18 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



And this is the result of twenty -five years' work. 

 I need not point out what a rise of five shillings 

 per acre in the rent means to the landlord, if at the 

 same time his land is in as good or better condition. 

 I believe, besides this, that if raising the condition 

 of the tenants and labourers had been the one object 

 aimed at (and in truth it was in great part the 

 original object, as a matter' of duty), it could not 

 have been more successfully reached in the time. 



To conclude. I believe deliberately, that there 

 is a mine of wealth for both landlords and tenants 

 in the land of Ireland. Both classes are nearly 

 equally to blame for not working it. The capital 

 required is sufficiently within the reach of both. 

 The proportion of the rent that the repairs of an 

 English estate cost, would do the landlord's part 

 quite as fast as is desirable ; while on every estate 

 there are tenants enough with sufficient capital to 

 farm the whole of it well, if the idle drones were 

 gradually got rid of. Many landlords are greatly 

 to blame for ignorant neglect of their estates. All 

 that is wanting on their parts is that they should 

 make 1 the most of their land, with fair dealing 

 towards the tenants, as men do elsewhere, and with 

 the clear recognition of the fact that the interests 

 of landlord and tenant are really inseparable. On 

 the other hand, the tenants are to be blamed for 

 very unreasonable expectations. They look on a 

 farm literally as a possession of an inheritance, not 



