Irish Feasant Proprietors. 55 



tenants. The farmers, moreover, begin to find 

 themselves very secure in their possession as 

 tenants, under the clauses of the Act, and have 

 thus less inducement to buy the fee-simple ; and 

 the landowners, participating in the general 

 prosperity, are no longer under pressure to sell 

 at the low prices hitherto realised. It is thus 

 not from any defects in the Land Act, but from 

 the improved condition of the country, and the 

 increased security given to farmers' capital by 

 the Act itself, that this branch of it has become 

 less operative than was anticipated. 



