In this Act

SECTION 61.

Interpretation.

"Contract of tenancy" means a letting of or agreement for the letting land for a term of years, or for lives, or for lives and years, or from year to year :

A tenancy from year to year under a contract of tenancy current at the commencement of the Act shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to continue to be a tenancy under a contract of tenancy current at the commencement of this Act until the first day on which either the landlord or tenant of such tenancy could, the one by giving notice to the other immediately after the commencement of this Act, cause such tenancy to determine, and on and after such day as aforesaid shall be deemed to be a tenancy under a contract of tenancy beginning after the commencement of this Act:

"Determination of tenancy" means the cesser of a contract of tenancy by reason of efflxion of time, or from any other cause: "Landlord" in relation to a holding means any person for the time

being entitled to receive the rents and profits of any holding : "Tenant" means the holder of land under a landlord for a term of years, or for lives, or for lives and years, or from year to year : "Tenant” includes the executors, administrators, assigns, legatee, devisee, or next-of-kin, husband, guardian, commiteee of the estate or trustees in bankruptcy of a tenant, or any person deriving title from a tenant; and the right to receive compensation in respect of any improvement made by a tenant shall enure to the benefit of such executors, administrators, assigns, and other persons as aforesaid :

“Holding means any parcel of land held by a tenant:

"County court," in relation to a holding, means the county court within the district whereof the holding or the larger part thereof is situate:

"Person" includes a body of persons and a corporation aggregate or sole:

“Live stock" includes any animal capable of being distrained : "Manures" means any of the improvements numbered twenty-two and twenty-three in the third part of the First Schedule hereto :

The designations of landlord and tenant shall continue to apply to the parties until the conclusion of any proceedings taken under or in pursuance of this Act in respect of compensation for improvements, or under any agreement made in pursuance of this Act.

Every important definition comprised in the above interpretation clause has already been discussed in the notes on the various sections where the meaning of the terms used appeared to be of importance in the proper construction of the Act, and the section therefore needs nofurther comment here.

SECTION 62.

Repeal of the Acts of 1875 and 1876.

On and after the commencement of this Act, the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1875, and the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1875, Amendment Act, 1876, shall be repealed.

Provided that such repeal shall not affect

(a.) any thing duly done or suffered, or any proceedings pending under or in pursuance of any enactment hereby repealed; or (b.) any right to compensation in respect of improvements to which

the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1875, applies, and which were executed before the commencement of this Act; or (c.) any right to compensation in respect of any improvement to which the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1875, applies, although executed by a tenant after the commencement of this Act if made under a contract of tenancy current at the commencement of this Act; or

(d.) any right in respect of fixtures affixed to a holding before the mencement of this Act;

and any right reserved by this section may be enforced after the commencement of this Act in the same manner in all respects as if no such repeal had taken place.

There are so few cases of farms coming within the operation of the Act of 1875 that the reservations as to its repeal will affect very few individuals. If a tenant has claims under the Act of 1875 he may still prosecute them as provided by that Act, and if he has made improvements before 1st January, 1884, or even afterwards under an old tenancy, and which entitle him to claim compensation under the Act of 1875, he may still do so, and his right to fixtures affixed to his holding before 1st January, 1884, is not affected by the repeal of the Acts of 1875 and 1876.

SECTION 63.

Short Title of the Act.

This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1883.

This title hardly conveys the idea of its covering a revolution in the Law of Distress for Rent.

SECTION 64.

Limits of the Act.

This Act shall not apply to Scotland or Ireland.

The Act will apply to Wales, which is included in the term "England.'

The provisions of the Act, so far as regards compensation to be claimed in respect of the general class of holdings, having now been dealt with, it will be useful here to set out the clauses affecting lands specially circumstanced, viz., those held of the Crown and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and Ecclesiastical and Charity Lands, after which the mode of procedure by a tenant to obtain compensation and by a landlord to obtain a charge on his holding for the amount paid, will conclude the clauses of the Act as affecting compensation and its general provisions, leaving only the alteration of the Law of Distress to be discussed.

CROWN AND DUCHY LANDS.

SECTION 35.

Application of Act to Crown Lands.

This Act shall extend and apply to land belonging to Her Majesty the Queen, her heirs and successors, in right of the Crown.

With respect to such land. for the purposes of this Act, the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, or one of them, or other the proper officer or body having charge of such land for the time being, or in case there is no such officer or body, then such person as Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, may appoint in writing under the Royal Sign Manual, shall represent Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, and shall be deemed to be the landlord.

Any compensation payable under this Act by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, or either of them, in respect of an improvement mentioned in the first or second part of the First Schedule hereto, shall be deeemd to be payable in respect of an improvement of land within section one of the Crown Lands Act, 1866, and the amonnt thereof shall be charged and repaid as in that section provided with respect to the costs, charges, and expenses therein mentioned.

Any compensation payable under this Act by those Commissioners, or either of them. in respect of an improvement mentioned in the third part of the First Schedule hereto, shall be deemed to be part of the expenses of the management of the Land Revenues of the Crown, and shall be payable to those Commissioners out of such money and in such manner as the last mentioned expenses are by law payable.

SECTION 36.

Application of Act to Land of Duchy of Lancaster.

This Act shall extend and apply to land belonging to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, in right of the Duchy of Lancaster.

With respect to such land for the purpose of this Act, the Chancellor for the time being of the Duchy shall represent Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, and shall be deemed to be the landlord.

The amount of any compensation payable under this Act by the Chancellor of the Duchy in respect of an improvement mentioned in

the first or second part of the First Schedule to this Act shall be deemed to be an expense incurred in improvement of land belonging to Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, in right of the Duchy, within section twenty-five of the Act of the fifty-seventh year of King George the Third, chapter ninety-seven, and shall be raised and paid as in that section provided with respect to the expences therein mentioned.

The amount of any compensation payable under this Act by the Chancellor of the Duchy in respeet of an improvement mentioned in the third part of the First Schedule to this Act shall be paid out of the annual revenues of the Duchy.

SECTION 37.

Application of Act to Land of Duchy of Cornwall.

This Act shall extend and apply to land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall.

With respect to such land, for the purposes of this Act, such person as the Duke of Cornwall for the time being, or other the personage for the time being entitled to the revenues and possessions of the Duchy of Cornwall, from time to time by sign manual, warrant, or otherwise, appoints, shall represent the Duke of Cornwall or other the personage aforesaid, and be deemed to be the landlord, and may do any act or thing under this Act which a landlord is authorised or required to do thereunder.

Any compensation payable under this Act by the Duke of Cornwall, or other the personages aforesaid, in respect of an improvement mentioned in the first or second part of the First Schedule to this Act shall be deemed to be payable in respect of an improvement of land within section eight of the Duchy of Cornwall Management Act, 1863, and and the amount thereof may be advanced and paid from the money mentioned in that section, subject to the provision therein made for repayment of sums advanced for improvements.

The above three sections are really provisions interesting only to the officers and others having charge of the Crown lands, and of the lands of the two Duchies, and do not affect tenants at all, except so far as the sections indicate the several persons who are to be deemed to be the landlords of Crown and Duchy Lands respectively for the purposes of this Act, and except also that it is clearly provided the Act shall apply to holdings held under the Crown or the two Duchies.

ECCLESIASTICAL AND CHARITY LANDS.

SECTION 38.

Landlord Archbishop or Bishop.

Where lands are assigned or secured as the endowment of a see, the powers by this Act conferred on a landlord shall not be exercised by the archbishop or bishop, in respect of those lands, except with the previous approval in writing of the Estates Committee of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England.

The only application which this section can have, so far as tenants of Bishopric lands are concerned, is that such tenants must ascertain before treating the Archbishop or Bishop as the landlord for the purpose of giving consents, accepting notices and exercising other powers of a landlord that the Archbishop or Bishop is duly authorised so to act by the Estates Committee of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and it would appear that a Bishop or Archbishop who chooses to refrain from asking for the authority required will virtually exclude the Act from affecting the Bishopric lands, as in such a case there would be no landlord to consent to improvements of the first class, or to whom notice could be given as to Drainage, or on whom notice of claim could be served under sec. 7.

If it was necessary to pass the Act it would seem to be equally necessary to have provided the tenant with some remedy in case of a capricious refusal by a Bishop to seek the approval of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, required by sec. 38, or the refusal of the latter to grant the consent required..

SECTION 39.

Landlord incumbent of benefice.

Where a landlord is incumbent of an ecclesiastical benefice, the powers by this Act conferred on a landlord shall not be exercised by him in respect of the glebe land or other land belonging to the benefice, except with the previous approval in writing of the patron of the benefice, that is, the person, officer, or authority who, in case the benefice were vacant, would be entitled to present thereto, or of the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty (that is, the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy).

In every such case the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty may, if they think fit, on behalf of the incumbent, out of any money in their hands, pay to the tenant the amount of compensation due to him under the Act and thereupon they may, instead of the incumbent, obtain from the county court a charge on the holding, in respect thereof, in favour of themselves.

Every such charge shall be effectual, notwithstanding any change of the incumbent.

When the extent of Glebe land in the country is considered it will at once be seen how important the above section may prove in almost every parish, and the note under sec. 38 applies here with increased force. A rector or vicar or other holder of a benefice or living is not to exercise any of the powers of a landlord under this Act in