70 FIXITY OF TENURE 



taction of the cultivator's rights. This opinion is 

 primarily based on the historical ground that they 

 have a claim as a matter of strict justice to be replaced 

 as far as possible in the position they have gradually 

 lost ; but it may also be supported on the economical 

 ground that in the case of these large cultivating 

 classes security of tenure must have its usual bene- 

 ficial effect, and that, as a rule, the cultivators with 

 occupancy rights are better off than the tenants-at- 

 will. Wherever inquiry has been made, it has been 

 found that in all matters relating to material pros- 

 perity, such as the possession of more cattle, better 

 houses, and better clothes, this superiority lies on the 

 side of the occupancy-tenants, and the figures in the 

 preceding paragraphs also show that, as a rule, they 

 hold larger areas of land. Where the subdivision of 

 land among tenants-at-will is extreme, and in a 

 country where agriculture is almost the only possible 

 employment for large classes of the people, the com- 

 petition is so keen that rents can be forced up to a 

 ruinous height, and men will crowd each other till the 

 space left to each is barely sufficient to support a 

 family ; any security of tenure which defends a part 

 of the population from that competition must neces- 

 sarily be to them a source of material comfort and 

 of peace of mind, such as can hardly be conceived by 

 a community where a diversity of occupations exists, 

 and where those who cannot find a living on the land 

 are able to betake themselves to other employments.' 



In consequence of the recommendations of the 

 Famine Commissioners a'Rent Act, known as Act XII. 

 of 1 88 1, was passed, and for twenty years regulated 

 the relations between landlord and tenant. The eco- 

 nomic tendencies which had been detected by the 

 Commissioners were, however, slow in asserting them- 

 selves ; the opposition of interests which had been 

 created between the landlords and tenants became 

 apparent only gradually, and it is doubtful whether 



