78 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EFFECT OF LAND ACT. 

 December 1873. 



I DO not want to express any opinion for or against 

 the Land Act. There it is, as a fact, and landlords 

 and tenants alike have to make the best of it. 



Here is one bad effect of it, however, that was not 

 intended or foreseen — the exaggerated and unscru- 

 pulous opinion of their own claims that the Act has 

 raised m the minds of many of the tenant party and 

 their advocates, and of which the bitter tone that many 

 newspaper correspondents write in is a symptom. 



The Courts are really as favourable to the tenants 

 as it is possible for any courts to be. Such leaning 

 as they have is in favour of the tenants and against 

 the landlords; and whenever there is a fair doubt 

 the tenant gets the benefit of it. Yet these men will 

 speak of the Courts as some have done, because the 

 Courts have felt themselves obliged by justice to 

 give decisions against the claims of tenants. The 

 truth is that many of the claims of tenants have 

 been grossly extortionate. Wliat is to be thought of 



