anon

“ We shall be asked if we really and seriously propose that a man should receive notice to quit when he has paid his rent regularly for years, merely because he chooses to be slovenly in his farm, in his house, and in his person. ”

“ We class, then, the man who (though he may raise very good crops) lives in a slovenly way, in a slovenly house, and cultivates his farm in a slovenly manner, not amongst the good farmers, but amongst the bad—amongst those, who in addition to all these defects, suffer the weeds to choke their crops, and the wet to sour their land, and, by bad rotation, poor ploughing, and indifferent manuring, wear out the sod till it is well nigh barren. ”

“ And even if some of the slovenly ones do manage occasionally to get as good crops out of the ground as some of the orderly ones, surely life is not all a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. Deprive it of comfort, and you deprive it of half its sweetness ”

“ The only thing that it is posible to do is to bear with them as well as you can, and endeavour to train up their sons by dint of good schooling and agricultural teaching, to be more civilized and enlightened than their sires. ”

“ But be still further just; and if you are down upon the bad landlords, pray be down upon the bad tenants as well If you make it your boast that you are patriotic Irishmen, show your zeal for your country by an impartial disapproval of all who would retard its advancement, whether they be landlords or tenants; and don't seek to perpetuate evils by agitating for leases or any other form of security for any but those who have shown some sign that they are likely to turn them to good account. ”

“ And, moreover, as want of skill is so common amongst Irish farmers, and as that lack may cause much of their outlay, if unaided by skilful direction, to be abortive, every discouragement should be given to independent outlay on the part of the tenant without consulting the landlord ”

“ The present cry is all against bad landlords. Well, hit 'em hard, these bad landlords, so long as you are just and don't class good ones amongst them, or so long as you don't call a man a bad one who is really not so. ”

“ Now, this sort of argument is all very well in England or Scotland, where the love of the old fireside is not, as in this country, a national sentiment; and where the hearthstone and the roof tree have heen set in their places, not by the tenant but by the landlord—where, in fact, the tenant is a customer, taking from his landlord drained and fenced fields to till, and a trim house to live in; and not, as with us, a partner, who has built most of the house, and drained and fenced the most of the fields himself^ In Ireland, the farmer looks for something more than a lease ”

“ Why, we leave it incumbent on them, as we have said, to win for themselves the right to stand their ground, only providing, in the interest of the community at large, that win it and earn it they must ”