168 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



vided he is not a bad character. The transaction 

 is wholly between the outgoing and incoming tenants, 

 the landlord having nothing to do with it, except that 

 any arrears of rent due are paid out of the purchase- 

 money. The landlord may object to the purchaser if 

 he is of bad character. But the faults that would 

 justify such an objection are not of the kind that are 

 common among those who have money enough to 

 buy a farm. So tliat this right in the landlord is 

 of little consequence. In theory, too, the landlord is 

 at liberty to raise the rent. But the practical 

 difficulties in his way, unless the rise be very trifling 

 or the rent unduly low, are so gi'eat, that it is very 

 seldom he can accomplish it. The rate of purchase 

 is sometimes as high as twenty years of the rent and 

 over. Ten years' purchase is thought an ordinary 

 and moderate rate. The price depends upon the 

 acreable rent, and all the other incidents that affect 

 the letting value of land, especially the demand for 

 farms at the moment. Wliether the times are good 

 or bad makes a great difference in the price of tenant- 

 right. It has been asserted that tenant-right existed 

 in Ulster more than 200 years ago. The proof of 

 this, however, is very indifferent. Whether it ex- 

 isted or not, it is certain its great extension occurred 

 at the latter part of the last century, when the great 

 improvement of the linen trade took place. Hand- 

 spinning of linen thread and handloom- weaving were 

 then universal in many parts of Ireland. They went 



