land- 

 lords and tenants would be represented, has 

 been spoken of; but after the experience of 

 the Aberdeen Game Conference, and looking 

 at the differences of opinion existing, we 

 should be afraid to hope much from such a 

 body. We would prefer to rely more upon 

 the Bill which Mr Howard has proposed to 

 draw up. 



The remarks of Sir John Pakington were 

 highly sensible and worthy of consideration. 

 He declared that it was just, sound, and 

 politic, that in these days of improved farm- 

 ing, the agricultuiist should be enabled to lay 

 out his capital with due and fair fecurity, and 

 that any owner who resisted the establish- 

 ment of the principle of security was blind 

 to his own interests. He saw no objection 

 why the legislature should not be asked to 

 enact such aprinciple. Of course interferences 

 with the freedom of contract should be care- 

 fully guarded against. Mr Smith urged his 

 motion in spite of the solicitations expressed 

 by many members to withdraw it, and , the 

 result was that it was negatived by a majority 

 of 12 — 29 voting against and 17 for it. 



The avoidance of detail was effectually 

 carried out in the resolution adopted which 

 affirms the " grand principle of compensation 

 for unexhausted improvements." 



