TENANT IN TAIL. See TAIL, ESTATE.
This term is used by tenants to• denote the various claims of right which they may maintain against their landlords, such as the right of occu pancy not subject to removal; and the right to occupy at a rent not subject to increase on the ground of improvements; it being said to bo inequitable to make them pay rent for what they have themselves produced. It is in Ireland that the claims have always had most importance. In Ulster, and in the north of Ireland gener ally, the equity of them has long been recognized and acted upon. In the south of Ire land, on the other hand, tenant-right was never conceded by the proprietors; while the right of occupancy not subject to removal, has, de facto, been enjoyed by the tenants. The non-settlement of the question was long the cause of bitter controversy, and undoubt edly its evil condition was the root of much of the national misery. Owing to the old tenure of land as tribal or clan property, the people of the south of Ireland never received into their minds the notion of "contracting" with any one as the " owner " of land. They had the traditional feeling of being themselves the owners; and so much was this feeling a source of agrarian disturbances, that few Irish "landed proprietors" have ever ventured fully to exercise their rights of property. And nothing was more common in the south than to find that the land had been in the occupancy of the same families from time immemorial without lease or contract of any kind.
The discontent in Ireland continued unabated till the British government interfered and settled the claims, in so far as was practicable at the time, on equitable principles. The passing of the landlord and tenant act of 1870, marked an epoch in the history of Ireland. Under it the Ulster tenant-right custom and all corresponding customs received the force of law, and when the matter did not admit of being regulated by a definite custom, the outgoing tenant became entitled to compensation from the landlord to an amount varying from one to seven year's rent, according to circumstances. The act also contained various provisions, giving compensation for improvements. It would be too much to say that this act has produced contentment, but it has greatly dimin ished the dissatisfaction, and has opened the way to the ultimate solution of the whole question. To Mr. Gladstone is due the principal share of the honor of passing it, but some of its best clauses were the work of Mr. Bright.
The Irish claim of tenant-right very much resembles that made by the Indian ryots i against their zemindars. In India, as in Ireland, until what may be called recent times,
land belonged to families or communities, which held themselves to be composed of kindred; but by acts passed by our government, a class of mere tax-collectors have been converted into land-owners, in order to facilitate the collection of the revenue. Hence, there has been in India an agitation very much resembling that which prevailed in the south of Ireland. The ryot claim of tenant-right was made the subject of a suit before the supreme courts of India, when a majority of the judges favored the equitable claim of the ryots. In countries where the people have been trained in notions derived from the Roman or feudal laws, there has been little heard of this species of claim of right, and land has been recognized by the people as being, like other things, a fair subject for contract.
In Scotland and in the north of England farms are almost always let on long leases, and at such rents as are supposed to repay the tenant the capital which he may lay out in improvements; and the common case is, that the landlord binds himself to pay the ten ant a stipulated sum as the value of his improvements, provided that these are found at the end of the lease to be of a certain stipulated value. Over England generally, on the other hand, tenancy can be ended by six months' notice on either side, and the evils incidental to this precarious tenure have been obviated or mitigated solely by the hon orable conduct of the English proprietors. It is quite common in England to find that the son has succeeded the father as tenant-at will for many generations, often for cen turies.
Since the admission of the claim to tenant-right in Ireland, it has been more fre quently heard of in the other parts of the United Kingdom, especially in the form of a claim to compensation for permanent or unexhausted improvements made by the tenant. Of the equity of this claim there can he no doubt, and the law might easily be altered so as to admit of effect being given to it. As matters at present stand, there is little inducement for a tenant to improve the land. The law by which the ownership of improvement follows the ownership of land, is in the present condition of things in the highest degree unjust and inexpedient. The tenant's interest in all his improvements ending with his tenancy, he is very unlikely, at least toward the end of his term, to spend anythingon the land which will be of benefit to it; and where he is a tenant-at will, lie is entirely without interest to improve it.