REMEDIES SUGGESTED. 87 



which is but too common in the South of England has been 

 encouraged by the low scale of rents prevailing, and that higher 

 rents are desirable to force men to make the land produce more." 



The landlord and his agent as a rule have no other test 

 to apply than the offers made to them. When Agriculture 

 is prosperous and applicants accordingly are many, rents 

 go up. And even when they were previously fixed on the 

 tacit understanding of that being for a long time, a notice 

 to quit wall bring about the effect of determining the agree- 

 ment. Under an old Danish law% which goes too far in the 

 other direction, notice is permissible on the part of the tenant, 

 but not of the landlord, and the rent is fixed almost as under 

 Lord Cornw^allis's ordinance for Bengal. However, hard 

 times supervene. The tenant finds that under the circum- 

 stances he has made a bad bargain and that he is losing 

 money. Now the landlord is expected to share in the loss. 

 He may refuse and break his tenant. Or he may remit 

 rent due. Prudential considerations in favour of the latter 

 alternative, w^hich is the more commonly resorted to, 

 cannot fail to act as somewhat of a restraint upon the 

 tenant, when disposed to fight for his own supposed rights 

 on other points. In view of a possible evil day he will 

 want to keep " on the right side " of the landlord. When 

 depression is long continued and becomes a heavy burden 

 to bear, landlords' remissions are not always appreciated 

 at the value which the landlord himself— who has his own 

 burden to bear in the shape of " charges," on which there 

 is no remission — places upon them. I have heard very 

 angry references to the " semblance of landlords' sympathy " 

 coming from highly responsible tenants' lips. But all 

 this by the way. It is only meant to indicate the peculiar 

 features of this bargain, w^hich places the latter on quite 

 an exceptional footing in comparison with bargains in other 

 lines of business. The point at present is : What precautions 

 are taken to ensure good farming such as the Milner Com- 

 mittee and men of the authority of Mr. Hall have pronounced 

 to be lamentably absent ? The landlord deals with his 

 own "property" according to his own pleasure. He has 

 his interests as an investor ; but he also has his crotchets. 



