4iS 



The Country Gaitlcmaiis Magazine 



Right was considered sufiicient by the 

 priests and pohtical agitators to keep 

 themselves forward as champions of the 

 people's cause, and to create an identity 

 of interest, but the spread of thought 

 and public opinion amongst the class m- 

 tended to be cajoled, has been too much for 

 them to hold their ground. The substantial 

 farmer is now too well informed to be caught 

 by a machine of so clumsy a construction, 

 and has more faith in himself and his well- 

 considered bargain on parchment, than in the 

 empty schemes that have been so frequently 

 dressed up to attract and delude. In order, 

 then, to make another bid, and once more to 

 lead the van, something more substantial than 

 Tenant Right has to be produced ; the two 

 classes who were outside the pale hitherto 

 are now appealed to ; the small farmer, with 

 the assurance of fixity of tenure, and the 

 labourer, is not without his hope that the sym- 

 pathy extended to Fenianism will some day be 

 productive of such anarchy and confusion as to 

 leave him in possession of property, to which 

 his title-deed is descent from Adam, and from 

 which, since Eden was dispeopled, he has 

 been unlawfully dispossessed. Such, then, is 

 the tone produced amongst the ignorant and 

 deluded people of this country by the press, 

 . and by political agitators, lay and clerical, that 

 I am satisfied upon the Land Question any 

 legislation which falls short of placing every 

 man under the shade of his own vine and 

 fig tree will fail to create that spirit of con- 

 tentment and progress, without which it is 

 ' difficult for any country to flourish. Our 

 hope, then, for better things must be in the 

 : spread of education, and the growth of sound 

 1 public opinion. Until these have become 

 'engrafted in the Irish character, and maud- 

 ling sentimentality and ready guUability have 

 been driven out, it is of no use to talk of 

 peace where there is no peace — it is of no use 

 to attempt to legislate for a class whose full 

 measure is nothing short of the overthrow of 

 -Government and confiscation of the land. 



Thus, in considering the question of tenure, 



• there are two interests to be dealt with, that 



' of the landlord and tenant directly, and that 



of the community at large in a more remote 



degree, who are, of course, interested 

 in this question, inasmuch as any legisla- 

 tion which tends to encourage agricul- 

 tural development, and increase the produce 

 of the soil, must increase the staff of life, 

 while to landlord and tenant the farms would 

 be benefited by having their inert capital 

 rendered active, their income improved and 

 more certain. The latter would have an en- 

 larged workable area and heavier crops, could 

 cheerfully pay the improved rent, as many of 

 the expenses attendant on cultivation are not 

 dependent on the yield, but are generally in 

 the inverse ratio. It must be admitted that 

 Irish cultivation is bad, and partakes in a 

 great measure of a hand-to-mouth system. 

 There is also great room for reclamation, 

 drainage, and buildings, and other permanent 

 improvements. Now, the object of legisla- 

 tion must clearly be to encourage the farmer 

 freely to apply his capital to the soil, to raise 

 its fertility, and to induce or make the 

 landlord sink his money in the profitable 

 development of the resources of his estate ; 

 or failing this, to make such provisions 

 for the tenant as shall enable him to be re- 

 imbursed for any outlay he may make in per- 

 manent improvements, for which his tenure 

 does not fully provide. I look upon the tenant 

 prima facie as a surface man with floating 

 capital, and the landlord as the fixed interest, 

 the owner of the material upon which the 

 tenant has to work. If this was the invari- 

 able relative position of the two, legislation 

 would be easy or hardly required at all, but 

 in practice there are a thousand phases in the 

 joint relationship. Still, whatever may be 

 done as to minor details, the broad principles 

 of tenure ought to be legally (,lefined, so as to 

 give every tenant security for his cultivation, 

 and if he engages in works of pernmnent 

 utility to place him in a position to reap the 

 fruits of his industry and capital, either by 

 such a time as will enable him to recoup 

 himself, or by annual reduction of rent for 

 work done, upon which a percentage might 

 be charged by the landlord for the remainder 

 of the term. I am not one of those who 

 would annihilate the duties of landlords by 

 long leases, much less fixity of tenure. It 



