140 Large and Small Holdings 



improvements made without their consent, unless they had expressly 

 prohibited the improvement in question (see section 35 (i)). The 

 landowner in his turn becomes liable for such improvements, so far 

 as they have actually increased the value of his land, when the 

 Council's lease comes to an end. 



When all these implications of compulsory hiring of land are 

 taken into consideration, a circumstance which at first sight seemed 

 surprising becomes quite comprehensible; namely, that the great 

 majority of English landlords, together with the closely-connected 

 Conservative Party, fought much more strenuously against compulsory 

 hiring than against compulsory purchase. Even the Committee of 

 1905-6, as has been noticed above, was prepared to come to terms 

 with the principle of compulsory purchase: but it was hotly opposed 

 to any idea of compulsory hiring. It was this point, too, that met 

 with the strongest opposition from the Conservatives when the Bill 

 was before Parliament. For, as will be now evident to the reader, 

 compulsory hiring meant that the landlord would be stripped of his 

 right to set the conditions of a lease at his pleasure 1 . The greater 

 part of the demand made under the name of " the three Fs " is thus 

 indirectly conceded. 



These " Three Fs " consist in a series of principles which have 

 been incorporated in the land laws of Ireland, and which certain 

 reformers have from about 1890 onwards desired to see applied to 

 English conditions also. They concern (i) Fair Rent ; that is to say 

 the fixing of rents by authority at an amount which will leave 

 a suitable amount of profit to the tenant ; (2) Fixity of Tenure ; 

 i.e. provision that a tenant who cultivates his land reasonably well 

 and duly pays his rent may not be given notice to quit ; and finally 

 (3) Free Sale ; i.e. the right of the out-going tenant to demand from 

 his successor compensation for improvements made by him, or in 

 some way to be able, on leaving the farm, to treat such improve- 

 ments as saleable property. The Conservative Party in England has 

 strongly protested against these demands in the interests of the 

 landed aristocracy, using the argument that to concede them would 

 create a divided property in land, and that in consequence the 

 relation between landlord and tenant would be vitiated. On the 

 other hand the demand has developed specially strongly among 



1 A characteristic expression of the landlord's point of view is to be found in the Estate 

 Book, 1908, p. 56: " Compulsory sale is often hardship enough, though it is necessary in 

 certain circumstances ; but to recognise a man's right of property in land, and yet to take it 

 out of his control, and to keep it or return it at will is tyranny and injustice " (Mr Bear). 



