JUDICIAL RENTS 233 



some witnesses ; and also it is not quite reasonable 

 to expect that practical witnesses, who come before us 

 to formulate such demands, should be prepared to 

 submit precisely drawn proposals. The demands them- 

 selves and the general grounds on which they are ad- 

 vanced, seem sufficient to call for close scrutiny, with the 

 view to meet the real necessities from which they spring. 



There can be no doubt that the strong feeling in favour 

 of judicial rents which accompanied the early years of this 

 depression from 1879 to 1882, and was then expressed 

 in the proposals introduced in Parliament by the late 

 Mr James Howard, on behalf of the Farmers' Alliance, 

 was for some years, more or less, slackened by the hope 

 of getting something out of the Agricultural Holdings 

 Act, and has again developed on somewhat bolder and 

 more decisive lines owing to the general disappoint- 

 ment at the results of the Act, and under the urgent 

 stimulus of the more acute stage of depression which 

 has prevailed since 1892. 



That there is a strong and widespread demand at 

 present is shown in evidence. 



Mr Pringle says that although farmers in Essex were 

 somewhat indifferent as to the Agricultural Holdings Act, 

 " I had continuous evidence of their desire for better 

 security in the form of continued occupation at fair 

 rents, no charge being put upon their improvements." 

 " The principle of the Irish Land Act was generally 

 approved of, and the system therein devised of ascer- 

 taining a fair rent was recognised as practical and 

 equitable. Courts of arbitration should be established, 

 to which parties who failed to agree upon future rents 

 could repair." At meetings at Ongar and Braintree 

 resolutions were passed asking for the immediate 

 extension to England of the Irish Acts, and " that in 

 view of -the failure of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 

 and the present insecurity to the sitting tenant, and 

 the desire to attract fresh capital to the land, arbitration 

 courts should be established by the legislature as soon 

 as possible." ^ 



1 Pringle, Essex, p. 35. 



