TENANT. 
forcing their constituent particles into a closer 
state of aggregation; and this can easily be done 
in small bars, because from their want of reac- 
tion, they yield to every blow of the hammer, 
and its effect is transmitted through their whole 
substance; while the reaction of a large and 
heavy bar opposes this effect, and the condensa- 
tion is more confined to the surface. A number 
of small bars acting simultaneously, are, there- 
fore, found to produce more strength than one 
large bar equal in size to their sum. 
wise explains why a faggoted bar of iron should 
be stronger than one that has not undergone the 
operation.— Millington. 
It like- 
TENANT, A person who holds tenements or 
lands or both, during a limited period, on consi- 
deration of rendering stipulated services or pay- 
ing a stipulated rent to the proprietor. 
articles Rent, AGREEMENT, Lease, and Lanp 
(PROPERTY IN). 
the pleasure of the lesser; a tenant from year to 
year either holds during strictly one year, or holds 
during an undeterminate period on consideration 
of an annual rent; and a tenant for a fixed period 
of years holds during the time specified in express 
agreement or in lease. 
See the 
A tenant at will holds during 
THNANT RIGHT. The right of a tenant to 
all the productive results of any improvements 
which he makes upon his land, or to a fairly 
valued compensation for such of them as are un- 
exhausted at the expiration of his term of occu- 
pancy. This right is to the full as obvious as 
that of lease-tenure, which we have contended 
for in the article Leasn, and rests on substan- 
tially the same principles, and works out nearly 
the same effects; and were any such practices 
between landlord and tenant as those which we 
have advocated in that article to become univer- 
sally approved and adopted, it would be so amply 
superseded as to find not an inch of scope for a 
separate existence; but, on the supposition that 
many landlords may still load all leases with op- 
pressive conditions, that many others may per- 
tinaciously maintain the system of very short 
lease-tenure or of absolute tenancy-at-will, and 
that neither class may be likely to adopt more 
correct views of what is due to themselves, to 
their tenants, and to the whole community, 
under any less gentle influence than that of an 
express and stringent act of parliament, the 
question of tenant-right gravely proposes itself 
as a fit and urgent subject of legislation. 
do not see any need for our taking a side on this 
question; and we think we have said enough on 
all the grand principles of land-occupancy in the 
We 
articles Lanp (Property 1N), Leasn, and Reyt; 
yet we shall present our readers with a. brief 
abstract of the most telling part of a recent 
Prize Essay on the subject from the pen of 
Henry Corbet, secretary of the London Farmer’s 
Club :— ° 
<* By the aid of frequent discussion at public meet- 
| ings, and repeated notices from the press, many of 
| 
TENANT RIGHT. 421 
the more intelligent farmers and active landlords 
will, no doubt, give the subject of tenant-right a 
place in their agreements; while, on the other hand, 
those who most require that impetus it carries with 
it would be left to keep on just as they so long have 
been. Tenant-right will never, or, at least, cannot 
for many years, come into general use from the ef- 
forts of such agency as this alone. Self-contented, 
unaspiring, stand-still tenants will pass it over again 
and again, precisely as they do now; and short-sighted 
owners, that, in the words of a noble lord who lately 
stood forward to represent them, ‘ would rather keep 
to their old tenants and old ways than put up with 
new at double the rent,’ will ‘ pooh! pooh!’ its pro- 
gress, as they are doing at present. Look, for ex- 
ample, as to the gradual spreading of tenant-right, 
at the petition of the Lincolnshire landlords against 
the passing of any enactment for insuring it—unin- 
tentionally the best argument that was, perhaps, 
ever offered for making such an Act. Say the Lin- 
colnshire landlords—‘ We have tenant-right already; 
we have long practised and profited to the full by its 
advantages. What then can be the use of enforcing 
by law what we do voluntarily?’ Exactly so. The 
action of tenant-right has brought the bogs and fens 
of Lincoln from the worst to be the best cultivated 
land in the kingdom, and doubled and trebled its 
value to both landlord and tenant. ‘This has been 
proved and known for many years, and has of course 
proceeded to this very natural consequence. Neigh- 
bours first, and their neighbours again, ad infinitum, 
have gradually adopted so excellent a plan, until at 
length the whole country has learnt the secret of 
the men of Lincoln, and brought its acres to vie in 
produce with those of that once favoured district. 
Is it so? and is any further inducement for following 
your example so entirely superfluous? Or rather 
does not the tenant-right part (only) of the county 
of Lincoln stand out at this moment like an oasis 
from the north, south, east, and west territory by 
which it is surrounded? This famous protest—and 
it will be worth while to proceed with it a little 
further—is framed in defiance of the first principle of 
legislation. Laws, be it remembered, are required 
not to compel the just, but to restrain the unjust, — 
in vulgar phrase, ‘for rogues, not honest men.’ Now 
a good and just landlord that does his duty volun- 
tarily, and gives his tenant full recompense for all he 
may not have reaped, needs no enactment to induce 
him to this. Such a law could in no way affect him, 
for he does and has done all so provided for without 
it. The object is to make others follow his exam- 
ple, and ensure their doing that by law that many 
would hesitate, from ignorance, prejudice, or a worse 
motive, to do of their own free will. Thus, the 
answer to all who join in with the Lincolnshire land- 
lords is plain enough: if, as you say, you have the 
tenant-right secured to you by the custom of your 
own district, our new Act will to you be as nothing, 
either good or bad; all we want is to extend that 
custom to others. So, to the argument of the tenant, 
who, happy in this custom, or with a full confidence 
in the honour of that high family who always have 
and always will, he is sure, do him justice, let us 
reply that our only desire is to see other landlords 
like his. In the strength of his own position such a 
measure may sound superfluous enough, but it may 
yet be much required elsewhere. We have, how- 
ever, heard some go further than this, and in the 
gratitude of their hearts declare that the very fact of 
legalizing tenant-right would be the greatest insult 
that could be offered to the good landlord; because, 
as they say, it would convey a doubt as to his con- 
tinuing to show that justice which had never been 
doubted before. In direct contradiction to this, we 
affirm it is the highest compliment you could pay 
him; it is the stamped approval of the course he has 
