*8 TENANTRY.. 



his own refidence, whereas the mere cottar can do nothing, 

 If the intermediate tenant is, or from the accumulation of fe- 

 veral farms becomes, a man of property, the fame argument 

 is applicable to his reletting to another intermediate man, giv- 

 ing up a part of his profit to efcape that trouble, which induc- 

 ed the landlord to begin this fyftem, and at the fame time ac- 

 counts for the number of tenants, one under another, who 

 have all a profit out of the rent of the occupying farmer. In 

 the variety of converfations on this point, of which I have 

 partook in Ireland, I never heard any other arguments that 

 had the leaft foundation in the aftual ftate of the country ; for 

 as to ingenious theories, which relate more to what might be, 

 rhan to what is, little regard ihould be paid to them. 



That a man of fubftance, whofe rent is not only fecurc, 

 but regularly paid, is in many refpe&s a more eligible tenant 

 than a poor cottar, or little farmer, cannot be difputed, if the 

 landlord looks no farther than thofe circumftances the qtieftion 

 is at an end, for the argument mull be allowed to have its full 

 weight even to victory. But there arc many other confidera- 

 tions : I was particularly attentive to every clafs of tenants 

 throughout the kingdom, and fhall therefore defcribe thefe 

 middle men, from whence their merit may be the more eafily 

 decided. Sometimes they are reiident on a part of the land, 

 but very often they are not. Dublin, Bath, London, and the 

 country towns of Ireland, contain great numbers of them ; 

 the merit of this clafs is furely afcertained in a moment ; there 

 cannot be a ihadow of a pretence for' the intervention of a 

 man, whofe fingle concern with an eftate is to deduft a porti- 

 on from the rent of it. They are however fometimes refident 

 on a part of the land they hire, where it is natural to fuppofe 

 they would wort fome improvements j it is however very 

 rarely the cafe. 1 have in different parts of the kingdom feen 

 farms juft fallen in after leafes of three lives, of the duration 

 of fifty, fixty, and even feventy years, in which the refidence 

 of the principal tenant was not to be diftinguifhed from the 

 cottared fields furrounding it. I was at firft much furprized at 

 this, but after repeated obfervation, I found thefe men very 

 generally were the matters of packs of wretched hounds, with 

 which they wafted their time and money, and it is a notorious 

 fact, that they are the hardeft drinkers in Ireland. Indeed 

 the clafs of the fmall country gentlemen, chiefly confiding of 

 thefe profit renters, feem at prefent to monopolize that drink- 

 ing fpirit, which was, not many years ago, the difgrace of the 

 kingdom at large : this I conjecture to be the reafon why 

 thofe who might improve are fo very far from doing it ; but 

 there are ftill greater objections to them. 



Living upon the fpot, farroundcd by tb.e;r little underte- 

 nants, they prove the mod cppreffive ipecies of tyrant that 

 ever lent affiftance to the deftruction of a country. They 

 relet the land, at iKort tenures, to the occupiers of fmall farms; 

 and often give no leafes at all. Not fatisfied with fcrewing 



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