The Government Bill for securing compensation to agricul- tural tenants
was brought forward on Thursday, but not till after one o'clock. Mr. Dodson, therefore, who has charge of the Bill, made only a descriptive speech, and there was no discus- sion, though Mr. Howard and Mr. Barclay contrived to intimate their disappointment with the measure. It is by no means a revolutionary one. The right of distraint is not abolished, but only limited to one year's rent. The tenants gain an absolute right to compensation for permanent improvements, if made with the landlord's consent, and for temporary improve- ments even without it ; and can, if the landlord refuses to do necessary drainage, perform the work themselves, obtaining compensation on quitting the holding. But, as we understand the Bill, a new tenant can agree on entering his farm to any compensation for future improvements he pleases ; and if he does, he writes himself out of the Act. In prosperous years, this will be done, though not in such times as the present ; and the tenants, who have all along asked for compulsion, will not, therefore, be content. Still, they gain one grand point. Under the old Act, the landlord could abrogate the right of compensa- tion. Under the new one, that power passes to the tenant, who, if he chooses, may insist on the full benefit of the law. We should imagine the Bill would pass, and he frequently quoted hereafter as a " settlement " which it is unfair to disturb.
