IRISH AGRARIAN TENURE. 69 



Moreover, the rural industries, such as kelp- 

 burning, home-weaving and spinning, etc., while 

 bringing, as an auxiliary employment, no incon- 

 siderable return to those who practised them, 

 increased their resources for paying a compe- 

 tition rent, and thus contributed to the general 

 rise of rents. The agricultural labourers who 

 do not form a strictly separate class in Ireland 

 endeavoured always to get possession of small 

 holdings or at least a patch of potato land. 

 Their slowly rising wages helped to drive up- 

 wards the price of potato land and indirectly 

 that of small farms. Finally, the remittances 

 from America, which, between the years 1848 

 and 1864, reached a sum of thirteen millions 

 sterling, increased the effective demand for land 

 and thus enhanced its price. ^ 



The landlord was thus in a position to utilize 

 the economic situation to the utmost and to 

 demand a competition rent rendered especially 

 high by the low standard of living of the Irish. 

 In case the tenant declined to pay the increased 

 rent he could be evicted, which meant for him 

 the loss of all the improvements he had effected. 

 Only in Ulster and on particular estates in the 

 three other Provinces were matters otherwise. 

 There the "Ulster Tenant Right" prevailed, 

 the most important features of which were as 

 follows : — 



So long as the tenant paid his rent punctually 



^ Lord Dufferin, pp. 3 and 36. 



