188 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



part of the Settlement that forbids fines. The money 

 nominally is paid to the outgoing tenant, who hands 

 it to the landlord. I know a large estate on which 

 this is the custom. One hundred pounds is the least 

 sum to be paid to the landlord on any sale. This 

 cannot be stopped. It can be done, secretly, if forbid- 

 den openly. And it is not worse in any way than 

 Tenant-right, though ruinous to both parties. 



Another bad effect of Tenant-right is, that it 

 deprives the owner of the power of selecting the best 

 tenants for vacant farms, nor can he re-arrange farms, 

 the fields of which are scattered and intermixed. 

 Whoever will give most money to the broken tenant 

 must get the farm just as it stands. On neglected 

 estates these intermixed farms are very common. It 

 is impossible the tenants can improve till they are 

 re-arranged. It would have paid me best to hold 

 myself this farm of fifty-two acres I mentioned just 

 now. I let it to the Scotchman, because I thought his 

 good farming, as a man who had to make it pay, 

 would be a capital example, and do good. In parts 

 of England and Scotland, it is not uncommon for a 

 clever, industrious labourer, who has saved some 

 money, to hire a small farm, perhaps with the help of 

 friends, and if tunes favour him, to work himself up 

 gradually into the position of a considerable farmer. 

 These are often the best farmers in the country, and 

 their rise is thoroughly wholesome and useful to all. 

 But under Tenant-right such choice of good tenants 



