MR. JESSE COLLINGS 209 



exclaimed, when an Irish Land Bill was brought before the 

 House : " Tenant right is landlord wrong." 



Mr. A. J. Balfour said in 1881 : " Free sale must end 

 either in rack renting or in robbery." 



Sir Roundell Palmer (afterwards created Lord Selborne), 

 a member of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet, said : " Fixity of 

 tenure means taking away the property of one man and giving 

 it to another." (Hansard, vol. cxcix., 1663.) 



Mr. Bright suggested in 1870 that if fixity of tenure were 

 given to Irish tenants, landlords should be bought out at a 

 price 20 per cent, above the market value of their properties. 



Peasant Proprietors. 



The session of 1885 saw Mr. Jesse Collings' Peasant Pro- 

 prietary and Acquisition of Land by Occupiers Bill introduced 

 for the first time. It was opposed by the Local Taxation 

 Committee because of the new charges it proposed to lay upon 

 ratepayers, and was denounced by an unanimous resolution 

 by the Council on 3rd March, which declared that while they 

 would gladly welcome any measure that would benefit agri- 

 cultural labourers, they regarded the Bill as impracticable 

 and prejudicial to all parties. 



Four Bills dealing with Peasant Proprietary and Allotments 

 were introduced, in the first session of 1886, viz., the Allotment 

 and Small Holdings (Mr. Jesse Collings) ; the Allotments 

 Bill (Mr. Finch-Hatton) ; the Cottagers' Allotment Gardens 

 Bill (Mr. H. Chaplin) ; and the Glebe Lands Bill (Sir Richard 

 Cross). Naturally, in this year of General Elections, none of 

 these Bills were discussed in the House of Commons, but the 

 Council on 4th May carried the following resolution relating to 

 small holdings : 



" That this Council, whilst fully recognising the importance 

 of securing as large a number as possible of persons directly 

 interested in the cultivation of the soil, is of opinion that expe- 

 rience proves, where mixed husbandry prevails, the size of hold- 

 ings must be regulated by the following circumstances : 



" First, large farms are most suitable where the conformation 

 of the country allows of large, evenly shaped enclosures, and 



P 



