Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1869-12-24 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE POPE.—A private letter, dated the Bth inst., from a vimitor to Rome, who was lately favoured with a private audience at the Vatican, describes the Pope as "looking much worn and fati.:;ue.l; but his energy," adds the writer, "is wonderful, nip' he is in great spirit in spite of anxiety and age." It is really wonderful to think of the bodily and mental labours that this fine and venerable obi man, approaching his eightieth year, is undergoing at this critical time. It must need all the enthusiasm of an ardent faith, and all the energy of a fixed purpose, to bear him up through the incessant ceremonies, audiences, consultations, religious functions, and cares of temporal government, which are now multiplied a hundredfold by the presence of the General Council, and the conduct of the committees of that ecclesiastical Parliament, in the migst of the solemnities of the Christmas season.—Daily Neerß.  suicide. The right of compensation for improvements is sufficiently protected either by agreements or by rules embodied in the local custom of the country. The improvements mad by tenants in highly cultivated districts consist for the most part of fertility added to the land within a recent period Ly particular methods of cropping or cultivating, and by artificial manures. There are sometimes differences of opinion as to the amount claimed by an outgoing tenant; but the principle that he is entitled to be paid in money for what he leaves in the land in addition to what he found there is never practically disputed. As a general rule no tenant in England, except under special agreements which supersede the necessity of legislation, builds or drains, or makes the permanent improvements for which it is alleged that protection is required. Where the landlord finds the capital and adds the interest to the rent, it is evident that the benefit will accrue to the occupier for the time being, and that there is no pretext for compensation on either side. Over a great part of England, the tenant, as a matter of fact, never think of leaving the land leattir than he found it; and yet, Recording to the scheme which Lord Lichfield faN•teirs, every termination of an occupancy would, as a setter of course, be followed by litigation. The wi t nes .;es to be exatuined before any tribunal which might be appointed to assess the compensation would probably be tenant-farmers with an incurable bias in favour of the claimant. The expense and uncertainty which would follow the removal of even the most vexatious and incompetent tenant would, as in Ireland, be the first step towards perpetuity of tenure. The corresponding liability of an outgoing tenant who had demonstrably deteriorated the value of the land would in nine cases ont of ten be merely nominal. A landowner is for the most part willing to let a bad farmer go out without enforcing the claims which may have arisen from his mismanagement. In the more backward parts of the country it is found that leases are one-sided bargains which the tenant dissolves at pleasure, while the landlord is secessarily bound. A legal presumption that an outgoing tenant was entitled to compensation would have an exactly similar effect, and an artificial fixity of tenure would remove one motive which induces farmers to do justice to the land. A capricious eviction of a good tenant is one of the rarest of rural occurrences. The risk that the promulgation of careless fallacies may encourage extravagant demands was illustrated by the proceedings at a late meeting at Aberystwith, assembled to protest against the grievances of certain Wulslt tenants, who had or had not been evicted for political reasons after the general election. There can in the present day be no difference in opinion as to the culpability of a landlord who dismisses a tenant for exercising his franchise according to his own discretion. Modern public opinion may possibly not have penetrated into the remoter parts of Wales. A century ago Irish leases, of which some are still extant, but not valid, often included covenants binding the tenant to vote as his landlord might direct. In Wales, and generally in England, a tacit understanding took the place of an illegal contract, and the substitution of the influence of the Dissenting minister for the traditionary power of the landlord has perhaps produced ill-feeling and injustice. If only a small part of the allegations of the Welsh ministers and their political associates proves to be true, the tenants who may have suffered for their preference of the chapel to the hall are entitled to sympathy, and, where it is possible, to redress; but occasion was taken at the Aberystwith meeting to agitate for revolutionary changes in the distribution of landed property. Mr Richard,