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 L I E> RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N IVE.R.5ITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 l! Wh^ i/l/h ^A/ftt^ e^^-y]AJx4^^^ 
 
 "LAND AT LAST/' 
 
 AN IRISH LAND AGENT. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 HODGES, FOSTER, AND CO., GRAFTON-STREET 
 
 PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 ^ 1870.
 
 "LAND AT LAST 
 
 Upon the eve of a revolution in some of the most impor- 
 tant laws which aflfect society, namely, those relating to 
 property, it clearly behoves each one, who either has any 
 property to lose, or who sees a chance of there being any 
 for him honestly to win, to consider what effect such 
 change is likely to produce, and to endeavor, so far 
 as in him lies, that it prove as beneficial, or, at the 
 least, as little injurious as possible to all concerned. 
 
 And, however v\reary he may be of the land question 
 in Ireland, or however surfeited with heart-rending des- 
 criptions of the woes of the patient, or with the variety of 
 remedies prescribed by quack or physician, he should 
 not be deterred, has he only the means of judging for 
 himself by observation or experience, from endeavoring 
 to arrive at some conclusions of his own, or even (at the 
 risk of breaking the landlords' " conspiracy of silence " ) 
 from expressing them to others. 
 
 For we may rest assured, whatever be the nature of 
 the impending changes, that it is on the working and 
 application of them the future welfare of the country 
 must depend, and each one should endeavor to foresee in 
 time how to guide and direct them for the best. 
 
 To enable us to do so, we must first consider the
 
 causes, whether real or alleged, which have led to 
 this demand for change ; and although the subject may- 
 appear to many to have been thoroughly exhausted, in 
 reality it is one with which the majority are not only 
 unacquainted, but upon which they have accepted certain 
 statements altogether contrary to facts. 
 
 Most men now appear ready to concede, that, whether 
 actual and substantial injury has resulted from the work- 
 ing of the present land-laws or not, there is this inherent 
 defect in them, that they admit, in certain cases, of a 
 possible injustice being inflicted, and the very possibility 
 of such a wrong would appear to be sufficient reason for 
 a change in them. 
 
 This being so, it may perhaps appear unnecessary to 
 consider the amount of injury which has actually resulted 
 from such defects ; but, in order to assist us in dealing with 
 the question under a new regime, it will be well to 
 ascertain, as clearly as possible, the facts as they exist, 
 and, in the first place, to examine them as very usually 
 depicted. 
 
 - Passing over the eloquent statements of a class of 
 political or professional agitators who find a profitable and 
 congenial fishery in muddying the waters, we may, I 
 think, take the letters of the Times Commissioner as a 
 reasonably fair specimen of opinion on the question ; and 
 although an Irish barrister, with decided political opinions, 
 may not be exactly the class of witness we should select 
 for obtaining impartial evidence on a subject, with the 
 details of which he is obviously unacquainted ; still, I think, 
 we are bound to admit, that, with a very eloquent style 
 
 o
 
 of writing, he has yet avoided exaggeration ; and that if to 
 some few landlords he has administered " Jed'art justice," 
 he has, on the other hand, admitted that many of them 
 are not so black as they are painted. 
 
 The result of his investigation appears to resolve itself 
 into three distinct assertions, which, if correct, would 
 clearly establish that a substantial and palpable injury, 
 under the existing laws, has accrued to a certain class 
 of tenants. Let us, therefore, take these particular 
 assertions, and endeavor to see how far they are borne 
 out by facts. 
 
 They may briefly be expressed as follows : — 
 Firstly — That a numerous class, which he correctly 
 terms peasant-tenants, have added useful annexa- 
 tions to their farms, and have given the land certain 
 productive qualities which have increased its letting 
 value ; 
 Secondly — That they have done so at their own ex- 
 pense ; and 
 Thirdly — That these equities, which have been ac- 
 quired by the tenant, have (he has no doubt) 
 occasionally been confiscated by the landlord. 
 The first point, therefore, to examine, is the nature and 
 value of these useful annexations; and, as he has referred to 
 South Wexford as affording the most favorable specimens 
 of them he has met with, we may, perhaps, most easily 
 deal with the question by selecting that locality. 
 
 They must, I take it, be necessarily comprised under 
 the heads of Buildings, Fencing, Drainage, Planting, and 
 Farm-roads; and the productive qualities added to the land
 
 G 
 
 must, I presume, arise from improved systems of culti- 
 vation and manuring, and from the reclamation of waste 
 land. Let us, therefore, examine each of these separately 
 as they are found in that district, and of course to an 
 inferior extent in other parts of Ireland. 
 
 And first, we find the buildings on the farms of these 
 peasant-tenants to consist of comfortable dwellings, 
 usually built with walls of yellow clay or mud, generally 
 whitewashed, and with thatched roofs ; and of farm-offices 
 of the same material, but not quite so comfortable — the 
 whole being usually upwards of fifty years erected ; with 
 occasionally a cow-house and barn built with good walls 
 of lime and mortar, and slated roofs, of a more recent 
 date. 
 
 The fences we find to consist of broads banks of earth, 
 with a dyke on one side, and often on both, frequently 
 running zig-zag, and enclosing fields of various shapes, 
 averaging in size from two to three Irish acres. 
 
 The drainage, except when part of the expense has 
 been borne by the landlord, or in some wet corner of a 
 field, we find to be almost nil ; and with the exception of 
 half a dozen trees about the house, or occasionally on a 
 fence, the same may be said of the planting. Like most 
 other parts of Ireland, it is sadly deficient in timber ; 
 and I do not remember anything which could be termed 
 a plantation or grove made by the tenant , but if any 
 there be, the trees have surely been registered under the 
 Act, and belong to him. 
 
 The farm-roads are merely a lane or car-way to the 
 house, and in the vicinity of sea gravel are usually in
 
 good repair ; elsewhere, if of any length, they are gene- 
 rally bad enough, with some few exceptions — especially if 
 used by two or three tenants, who usually quarrel about 
 repairing them. 
 
 Now let us see how these annexations add to or increase 
 the value of the farms. 
 
 The dwellings are, no doubt, comfortable and fairly 
 suited to the occupants, and although often of great age (as 
 much as one hundred years), the walls are drier, and the 
 roofs warmer in winter and cooler in summer, than if of 
 stone, and slated ; and were it not that they rob the farm 
 of the straw, need not be found fault with. But of what 
 use are either house or offices to the landlord in adding to 
 the value of the farm ? Of what advantage is it to him 
 to have such buildings on from every ten to twenty acres 
 of his estate ? 
 
 A tenant could pay him a higher rent who held four of 
 such farms with only one such set of buildings; and there- 
 fore any benefit arising from them is exclusively derived 
 by the tenant ; and, in fact, a landlord who merely con- 
 sidered the improvement of his estate, would willingly pay 
 to have them levelled, were it not for a feeling of com- 
 passion for the tenants. 
 
 Next, as regards the fences, the greatest benefit that 
 conld accrue to the farm would be to have the whole of 
 them levelled. The breadth of land occupied by an ordi- 
 nary one is twenty-one feet — there are many wider ; and 
 therefore, when dividing the farm into three-acre fields, 
 they exactly occupy one-seventh of it — the whole of which 
 is utterly useless, except for the value of the furze, as fuel,
 
 which grow on them. Moreover, they are usually 
 crooked, so as to cause what are known as geerogues 
 (short ridges) in the field, which add much labor and 
 waste in ploughing and tilling it. These fences also are 
 often yet older than the buildings, many of them ap- 
 pearing on maps made two hundred years ago. 
 
 Of the other three descriptions of annexations, I have 
 only to add that a yearly expenditure of one shilling on 
 every seven yards of the lanes would keep them in as 
 good repair as they usually are, and that the drains in 
 the wet corners are usually not deep enough to be of much 
 value. 
 
 With respect to the improved cultivation, I wish, in the 
 first place, to bear testimony to the characters of both the 
 peasant and larger farmers of this district, as being a most 
 industrious, hardworking, and respectable class, who are 
 quite a credit to any country ; but as to their system of 
 cultivation, it is far behind most parts of Europe. 
 
 Through want of horse-power and knowledge, the depth 
 of their ploughing does not average five inches, and 
 underneath this there will be found a stratum or layer of 
 mould as hard as a road, and undisturbed since its first 
 formation ; and this system of scratching the surface has 
 been going on for generations. 
 
 With regard to manure, although I acquit them of 
 the shameful practice, which prevails in most parts of 
 Ireland, of selling their straw and green crops off the 
 farms, and I admit that they draw a certain quantity of 
 lime or phosphates, yet they draw but little dung from 
 the town, nor do they make it by stall-feeding, and, in
 
 fact, the value to a field from manuring is withdrawn 
 from it again in the three or four following crops. "With 
 respect to reclamation, there are no regular bogs or waste 
 lands in the district under rent ; but there are mountain 
 commons, on which squatters have expended much labor 
 in reclaiming patches, on which they live rent free, 
 very frequently in a state of poverty, and in which 
 they often sell their interest. The peasant tenants also 
 occasionally fill an old marl hole, or level an inequality 
 in the surface of a field, which adds to the appearance, 
 if not much to the value, of the farms ; but far too many 
 waste and rushy patches still continue to disfigure them. 
 Upon examination, therefore, we find the case to be 
 this — that in the comforts and habits of these farmers a 
 very great improvement, indeed, has taken place within 
 the last few years ; and that, in the tidiness of their 
 dwellings, and a general well-to-do appearance, which 
 takes the eye, about themselves and their places, they are 
 very far before most other parts of Ireland. Even with 
 such conveniencies and luxuries as a threshing and 
 churning machine, a jaunting car, and even a photograph 
 book on their sitting-room table, we find many of them 
 provided, and truly gratifying it is to see it ; but as to 
 permanent improvements in the letting value of their 
 farms, beyond what they have acquired through the 
 increase in value of all kinds of farm produce, not only 
 would the land bring no higher rent now by reason of 
 them (exclusive of this increase), than it did forty years 
 since ; but, in point of fact, the rents are not higher now 
 than they were then.
 
 10 
 
 As to the productive qualities which the Times Com- 
 missioner believes them to have added to the land, being 
 in any way approaching to what would elsewhere be 
 considered high farming, it would, I fear, be far more 
 likely to cause the amiable Mr. Mechi a fit of the blues — 
 especially in the item of weeds and dirt, with which most 
 farms are overrun ; and these remarks apply with yet 
 greater force to most other parts of Ireland. 
 
 In fact, the increase and profit arising from the in- 
 crease in prices has all gone into the tenant's pocket, 
 and " Hinc illse lachrimae" — but of this presently. 
 
 And with regard to the petite culture of small hold- 
 ings, although no system of tillage is better or more 
 profitable than spade cultivation, yet, of the many small 
 holders in the district, I don't know a dozen who would 
 turn to and dig two or three acres of their land with a 
 spade, preferring rather to work as laborers elsewhere, 
 and to wait for a loan of their neighbor's horses after 
 he has finished his own "season." 
 
 And now, with respect to any improvements there 
 be, having been created at the expense of the tenants, let 
 us see how this stands. 
 
 Tt is the invariable cry of the great authorities on this 
 question, that in England the permanent improvementsare 
 efiected at the cost of the landlord, while in Ireland they 
 are done by the tenant. But — putting aside the mani- 
 fest absurdity of comparing an English landlord erecting 
 a house on, say, every couple of hundred acres, with an 
 Irish one having to build from ten to twenty on the same 
 quantity of land — is this statement really true ?
 
 11 
 
 I presume it is the same thing, in a commercial point 
 of view, whether a landlord builds a house, and charges 
 the tenant the interest on the outlay in his rent, or 
 whether the tenant builds it himself, and is paid oE both 
 principal and interest by the usor — having originally got 
 the farm at a lower rent in consideration of there being 
 no house on it, and which he was expected to build ; 
 but this is a principle of which Irish tenants (and 
 apparently their self-appointed advocates) are utterly 
 ignorant. 
 
 Such a theory as that any outlay is ever exhausted by 
 the enjoyment of it is literally unknown to him. 
 
 I am unable to say what sum a tenant on the West- 
 minster or Mr. Lownde's estate expends in building a 
 house about Eaton-square, on, I believe, a sixty-one years' 
 lease ; but, I presume, if asked to surrender it at the 
 expiration of the term, he will not expect to be repaid 
 the whole of his outlay (not to mention the price of his 
 good-will), or, even if refused, would he look on his land- 
 lord as a felon. Yet this is what an Irish tenant would 
 do if treated so, which he is not. 
 
 As before stated, most of the buildings and fences of 
 the peasant farmers are from 50 to 100 years old, and 
 many still older ; and the fact of the original tenant 
 having to build them, of course, formed, at the time, an 
 item in calculating the value and rent. Those on each 
 farm probably cost, at the time, about £50 or £60, and 
 are valued by Griffith at an average of from £l 10s. Od. 
 to £2 yearly per farm. The tenants have been repaid 
 the original cost of them many times over, and if the
 
 12 
 
 landlord had possession of them to-morrow, the only value 
 they would be to him is by mixing the thatch with the 
 walls for manure, and which would scarcely repay the 
 expense of levelling them. 
 
 And this brings us to the third statement, that these 
 equities (such as they are) acquired by the tenant have 
 occasionally been confiscated by the landlord. 
 
 The Times Commissioner is too shrewd, and, I believe, 
 too honest, to attempt to repeat the absurdity that land- 
 lords are in the habit of evicting improving tenants. 
 Probably his own experience may have taught him that, 
 merely in a commercial point of view, a good tenant is 
 far too valuable an article in Ireland to be dealt with in 
 this manner. 
 
 The truth being that no gentleman landlord in 
 Ireland ever evicts a good tenant luithout full compen- 
 sation. When I can discover an instance to the contrary 
 I shall be happy to admit my error; but it must be a 
 case founded on fact, and not on that prolific seat of incu- 
 bation for Irish grievances — a mare's nest. 
 
 But he inclines to the belief that landlords are in the 
 habit of, as it were, squeezing out such tenants by over- 
 renting them; and, I have no doubt, he has taken up 
 this idea honestly, not having much practical knowledge 
 of the subject. 
 
 Let us, therefore, inquire into it in detail. 
 
 I believe the principle, formerly deemed fair, on which 
 to calculate the rent, was to divide the gross produce of 
 the land into three equal portions, of which one should 
 go to the landlord for rent, one-third for labor and
 
 13 
 
 expenses, and one-third is profit for the tenant ; but, at 
 all events, the principle now acted upon elsewhere, and 
 even on the metayer system, is that the nett profits, 
 after deducting expenses, be equally divided between 
 landlord and tenant. 
 
 jS'ow, except the Meath or Golden Vein land, there is 
 very little in Ireland brings a higher rent than in the dis- 
 trict we have been referring to, save in the case of some 
 landlords who, through a feeling of goodnature, avowedly 
 let their land below the value. 
 
 Yet, with the exception of a narrow margin bordering 
 the seashore, where seaweed can be had for manure, and 
 where the tenants are the best off of any in the district, 
 there are not a dozen farms in South Wexford let at £3 
 per Irish acre, — the highest rent being generally 50s. per 
 acre, and the average rate would probably be nearly one 
 third less, or 33s. 4d. 
 
 Now let us see what this land, even as at present 
 tilled, actually produces ; taking care to be at the liberal 
 side towards the tenant for expenses, which, even inci- 
 dentally, show a strange contrast to the rent, if, under the 
 system alluded to, they were to form equal third parts : — 
 
 It grows 20 barrels of barley to the acre, which 
 
 sells at from 16s. to 25s. per barrel ; but let us 
 
 take it at 16 barrels, at 18s. per barrel, although 
 
 a low average, this gives the gross produce at . . . £14 8 
 
 Deduct for seed and labor ... £4 10 
 
 Taxes, ... ... ... 4 
 
 4 14 
 
 Value of nett prodiice per acre, ... ... £9 14 
 
 Landlord's half for rent, ... , ... £4 17
 
 14 
 
 There is land in this district which grows 25 barrels 
 to the acre, which at 21s. (a usual price) gives 
 the gross produce at ... ... ... £26 5 
 
 And, the cost of labor being alike, gives the nett 
 
 profit, ... ... ... ... £21 11 
 
 Of course every additional barrel he can make the 
 land produce is a clear 18s. to 25s. in the 
 tenant's pocket, the labor and rent being constant 
 quantities. 
 
 It grows after a manured crop 12 barrels of wheat, 
 at from 25s. to 35s. ; but say 10 barrels at 25s., 
 gives the gross produce, ... ... £1210 
 
 Deduct seed and labor, ... ... £4 10 
 
 Taxes, ... ... ... 4 
 
 £4 14 
 
 Nett produce, ... ... ... £7 16 
 
 Landlord's half for rent, ... ... £3 18 
 
 It grows 70 barrels of potatoes at 10s. (I have 
 
 known 200 barrels), ... ... ... £35 
 
 Deduct seed, labor, manure, and taxes, ... 16 4 
 
 Nett profit, ... ... ... ... £18 16 
 
 Landlord's half for rent, ... ... £9 8 
 
 It grows 20 barrels of beans at from 20s. to 25s. 
 
 Let us say 16 barrels at 21s., ... ... £16 16 
 
 Deduct seed, labor, and manure (they are planted 
 
 — ^not drilled or hoed — and on inferior manure), 10 4 
 
 Nett profit, ... ... ... ... £6 12 
 
 Landlord's half, ... ... ... £3 6 
 
 It grows 40 tons of mangols at 15s. (should grow 
 
 60 or 70 tons, if properly worked), ... £30
 
 15 
 
 Deduct manure, seed, labor, and taxes. 
 
 Landlord's half. 
 
 15 4 
 
 3 tons of hay at £2 10s., 
 Aftergrass, ... 
 
 Saving, drawing home, and taxes, 
 
 Nett profit, ... 
 
 Landlord's share, 
 
 1 acre of grass, with 1 ton of mangol, and J a 
 ton of hay will feed a cow, of the yearly profit of 
 
 ... £0 15 
 
 Deduct value of mangol, 
 
 ofhay, ... 
 Share of dairy-maid's expense, 
 Interest on value of cow, at £10 per 
 
 cent. 
 Taxes, 
 
 Nett profit, .. . 
 
 Landlord's half, 
 
 An acre of lea oats, say 16 barrels at 14s., 
 
 ought to be 20 to 25 barrels, shovelled, 
 Deduct seed, labor, and taxes, 
 
 Nett profit, ... 
 
 Landlord's share. 
 
 it 
 
 £14 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 £7 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 £7 
 
 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 £8 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 £6 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 £3 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 £12 
 
 4 17 6 
 
 £7 2 6 
 
 £3 11 3 
 
 £11 4 
 5 4 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 So that the average nett profit of these eight courses 
 would be £9 14s. Od. per acre, and deducting £10 per 
 cent, from this for contingencies, gives, in round numbers, 
 £8 14s. 6d. per acre, of which the landlord's rentshould be
 
 16 
 
 £4 7s. 3d., and whicli is more than double the average 
 rent of this district, or of most lands in other parts of 
 Ireland. 
 
 In the foregoing calculations I believe I have made a 
 more liberal allowance for labor than it costs a farmer, 
 and I have not taken anything near the maximum quan- 
 tities of produce which the land might be made to pro- 
 duce by thoroughly working it. 
 
 It must also strike one, how very insignificant two or 
 three shillings per acre, more or less, in the rent is, as 
 compared either with the expense of labor, or with the 
 value of one extra barrel of produce— matters which are 
 very much under the control of the tenant, and depend- 
 ing upon his system of management. 
 
 Can this, therefore, be fairly said to be rack-renting or 
 squeezing out tenants ? 
 
 Is it not rather evident that the rent of Ireland is very 
 far below what it fairly might be, and which the tenants, ere 
 long, will learn to their cost under any change in the laws. 
 
 I do not mean to assert that, under their present system 
 of tillage and small holdings, they are able to pay a much 
 higher rent than they do at present, having usually large 
 families to support on such small plots of land ; but 
 it is the landlords who are the sufferers, through a feeling 
 of compassion for them, and once the question of rent 
 comes to be a matter of business or even of valuation, as 
 is now demanded, and that the landlords begin to deal 
 with it in that way, the present tenants will either have 
 to change their system materially, or else make room 
 for others.
 
 17 
 
 And this leads us to the main point of the present 
 observations — namely, the position of the landlord and 
 tenant under the future state of the laws, and the true 
 cause which has led, in the case of some tenants in their 
 ignorance, and of their professional advocates, to join in 
 this outcry for change. 
 
 No one knows better than the tenant himself that he 
 has got the lion's share under the present state of rents, 
 and he is in constant dread of losing his monopoly ; and 
 he thinks that by being beforehand in raising a cry, he 
 may more easily direct attention from the weak point in 
 his case, and secure this lion's share in perpetuity ; but 
 he will find himself grievously mistaken. 
 
 The fixity of tenure and rent at valuation, which he is 
 now demanding, is merely the old, exploded doctrine of 
 protection, that he should be able to hold his farm at 
 a lower value than he knows it would bring from 
 others. 
 
 His idea of valuation is Griffith's valuation, which was 
 made over twenty years back, based upon a scale of prices 
 of produce, which have admittedly increased by nearly 
 one-third since it was published. 
 
 He would be rather astonished if informed that as his 
 rent was to be fixed in proportion to that valuation, the 
 price he is to get now, or in future, for his pig or his heifer, 
 or his firkin of butter and barrel of barley, is also to be 
 fixed by the same valuation — and yet to this the doctrine 
 to be fair, must be extended, if all classes are equally to 
 benefit by it. 
 
 Hitherto it is he who has been the gainer by this
 
 18 
 
 increase in prices ; and so far from the land being over- 
 rented, or that landlords have been gainers by their 
 tenants' improvements, the very reverse is the fact, that 
 rents are lower than in any country in Europe, as shown 
 by the valuable tables lately published in the Farmer* s 
 Gazette^ and that landlords have been deprived of a large 
 part of their just income through the want of capital, 
 knowledge, industry, or honesty, of their tenants. 
 
 In point of fact," these tables of Mr. Purdon's, coupled 
 with Mr. Mure's letters in the Times, literally do not 
 leave Mr. Bright and such theorists a leg to stand on. 
 
 There is land in Leceistershire, Northamptonshire, and 
 Derbyshire, let at the rate of £8 per Irish acre, but little 
 superior to land in the barony of Forth, which is let at 55s. 
 
 Whether there were tenant-righters in the time of Sir 
 William Petty I know not, but what such men love now- 
 a-days is not justice but favor, and very frequently alms, 
 from their landlords.* Neither do their Irish ideas in- 
 clude the one of fair play, as in Ireland a dozen men will 
 set upon one, and if they want to hit a man they rather 
 prefer he should be down. 
 
 When the plea for a change in the law is based on the 
 statement that the land is unimproved, because of the 
 want of security, it has (although equally untrue) some 
 appearance of truth to support it; but when the statement 
 is advanced that it has been so much improved (even in 
 the most favored districts) as to tempt the cupidity of 
 
 * I am occasionally asked by a tenant, when paying his rent, to 
 allow him the price of a pair of shoes — in one instance by a tenant 
 p aying a rent of £60 yearly.
 
 19 
 
 landlords, it bears on the face of it its own contradic- 
 tion. 
 
 So far from rents at the present day being charged on 
 the tenant's improvements, it is fortunately easy to 
 demonstrate beyond the power of contradiction, that, as 
 compared with the value of produce, they are lower by 
 one-half than they were eighty years ago. 
 
 Because we have not only on record the prices of all kinds 
 of agricultural produce at that date, but also old rent, rolls 
 and leases, made at the time, and previous to it, showing 
 what the rent was then also; and the only matter of 
 surprise is the extraordinary contrast between what 
 tenants paid then and now fur the same land, as compared 
 with the prices. 
 
 I have on a former occasion''' given the comparative 
 scale of prices in the year 1789 (taken from a newspaper 
 of that date), and in the same month of the year 1867, 
 and the contrast is so remarkable that I am induced 
 again to call attention to it. It is as follows : — 
 
 7th March, 1789. 
 
 9th March, 1867. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 Barley per barrel 12 6 to 13 
 
 Barley per barrel 19 to 23 
 
 Wheat „ 23 to 24 6 
 
 Wheat „ 36 to 37 6 
 
 Oat^ „ 6 to 6 6 
 
 Oats „ 14 9 to 15 6 
 
 Beans „ 13 to 13 6 
 
 Beans „ 20 to 23 
 
 Butter per cwt. 24 to 34 
 
 Butter per cwt. 100 to 120 
 
 Cheese „ 12 to 28 
 
 Cheese „ 70 to 75 
 
 Beef „ 13 to 18 6 
 
 Beef „ 70 to 75 
 
 Pork „ 16 to 17 
 
 Pork „ 41 to 43 
 
 Potatoes per St. IJ to 2 
 
 Potatoes per st. 6 to 8 
 
 And the price of Poultry, w 
 
 tiich is extensively reared in 
 
 A Demurrer to Mr. Butt's Plea."
 
 20 
 
 Ireland, has risen from Is. for a Christmas goose or a 
 pair of spring chickens, to 6s. and 7s., within the last 30 
 years So that one clutch of chickens will now pay the 
 rent of a prime acre of land. 
 
 So that we find, exclusive of artificial manures, im- 
 provement in breeds of cattle and pigs, cultivation of 
 green crops, and superior seed (advantages altogether 
 extraneous of any merit of the tenants), the average 
 value of the produce of land of every description is nearly 
 three times as high now as it was then ; while, com- 
 paring the rents which were paid at that time with what 
 are paid for the same land now, we find them increased 
 by about one-third ; or, in other words, that while the 
 value of produce has increased as 9 to 3, rent has only 
 increased as 4 to 3. 
 
 If this be taking advantage of tenants' improvements, 
 it surely does not say much for either the nature or 
 extent of them. 
 
 But as a cry has been raised, which must necessarily 
 call attention to facts, and the truth will come out the 
 more they are investigated, the tenants must be prepared 
 to take the consequences, and to have both sides heard 
 on the Inquiry. That it must result in an increase of 
 rents there can be no doubt, and probably, too, in 
 improvement to the country ; although many tenants, and 
 perhaps not a few landlords, must go down in the 
 struggle. 
 
 And it is then the tenant will discover what a hard 
 bed he has made for himself, as compared with what 
 he remembers.
 
 21 
 
 No laiv can give a tenant the privileges and favors 
 which he gets voluntarily from his landlord ; and no 
 change in the law ivhich any civilized nation ivill 
 sanction, hut must, if acted on, have the effect of rais- 
 ing the rents of Ireland. 
 
 And although this result may press heavily on the 
 large number (by far the majority) of contented and 
 industrious tenants, who have never joined in the howl^ 
 or been in the least befooled by the professional agitators, 
 yet it is now inevitable, and they must be prepared to 
 meet it as best they can. 
 
 For they may rest assured of this, that once the law 
 has been settled, and perhaps Arbitration Courts ap- 
 pointed, that it will not be considered either harsh or 
 unjust of the landlords to avail themselves of the change, 
 and to say to their tenants, the law has been settled at 
 your own request, and now you shall have the benefit 
 of it to the letter — hut nothing more. 
 
 One can fancy their astonishment when at length the 
 conviction is brought home to them (and it will take 
 both time and determination to do it), that, in future, 
 their dealings with their landlords are reallv to be a 
 matter of business. Their utter incredulity, when in- 
 formed that of no avail is the plea, " Sure I and my 
 breed have been under your honor's for generations," or 
 that the expense of "rearing a heavy family" should ftill 
 equally on him and his landlord. When they discover 
 that, in future, their petitions for favors and allowances 
 are to be dealt with as questions of value and profitable 
 investment, and not of generosity or commiseration — but
 
 22 
 
 the truth is, I doubt if they will ever be convinced of it, 
 but will rather deem themselves grievously injured. 
 
 When recently I have endeavored to explain to 
 tenants who were applying for the usual allowances or 
 assistance towards draining, or for timbers and slates, 
 that, under the contemplated Land Bill, they would have 
 no claim for such allowance until they were leaving their 
 farms; the majority of them laughed at it as an excellent 
 joke, but some few admitted they foresaw that any change 
 in the law would be a loss to them. 
 
 Were it seriously the intention of the present Govern- 
 ment to adapt the land laws to what are termed " Irish 
 ideas," it would appear that the principle of fixity of 
 tenure is one of the most prominent of them, and it may 
 be amusing just to glance at one little feature involved 
 in this sensible proposal; but however useful they may have 
 fancied such a proposal might be to them for the moment 
 as a cry, it can scarcely be possible that educated and 
 rational men, with even the most rudimentary know- 
 ledge of political economy, would dream, for one moment, 
 of surrendering all that has been gained by years of 
 experience and civilization, and of yielding to the pre- 
 judices of the ignorant and semi-barbarous, and who 
 are not even the majority of the population of this 
 country. 
 
 The very term Irish ideas, if representing their ideas, 
 involves the necessity of their being benighted and 
 barbarous ones, and it will scarcely be maintained that 
 ihey are wiser and more enlightened than those held by 
 educated men in England on most subjects ; and yet
 
 23 
 
 were it really a hopeless task to try to change or improve 
 them, it might, perhaps, have been a question how far a 
 Government, for peace' sake, would be justified in yielding 
 to or adopting them. But here is where the fatal mistake 
 has been made, as only two years ago such ideas were 
 well nigh exploded, and in the next generation would 
 have been cleanly forgotten, 
 
 Fenianism, whose ranks were recruited, not from the 
 farming class, but from the silly or poverty-stricken 
 residuum of the towns, had collapsed, and tenants were 
 fast arriving at the conviction that the most profitable 
 thing for them was to mind their business ; but all this 
 has been changed, and whatever beneficial results might 
 have been expected in the conduct of the people from 
 changes in the laws, have been utterly frustrated by 
 leading them to suppose that they can force their opinions 
 on England, if they only bully and bellow loud enough. 
 
 Hence the country has at present retrograded more 
 than 50 years in civilization, and the predicted New Era 
 turns out to be an exaggerated old one in turbulence and 
 terror. 
 
 As a specimen of " Irish ideas " in the mode of laying out 
 farms, which, of course, the doctrine of fixity of tenure 
 would perpetuate, I annex maps of a couple of town- 
 lands in difierent counties (one of them Wexford), as 
 divided between the occupiers according to Irish ideas, 
 and which are, by no means, exceptional cases, but are 
 taken from a very large number of similar ones. They, 
 no doubt, bear testimony to the ingenuity and originality 
 of the native surveyors, but I doubt if even Mr. Bright,
 
 as a practical man, can recommend their general adop- 
 tion, either for economy of labor or convenience. 
 
 And even absurd as this mode of partitioning farms 
 may be, there is one still worse, which I have occasionally 
 met with, and which has been referred to by the Knight 
 of Kerry, in a letter to the Times. 
 
 It is where tenants have one field divided between 
 them in alternate ridges or " lokes," as they are termed 
 in Waterford, so that, even where there are only two 
 tenants, each of them owns every second ridge in the 
 same field with the other man's ridge intervening, and 
 one of them will sell his good-will or tenant-right in his 
 ridges to a stranger. 
 
 Of course in tilling his land each tenant has to hop 
 across his neighbor's ridge to get from one of his own to 
 another ; and Mr. Gladstone may take my word for it 
 that this Irish idea is attended with inconvenience. 
 
 With respect to Mr. Bright's proposal for creating 
 peasant proprietors, it would be superfluous and even 
 presumption of me to add one word to Mr. Mure's recent 
 letters in the Times on this subject, as he has so 
 thoroughly and completely exhausted it by exposing the 
 practical result, wherever it has been tried, that scarce 
 anything remains to be said ; but I cannot loose this 
 opportunity of expressing my thanks to him for dispel- 
 ling an illusion, which much perplexed men like me 
 when considering it. 
 
 We could, of course, all see for ourselves the universal 
 ruin, both to land and tenants, which leases in perpetuity 
 at nominal rents, or the ownership of a small townland
 
 25 
 
 in fee, involved here, and which has been so generally 
 recognized as to have originated a maxim, that if you 
 wish to ruin a tenant give him a lease for ever rent free ; 
 but we could not understand why so invariable a result in 
 this country should be so very different from what we 
 were led to believe was the case in Belgium and elsewhere, 
 and we were disposed to account for it by some difference 
 of race, or other exceptional cause. 
 
 This seeming paradox Mr. Mure has cleared up and 
 set at rest for ever, by a very simple solution, which I 
 have long since found applicable to many similar Irish 
 difficulties — namely, that it is untrue, and that, like many 
 such statements advanced by Mr. Bright and his school 
 on which to base their arguments, it is what we term in 
 Ireland the " shine of the moon." 
 
 For it now turns out, the same system, where found in 
 operation in Belgium, is attended with precisely the same 
 results as here, and it cannot possibly be better expressed 
 than in Mr. Mure's own words, when describing the state 
 of things he found there ; viz., " a swarm of peasant pro- 
 prietors possessing all the vices which too often charac- 
 terize needy power lording over and quarrelling with a 
 rack-rented and oppressed tenantry."''" 
 
 The only difference in this country being that this class 
 
 * Should anyone care to judge for himself of a model village 
 upon Mr. Bright's theory, he has only to take a return ticket to 
 the Kathnew Station, on the Duhhn and Wicklow Railway, ad- 
 joining to which he can inspect, at his leisure, the style of archi- 
 tecture, and comfort of the abodes of men dwelling beside the 
 shadow of their own dung heaps. No landlords making them 
 afraid.
 
 26 
 
 of proprietors have nearly all disappeared, and the in- 
 terest in their lands been absorbed by some large pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 In south Wexford are many townlands which were held 
 by the tenants under leases for ever, at 2s. 6d. per acre, 
 and I only now know of one instance where the interest 
 is still vested in a descendant of the original lessee. 
 
 In the others, they have gone to the bad in about four 
 generations from the dates of the grants. 
 
 And this leads us to what appears to be about the only 
 omission in Mr. Mure's remarks on the subject. 
 
 There has seldom, perhaps, been a greater amount of 
 error in the same number of words than in Mr. Bright's 
 proposal, because it is not merely that it is a mistake, but 
 that the course which he advocates is precisely the re- 
 verse of what ought to be adopted by any prudent farmer, 
 who, if he happened to own the fee of his farm, ought at 
 once to dispose of it (the fee), and invest the purchase- 
 money as capital in farming double the quantity of land 
 as a tenant — thereby securing a return for the money at 
 the rate of £10 per cent., instead of at £4 per cent, from 
 it while sunk in the fee. 
 
 In fact the fee of land is a fancy article, which only a 
 rich man can afford to invest money in, and which, as an 
 investment, by no means suits a man of moderate means 
 who has to live on the interest of his capital, and who re- 
 quires to turn it to better account. 
 
 And this makes one regret to see what is occurring very 
 frequently in Wexford, and occasionally in other parts of 
 Ireland, where tenants, who have saved a little money by
 
 27 
 
 their industry, are investing it in the purchase of a single 
 townland of from fifty to a hundred Irish acres, and often 
 leaving themselves rather short of capital, or borrowing 
 part of the money. 
 
 So long as they live, who have earned .their money hard, 
 things will go on well, even although not receiving the 
 return for their capital, which from their professional 
 knowledge and experience they ought otherwise be 
 able to do, if it were turned over twice a year in cattle 
 or sheep ; but, as Mr. Mure clearly shows, a class in this 
 position cannot long continue in the present day, and 
 experience has proved that neither could they do so in 
 former ones, so that, as regards these men, it is to be 
 feared, in their grand-children's days " their place will 
 know them no more." One would gladly believe other- 
 wise, for better men in any rank of life are not to be 
 found. 
 
 And the class which Mr. Bright proposes to get rid of 
 are just the one which will and ought to remain — namely, 
 the very large proprietors, who not only can afford, but 
 actually do manage their estates on the principle, so 
 much extolled, of constructing the permanent improve- 
 ments for their tenants, and who are found to be some of 
 the best landlords in Ireland. 
 
 As to the system of northern tenant-right, which it is 
 now proposed to extend to the rest of Ireland, I can only 
 repeat a statement which my experience of the working 
 of it has taught me to believe contains a key to the whole 
 practice — which is, that no industrious tenant ever sells 
 the good-ivill of his farm ^ and that the sum which he
 
 28 
 
 has to pay to his worthless neighbor for his adjoining 
 land, is merely a tax which indolence and intemperance 
 levies on industry. 
 
 However, it is useless to argue with those who have 
 no practical knowledge of it, as they will not be convinced ; 
 but the only result of it, if established by law, will be to 
 put large sums in the landlord's pockets as fines, which 
 must, of course, be abstracted from the industrious tenants, 
 as a landlord will get far larger sums from an in-coming 
 tenant than any court will award to the out-going one. 
 
 Another fallacy of the Times Commissioner, is the 
 blame he attaches to landlords for declining, in so many 
 instances, to grant leases ; but the fact is, as the Knight of 
 Kerry has so clearly shown, " a burnt child dreads the 
 the fire ;" and it is in nowise wonderful if a landlord who, 
 on the expiration of an old lease, finds a farm swarming 
 with paupers, or having had 1 9 crops of oats in succession 
 taken off it, should hesitate about repeating the process 
 infinitessimally. 
 
 I know a case where, on the expiration of a lease for a 
 term of three lives, there were found residing on the farm 
 seventy families ; and I don't know one case now where 
 a farm, held under an old lease, is exclusively in the 
 occupation of the direct tenant of it. It is idle, too, to 
 attribute this to the landlord's neglect, when even the laws 
 framed purposely to prevent it, when put in motion, were 
 found to be powerless to do so. 
 
 No doubt, leases, if proper restrictions in them can be 
 enforced, are the true remedy for what is complained of 
 in the Irish land tenure ; but at the same time, as to
 
 29 
 
 any difference in the improvement of farms between those 
 held by lease and from year to year, it only exists in 
 those which have been held under unusually long 
 leases, which are invariably in the most neglected condi- 
 tion of any in the same district. 
 
 Should a new Land Bill only give as much protection 
 against injustice to the land as to the tenants, it will 
 prove a valuable boon to landlords, provided they insist 
 on the provisions of it being carried out in this respect, 
 as well as in those relating to their other dealings with 
 their tenants, and not allow matters — as the tenants will 
 try to prevail on them to do — to relapse into the old 
 system, or to have the rent settled like the cabman's 
 fare — *' leave it to your honor." 
 
 In fact, the landlords have now the game in their 
 hands if they only play it right, but all must depend 
 upon this. 
 
 The old system has been tried, and small thanks they 
 have got for it. Let them take the reformers at their 
 word, and insist on the new one. 
 
 No doubt, they must be prepared for a very serious 
 state of things during the next two or three years, which 
 it is sad to think must involve some, and, perhaps, con- 
 siderable loss of life on both sides. 
 
 An ignorant and semi-barbarous portion of the popula- 
 tion cannot be roused to frenzy to suit the immediate 
 purpose of a party with impunity, and the reaction, 
 when they find they have been merely made use of for the 
 moment, will be very severe. 
 
 We may reasonably expect a state of things, in a minor
 
 30 
 
 degree, resembling the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland ; 
 but the descendants of those settlers are not likely to 
 forget that their ancestors held their own in far more 
 serious times, and that the land is their own still. Let 
 their children be able to say the same ; and they will 
 also remember that the foe have never been very formid- 
 able in courage or resources, if only met face to face, and 
 have ever speedily collapsed upon the first symptoms of 
 reverse or punishment. So that, in the end, it may only 
 lead to that consummation which a wise man once 
 remarked yet remained to be completed — the conquest of 
 Ireland. 
 
 That it should need to be effected by physical force is 
 a discreditable state in the end of the nineteenth century ; 
 but history must judge between those who have lighted 
 the " Fiery Cross " and those who have tried to extinguish 
 it. 
 
 THE END.
 
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