2 The Agricultural Holdings {England) Act, 1883. 
they have deliberately entered. We must now assume that 
such legislation is necessary and expedient on grounds of public 
policy ; but, in contrast with that of 1875, it seems to offer no 
assurance that legislative interference, once exercised in this 
direction, may not be pushed much farther.* However this 
may be. Parliament has pronounced its decree ; and, happily, 
it is the custom of Englishmen, whatever their previous 
opinions on points of policy, to yield to the law so pro- 
nounced a loyal, ungrudging obedience, trying to make the 
best of it in practice, and leaving its value to be determined by 
time and experience. 
Has the test of time, then, shown the legislation of 1875 to 
have been without value ? I believe, on the contrary, that it 
proved of great value, and that its authors have much reason 
to be satisfied with their work. Its direct effect, though not 
large, has been under-rated. It was adopted in whole or in 
part on many estates all over the kingdom. If on many more 
estates landlords contracted themselves out of its provisions, 
this was rarely done from a wish to deprive tenants of any 
benefits which they might fairly take under it, but for other 
and more legitimate causes ; because, for example, the usage on 
many estates was for landlords to find the money for all or most 
permanent improvements, giving out-going tenants fair compen- 
sation for their improvements according to local custom;! or 
because there was a not unreasonable fear of litigation and a 
desire to watch the working of the law before adopting it. 
Tenants, indeed, were sometimes as eager as landlords to con- 
tract themselves out of the Act, being in such cases better satis- 
fied with the status quo, with the customs or conditions already 
regulating their holdings. J Nor did exclusion of the Act ne- 
cessarily mean dislike of all its provisions, for agreements 
* Probably at no period in our history have the powers of resistance to 
agrarian measures of any kind been less powerful, or schemes of such reform 
been more numerous and wide-reaching. The present Session, beyond all its 
predecessors, has been fruitful in germs which may well raise expectations as 
regards their jiossiblo development." — The Kiglit Hon. G. Shaw-Lefevre, on the 
Agricultund Holdings Act, 1883, ' Nineteenth Century,' October, 1883. 
t See Kcport of Royal Cominissioa on Agriculture ; evidence as to Crown and 
Duchy of Lancaster lands, pp. 7, 39. 
X Thus the agents of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners report in March 1876, 
that tliey " find a general indisposition on the part of tenants to adopt this Act, 
and that "in many cases the tenants had already given notice to exclude it, 
requiring more time to consider the provisions of tlic Act." — House of Commons 
I'apcr IG3 (Session 187(j). Again, in February 1870, the Oxfordshire tenants of 
Lord Jersey were " unanimously of opinion tliat, owing to the complicated nature" 
of the Act, they would rather remain under their existing agreements, provided 
they had the privilege of a year's instead of six months' notice. — Koyal Com- 
mission on Agriculture, Appendix to I'art L, p. 29G. 
