Rural Depopulation 173 



in the end it became necessary to make 

 him the owner of the land. 



But in Ireland, on the average, and 

 looking to history, the landlord had been 

 more like an absentee money-lender than 

 an English landlord though, of course, 

 there were notable exceptions. 



In this development of the English system 

 the landowner, it is true, also had his 

 advantage. On the whole, he got better 

 rents out of his estates by letting them in 

 farms than by farming them himself. At 

 the same time, the typical English landlord 

 took an active part in the permanent 

 improvements of the estate, and in the 

 selection of tenants and the adoption of 

 general rules of management. He found 

 his reward not only in the rent which was 

 in general lower than the true competition 

 rent, but in the various social amenities 

 connected with the ownership of land. 



