Increasing Pressure of Competition. 149 



it be for the individual and public interests. 

 Writing with the responsibility of a practical 

 experience of forty years, and with a general 

 knowledge both personally and officially of the 

 agriculture of the United Kingdom, and of the 

 relations between landlord and tenant, I ven- 

 ture, with all becoming respect for the opinions 

 of others, to say with confidence that the good 

 understanding which has hitherto as a rule 

 protected the English farmer under a yearly 

 tenancy, will not for many years longer be able increasing 



pressure of 



to withstand the inevitable spread and pressure competi- 

 tion. 

 of competition. However unpalatable the truth, 



the relation is and must become one of business, 

 and not merely of mutual confidence. 



There are two modes, as I have said, of 

 meeting the difficulty, and we may shortly con- 

 sider the first, that of the tenant becoming 

 himself the owner of his farm. The Irish Land Facilities 



given by 



Act provides for such a change, and it has been Govern- 

 ment for 



recommended by an influential committee of purchase 



in Ireland. 



the House of Commons that enlarged facilities 

 for this object should be afforded in that country 

 by an increased proportion of the price being 



