SECURITY FOR OUTLAY 221 



to be garnered, and there is nothing like sufficient security for their 

 being repaid what they have providently sunk in the soil. 



We have gone on a long time without any notice being taken of such 

 grievance. Landlords' covenants tied tenants' hands in many ways, 

 the injustice of which has, late in the day, been made clear in the 

 matter of what survivals remain by unprejudiced as well as authorita- 

 tive witnesses. There was landlords' distress dangling over tenants' 

 heads ; there was notice to quit — or else its alter ego, a demand for 

 increased rent, with the alternative of giving up the farm — shadow- 

 ing them as a possible eventuality. And at all times there was the 

 ugly chance of a sale, which would automatically terminate their 

 lease or their agreement, however much money they might have 

 sunk in their farm. There has been a good deal of that last-named 

 experience quite of late — scaicely tempered by the option given to 

 tenants to buy the land themselves, no matter whether such venture 

 might suit their purse or not. These are the blessings of tenancy. 

 Nevertheless, farmers hugged their tenant's chains, persuading 

 themselves that there was no better condition to be in. 



When, upon farming becoming more intensive, and therefore 

 requiring a larger outlay of capital and a longer time for recoupment, 

 and farmers first began to complain of the prevailing insecurity of 

 tenure and the absence of any guarantee for the recovery of their 

 outlay, they were mercilessly taxed with unreasonableness and 

 ingratitude. In Ireland, when under the stress of threatening dis- 

 turbances the " Upas-tree " was made to yield to the axe-blows of a 

 vigorous reformer, under the malediction of those who subsequently 

 took pride in carrying such policy to its logical conclusion in the 

 Wyndham Act, the kernel of the long-continued grievance was clearly 

 laid bare and resolutely attacked. The pith of Irish land reform 

 carried out in a succession of Acts was the turning of the former 

 tenant into an owner. Such transformation was, as its results 

 began to show themselves, considered of so great value that millions 

 of public money were not grudged to complete the process. That 

 process is now looked upon as a success. Irish agriculture is at 

 present in a considerably more flourishing condition than it has 

 been ever before. The seed dropped from the " Upas-tree " has 

 borne rich fruit. And the newly-created ownership farms, so it, 

 may be well to observe, are for the most part small, in the hands of 

 " the people." 



In England feudal conditions were too strong for such a heroic 

 measure to be considered practicable. Saint George, the Cappa- 

 docian, is a more slowly moving saint than Saint Patrick. Nobody 



