Lord Hartington, on Friday week, made an important speech at
Yeovil, in which, while admitting agricultural depression, he stated that Protection could be no remedy, quoting the very curious petition sent up from the Vale of Taunton in 1822, in which landlords and tenants alike, though thoroughly pro- tected, declared themselves in expectation of immediate ruin. He did not believe that any change of local taxation could be a relief to the farmer, for the moment the sun shone again, and there was competition for farms, the landlord would add the amount of that relief to his rent. He held that the land should be en- franchised, so that it might not remain for years or generations in the hands of men without capital ; and that the law "ought to give the tenant-farmer full security for all the capital that could profitably be laid out upon his holding." "But I must say that I do not agree with the theory, put forward by some persons, that the employment of such capital in the cultivation of the soil should, under circumstances and conditions strictly limited, give the person so permitted to lay out his capital a co-proprietorship right in the soil." And he would hesitate to lay down in any compulsory enactment the manner in which landlords and tenants should hereafter act. He was rather in favour of the tenants, who were now masters of the position, forcing on landlords the agreements they thought beneficial. There is not much hope for the farmers in this speech, which, so far as we see, does not promise even compulsory compensa- tion for improvements, and is a retrocession from the Liberal programme. Under that, the minimum of change is the Agricultural Holdings Act made compulsory.
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