JOURNAL 
OF THB 
HOTAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF EXGLAXD. 
I. — The Agricultural Holdings {England) Act, 1883. By 
Frederick. Clifford, of the Middle Temple, Barrister- 
at-Law. 
In the ' Journal ' for March, 1876,* I sketched and endea- 
voured to explain the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings 
(England) Act, 1875. j That statute was amended iir the 
Session of 1876 by a short Act,i of no general interest, requir- 
ing previous assent by patrons of benefices, or by the Governors 
of Queen Anne's Bounty, in cases where landlords, being in- 
cumbents of ecclesiastical benefices, proposed to exercise the 
powers of the principal Act. Now, a new order of things 
exists. Since January 1, 1884, both these statutes stand repealed- 
by the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1883 § ; and 
when the Revised Edition of the statute-book comes down ta 
its date, their accustomed places in it will know them no 
more. 
Critics of the Act of 1875 may reasonably differ as to its 
frame-work, and may differ still more upon the principle which 
governed it. Few will deny that, at least, it gave us solid 
standing-ground in its recognition of free contract as the proper 
basis for legislation. For good or for ill. Parliament has now 
embodied in statute its conviction that tenants cannot be left 
to take care of themselves on a hiring of land, but must be 
relieved from the results of their own neglect to obtain fair 
terms, or even, it may be, from written conditions into which 
♦ Vol. sii. s.s. Part I. : 39 & 40 Vict. c. 71. 
t 38 & 39 Vict. c. 92. § 46 & 47 Vict. c. 61, ss. 53, 62. 
VOL. XX. — S. S. B 
