the House. He had consented to limit to twenty years
the interference with freedom of contract. He reluctantly consented to include all tenants of holdings of £50 rent and upwards, in the class with whose free contracts the Bill would prohibit interference, on the ground that they are independent enough to look after their own interests :—and though the clause by which landlords could escape the provisions of the Bill by offering a thirty-one years' lease satisfactory to the Court was withdrawn, yet it was still intended that any such landlords' offer should be taken fairly into account by the Court under the Equi- ties' clauses, and be considered to tell in diminution of damages. Mr. Gladstone quoted in a portion of his speech showing a marvellous command of all the details of the subject, the ample reasons for giving very much higher damages for eviction at the lower end of the scale than at the higher. His new scale is a maximum of 7 years' rent (if no separate claim be made for minor improvements, and of 5 years if it be) for farms of £10, and under ;—a maximum of 5 years' rent (if no separate claim for minor improvements be made, and of 4 years if it be) for farms under £30 and above £10, a maximum of 4 years' rent between £30 and £40, of 3 years' lx- t ween £40 and £50, of 2 years' between 150 and £100, and of 1 year's rent over £100.
