The depression in agriculture was the subject of an important
debate on Tuesday, raised by Mr. Samuelson, who moved for a Committee into the condition of agricultural tenancies, but who really wanted to have the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1875 made compulsory. All speakers admitted agricultural distress, even Mr. Chaplin saying he could produce farming accounts showing "a loss of 2s. an acre, even if the land were freehold ;" and all admitted that the Agricultural Holdings Act had effected little. Mr. Samuelson said it was "a dead-letter." Colonel Ruggles-Brise, who was most in its favour, thought it might be improved, "so as to do more than it had done ;" Mr. Barclay said it ought to have been compul- sory; Mr. Clare Read described the Act as "an excellent homily to landlords, who, however, had not attended to the duties it enjoined ;" and Sir T. Acland thought the description of the Act as a dead-letter too strong, but held that there was a full case for inquiry. Lord Sandon, who replied for the Govern- ment, relied mainly on the belief that the Act had tended to introduce a good "custom," and on statistics showing that there had been four lean years for the farmer, and an excessive com- petition from America ; while Lord Harlington declared the general impression of the failure of the Act to be well founded, and supported the demand for inquiry into its working. The proposal was, however, rejected, by 166 to 115.
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