' LEASES. 49 



I am describing real instances that have hap- 

 pened to myself under a lease. I have had the land 

 reduced till it would not even grow weeds. 



When there is no lease, this process is very- 

 much shortened. A couple of years of waste is the 

 most that can occur. 



It is forgotten that Irish tenants not usually 

 having substantial means, when the landlord comes 

 to look for his covenants, be they ever so reasonable, 

 he finds it a case of suing a beggar and catching a 



, and when the tenant has means, as tenants are 



naturally and rightly put on juries, it must be an 

 extraordinarily clear case indeed in which a landlord 

 can get a verdict for breach of covenant. 



All those covenants that are universal on well- 

 managed estates in England and Scotland for treat- 

 ment of the land, especially in the last years of the 

 term, against repeated corn crops, the sale of hay and 

 straw off the farm, ploughing up valuable gTass lands, 

 upholding buildings even when built by the land- 

 lord, wholly or in part, or allowed for (which is far 

 more common than the advocates of one side repre- 

 sent), are of no use at all in Ireland. A lease is 

 literally on the part of the tenant, "Heads I win, 

 tails you lose." Can anybody wonder with such a 

 state of things that leases are not common. Surely, 

 these common motives of self-interest are enough to 

 account for the facts ? 



The one motive in favour of giving leases is, that 

 E 



