45 



secfcious support this constructiou. Section 29 forbids spiritual 

 persons, hiter alia, to buy and sell for profit or gain. Section 

 30 provides that it shall not be deemed to be illegal trading if 

 spiritual persons bay or sell for gain or profit cattle, &c., neces- 

 sary for the occupation, &c., of any glebe, demesne larids, or other 

 lands or hereditaments lohich may lie lawjulhj held and occupied 

 by such spiritual person. In other words, so long as spiritual 

 persons do not buy or sell in person in any market, glebeovvners 

 farming their own glebes, squire parsons cultivating their 

 demesnes, or clergymen who have rented land in compliance 

 with section 28 may buy and sell for profit or gaiu, so far us 

 is necessary for the proper cultivation of the soil. 



In several other legal points I differ with all respect from 

 the opinions expressed by Convocation. The law with regai'd 

 to emblements or way-going crops does not appear to me to be 

 correctly stated. Convocation also doubts whether the severed 

 produce of glebes held in hand, such as corn in stacks or hay 

 in ricks, is the pi'operty of a resigning incumbent, or, if the 

 benefice is vacated by death, of the representatives of a deceased 

 incumbent. Nothing short of express words in a special statute 

 will, in my opinion, divest incumbents or their representatives 

 of rights of property universally enjoyed. 



Apart from doubtful points, there are indisputable difficulties 

 which the law has imposed on glebeowners in the successful 

 development of their land. The Agricultural Holdings Act, for 

 instance, confers upon one class of tenants security for 

 unexhausted improvements, which is not enjoyed by life- 

 tenants in the peculiar position of glebeowners. I have 

 described the condition of glebe farms at the commencement of 

 agricultural depression. A bold and well-timed expenditure of 

 capital upon the land saved many private landlords from ruin : 

 they were justified in the outlay because they knew that their 

 families would inherit the benefit of the capital ; similar 

 expenditure was even more urgently needed upon glebe farms ; 

 but was the outlay justified when only strangers benefited? A 

 few years pass, and the principle which would confer upon glebe- 

 owners the required security is granted to ordinary tenants. 

 Tenant farmers are now entitled to compensation for unexhausted 

 improvements. But the glebeowner can claim nothing from his 

 successor even for structural improvements. He may have 

 erected at his own private cost farm buildings where none 

 existed before ; out of his private capital he may have built 

 farm-houses and cottages. These buildings may be absolutely 

 necessary ; without them the land would fall out of culti- 

 vation. Yet he receives no compensation ; probably he 

 or his representatives may be further mulcted for dilapi- 

 dations upon buildings which he has given as a free 



