180 The Agricultural Holdings {England) Act, 1875. 
1. Before removing any fixture, the tenant must pay all rent 
owing by him, and perform all other obligations to the landlord 
in respect of the holding. The landlord, in fact, has a lien 
upon the fixtures for the amount of rent or compensation. 
2. In removing any fixture, no " avoidable damage" must be 
done to any building, or other part of the holding. 
3. Immediately after removing any fixture, the tenant must 
make good all damage occasioned by such removal. 
4. The tenant cannot remove any fixture unless he gives the 
landlord one month's previous notice, in writing, of the intended 
removal. 
5. At any time within the month of notice, the landlord (as 
under the Act of 1851) has an option of purchasing any fixture 
comprised in the notice of removal. He may thus select which 
he thinks worth purchase, and leave the tenant to remove the 
rest. This option must be signified to the tenant, in writing, 
before the end of the month ; and the fixture selected by the 
landlord becomes his property, and must be left bv the tenant, 
who will be paid for it according to its fair value to an in- 
coming tenant. If the parties difler, the value is to be settled 
by reference, but without power of appeal ; the decision of the 
referee, or referees, and umpire, will be final. 
This is the Statute which the Legislature have passed, recog- 
nising the just confidence reposed in most English landlords 
by their tenantry, but recognising, too, in the words of the Prime 
Minister, that " laws should be founded, not on honour, but on 
justice." One advantage possessed by the Act is, that it does 
not refer you to other Acts in order to gather its meaning ; the 
law, so far as it depends on statute, is for the most part con- 
tained in the four corners of the Act itself. It is hardly reason- 
able to expect that a statute dealing with so many questions, and 
entering into so many details, should be free from doubt in all 
its parts ; nor does this Paper pretend to discover or solve the 
numerous points which may be raised upon the meaning and 
bearing of particular sections. To enter into more minute 
detail, however, would be only to bewilder instead of making 
clear. The explanation which has been here attempted will 
perhaps enable readers of the ' Journal ' to understand the general 
icatures of the new law. The measure will soon be practically 
tested ; and any defects found to exist in its machinery may 
easily be remedied. Meanwhile it marks a new point of depar- 
ture in agriculture, and may come to be regarded, a genenition 
or two hence, as a measure of far higher value and importance 
tiian it seems to be to-day. 
