A very large gathering of tenant-farmers and landlords assem- bled
at the Cannon-Street Hotel on Tuesday, to present Mr. C. S. Read with a testimonial, consisting of a silver salver and 5,500 guineas. The testimonial is a mark of the subscribers' admiration of Mr. Read's conduct in resigning, rather than endure further neglect of the graziers' interests. Mr. Howard, the chairman of the meeting, highly eulogised Mr. Read, who had on one occa- sion resigned the management of a large property rather than sanction sharp practices against the tenants, and mentioned a new fact about the Conservative Tenants' Rights Act. Not only has the Act fallen dead, proprietors everywhere having advertised themselves out of it, but the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- caster has contracted the estates of the Duchy out of it, the reductio ad absurdum of that feeble piece of legislation. If the Act is not good for public property, for whose property is it good? The Government might argue that any individual proprietor was prejudiced, or whimsical, or indifferent to pro- gress; but the Chancellor of the Duchy is a public officer, bound to administer the property in his charge in the way most to the interest of the State. Obviously he holds that the Act for which he voted, and with the rest of his colleagues is responsible, is a nuisance to be avoided.
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