102 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



ejectments. At that time there was no doubt we 

 were greatly over -populated. Emigration was the 

 great resource, and most went to America. 



As I did my own business, and kept my own 

 counsel, no one could guess, when a broken tenant 

 gave up, to whom I should let his land. I used it 

 in consolidating the farms of others. I offered A 

 (the next neighbour perhaps) ten acres of it, pro- 

 vided he gave up five outlying acres he had in a 

 distant part. Then I offered the five acres which A 

 gave up, to B who was near to them, provided he gave 

 up two acres, another separate bit of his, to C, and so 

 on. Every good tenant soon found out that a broken 

 tenant being put out might mean a substantial gain 

 to himself, one very dear to his heart; he got the 

 field close to his own. house that he had coveted all 

 his life, his very Naboth's vineyard, which had been 

 the cause of endless strife from the mutual trespass 

 of his own and his neighbour's cattle. I gave up all 

 thought for the time of getting more rent for land 

 thus added to farms. The old rents were charged. 



Thus public opinion on the estate, when any 

 tenant was put out, became wholly on my side. 

 They knew better than I did that he was quite 

 broken, and that not paying his rent was only the 

 last symptom. And as all hoped to gain by his 

 misfortune, he met with no sympathy. Anything 

 so different from the difficulties and heart-rending 

 scenes supposed to happen when a tenant in Ireland 



