Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-26
Tuesday Morning, April 26, 1881.
THE THREE F,s IN TUSCANY.

done those interested in the Irish question
 good service by showing how the three F's- fxity of tenure. fair rents. and free sales
 have worked in Tuscany as remedy for a
 condition of things similar to that which pre- vails in Ireland
 Toward the close of the last century the | rural population of Tuscany had long been
 in the state of chronic suffering and disturb ance now characteristic of Ireland. The greater part of the land was entailed or tied up in mortmain, and the tenants, left in the ground down to the verge of starvation, while falling of in the crops was sure to be followed by famine and desperate outbreaks
 To remedy this sad state of affairs the Grand Duke Leopold introduced sweeping agrarian reforms. The frststep of the Tuscan legis- lator was to bring into circulation all the land previously held in mortmain, by compelling the owners to sell it or grant leases in per petuity at fixed rent. The object was to create peasant proprietors wherever such result was practicable, and elsewhere to give the tenants guarantees identical with the principles of ''the three Els" Accordingly, wherever laborers could afford to buy the fee simple the lands were broken up and sold in small parcels. Where tenants, on the 1t was not thought advisable to burden them with mortgage, but the ground was let to them under favorable conditions. Precau- tlons were taken against absenteeism and the concentration of land in large estates Not only foreigners, but even Tuscans who did not reside in the particular province where the lands lay, were debarred from ac- quiring them, and even natives who already had large possessions in the neighborhood were excluded, on the ground that their &C., quisition of more land would tend to defeat the liberation of the laborers from a state of dependence.
 Liberal provisions were made in the lease granted to those tenants who were too poor to purchase fee simple. The first F. fxity of tenure, was secured by giving perpetual right of occupancy to the lessee and his heirs, contingent on payment of designated ground rent. Only when the rent remained unpaid for two years the property reverted to it's owner, whose lease, however, to new tenant was subject to the royal assent ! The second F, fair rents, was kept in view by placing the rental (which ! was fixed once for all at the time of granting the lease, but might be 1 altered if the lease lapsed and were renewed) l under State control, and not suffering it to ! reach the starvation limit to which, in 8 1 aensely peopled country, competition would ak,-,-~ ~1I~rL A., pralsers, indeed, were ordered to exhibit ! '' extraordinary generosity in the terms l offered for the encouragement of improve 1 nents where none existed. As to the third l B, or free sale of the tenants interest, special care seems to have been taken to insure it. l The occupant might alienate his usufruct, in l whole or in part, during his life or by will.
 The working of these reforms in Tuscany | was such as to furnish a strong argument for | heir application in Ireland The whole face | ofsthe country was speedily changed. Lands | ong uncultivated were brought under tiIlage; | corn took the place of stagnant water woods I were cleared and rocky hills became clothed |! with vines and olives Meanwhile the popu- ation, keeping pace with the augmented products, rapidly increased, and it was mo- iced that the turbulent Tuscan character was so far modified by prosperity that the State prisons were sometimes empty for days ,ogether.
 But while the general effect of the reforms vas of the most encouraging character, a | weakness in the liberal conditions of tenure I disclosed itself. The mistake seems to have ! ain in the third F, or the power of absolute disposition of his tenant right which was given to the occupant. The restrictions gov srning the sale of lands in fee did not apply l o the transfer of tenants interest. The peasant, therefore. was at liberty to sell his fight of perpetual occupancy to capitalist who, in his turn, was not forbidden by the erms of the law from sub-letting. The ulti- nate effect of such absence of precautions against concentration of leaseholds and sub citing was that large part of the tenant tights passed into the hands of capitalists, whose tenants paid, as sub-lessees, variable put usually much larger sum than the fixed .ental due to the owner of the fee. Aside rom this the experience of Tuscany with the three F's' is extremely encouraging to hose who propose to apply them to Ireland.