The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-06 00:00:00

1850.

AGRICULTURAL TENANCIES.
THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF AGRI-
CULTURAL TENANCIES; with Forms and
Precedents. By George Wingrove Cooke, of the
Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Author of " A
Treatise on Inclosures," &c., &c. Bvo. London,
1850.
Mr. Wingrove Cooke, of the Home Circuit, is one
of those toiling lawyers who fill up a long vacatio❑
with a long task. When others hie away to rustling
stubbles and breezy hills these laborious sons of Themis
retire into their inner chamber, shut their doors about
them, and, having summoned their calf-skin-bound
familiars to their aid, cast—an octavo. An example,
by the way, to our agricultural friends, how men in
other pursuits are obliged to rely upon their own
efforts, and to strive, to labour, and to compete for
business and for eminence. The result of Mr. Cooke's
long vacation is a very remarkable book—remark-
able, not because it is a good law book with cases and
statutes, and contents and index, all in good order and
well put together. A man who knows his business
has no great difficulty in compiling such a thing, and
the production generally vouches more:for the author's
power of plodding than for his power of brain. Mr.
Cooke might have perpetrated a hundred professional
volumes without attracting our attention ; nor,
although conveyancing is
A science, which Lord Coke supposes
Began about the time of Moses,
should we have cared to follow him through
a labyrinth of cases and covenants. But this
volume, without intending it, and while pur-
portiag only to tell country attorneys how to
draw farming leases, and landowners how to check
their agents' valuations, in reality lays bare a state of
law and a social evil which few persons could suspect
to exist even i❑ a code of laws made entirely by land-
lords. It seems that the law as between a farmer
and his landlord differs from that which rules the
bargains of any other classes. If a baker sets up an
oven, or a brewer sets up a set of vats for the purpose
of carrying on his business, the fixtures remai❑ his
own, and he can take them away when his tenancy
ceases. If a farmer sets up a thrashing machine, a
barn, a feeding shed, or a steam-engine, it imme-
diately becomes the property of the landlord, who
may turn him out with half-a-year's notice, and take
possession of the whole without one farthing compen-
sation. We only wonder that the same rule does not
apply to the farmer's stocks and his household furni-
ture ; and indeed it might just as rationally be applied
to his wife and daughters. Again, it seems that if a
farmer agree with his landlord that he will spend one,
two, or three thousand pounds in draining and im-
proving the farm (and without such agreement all
the improvements might be taken possession of without
compensation),if the estate is entailed the next possessor
is not bound by the agreement, and the farmer may
be turned out on his landlord's death without any no-
tice whatever. Such is the state of the law between
landlords and their farmers, and in the face of this our
Stanleys and Richmonds have the coolness to exhort
their tenants to spend capital upon the land. " You
want skill—you want enterprise. Why don't you
drain ? Try subsoil ploughing—buy manures—adopt
high farming—raise double crops," shout the noble
founders of Protectionist societies ; and the press re-
echoes the cry, and comfortable citizens wonder that
farmers won't carry on their business like cotton
spinners, and invest the proper amount of capital to
ensure a return of profit. No wonder that such
harangues fall upon dull ears. Swift is said to have
preached a short charity sermon in these words:—
"He who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord ; my
brethren, if you like the security, down with your
money." The farmers do not like the security but
as they dare not say so, they silently act upon their
convictions, and the land is scantily cultured, and so
it will continue to be as long as landlords have the
monopoly of law-making, and use their power to
make such laws as these. Mr. Cooke sees the only
remedy in written agreements, which shall provide
the compensations that the law desires. On this sub-
ject he says, in his preface—
`• Written contracts, whether in form of agreements
or leases, are grown into more general, but still not into
very general, use throughout the kingdom. The ordi-
nary class of farmer—with not too much capital, no
exuberant enterprise, and little confidence in new sys-
tems, but with considerable shrewdness and great talent
for bargaining—prefers the elasticity of a parol contract.
Reductions of rent, allowances for improvements, and the
lax culture obligations of the custom of the country, are
all opportunities for constant haggling, and, unless the
agent be a very shrewd, hard man, fur constant putty
victories. No wonder that a simple verbal tenancy is
preferred by this class, to security for improvements they
never intend to make, sad covenants for good husbandry
precisely defined.

"Gradually, however, cunning must give place to wis-
dom; and this class of farmers must surrender to stran-
gers, or must be succeeded by sons who have learned the
necessity of an exact demarcation of their rights and
obligations. Little advantages gained, small reductions,
occasional allowances, are as nothing when compared
with the vast yearly difference of produce raised from
the same land, by a farmer who drains and highly
manures and a farmer who does nut. Yet he must be
too improvident a man to bo a good farmer, who should
invest in the land capital sufficient fur high cultivation,
without some security that a change in the ownership of
the estate (whatever well-founded confidence he may
have in the present landlord) may not at any moni,nt
bring a no:ice to give up firm, improvements, and capital,
and leave it all, uncompensated, to a stranger. If the
modern system of husbandry is to progress until it be-
comes universal, precise written contracts roust extend
over the land with an equal pace. It will la, conceded
that a species of contract, which thus bids fair to con-
trol the management of all the land of England, deserves
more especial consideration than it could receive in those
general works whereut it formed but a very subordinate
subdivision."

Mr. Cooke has collected all the precedents of agree-
ments that have been adopted by landlords who are
inclined to deal justly with their tenantry, and we
are not surprised to find that these are the men who
are least heard of as Protectionist spouters. Among
those who are the advocates of tenant right, and who
—know what's right—not only so,
But also practise what they know,"
are Lord Yarborough and Earl de Grey, the Duke
of Devonshire, Mr. Tollemache of Cheshire, Mr. Par-
kinson of Ley Fields, Mr. Woollett Wilmot, Mr.
Bartholomew of Wragby, Mr. Badcock of Launces-
ton, and many other eminent liberal landlords and
agriculturists, whose different schemes of tenant-
right allowances are all set forth in the
book. These landowners are inclined to consult
their own interest and their tenants by doing common
honesty, but there are numbers upon whom mere ex-
ample will be thrown away. When we open this book
we wonder that it never was written before; and when
we find that no such book existed before we cease to
wonder that farming leases are on all hands admitted

to be expensive sheep skins, filled with absurd stipu-
lations impossible to reduce to practice. Mr. Cooke

has now armed the country attorney with a full
knowledge of all the mysteries of corn-rents, crop-
ping, and manuring, and the land agent with all the
legal knowledge necessary to draw a farming agree -
rnent. He has explained in his preface the peculiar
facilities he has enjoyed for combining the two sciences
of law and agriculture, and obvious as was the neces-
sity of such a book to meet what the Protectionists

call the agricultural crisis, there was probably no
other man than himself, in either profession, who
could have written it. We hope it may lead not only
to the professional reputation and profit which the
author no doubt very fairly had in view, but also to a
revision of the whole state of the law upon this subject,
and a little justice to the agricultural tenant.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—I trust to your truthfulness to insert this answer
to your attack upon the prebendaries of St. Paul's.
1. The prebendaries are not members of the Chapter.
2. They have not the slightest, authority in the Cathe-
dral.
3. All of us who wore appointed since the Ecclesiasti-
cal Reform Act derive no revenue from the Cathedral
estates. Our appointments are entirely honorary, and
although we are happy to receive this mark of distinc-
tion from our Bishop, we have no ambition of the addi-
tional honorary title of "Twopenny Showmen of St.
Paul's." Let the blame of so odious an act rest with
those to whom it attaches, the Dean and four Canons, who
have the whole and sole control of the Cathedral.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A PRBENDARY.
P.S. I enclose my name for y our satEisfaction, not for
publication.

NEW PIER AT RYDE.—An earnest movement is
being made for the erection of a noble pier, worthy of Ryde.
Surveys and estimates have been made, and a plan is in
course of execution. It is proposed to have it of galvanised
iron, about three times the width of the present one, with
head in proportion, and to be furnished with a tram-road
and carriages for the accommodation of passengers. It will
run from the Dover a little to the east of Ryde, Where good
approaches can be secured easily, the ground' being yet Un-
occupied. There is no want of capital to carry it through
the opposition anticipated from the proprietors of the present
old pier, whose want of spirit and liberality in forwarding the
improvements proposed last year, have induced the present
movement; and those who would have been the last to re-
move the traffic from its present site, are forward now to sup-
port the measure, from a conviction that, like the New Steam
Company, it is the only way left to keep pace with the re-
quirements of the day.
AN ADVENTURE AT WOINIBWELL'S MENAGERIE.—
A youth at Durham, while visiting Wombwell's menagerie,
laid his hand upon the paw of an African lion, which was
protruded beneath the bars, a familiarity which the brute
resented in a tearful manner. With the quickness of light-
ning the animal laid hold of the unhappy intruder by the
hand, and drawing him close against the bars of the cage,
with his other paw he fastened upon his head. The cries Of
the lad instantly attracted the attention of the keeper, who
flew to the spot, and after severely beating the infuriated
brute upon the paws, compelled hint to relinquish his hold.
The whole proceeding was the work of a moment, but the
unfortunate lad retains traces of his fearful rencontre,
which he will bear with him to the grave. klis head and
both his hands are lacerated in a terrible manner, and in
addition to which he has received several severe scratches
on the throat and neck. The tumult occasioned in the
menagerie by this incident .is indescribable.—Durham Ad
-
t