WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 237 



very little employment, only tilling as much as their 

 own families can work, still, as prices of all grass pro- 

 ducts are very good, and wages are higher than 

 they were then, all are much better off, and there 

 have been no rent troubles. 



There is a place of 400 acres near, called the 

 Common Mountain, that belongs to no one. It was 

 settled by squatters, who, in potato times, built cabins 

 and reclaimed fields and bits. The fee was in the 

 Crown, and the ownership by squatters was recognised. 

 They are mostly no better than paupers. Last spring 

 a large proportion had to get seed of champion 

 potatoes on credit from the Union. It is quite the 

 most turbulent part of the petty sessions district, and 

 for a long time, as a magistrate, I thought it right to 

 give double punishment to offenders from this part, 

 for the sake of preserving order there. 



I believe, if the matter was fairly looked into, 

 this district and the greater part of the County Cork 

 would be found to give conclusive proof of the sound- 

 ness of the principles acted on by Sir C. Trevelyan 

 and the Government of 1847. If the evil is pauper- 

 ism agrarian pauperism surely to fix the present 

 paupers on the land, bad ones and all, by Ulster 

 Tenant-right, or fixity of tenure, or making them 

 peasant proprietors, can never cure the trouble. 



It is the strongest confirmation of this view that 

 the whole effort of the present agitation is, to keep 

 the worst and the most useless tenants still in their 



