Monmouthshire County Council, was an accountant and man of figures by occupation, a Radical in politics, and unacquainted with agricultural affairs. Mr. Richard Jones, a Montgomeryshire farmer, possessed little more than a parochial reputation when the Commission was appointed. He was known to have been educated at Aberystwith College, to be a fervent and active Radical in local politics, a strong Nonconformist, and a friend of Mr. T. E. Ellis. Mr. Griffiths was known as a sound farmer in Pembrokeshire, a judge of Castlemartin black cattle, a strong Nonconformist and Radical.

The natural criticisms to be offered upon the Commission as it stood were these. It contained five Radicals at the least, and perhaps six, to four or three Unionists as the case might be. It could not boast among its members one political economist of known repute. Its single representative of North Wales farmers came from the county of Montgomery, and was far better acquainted with the semi-English agriculture and population of the Severn Valley than with that of North Wales proper. The important counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Brecon, Merioneth, Denbigh and Glamorgan were entirely unrepresented either by farmers or landowners. Finally, taking the Commission as it stood, it was noteworthy that one party in politics was represented by a lawyer skilled in the arts of cross-examination, and that the other side was not so represented.

The terms of reference directed the Commissioners "to inquire into the conditions upon which land is held, occupied, and cultivated in Wales and Monmouthshire; " and the intention of the Legislature in formulating them was reasonably plain, especially if regard was paid, as by reasonable men it certainly ought to have been, to the preceding circumstances. Requests for special legislation, analogous in character to the Irish Land Acts and to the Crofters' Acts, had been made by the Radical member for a division of Carnarvonshire, and

by the spokesman of the Welsh Radical party in the House of Commons. Certain agrarian grievances were alleged; Mr. Gladstone, then in Opposition, had answered that legislation must be preceded by inquiry; Mr. Gladstone, as Prime Minister, had appointed this Commission to make inquiry.

It was plain, therefore, that the Commission was established to inquire not into the social, religious, literary and commercial life of Wales generally, but into the existing conditions of agricultural life. It is clear also that the Commission was not, like the Commission appointed when Mr. John Morley was Irish Secretary, intended or desired to assume that certain legislative principles ought to be imported into Wales from Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but that it was desired primarily to give in its report such a true picture of the actual state of things in agricultural Wales as would enable Parliament to reach a just decision.

The issue was, and is, grave enough in all conscience, and sufficient both in comprehensiveness and importance to satisfy the curious ambition of any body of men. Nor was it one upon the settlement of which Englishmen and Scotchmen, whether landowners or tenants, could, or can, afford to look with indifference. As, ever since the Crofters' Acts came into operation, the party of agitation has constantly been working towards an extension of the area covered by them, so it were childish to suppose that, if a Land Act were passed to govern the relation of landowner and tenant in Wales, England could possibly escape. Whatsoever is done in Flint, Denbigh and Montgomery shires must, for good or evil, be done in Cheshire and Shropshire also. If the relation of landlord and tenant is to be regulated by strict law, to the exclusion of free contract-for this is the ultimate meaning of all Land Acts-in the counties of Radnor, Brecknock and Monmouth, the extension of the same system to Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire must be merely

a question, and at best a very short question, of time. For the moment we do not discuss from the economical point of view the very problematical merits of such legislation and its very obvious demerits.

WE CONTENT OURSELVES WITH WARNING LANDOWNERS AND TENANTS AND THE WHOLE BODY OF ENGLISHMEN IN WHOM A BELIEF IN HONEST PRINCIPLE AND IN FREEDOM OF CONTRACT

STILL SURVIVES THAT THIS QUESTION, WELSH AS IT IS IN OUTWARD FORM, IS ENTIRELY AND ABSOLUTELY NATIONAL. WHEN THE TROUBLE FOR WALES COMES, AS IT SURELY WILL COME WHEN THE POLITICAL PENDULUM SWINGS AGAIN, WHEN MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS COMMISSION, WHEN THE REPORT OF THE MAJORITY IS ACCEPTED WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE IMMENSELY VOLUMINOUS AND INTRICATE EVIDENCE (OF WHICH A LARGE PART IS QUITE IMMATERIAL FROM ANY SENSIBLE POINT OF VIEW), THEN IT IS AS SURE AS DEATH THAT THE FATE OF ALL THE LAND IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES WILL HANG IN THE BALANCE. WALES HAS BEEN PLACED IN THE FOREFRONT OF THE BATTLE; BUT HER FATE WILL BE THE FATE OF THE REST OF THE COUNTRY.

And how did this Commission address itself to this serious problem? Our complaints may be summarised in a preliminary fashion, thus:—

1. Well knowing, as everybody in Wales knew, that the public sittings of the Commission, besides being used as the occasion of giving valuable evidence as to the conditions of agricultural life in Wales, would be seized as an unrivalled opportunity for paying off political grudges and for raising purely or impurely personal questions, they pursued such rules of procedure and followed such practices in the reception of so-called evidence as to encourage rather than discourage the giving of evidence of this character and to deprive the persons accused of adequate opportunity of clearing their characters.

2. They so interpreted the terms of reference as to lead to

the impression that if the Government had said, "Go to Wales and find out all about it from the days of Llewelyn till now," they could not have accepted evidence covering a wider field or dealing with a greater variety of subjects.

3. A number of them, repeatedly and persistently, questioned witnesses, without prior regard to their intellectual capacity, in such a manner as to leave the impression that they were rather itinerant missionaries to preach the virtues of a Land Court, than Commissioners appointed to inquire into a grave problem on behalf of Her Majesty.

4. They did not treat witnesses, who came before them with evidence contrary to the prejudices of the majority of the Commissioners, with that fairness and politeness which such witnesses were entitled to expect.

These are all serious allegations requiring to be justified by chapter and verse, by statement of ascertained facts and by reference to particular passages in the evidence. They go to the very root of things and, if proved, they go a long way towards disposing of the report of the majority of the Commissioners. Assuredly therefore they deserve a chapter to themselves.

CHAPTER IV.

Procedure and Practice of the Commission-their Refusal to admit Counsel-Lord Penrhyn's Offer-Rules as to preliminary Copies of Evidence-" Members of the Public" permitted to exhibit Questions in Writing-Secretary to communicate with Persons aggrieved— Opportunities of Rebuttal to be given-Examples of Breach of these Rules-and of their ineffective Character when kept— Stringency of Procedure as to Rebuttal-the Allegation of Fear among the Tenantry-Mr. David Jones and Lord Penrhyn and the Conduct of the Secretary of the Commission-the strange Case of Parker at Newtown-the reckless Reception of irregular Evidence -prohibition of elementary Tests of Evidence-the Commissioners "revelled in Hearsay "—the Allegation of "fear" among Peasantry -its Manufacture-wild Interpretation of Terms of Referencean Omnibus Commission.

IN the preceding chapter, and towards the end of it, the. complaints which the supporters of the existing system of Land Tenure conceive themselves entitled at the end of the sittings of the Welsh Land Commission to bring against divers members of that body, were set forth in outline. The purpose of the present chapter is to set them out in detail and, in so setting them out, to justify them.

Let us speak, then, first upon the important matter of procedure. One of the earliest and best advised of the acts of the Commissioners after their appointment was to possess themselves, with the assistance of their secretary, of a large number of publications, books, pamphlets, extracts from newspapers and the like in which the Welsh Land Question and the agitation in respect of it were discussed from various points of view. To those members