Landowners and Tenant-farmers. 53 



in Scotland, and now bears but small proportion tenant- 

 farmers. 

 to the whole. Many of the larger landowners 



retain a farm under their own management for 

 home supplies, or for the breeding of selected 

 stock ; very few as a matter of business, or for 

 profit. The general system is, that the land- 

 owners make the permanent works on their 

 estates, their income being paid in rent by 

 tenant-occupiers ; the tenants in their turn 

 direct the cultivation, provide the farm-stock 

 and implements and all the necessary capital 

 and skill, and employ and pay the agricultural 

 labourers by whose work the land is cultivated. 

 The system is so general in the United King- 

 dom, that we really cannot be said to know any 

 other, and yet, with reference to almost every 

 country but our own, is so exceptional in 

 Europe, that a more detailed description of it 

 will be given in the next chapter. 



The circumstances of Ireland eight years ago Peasant 



proprie- 



appeared favourable for the creation of a class tors in 



Ireland. 



of peasant proprietors, and Parliament resolved 

 to give the principle a trial. Two opportunities 

 presented themselves ; first, in 1869, on the 



