LANDOWNERS AND TENANT-FARMERS. 53 



tenant-occupiers ; the tenants in their turn 

 direct the cultivation, provide the farm-stock 

 and implements and all the necessary capital 

 and skill, and employ and pay the agricultural 

 labourers by whose work the land is cultivated. 

 The system is so general in the United King- 

 dom, that we really cannot be said to know any 

 other, and yet, with reference to almost every 

 country but our own, is so exceptional in 

 Europe, that a more detailed description of it 

 will be given in the next chapter. 



The circumstances of Ireland eight years ago Peasant 



proprie- 



appeared favourable for the creation of a class tors in 



Ireland. 



of peasant proprietors, and Parliament resolved 

 to give the principle a trial. Two opportunities 

 presented themselves ; first, in 1869, on the 

 disestablishment of the Church, which possessed 

 upwards of 10,000 small holdings of land, in the 

 benefices situated all over the country. The 

 pre-emption of these was offered to the tenants 

 on terms most favourable to them, both as to 

 price and payment, and nearly two-thirds of the 

 offers were promptly accepted. Again, in 1870, 

 the Irish Land Act contains provisions ex- 



