ULSTER TENANT-RIGHT. 177 



in time, and meanwhile it does not hinder others 

 from acting on sounder principles, or stop, except to 

 a small extent, the general progress of the country, 

 which depends on sound principle and on nothing 

 else. Tenant-right is liked by agents, because it 

 greatly lessens their trouble in collecting rents and 

 getting rid of bad tenants, who must be turned out. 

 The rent is always safe, and a broken tenant goes 

 out with much less trouble when he is to receive a 

 lot of money on doing so ; though to oblige the 

 landlord to pay a fat, idle, drinking tenant because 

 he ruins himself would be absurd. Naturally when a 

 tenant paid nothing at all for his farm at hiring, he 

 finds it pleasant and profitable if he leaves it to 

 receive a great sum also for nothing. 



Forty years ago, I remember, it was much dis- 

 cussed in the South, among landowners and agents, 

 whether the introduction of the Ulster Tenant-right 

 on their estates would be advantageous. 



Having thoroughly seen its working in Ulster, I 

 have never had any doubt that the common way of 

 fair contract between landlord and tenant was much 

 better for both ; that the tenants would gain far 

 more by using their money in better stocking and 

 manuring their farms, and that they need every 

 shilling for those purposes ; that paying away their 

 capital to outgoing tenants who had to leave land 

 they had utterly exhausted, and which could only 

 be restored by more capital, could only be ruinous. 



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