EFFECT OF LAND ACT. 83 



at any time so unwise as to insist on a higher rent 

 for his land than it is worth, it may be taken, but it 

 is taken by men of no means, trusting to the chapter 

 of accidents to running in arrear, getting remissions, 

 etc. There is no fear that such men ever make per- 

 manent improvements. Any one who has had to do 

 with land management in Ireland knows that when 

 times are good and prices of produce high there is a 

 much better demand for land, and higher rents are 

 freely offered by solvent tenants for any land to let. 

 When times are bad and prices low, much lower 

 rents have to be accepted. I have seen this variation 

 many times in my experience, both before and since 

 the famine. There cannot be a more healthy sign of 

 the market. But then in Ireland, when bad times 

 come, those who hired land in good times at a higher 

 rent suitable to the times, set to work to howl in 

 hope of getting a reduction of rent. Tenants in 

 Ireland, like tenants elsewhere, have hired land for 

 their own profit, and (putting aside exceptional times, 

 like the famine, which no prudence could meet) a 

 large majority of tenants have made a profit by 

 the land they have hired, in spite of want of capital, 

 ignorance and idleness, that would have ensured 

 failure in any other business on earth but farming. 

 That some have failed is no wonder. The wonder 

 is that with such habits so many succeeded. In 

 tliirty-five years' experience I have never known 

 one honest industrious tenant to fail. 



