The Agricultural Holdings (^England) Act, 1883. 
5 
Limits of Act. — The Act does not extend to Scotland or 
Ireland (§ 64). Ireland, with its special legislation, stands in 
no need of the comparatively mild remedies here enacted. 
For Scotland an Act was passed last Session * on the model of 
the English Act, and not practically differing from it, except on 
some points of small importance and in the adoption of the 
machinery of the Scotch law for purposes of procedure. 
Holdings to which the Act applies. — The Act of 1875 did not 
apply to holdings under two acres, or to market-gardens. The 
new law extends to holdings of any size, provided they are 
agricultural or pastoral, or of a mixed character. It therefore 
includes allotments and plots of land let to farm-labourers. 
It also includes any holding cultivated in whole or in part as 
a niarket-garden. It does not include " any holding let to the 
tenant during his continuance in any office, appointment, or 
employment held under the landlord " (§ 54). The object 
of this exception clearly is to prevent a bailiff or labourer who 
leaves his employment from retaining land which would not be 
let to him but for his employment, and would usually go to his 
successor. In these cases, when the tenancy is from year to year, 
there should be a clear expression in writing of an intention 
that the land, however small in extent, should be held upon 
condition of its surrender at the termination of the tenant's 
engagement ; otherwise there may be frequent disputes as to 
the application of the Act in respect of compensation, notice, or 
otherwise. 
Definition. — Landlord is defined (§ 61) to mean " any person 
for the time being entitled to receive the rents and profits of 
any holding," and would therefore mean any farmer or employer 
sub-letting a part of his land to his bailiff or labourers. 
Compensation for Improvements. 
Lord Ashburton, when examined before a Committee of the 
House of Commons in 1836, was asked whether he could suggest 
any legislative measure by which the interests of agriculturists 
could be promoted without prejudice to the general interests of 
the community. His reply, often since repeated in substance, 
was : " I really do not know anything you can do for agri- 
culturists but to tell them honestly that no Parliamentary relief 
is possible. I am not aware of anything that can be done for 
agriculture by Parliament." f This principle of self-help is 
*»4G & 47 Vict. c. 62. 
+ Committee on the State of Agriculture, Third Eeport, 1836; Minutes of 
Evidence, p. 498. 
