94 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



is mostly because the rent is so light. He lives too 

 in a climate the worst possible for small farming, 

 where corn never grows well, not even oats, whilst 

 grass and turnips thrive by nature with little trouble. 



A word on fixity of tenure, or making the Ulster 

 tenant-right compulsory all over Ireland, so that all 

 tenants shall be at liberty to sell their farms to the 

 highest bidder, with little reference to the landlord. 



Tenant-right was made legally binding in Ulster 

 because the Ulster landowners had, almost without 

 exception, freely consented to it and acted upon it. 

 The points in the custom favourable to the land- 

 owners (mainly the security for present rent at a time 

 when rents were very ill paid) were the consideration 

 for this consent. A large proportion of the Ulster 

 tenants have bought their farms from the former 

 occupiers with the consent of the landlords, who got 

 their arrears of rent out of the purchase -money. 

 There was therefore a clear equity in the matter. 

 And by the Land Act, wherever else in Ireland the 

 customs "substantially" exist they are as legally 

 binding as in Ulster. And even when a limited sum 

 has been paid by the incoming to the outgoing tenant 

 with the landlord's knowledge, that sum is a charge 

 on the farm against the owner if the tenant leaves it. 



It is plain that to make the Ulster customs com- 

 pulsory where they have not existed, and where a 

 tenant has paid nothing on getting possession of his 

 farm, would be simply to rob the owner of part of 



