LAND TENURE 



in England, even though the country underwent 

 great changes in the ownership of land during the 

 French Revolution of the late eighteenth century. 



Perhaps Ireland can claim improved conditions 

 for her farmer since she has shed her system of land- 

 lord and tenant, but then in Ireland the landlord 

 made the fatal mistake of not living on his estate, 

 and thus broke the contact of a sound system of 

 country life. That state of affairs has so far never 

 reached the country-side of old England, and let us 

 hope it never will. 



Take another lesson from the pages of history. 

 No one can deny that the high-water mark of pro- 

 duction from the farming lands of England reached 

 the ceiling about the year 1875. Under what 

 system of farming did it reach this big output ? 

 Was it not the combined efforts of landlord, tenant 

 and employee ? 



Of the three I am inclined to think that the 

 employee made the greatest contribution to the 

 effort ; he worked hard and lived hard on his poor 

 pay. The tenant may have lived plainly, but he 

 at least made a comfortable income, whilst the 

 landlord made a living out of his estate. He may 

 have been inclined to take his pleasures freely, but 

 he died comfortably because he was not conscious 

 that he had committed an offence to the society 

 which surrounded him. Who is to say that he 

 was a misguided individual ? I venture to say that 

 he was not. Had he not well equipped his property 

 to house the crops produced by his tenants, and these 

 crops in turn served a rising industrial population ? 



117 I 



