78 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



clauses of the Irish Land Act, which enable 

 the tenant, by the aid of a loan of Government 

 money, on very easy terms, to purchase the 

 proper ownership of his farm, are rarely acted 

 upon, from the belief that the farm is already 

 his, under the burden of a moderate rent-charge 

 to his nominal landlord. Circumstances have 

 thus brought about a situation in which the 

 landowner cannot deal with the same freedom 

 with his property as in England or Scotland, 

 either in the selection of his tenants or in the 

 fair readjustment of rent, and this has, in a 

 great measure, arisen naturally from the neglect 

 by the landlord of his proper duties, in not himself 

 executing those indispensable permanent im- 

 provements which the tenant was thus obliged 

 to undertake, and who in this way established 

 for himself a claim to a co-partnership in the 

 soil itself. 



