174 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



being good, and, as usual, Hope telling a flattering 

 tale, all were sure that prosperity would be eter- 

 nal, only greater prosperity still. Sellers and buyers 

 both could not praise Tenant-right enough. Though 

 those of us who remembered that after the famine 

 in 1846 the price of Tenant-right fell to almost 

 nothing, and knew its unsoundness in principle, 

 always predicted what would happen in the changes 

 and chances of time. The last three years the tall 

 talk in Ulster itself in favour of Tenant-right has 

 greatly come down. Of course there are many who 

 still praise it, and the interests of all who now occupy 

 land are involved in it to the extent of hoping to be 

 able to sell out of their farms well. The present 

 discontent in Ulster is wholly caused by a heavy fall 

 in the price of Tenant-right. Let the account of 

 Donegal in Mr. Tuke's pamphlet on Irish Distress 

 and its Remedies, p. 8 et seq., be read. These letters 

 give the most instructive view of Tenant-right that I 

 have ever seen. They prove that it in no way meets 

 the farmer's troubles and difficulties. 



It will be seen then that Tenant-right is no security 

 even against starvation. Tenant-right is as strong 

 in Donegal as in any other part of Ulster; yet, as 

 Mr. Tuke tells us, whole parishes were starving last 

 winter, though every man had this valuable Tenant- 

 right, as it is supposed to be, which he could have 

 sold not long before for ten to twenty years' purchase. 

 A few with better or larger lots, that could still find 



