A LANDLORD'S GRIEVANCE.
[To THY EDITOB 07 THE “EFECTATOIL.]
SIR,—Yon have so long been an advocate of reasonable reforms in the Land Laws, that I trust you will lift up your voice on behalf of those who, like myself, suffer from unduly strict entails. Some years ago I came in for a small estate much in need of improvements,—drainage, planting, ike. The manor- house was pulled down a generation ago by my predecessor, who was an absentee, and almost all the ornamental timber out down. Ever since I had the land, I have been replanting, at a great expense, besides draining ; and now, feeling strongly the duty to live on my own property, I am commencing to build a house. Now, how do I stand ? The land being strictly entailed, all my improvements, if I die without sons, go to a nephew whom I have never seen, and not one penny of what I should otherwise have saved can I leave to my daughter. I might, it is true, borrow for drainage, but I cannot for building a house or ornamental planting; yet without the two latter I must be an absentee, and spend the income derived from the land away from it. My tenants can claim compensation for permanent improve- ments ; and should not landlords be enabled to leave the value of bond-fide improvements, such as I describe, to whomsoever they please? I ask nothing more. I quite despair of seeing entail abolished with retrospective effect, and yet what is the object of abolishing it prospectively when such a measure will leave half England tied up for the next fifty years P Lord Cairns's Act has done very little real good, and it leaves too mach to private trustees, who may always be trusted to fear responsibility, and thus prove obstructive.—I am, Sir, &c., A SMALL SQUIRE.
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