902 REPORT—1874. 
such a place get an advantage in the nature of rent. Now, whether they can 
maintain the monopoly depends on whether the natural advantages are being well 
managed, whether they are not overborne by corresponding disadvantages. Whether 
the capitalists can grasp all those benefits or be compelled to share them with the 
labourers depends on the degree of skill required for the work, and the length of 
time requi se for the obtaining such skill. Whether, again, the monopoly be per- 
manent or temporary must be considered. If it be temporary, and fresh hands not 
immediately obtainable, the owners must share their profits with the workers. If 
the manufacture be overcrowded, the remedy is not to lower wages, but for 
the weakest or least competent employers to discontinue production. 
Manchester has advantages for cotton manufacture in its coal and iron and 
knowledge of machinery. When these are overtaken (if they be overtaken by 
America) we will not perhaps see the anomaly of the raw material being brought 
thousands of miles to be manufactured, and sent back thousands of miles to be 
sold. Belfast has advantages in the flax-fields of Ulster and in the knowledge 
and skill of its manufacturers, slowly acquired and carefully treasured, in banking 
accommodation, facilities for locomotion, and otherwise. Whether the advantages 
are abused or not, whether the manufacture has not been pressed to a point 
beyond what the natural advantages would warrant, whether the employers can 
keep all the extra gains arising from such advantages or must share them with the 
workers, depends on the wisdom and sagacity of the manufacturers, on the con- 
fidence placed in them by the workmen, on the general state of trade, and other 
considerations which abstract political economy rejects. But though feudalism 
_ has ceased to be sole arbiter in land-tenure, and though the relations between 
capital and labour are supposed to be founded solely on contract, political economy 
cannot disguise, and does not seek to disguise, the fact that friendliness and 
sympathy and cooperation between employer and employed, as between landlord 
and tenant, are not only the best security for social content, but are also the way 
to utilize to the utmost the productive forces of nature. 
On the Ulster Tenant-Right. By Professor Donnett, M.A. 
The Ulster Tenant-Right, up to the introduction of the Irish Land Act, was 
almost unknown in England, and but imperfectly understood outside the limits of 
Ulster. Mr. Gladstone’s speech on introducing the Bill brought it under the notice 
of theempire. This speech contains an admirable exposition of the Ulster Tenant- 
Right. The Ulster Tenant-Right is the tenant’s right of continuous occupancy of 
his lands, subject to a fair rent, which may be periodically revised, and the right of 
selling this occupancy right at the best price to a solvent and unobjectionable 
tenant. This right embraces a property valued by Dr. Hancock twenty years ago 
at £20,000,000, but recent investigations in the Land Courts show that it would 
not be overestimated at £35,000,000. This right was universally respected by the 
large landowners in Ulster up to 1838, when the Irish Poor-law was introduced 
and an impetus given to farm consolidation. Restrictions on the price of the 
Tenant-Right haye in some cases been since introduced ; and in other cases the right 
has been altogether abolished. This arose from the fact that the custom, though 
as old as the Ulster Plantation and generally observed, had no legal protection. 
The first section of the Irish Land Act first legalized it. The custom is economi- 
cally beneficial; it gives security for improvements, and it is the cause of a great 
saving in poor-rates and police charges. The legalization of the Ulster custom has 
not diminished the value of the landlord's estate ; on the contrary, the sales in the 
Landed Estates Court show, since 1870, an increase of two to three years’ purchase 
in the value of estates. 
The Act has not, as was intended, fully legalized the custom. The leaseholders’ 
tenant-right has not been sufficiently protected. The tenant-right in town-parks and 
pasture-farms is still without legal protection. The restrictions on the prices of the 
tenant-right have not been entirely removed. Disputes about the adjustment of 
rent are not directly investigated. The Courts have been declared incapable of 
making decrees of declaration of right and of specific performance. These are— 
