44 



ttie," said the outgocr, " how I ought to leave a farm. I've left 

 live iu seven years, so I ought to know something about it." The 

 first victim of these chevaliers of agricultural industry — these 

 so-called farmers who live by their wits — is the parson. Before 

 the yearly tenancy has expired he bitterly regrets his bargain. 



When the agricultural depression commenced glebe lands were 

 often wholly unprovided with farm-buildings, for they had been 

 let to men who farmed them with other lands ; they were 

 neglected by tenants who left the glebe without manure, or 

 allowed it to become foul, and robbed the parson to pay the 

 squire ; they were ill drained ; the rents were screwed up to 

 the head ; the amount of arable land was out of all proportion 

 in comparison with the scanty pasture ; many of the tenants 

 were men of straw, who went down at the first breath of the 

 storm ; others who were more substantial men were mined 

 because the glebeowncr did not know the exact moment when 

 to assist his tenant or had not the requisite capital to give a 

 helping hand. For the last twelve years agriculture has been a 

 struggle against odds ; what chance has the glebeowner had of 

 improving the position in which the commencement of the 

 depression found him ? 



The law puts the finishing touch to the glebeowuer's diffi- 

 culties. But, judging from the report of the committee and 

 the resolutions upon it which were agreed to by the Lower 

 House, Convocation seems to exaggerate the legal impediments 

 by which the glebeowner is encumbered. Convocation holds 

 that no spiritual person "licensed to perform the duties of any 

 ecclesiastical office " may farm more than eighty acres of land 

 without the consent of the Bishop. The point is of some 

 importance, as in the midland counties some Archdeacons have 

 acted in accordance with the opinion expressed by Convocation. 

 The question turns upon the meaning of 1 and 2 Vict., c. 106, 

 ss. 28-30. The 28th section forbids any spiritual person, 

 beneficed or performing ecclesiastical duty, " to take to farm for 

 occwpation hy himself by lease, grant, luords, or otherwise for term 

 of life or of years, or at ivill," above eighty acres of land without 

 the consent of the Bishop. The words quoted are the governing 

 words of the section. Glebeowners who cultivate their own 

 glebes, squire parsons who cultivate their own demesnes do not 

 take land to farm under a lease, grant, or any other written or 

 verbal contract ; they do not occuiiy their own lands as tenants for 

 terms of life or years or at will. The section cannot therefore be 

 directed against glebeowners or squire parsons. What, then, is 

 its meaning? It applies only to the clergy as tenant-farmers; 

 its object is to prevent clergymen from farming on a large scale 

 by forbidding them to rent, as tenants, more than eighty acres 

 of laud without the consent of tho Bishop. The two following 



