176 Cottier's Abridgment of Privileges. 



letting for six shillings per acre, and producing 

 little grain. One cottier, indeed, told us that 

 he paid " three pounds a-year for nine acres, in 

 this outlandish country ! " The poor fellow, 

 with whom we entered into conversation, 

 seemed to have a heart so full, that to have 

 an opportunity of venting his troubles was to 

 him a great relief. He said his cabin had been 

 raised by his father some forty years ago ; that 

 times were sorely worse ; that he was abridged 

 of every privilege ; and that a rent of four ten- 

 pennies was now exacted for lime, stone, and 

 sea-weed ; which, small as it may appear to us, 

 to him was a payment of great importance ; 

 besides which, his tithes were eight shillings 

 per annum. Hopes had been held out to him 

 of seeing his landlord, but hitherto he had been 

 disappointed. From his justice and liberality 

 the tenants on the estate had been led to expect 

 some redress. 



Many are the miseries in Ireland which spring 

 from the owners thus absenting themselves from 

 their property. The blame which is so generally, 

 and often so justly, imputed to agents, ought 

 however, in some cases, to attach to the landlords, 

 whose inexcusable ignorance of their estates, 

 and total neglect, not only of their own interests, 

 but of the comfort and happiness of the tenantry, 



