H2 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



a great step forward by recognising for the first time by 

 statute the right of a tenant to recover on quitting his 

 holding compensation for the unexhausted value of his 

 improvements. 



It is interesting to recall, as an echo of far-off controversies, 

 that the subject of land tenure occupied a prominent position 

 in the pronouncements of political leaders at the General 

 Election of 1874. When dissolving Parliament Mr. Glad- 

 stone stated that measures relating to the occupation and 

 transfer of land would require prompt attention by the next 

 House of Commons, and Mr. Disraeli announced, in a speech 

 at Newport Pagnell, that the importance of a measure for 

 securing to occupiers compensation for the unexhausted 

 value of their improvements " could not be exaggerated," 

 and that he and his friends would support the principle of 

 such a measure. By the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1883 

 the payment of compensation for unexhausted improvements 

 was made compulsory, and since that time other measures 

 have been passed for the benefit of sitting tenants, culminat- 

 ing in Part II of the Agriculture Act, 1920. 



It was while the provisions subsequently embodied in this 

 Act with others which did not become law were under 

 discussion (in April, 1920) that Mr. E. W. Langford, then 

 President of the National Farmers' Union, read a paper on 

 " Security of Tenure." In opening the subject he referred 

 to the sales of estates then taking place on a widespread scale 

 as creating a highly insecure and intolerable position for 

 tenant farmers and welcomed the declarations of Mr. Lloyd 

 George and Lord Lee that it was intended to place on the 

 statute book "a long-delayed measure of reform." He 

 repudiated any intention of putting forward a case in 

 opposition to the interests of landlords, and asserted that 

 there were many excellent landlords of whom the country- 

 side is rightly proud and whose elimination would be " a 

 blow to the agricultural industry as well as to the national 

 life." He added, " The action of landowners in reducing 

 rents in times of depression has proved of incalculable value 

 to the State, let alone to those directly concerned and it is 

 unnecessary in saying so to discuss whether business or 



