EFFECT OF LAND ACT. 79 



a tenant who, having bought the fag end of a lease 

 from a previous tenant, and failing in agreeing with 

 the landlord for a new one, at its expiration thinks 

 himself justified in putting in a claim for the cost of 

 all the labour and horse-work used in the ordinary 

 cultivation of the farm during all the years he held 

 the old lease, as an unexhausted improvement ? Can 

 there be any wonder that one of the judges, Mr. 

 Justice Fitzgerald, in hearing an appeal at the pre- 

 sent summer assizes, 1873, on one of these exagge- 

 rated claims by a tenant, remonstrated strongly 

 against the practice, and said it had become one 

 main duty of the Courts to protect landlords against 

 such exorbitant claims ? 



The very name of contract is hateful to many, 

 because these exaggerated claims rest on undefined 

 ideas of rights, which break down before definite facts. 

 It is absolutely certain that the principle of the Land 

 Act was to take the actual usages of each district or 

 estate as constituting an implied contract on both 

 sides. Where there was an express contract or lease, 

 that held good. Where there was no express contract, 

 the implied contract from usage was made binding, 

 as the custom of the country is in England. No 

 doubt this rule caused hardship in individual cases 

 both to some landlords and some tenants, but in the 

 great majority of cases it was fair enough. No rule 

 could possibly have met with fairness all the numer- 

 ous diversities of individual circumstances. The 



