VARIETY OF TENURE. 71 



ever, some equitable rules to secure continuance 

 of the tenant's interest in good farming to the 

 close of the lease. And the Scotch tenants are 

 also hampered by an unreasonable law which 

 prohibits them from transferring their leases 

 even to a solvent and unobjectionable successor, 

 and, still worse, from bequeathing the lease to 

 their widows or any of their children except 

 the heir-at-law. Ireland has a system of its in Ireland. 

 own. Till a very recent period the tenant made 

 nearly all improvements, such as they were. He 

 reclaimed the waste, built his own poor habita- 

 tion, and he and his family occupied the land, 

 and subdivided it amongst them. He thus 

 tacitly acquired a hold on the soil much greater 

 than in the sister countries, and which was 

 generally acquiesced in by the landlords, many 

 of whom were non-residents. These three sys- 

 tems were the natural growth of circumstances, 

 and have become deeply intertwined with the 

 habits and feelings of the agricultural classes 

 in the several countries. 



Three-fourths of the land in England have tenancy- 



at-will in 



long been held by a comparatively small body England. 



