72 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



of great landowners. From the Revolution 

 of 1688 till the Reform Bill of 1831, all political 

 power was in their hands. They were the 

 patrons of -agriculture, and their tenants, being 

 accustomed to continue undisturbed, neither 

 asked nor expected legal security of tenure. 

 But habit and custom gave such security in 

 reality, though not in law; and to this day 

 there are families of tenants-at-will who can 

 count back a longer period of unbroken suc- 

 cession in their farms than the great landowner 

 at whose will they hold them. The first Reform 

 Bill gave tenant-farmers, paying a rent of 50 

 and upwards, the right to vote in the election of 

 members of Parliament, and thus strengthened 

 their hold on the consideration of their landlord, 

 but at the same time gave him an unfortunate 

 interest in the continuance of a system which 

 kept them dependent on his will. This con- 

 tinued for one generation more, until in 1867 

 the franchise was lowered to 12, and in 1871 

 vote by ballot introduced. By those measures 

 the numbers and political strength of the tenant- 

 farmer class were largely increased. Household 



