British Agriculture. 
305 = 59 
also hampered by an unreasonable law which prohibits them 
from transferring their leases even to a solvent and unobjection- 
able successor, and, still worse, from bequeathing the lease to 
their widows or any of their children except the heir-at-law. 
Ireland has a system of its own. Till a very recent period the in Ireland, 
tenant made all improvements, such as they were. He reclaimed 
;he waste, built his own poor habitation, and he and his family 
)ccupied the land, and subdivided it amongst them. He thus 
acitly acquired a hold on the soil much greater than in the sister 
■ountries, and which was generally acquiesced in by the land- 
ords, many of whom were non-residents. These three systems 
vere the natural growth of circumstances, and have become 
leeplv intertwined with the habits and feelings of the agricul- 
ural classes in the several countries. 
Three-fourths of the land in England have long been held by Origin of 
comparatively small body of great landowners. From the 
levolution in 1688 till the Reform Bill of 1831, all political 
ower was in their hands. They were the patrons of agricul- 
ire, and their tenants, being accustomed to continue undisturbed, 
either asked nor expected legal security of tenure. But habit 
iid custom gave such security in reality, though not in law ; 
nd to this day there are families of tenants-at-will who can 
)unt back a longer period of unbroken succession in their 
rms than the great landowner at whose will they hold them, 
he first Reform Bill gave tenant-farmers, paying a rent of 50Z. 
id upwards, the right to vote in the election of members of Par- 
ament, and thus strengthened their hold on the consideration 
their landlord, but at the same time gave him an unfortunate in- 
rest in the continuance of a system which kept them dependent 
I his will. This continued for one generation more, until 
1867 the franchise was lowered to 12Z., and in 1871 vote by 
Hot introduced. By those measures the numbers and political 
ength of the tenant-farmer class were largely increased. House- 
Id suffrage in counties is believed to be not far off, and thus 
^ hitherto paramount political influence of the landowner in the 
anties is gradually being replaced by the wider basis of the 
. )resentation of each of their varied interests. The first result 
< the latest extension of the constituency, and their protection 
ballot, has been a strong agitation on the part of the farmers 
obtain a legal right to be compensated, on removal, for their 
exhausted manures and improvements. Simultaneously with 
a labourers' league has been formed in some districts to 
icentrate the latent power of the dispersed but numerous bodv 
agricultural labourers. Both of these movements have been 
'nded with a moderate measure of success. The Agricultural 
Idings Act, passed two years ago, recognises for the first 
Z 2 
