142 TRUE INTEREST OF LANDLORDS. 



tenant to the landlord. * Whether it may be a 

 prudent act of clemency, on the part of the Government, 

 still further to abate the amount of repayments for 

 labour-rate, in consideration of the unparalleled cala- 

 mity, and the comparatively unproductive character of 

 the works, it will be for the wisdom of Parliament to 

 decide. 



To this proposal it will be answered, that the county- 

 rates are borne by the tenant in England. True; but 

 public opinion there prevents an undue advantage being 

 taken of the tenant. There is not the same suicidal 

 competition for land, nor any of the circumstances which 

 force that competition. Rents, therefore, are fixed, 

 after a full deduction for rates. It has been already 

 shown, that this has hitherto been quite impossible in 

 Ireland. In Scotland, the tenant pays only one half 

 of a very moderate poor-rate, a share of a trifling road- 

 rate, amounting often to less than Id. per pound, and no 

 county-rates or expenses whatever. 



The adoption of this change, besides affording security 

 to tenants of capital, would in the end, I am persuaded, 

 be conducive to the true interests of the landlord. It 

 would insure the watchful superintendence of the expen- 

 diture by the most educated class in the country, — the 



* It would, of course, be right to guard the proprietor against any injus- 

 tice in this change on the part of holders of beneficial leases. If, for instance, 

 a man held an old lease " for ever," at a rent of 10s. an acre, and the land 

 was now worth 40s., he would be allowed to deduct from his head-rent only 

 one-fourth of the rate, that being the proportion due by the principal land- 

 lord. And in all current leases, it would be equitable that the tenant should 

 continue liable, during their currency, for so much of this rate as was pay- 

 able by him at the period of his entry. 



