204 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



CHAPTEK XIV. 



WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 



EVERYBODY who is interested in such subjects is 

 inclined favourably towards any plan for promoting 

 Peasant Proprietorship in Ireland. At first sight it 

 seems that with tenants used to small farms, for which 

 they have to pay rent, a plan that shall make them 

 owners of their farms, and after some years free them 

 from having to pay rent, must much promote their 

 prosperity. 



It is certain too, that both in England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, the land is in too few hands, and any 

 honest plan by which more men would become 

 owners of land would be a gain to the country. 



But when the whole case is looked at in its details, 

 it is by no means certain that any such plan can be 

 made to work, except to a very limited extent, in 

 Ireland. There is very much to be said for the view 

 that, whilst realising to the full the good of Peasant 

 Proprietorship, yet it is one of the goods of an earlier 

 and simpler stage of civilisation than that which we 

 have reached in the end of the nineteenth century, 



