anon

“ The present idea of Ulster Tenant Right amongst the farming class appears to be that a farmer should be irremovable so long as he pays his rent, and that he should have the right to sell his interest to the highest bidder. This idea may suit the private interests of the farmers themselves well enough; but we—while ready to forego for the public good much landlord prerogative— prerogative—assert most decidedly our opinion that such an idea does not tend to the best interests of the community at large. ”

“ He is not shunned as a man who does not meet his obligations. But what can you expect? Dirt and rags are proverbial in Ireland: and what wonder if some of her lords of the soil are 'clad width a dirty and ragged estate' on which nearly every cottage and field tells its tale of listlessness and neglect on the part both of the tenant whose abode is there, and of the landlord who does not stimulate the tenant to better things. ”

“ Neither landlord nor tenant must be suffered to disfigure the face of the country with cabins or cottages needlessly squalid, if the law can do ought to prevent it; neither landlord nor tenant must be suffered to allow wet, and weeds, and bad cropping to curtail the generous yield which a properly cultured soil would produce, if it is possible to make an enactment which shall ensure good farming. ”

“ The soil of this island is chiefly owned by large proprietors who have no stimulus save that of a sense of moral obligation, in a greater or lesser stage of development, to induce them to advance the condition of their tenantries. They lack the stimulus of self-interest; for they can raise their rents, whether they have contributed to the improvement of the soil or not, so that an increase of their incomes is not dependant on their own careful thought and consideration as to the means by which the greatest quantity of produce may be elicited from the soil. ”

“ They have nothing to do, unless impelled by their own good feeling, save to eat, drink, and be merry, while others without are toiling 'to make up the rent.' If the property of any given landlord wears a poor and neglected aspect, no odium falls upon him from the side of his fellow-landlords. ”

“ Even this amiable individual requires another goad to stimulate him to still greater exertions. Even over his head there must be held the fear of the periodical government valuation which, if his farms fall back in productiveness, must visit him with a depreciation in his rental. He will then see that the backward farmer, by gentle means if possible, or if these fail, by sterner ones, must be made to advance, or to give place to another. ”

“ We beg of the many farmers in favoured and wealthy districts, and of some newspaper writers, whose experience is for the most part confined to the trim farms in the neighbourhood of our towns, to weigh well our very earnest words, written, we honestly declare, in the interest of no particular class, and we heartily trust under the influence of no particular prejudice ”

“ We only propose that the channel of legislation should be turned into such a direction that each and all—landlords and tenants—will find it to their decided advantage to keep pace with the progress of civilisation around them, and to their decided disadvantage not to do so. ”

“ And that the backward farmer may not have it to say that he had no stimulus, the same periodical valuation which raises or lowers the rental of the landlord, must give the tenant full credit for all improvements of proved value made by him with his landlord's consent, on or in the soil. ”

“ We propose to regard the question neither from the Landlord's point of view nor from the Tenant's point of view, but, with due regard to the reasonable rights of both, from the point at which that oft-quoted personage—the Intelligent Foreigner—would take his stand if asked for his opinion as to what would be best for the community at large. The Intelligent Foreigner regarding the question in the abstract would say—"Here is an island abounding in the elements of productiveness. Much of it is well-cultivated and fertile ”

“ Drain their fields and they will let the outfall get stopped up, till by-and-by the wet boils up worse than ever. Rag-weeds and thistles are suffered to infest their pastures. Nothing will induce them to make straight rigs, nor to keep their fences in anything like decent repair. ”