A Practical Vieiv of the Irish Land Question 



421 



S/na/I Fro/rictary System, 



The small proprietary system is another 

 form which this discussion on tenure has 

 taken. We have three ideas before us, all 

 tending in the same direction, all aiming at 

 possession of the soil. Fixity of tenure giv- 

 ing possession, subject only to a rent which 

 might not be the value ; the proprietary 

 system, which would indulge in ownership 

 without the full means of purchase; and 

 Fenianism, which would take possession free 

 from any of the drawbacks of the other two. 

 The small proprietary system could readily 

 be indulged in by any company or individual 

 who allowed his convictions to take the prac- 

 tical form of purchasing an estate and cutting 

 it up, or by men of capital making advances 

 to enable tenants to become purchasers. 

 With this view it has been proposed to 

 organize a department in one of the Cork 

 banks, but how the proposition will benefit 

 the tenant I do not understand. It proposes 

 to him something very sweet, when it offers 

 to make him his own landlord ; but the terms 

 upon which so pleasant a metamorphosis is 

 to take place are not very clear ; landlords 

 know something of the drawbacks in connexion 

 with landed property, whatever bankers may 

 do. Protection, time allowances, and often 

 no rent and no assets are terms upon 

 which many tenants hold under their present 

 landlords, but prompt payments, and in cases 

 of nonfulfilment, a writ, are more likely to be 

 the temis upon which the money would be 

 advanced by a company who are in the habit 

 of making out a half-yearly balance-sheet. 

 This notion of sinking capital, or rather fix- 

 ing it, is as foreign to a farmer as any other 

 man in business. If a tenant can make, say 

 10 per cent, of his floating capital upon the 

 land, how is he to be benefited by investing 

 it in land at 3 i)er cent. ? It is clear the 

 more he farms and the less he owns the 

 better his income. The position of the two 

 interests, owner and occupier are, as society is 

 at present constituted, totally distinct ; whilst 

 as occupier a limited capital admits, by the 

 combination of energy and skill, of a good 



per-centage ; as owner, a limited capita', 

 having to stand alone, would be c[uite inade- 

 quate to create a livelihood. The possession 

 of land in the British isles may be looked 

 upon as a luxury where the acreage is compara- 

 tively very limited, and the capital unlimited, 

 and must be paid for accordingly. I need 

 not say that poor tenant farmers are not the 

 men to indulge in luxuries. Instead, then, of 

 confounding the two positions, the tendency 

 of legislation ought to be rather to create as 

 marked a distinction as possible, and by 

 every means in our power endeavour to make 

 the landlord develop the latent resources of 

 his estate, and the tenant, by his capital and 

 industry, cultivate in such a manner as to 

 produce the greatest permanent return. The 

 division of duties would give a common in- 

 terest. If a tenant steps outside the bounds 

 of cultivation and enters upon development, 

 let him enjoy his improvements for so many 

 years, or be paid for work done as he goes 

 on ; a certain per-centage being charged upon 

 such outlay during the occupancy. Then 

 there would be a mutual interest in the work 

 being done cheaply and efficiently. If im- 

 provements were in part executed by the 

 tenant, there would be economy. Improve- 

 ments would admit of the keeping of an extra, 

 staff, who would be available at hurried sea 

 sons to secure and sow the crops, and the 

 whole force of the farm at slack time could 

 be turned upon the improvements. I know 

 of some instances under the Board of Works 

 where the charge for drainage was more than 

 the land was worth, but had the reclamation 

 been worked in gradually with the farm 

 labour, it might have been profitably carried 

 out. 



Besides the question of security for im- 

 provements by tenants, there is that where 

 property is only held as a life estate. Pro- 

 perty so circumstanced is at a standstill ; all 

 outlay is avoided, and the uttermost farthing 

 Avrung out of the tenants. To effect an im- 

 provement is to ensure an immediate rise in 

 rent. This is one of the instances where 

 tenants require legal protection, and where 

 owners of such interests ought to be in such 

 a position as to be able to charge their sue- 



