172 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



matter has been to give still greater 

 security to the tenant for the investment 

 of his capital, and greater opportunities 

 for freedom of enterprise. More and more 

 the old legal presumptions in favour of the 

 landlord have been abandoned, and in no 

 country except in Ireland is the law now 

 so much in favour of the tenant as in 

 Great Britain. It is quite possible that 

 amendments in the law are still desirable, 

 and, still more, improvements in administra- 

 tion but there is the danger that if an 

 attempt is made to confer much more favour 

 on the tenant the present landlord may 

 find his remedy either in a sale to those 

 who will be governed entirely by mercan- 

 tile interests, or will himself try to farm 

 his land under bailiff supervision. In either 

 case, the peculiar advantage of the present 

 system will be lost. In Ireland, as we 

 know, the tenant was given so much that 



