OBJECTIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 247 



form of a trial in court, while others base their objections 

 on the desire to preserve freedom to make their own 

 bargains. 



Mr Wilson Fox has collected a variety of opinions in 

 Lincolnshire in these directions.^ 



Thus : " Several farmers stated that they would sooner 

 give up farming than go before any tribunal to settle 

 questions between them and their landlords." 



" Land courts are not wanted to deal with rent, but 

 they might deal with the interest we pay on mortgages." 



"We are dead against a land court. If we cannot 

 look after our own interests, we do not want any one 

 else to do it for us." 



" There is not a single party in this room who would 

 like any one in the room to assist him and his landlord 

 in fixing a fair rent, though we are all friends. Much 

 less should we like an outsider called in. We can, and 

 we prefer to, fight our own battles." 



A Lancashire farmer who is a strong Protectionist, 

 says : " If we are to have a land court, we are all fools 

 in a lump if we cannot make a bargain." ^ 



More closely-reasoned objections are offered by several 

 witnesses, who think that if the system of fixity of tenure 

 and judicial rents were established, there would not be 

 the same disposition, and probably a refusal, to give 

 temporary abatements of rent in some exceptionally 

 bad season. Others also attach much importance to the 

 contention that, when the owner becomes a mere rent- 

 charger, he will no longer care to invest his capital in 

 permanent improvements and repairs. 



Further considerations, to which weight must be 

 attached, are made as to the difficulty of working any 

 such system. 



Thus, Mr Fyshe, a Scotch witness of much ability, 

 says: " When you find one farm let at i^200 of a rise, and 

 another going to be let at 40s an acre, and an offer comes 

 in for 50s an acre, in one week, it is difficult to find a 

 remedy, unless this [land] court is directed to take 



1 Wilson Fox, Lincoln, pp. 20, 21. 

 'Wilson Fox, Garstang, Appendix P. 



