crofters'
holdings as suitable opportunities offered and when the tenants could
profitably occupy and stock the same, the demand for more land seems
likely to be conceded in many cases without compulsory legislation. The
bill defines a crofter to be a tenant from year to year of a holding of
which the rent is less than fifty pounds a year, and which is situated
in a crofting-parish. Every such crofter is to have security of tenure
so long as he pays his rent and complies with certain other conditions;
his rent is to be fixed by an official valuer or by arbitration, if he
and his landlord cannot agree in regard to it; he is to have
compensation, on quitting his holding, for all his improvements which
are suitable for the holding; and his heirs may inherit his interests,
although he may not sell or assign them. Such propositions seem radical
and calculated to interfere greatly with proprietary rights and the
freedom of contract. They are, however, but little more than statements
of the customs that already exist on some of the best estates. Just as
the government by the Irish Land Law Act (1881) took up the Ulster
tenant-right customs, gave them the force of law, and extended them to
all Ireland, it is proposed by this bill to give the sanction of law to
those customary rights which the crofters claim to have inherited from
former generations, and which have long been conceded by some of the
landlords.

Such a measure of relief will not make all the crofters contented and
prosperous. It will, however, give them security against being turned
out of their homes and against excessively high rents, and will
encourage them to spend their labor and money in improving their
holdings. If some assistance could be given to those who may wish to
emigrate from overcrowded districts, and if the government would make
liberal advances of money to promote the fishing industry, the prospect
that the discontent and destitution would disappear would be much
better. The relief proposed will, however, be thankfully received by
many of the crofters and their friends.

DAVID BENNETT KING.

MY FRIEND GEORGE RANDALL.

Since his own days at the university George Randall had always had a
friend or two among the students who came after him. I remember how in
my Freshman year I used to see Tom Wayward going up the stairs in the
Academy of Music building to his office, and how I used to envy Billy
Wylde when I met him arm in arm with