Sir John Ramsden has for some years past been fighting
his Huddersfield tenantry, and this week the quarrel came to a head. It appears that 1,700 of the canny Yorkshiremen who built that city did so without leases, holding the late Sir John Ramsden's word as good as any possible parchment. They considered them- selves entitled to leases for sixty years whenever they pleased, leases to be renewable every twenty years with fine, but without increase of rent. During the present owner's minority his guardians and the tenants had two acts passed defining their re- spective position ; but they still claim the leases, while Sir John asserts that they are all tenants at will. The Vice-Chancellor has now decided that the owner must give his tenants leases for forty years, but the existing rent will be doubled, and fines at expiry of lease settled before the Master. We suppose the case will be appealed, and the facts are still not clear ; but any man who believes that any Yorkshireman alive ever built a house at his own expense on the strength of a tenancy at will maligns the county. He would as soon sell a horse for less than its value.
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