bearing in view the influence of private and public Inclosure Acts of 

 Parliament, and their tendency to curtail feudal practices, in moulding 

 the country into its present position as regards regulating the size of 

 farms, and in fitting them for occupation, in manufacturing and populous 

 districts, as well as ordinary farms in rural localities. This influence, 

 moreover, had a tendency to lessen the cost of agricultural buildings 

 — manual and horse labour — as well as allocating suitable areas for 

 farming, in accoi'dance with the nature or character of the district and 

 extent of capital employed during the last half century, by occupying 

 tenants (aided by bankers' assistance, who, for the present, have with- 

 drawn their support, until the Land Laws of the country have been 

 adjusted to afford security), who have wisely abandoned an interest in 

 fee simple of three per cent, (acquired mainly by Acts of Parliament), 

 and accepted a tenancy yielding ten per cent. This suggests the 

 question whether or not the Irish tenant-farmers are jumping out of the 

 frying-pan into the fire by trying to acquire freeholds yielding three 

 per cent., which, as a matter of course, would soon revert into the 

 possession of the capitalist ; and may not subdivisions of freehold in 

 Ens-land soon run into this delusive groove ? The ancient race of 

 yeomen, who held their freeholds and farmed them, has thus given 

 place to a class of agriculturists who may be said to have drawn into 

 force such societies as the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 

 And when we contemplate the amount of money now invested in 

 improving the breeds of our cattle and the manufacturing of implements 

 of husbandry fitted mainly for capitalists, we must for ever abandon 

 the idea of this country again reverting to " smock-frock " farming. 



Again, the increased quantities of food now produced for the people 

 of this country by the class of farms encouraged by the prizes of the 

 Royal Society, will soon evidence their superiority over the expensive 

 scheme so generally advocated of laying down hastily, and imperfectly, 

 arable land to grass at the cost of the landowners, whose responsibility 

 is thereby increased, besides lessening the trade of the nation, by the 

 suppression of labour and the consumption of merchandise. These 

 circumstances, coupled with the inadequate or exhausted capital now 

 employed in farming, induce the question, whether it becomes the duty 

 of the " land capitalists " to increase their stake in the country's 

 welfare by lessening the price of food for the general consumer; or 

 whether the Land Laws should be so adjusted as to deprive them of their 

 claim for priority of rent in case of bankruptcy by allowing the 

 occupying tenant to mortgage the cost of crops produced by giving 

 pccuritv to the money-lender?. 



