ULSTER TENANT-RIGHT. 175 



purchasers, sold out at a low price to go to America. 

 (Page 11.) The rest were fed by charity. Large 

 parts all over Ulster, in spite of Tenant-right, are no 

 better than the rest of Ireland. And this is put forth 

 as a system to cure all the evils of the country ! The 

 sure result of a bad system is, it breaks down when 

 the pinch comes. For forty years past it has been 

 my clear opinion, as a practical farmer, that the time 

 would come when Ulster would be the poorest part 

 of Ireland, because Tenant-right sucked away from 

 the land the capital that ought to enrich it. Nor are 

 the difficulties at all confined to Donegal. Wherever 

 the effect of the linen trade is not felt, the tenants are 

 in the same state as in Donegal. 



In the English Agricultural Gazette of August 

 30, there are two letters from an Ulster farmer who 

 is plainly a man of some education, and, we are told 

 by Mr. Morton, the editor, has often sent him valu- 

 able practical notes on farming subjects. The letters 

 are nothing else but a prolonged scream against rents 

 and landlords, with really piteous and pitiable appeals 

 to landlords and to Parliament to lower rents out of 

 charity, and every other motive he can think of. Of 

 course he does not say that he or his predecessor 

 bought the Tenant-right of his farm from the previous 

 tenant for a large sum, knowing perfectly the rent it 

 was subject to, and without any thought of the land- 

 lord, thus proving the farm to be worth more than 

 the rent he pays. He calls himself one of an 



