142 The Irish Land Act 



questing a reduction of rent, and, had the present Land Act not 

 been passed, these letters would have received my careful attention, 

 "with the vieAr of granting a reduction in those cases in which I, 

 as a landlord, might, from motives of good nature (it is not 

 pretended that there are any cases of distress on the property), be 

 expected to make some concessions. But I should be glad if you 

 would point out to the occupiers that, since the Act was passed, 

 I have ceased to be the landlord of the Estate. The occupiers 

 are now, in fact, no longer tenants, but part possessors of the soil, 

 and the landlord is the Government, which has taken to itself aU 

 the powers formerly exercised by me. In other words, I am 

 merely a rent-charger, or the holder of a mortgage on the 

 property, and as all the rights of a landlord have been taken 

 away, all the duties I formerly had have disappeared with them. 

 Though an actual landlord for but a short time (viz., before the 

 passing of the Act), I had, as you know, begun practically to 

 acknowledge a landlord's duties, exactly as I do on my property 

 in Scotland. I made, on your recommendation, a bog road at 

 a cost of £125, for the convenience of the tenants and to employ 

 labour in bad times, and I also ordered the construction of two 

 cottages, from which I was to have no return whatever, and I 

 had intended, year by year, to do what I could to improve the 

 condition of the people on the property. But those who were 

 formerly my tenants cannot be so unreasonable as to expect me, 

 after having been deprived of all control over my property, to 

 continue to act as I would have done had my rights been left 

 undisturbed. "We were formerly partners as landlord and 

 tenant ; but the Government, by taking to itself the position of 

 landlord, and granting large possessory rights to the tenants, has 

 broken up the partnership, and the occupiers of the estate are now 

 simply people who owe me money, and I have no more to do with 

 them than with any other persons who may happen to be in debt 

 to me. The Land Act has formally declared that the occupiers 

 must pay their rents, and if they have any reason to complain of 

 the rents being too high they must go to their new landlord, or, 

 in other words, the Land Court, whict can raise or reduce the 

 rent, without my being in any way consulted. 



" It is very disagi-eeable to me to have to write thus ; but, if an 

 end has been put to all the former relations of landlord and 



