STATE OF WARFARE. 371 



induces the farmer to look more to the indemnity he will 

 obtain in going out, than to good farming while he is in 

 possession. Clever and unscrupulous farmers have been 

 known to change from farm to farm, receiving a com- 

 pensation each time, and always making money by the 

 change. 



Besides, tenant-right becomes in the long-run a charge 

 so heavy to the incoming tenant, that it swallows up 

 all his resources at once, and leaves him without the 

 means of meeting the most necessary expenses. In Lin- 

 colnshire and Nottingham, where the custom prevails, it 

 is reckoned that the incoming farmer nowadays has to 

 pay equal to 4 or 4, 10s. per acre for the tenant- 

 right alone, independently of the usual farm charges. In 

 Sussex, the usual rate is 30s. to 50s., which is perhaps still 

 heavier, since the land is in worse condition. With such 

 advances before them, one can understand how the 

 English agriculturists should be nearly unanimous in 

 condemnation of tenant-right, at least as a general rule. 

 Long leases, and, in some cases, special agreements, are 

 deemed a sufficient solution of the difficulty.* 



If it is thus with tenant-right when justified by real 

 outlays, what would be the consequence if that right, 

 such as it existed in Ireland, were legalised, as it was 

 desired it should be 1 What the incoming farmer would 



* We are not aware that the system of tenant-right has been so universally 

 condemned. This is not the place to enter into any discussion as to the real 

 mexits of the general question ; but while it may be said some convention of this 

 kind is in many respects essential for Ireland in its present circumstances, in order 

 to restore confidence and encourage improvement, there is no doubt a well-devised 

 system of indemnification to tenants, as an accessory to the lease, would in gene- 

 ral greatly tend to increase the produce of the soil. The main objection to the 

 lease, in as far as the grand question of productiveness the maintenance of the 

 people is concerned, is, that towards its close, from the uncertainty which attaches 

 to the renewal of the tenure, there occur several years in which the tenant can- 

 not safely apply such ameliorations as are often necessary to maintain the soil in 

 full and vigorous bearing. His interest too frequently requires that at this period 



