386 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



the Irish Highlands ; as a specimen of which Martin's 

 estate is always quoted. This domain is of such extent 

 that the porter's lodge stands twenty -five miles from 

 the house. The inheritor of this vast property died in 

 poverty, upon the ocean, while flying from the soil that 

 no longer belonged to him. As formerly, in the case of 

 Sutherlandshire, we are not told in what condition this 

 gigantic property was found, which could no longer sup- 

 port either the owner or the tenants. 



After all, the Incumbered Estates Court brings forward 

 for sale only two and a half to three millions sterling 

 worth of properties per* annum, or the fiftieth part in ex- 

 tent, but in value hardly a hundredth part of the island. 

 At this rate the sale of one-tenth, the most burdened 

 portion of Irish property, will last ten years. In France, 

 where we hamper transfers of property with expensive 

 formalities, prejudicial both to the creditor and the owner 

 of the land, sales more or less forced take place annually, 

 to the extent of one-hundredth part of the total value of 

 land in the country ; and we have not several centuries 

 of arrears to settle. If, under favour of interminable 

 delays and expenses of the Court of Chancery, Irish pro- 

 prietors had got into a habit of not paying their debts, it 

 is just as well, for their own sakes, that they should 

 be deprived of the opportunity for the future. 



For a year past the prices given have been advancing 

 materially. The worst sales were the first, and, as always 

 happens in such cases, the owners of these properties 

 were the greatest sufferers. In the good counties, land 

 sells almost as high as in England ; and in the bad, the 

 return is about five or six per cent on the purchase. As 

 prospects brighten in Ireland, prices will become more 

 and more satisfactory. 



The most characteristic symptom produced by these 



