TENANT-RIGHT AND THE THREE F'S. 183 



paid to the landlords. The money he gets will be 

 probably sj)ent by the broken tenant in idling and 

 drinking, instead of his being forced to work and earn 

 an honest living as a labourer, which any one in most 

 parts of Ireland, out of Connaught, who likes, can do 

 now as easily as he could in England or Scotland. 



An actual case will enable the best judgment to 

 be formed. Last January I ejected a tenant for non- 

 payment of rent who was a drunken rake. His farm 

 was fifty-two acres, at £52 a year. It was good land, 

 but for many years he had done nothing to it in 

 manuring or anything else. Twice I have seen his 

 corn left in the field till winter, being not worth 

 paying labourers to cut it, and he too lazy to do it 

 himself, though idling about all day at the public - 

 houses, that were unluckily near him. But he kept 

 his eight cows, which he let to a dairyman, his own 

 wife, a strong young woman, being too idle to manage 

 them. The cows paid his rent, and more, tiU last 

 year, when I was glad to get rid of him as an eyesore 

 and discredit to the estate. I I'elet the farm at once 

 for £64 per annum to a Scotchman. I engaged to 

 put up good buildings that will cost £200. There 

 were a good house and barn before, a large part of 

 the cost of which I paid more than thirty-five years 

 ago for the tenant's father, an honest thriving fellow, 

 who lived comfortably and prospered. All other 

 buildings were wholly ruinous, the land dirty and 

 exhausted. If there had been Ulster Tenant-right 



