Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/studiesoflandtenOOsamu LAND AND TENANTRY OF I RE LA N D SAMUELSON. O’NEILL LIBRARY BOSTON COLLEGE LAND AND TENANTRY OF IRELAND. LONDON : PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW- STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET STUDIES OF THE LAND AND TENANTRY OF IRELAND BY B. SAMUELSON, M.P. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO, 1870 . .53U> |g*70 (WSllUBRARY BOSTON COLLEGE It has been thought, by persons whose au- thority I cannot esteem too highly, that the republication, in a permanent form, of the fol- lowing notes, lately contributed by me to a daily paper, would be desirable. Except that they are somewhat amplified, the matter contained in them is unchanged in all essential respects. The plan which I have ventured to recom- mend for giving security to the tenantry of Ireland has elicited from public writers the single important objection that it will lead to litigation. I admit that it may have this effect, but I believe that the danger has been overrated. It binds over both parties to keep the peace ; the landlords by the liability to have their farms thrown on their hands on onerous terms ; the tenants, inasmuch as they must make surrender a condition concurrent with any remedy against the landlords. I anticipate from some of my Irish friends VI the complaint that Tenant-right is no abso- lute bar to eviction. They will still insist on giving to all cultivators in Ireland, the per- petuity which was secured by law to nearly every occupier in France, Germany, and Den- mark, even before the French Revolution, and the Prussian legislation of 1807-11.* I fear that the tenant himself, and through him the State, would suffer, rather than the landlord, by any of the plans to effect this object which have hitherto been proposed for Ireland. The time has not arrived when the assistance and superintendence of good landlords can, in all cases, be regarded as of no pubhc value in that country ; and it is not in human nature that these should continue to be afforded if pro- prietors are placed simply in the condition of annuitants, on terms however favourable. The smaller tenants will not, for many years to come, * The tendency of legislation in nearly every German State has been for centuries to limit the rent and dues which the landlord could claim from the tenant, and to prevent the con- solidation of holdings, or their absorption into the ‘ Domain ’ of the proprietor. The property of the tenant in the farm, and more especially in the homestead, was acknowledged by law long before feudal services were abolished. In Denmark serf- dom ceased in 1702, and leases for the life of the tenant were substituted. Other important reforms succeeded in 1787-88. Vll be in a position to regard as immaterial to their welfare the liberal aid of such landlords as the Duke of Leinster, Lord Bessborough, or the Duke of Devonshire, to name only a few out of numerous instances ; and the only prospect of improvement in the cottages of the labourers exists, at present, in the enlightened self-interest of the proprietors. No one except a mere par- tizan will affirm that the public danger arising from an indefinite subdivision of small holdings has entirely disappeared, and yet it is one with which the landlord alone can deal effectively ; a control, however, which persons having no further interest than that of quasi lords of the manor could not be expected to exercise with discriminating care. But whatever else may be done should be accompanied by Mr. Bright’s plan of enabling occupiers with some capital to become pro- prietors on favourable terms ; and it ought to be well considered whether great latitude should not be given to trustees and limited owners to assist in the creation of a peasant proprietary. One argument, at least, is no longer urged as an objection to any proposal for dealing with Vlll tenure — namely, that, to restrain the owner is to confiscate his rights. It appears to be admitted that there are conditions necessarily attaching to property in land which give to the State legitimate powers over it, superior to those which it ought to exercise over personal pro- perty. Nor is it denied that the interference of the State may be specially demanded in Ire- land in favour of the class which, whilst it was for generations the only one that gave value to the land, suffered during those generations above all others from the infliction of evils, which reduced three-fourths of the nation to a condition of which it would be difficult to say whether it was more or less tolerable than serfdom. I am glad to avail myself of this opportunity of recording my grateful sense of the readiness and frankness with which my desire for infor- mation was met by persons of every grade, as well as of thanking those friends who received and entertained me with truly Irish courtesy and hospitality. Bodicote Grange, Banbury : November , 1869 . THE LAND AND TENANTRY OF IRELAND. $ I have within the last ten days returned from a visit to Ireland of some duration, under- taken with the special object of studying the relations between the owners and the occupiers of land in that country. I have been in every typical district except Connemara and Wexford, and remained long enough in each to observe the state of agricul- ture and the condition and wants of the rural population, as well as to arrive at some appre- ciation of their feelings and those of the classes on whom they depend, and I believe that it is a duty incumbent on me at this juncture to state publicly the impressions which I have received. B 2 Studies of the Land and Before my arrival in Ireland, although I was not unfamiliar with the history of the Irish Land Question, I was, on the whole, inclined to think that the acknowledged increase of general pro- sperity, and the prospect that the political anta- gonism of the two classes would disappear with the establishment of religious equality, would prevent the necessity for any legislative measure beyond the acknowledgment of the right of the tenant to be paid for his improvements. It was only by slow degrees that I learnt to esti- mate the depth of the breach which religious differences have opened between the classes of landlord and tenant in Ireland, the bitterness which the remembrance of past sufferings has engendered, and the consequent risk of conflict between them ; or that I discovered acts of op- pression on the part of landlords and agents, in spite of the fear of consequences, to be still suffi- ciently frequent and imminent to create alarm ; whilst, on the other hand, this same fear tends to embarrass and restrain the landlord in the exercise of his most undoubted rights. I need not remind any one who has paid attention to contemporary history that there is scarcely a county of the centre, the west, or the Tenantry of Ireland. 3 south-west of Ireland in which the years which preceded, and still more those which succeeded, the famine did not witness wholesale clearances of the tenantry ; but it is necessary to have conversed, as I have done, with men in the middle and upper ranks of life, who were eye- witnesses of these events, in order to understand that the evictions were in numberless instances those of solvent and industrious people, who were displaced simply from an undiscriminating determination to consolidate farms with a view to what was deemed to be the improvement of the estate. One must have heard from the lips of those whose duty it was to afford the consola- tions of their religion to the sick and dying, the heartrending details of the destruction of populous hamlets, not unfrequently in the most inclement season, before one can realise the intensity of the feelings of mingled dread and hatred with which they are remembered by the peasantry. But these transactions can scarcely be said to have ceased in the present day. I need not recall the destruction of the dwellings of the poor cottiers at Cloneen, nor the too famous Battle of Ballycohey ; but I will relate one or two cases, recent but less notorious, 4 Studies of the Land and which were accidentally brought under my notice during my journey. I saw within two miles of Tuam the only remaining tenant of a group of seventeen, whose little dwellings, erected by themselves, were destroyed in 1867. His own was saved by the intercession of a friend ; and I shall never forget the expression of this old man’s features when he confessed to me that if his landlord had not spared it, he would have had him down. In Galway market I met a poor man, one of twelve tenants who were evicted near Oughte- rarde in 1864. Nearly all were solvent and had paid their rents. When they received notices to quit, those who had the means offered to pay the arrears of the few insolvents, and to become bound for them in future. They could not believe that they would be evicted until, in October, their houses Avere destroyed, and they remained on the roadside with their families for two months, without any shelter beyond that which a few props and pieces of canvas afforded the sick and pregnant Avomen. I asked the man Avhy they did not go to the workhouse. He replied indignantly, ‘ Because we Avere not Tenantry of Ireland. 5 paupers, and would not be degraded to their level.’ I will not repeat what I was told by eye-witnesses of the proceedings this summer of a nobleman, on his estates in Donegal. I should not be believed, nor should I myself have be- lieved their statements, although made to me on the spot by two independent men, one an educated Protestant, the other an officer of con- stabulary, if his notorious conduct towards the public authorities of the country did not render credible even the most outrageous and insane acts of the person to whom I refer. An outrage which has occurred within the last six weeks, at a place in the very centre of Ireland, and by which an innocent old man accidentally lost his life, is ascribed to the desperation of the tenantry on a property pur- chased this year by a gentleman, said to be accomplished and amiable, but whose mania for consolidation caused the eviction of numer- ous tenants on his old estates ; who pursued the same course on a property purchased by him in 1862, and from whom the occupiers of the latest addition to his estate expect similar treatment. So great was the apprehension of the neighbours on this property coming into the 6 Studies of the Land and market, lest it should fall into the hands of its present owner, that a subscription was raised to enable one of their parish priests to buy it for the protection of the tenants. He was outbid, at a figure, it is said, beyond its intrinsic value. I have met the priest in question, and I can assert that he is a mild, cultivated man of the old school, who would not have lent himself to any transaction which his mature judgment did not lead him to think would be essential for the welfare of the poor people living on the estate. I am of course aware that these clearances, or exterminations as they are called by the people and their leaders, were often resorted to as a remedy for the reckless subdivision of the land. I have myself seen some of the rare ‘ townlands ’ still in existence, in which the holdings are not only so small that they cannot possibly support a family in comfort, but where the plots composing each farm are so scattered and intermixed with others, that even were the area sufficient, anything like good hus- bandry would be entirely out of the question. But the practice of the best estates proves that in such cases no violence was necessary — those who were insolvent were only too ready Tenantry of Ireland. 7 during the years which succeeded the famine, and are equally ready now, to escape from the pressure of poverty, and to accept thankfully the assistance which enables them to emigrate ; and exchanges were effected, and are still being- made, by the consent of all concerned, so as to bring the whole of each man’s holding together, and remove useless fences ; a process technically called striping, or squaring. But at the present day the task is rather to re-people than to clear the country. In obedience to a prejudice, fos- tered by a hasty statement of the late Earl of Carlisle when Lord-Lieutenant, that Ireland, owing to its moist climate, is adapted rather for pasture than for husbandry, hundreds of thou- sands of acres have been laid down to grass which are admirably suited for arable cultivation. The average annual rainfall of thirty inches re- corded at Glasnevin is scarcely, if at all, in ex- cess of that of the western counties of England, and below that of some of the best mixed farming districts of the west and south of Scot- land. The certainty and luxuriance of the turnip and other root crops in Ireland, which in England are so liable to failure, and the dry friable soil, our English stiff clays being 8 Studies of the Land and almost without example, more than counter- balance the uncertainty, or, speaking broad- ly, the absence, of the wheat crop, owing to deficient summer heat.* Oats are a sure crop everywhere, even at considerable altitudes ; and barley is grown with advantage throughout the eastern counties. Extensive tracts of land of medium quality, well fitted for mixed husbandry, but which are now laid down in permanent grass, are not only giving a poor gross return, scarcely exceeding in value, even at the present high prices of stock, one half of what they would produce if under the plough, and yielding no better rental to the proprietor ; but if from any cause — and many such are conceivable — the price of beef should decline sufficiently to render a return to arable cultivation impera- tive, the hands required for the purpose would not be forthcoming, in consequence of the de- population which has, in the absence of manu- factures, accompanied the consolidation of small arable into large grazing farms. * I am afraid I have scarcely done justice to the capacity of the soil and climate of Ireland for the production of wheat. A farmer near the town of Tipperary sold a crop of wheat, grown in 1868, on four Irish acres, for 108/., at the low price of that year. Tenantry of Ireland. 9 I crossed the county of Meath diagonally, from its commencement near Dublin to its ter- mination at Oldcastle, and I had no difficulty in ascertaining for myself the truth of what I had learnt from practical men of great experience, that, contrary to the popular opinion, only a small portion of its area is really prime feeding land, such as would be laid down as permanent pasture in England. The greater part, though having a limestone subsoil, has undergone the denudation of the coal measures so fatal to Ire- land ; and its soil consists of drift, varying in- definitely in depth and constitution, generally light and stony, but producing good crops of oats and excellent roots, even at an elevation of more than 800 feet above the sea level. Two of the most competent judges in Ireland, of whom I made the enquiry separately, agreed almost precisely in their estimate, that of the ten million acres under grass, forming two- thirds of the area of Ireland, when bogs and waste are excluded, not more than half a mil- lion at the utmost are prime feeding land, and that at least one-half of the remainder could be ploughed with advantage ; thus nearly doubling the land under tillage in rotation, and adding at 10 Studies of the Land and a very moderate estimate from ten to twelve million pounds per annum to the value of the agricultural produce of Ireland. Of a population which in 1845 exceeded eight and a quarter millions, little more than five and a half millions remain at the present day.* Three millions have quitted its shores in less than thirty years ; and although in some few poor and remote parts their numbers are still great relatively to their means of sub- sistence, this is altogether the exception. La- bour is becoming scarce in nearly all the principal agricultural districts. In Kildare women, during the last harvest, earned as much as 2s. Qd. and even 3 s. per day, besides their food, for tying up the grain. Shearers were paid from 3s. to as much as 6s. and 7s. per day in the eastern counties, in spite of the extensive use of machinery. A large proprietor and farmer, within thirty miles of Dublin, assured me that, at double the wages he "was accustomed to pay two or three years ago, he could this year obtain only men totally un- * In some counties, marriages have almost ceased. In Meath in 1867 there were only 189, in Westmeath 131 — or about 1 in 420 of the population of those counties, as against 1 in 190 for all Ireland. Tenantry of Ireland. 11 skilled in harvest work. The normal wages of labourers employed throughout the year have increased on an average quite 40 per cent, within the last ten years. It would be difficult, therefore, to resist, on the ground of over-population, the demand of the tenants and their friends, for security against the power of arbitrary eviction, which they say has been abused by the landlords, who as a class neither exercised that power to prevent the evil of subdivision, but at one time rather encouraged it for the purpose of manu- facturing votes, nor used it mercifully, when they resolved to remedy the mischief which they might have prevented. If many landlords were humane, no thanks, they say, are due to the Government, which permitted the presence, if not the assistance, at these raids of the public force, regardless of any consideration beyond compliance with the bare formalities of the law. They assert that the right of the people to live on the land is anterior to any title which the State can confer on the proprietor of the soil, and they point not only to the customs of continental Europe, but also to the law 12 Studies of the Land and which makes the support of the poor in England a first charge upon real property ; nor do they forget to urge, as an instance of our injustice to their country, that until the year 1838 we imposed no corresponding obligation upon the owners of property in Ireland, and that even under the existing Poor Law an able-bodied man who has been an occupier of land is not en- titled to relief for a period exceeding a month ; after which his choice must be made, in times of distress, between starvation and expatriation. This demand of security is heartily supported by independent men of the tenant class, who abstain from active agitation, and who, by long leases or otherwise, are exceptionally secure in their own holdings. It is regarded as mere justice by the most moderate and conservative of the Koman Catholic clergy. Many of the most honourable and experienced land-agents have confessed to me that they would be glad to see it granted. They say, and say truly, that it exists by custom on all properties which are administered with justice and humanity. I have satisfied myself that it is not true that in any proportion approaching even to a large minority of cases the tenantry of Ireland are Tenantry of Ireland. 13 oppressed under the sanction of the existing laws. With respect to the Irish estates of large English proprietors, I believe that the very opposite is the fact ; and I regret that in the writings and speeches of those who are assum- ing the position of leaders this should not be more candidly and prominently admitted ; but the exceptions are sufficiently numerous to justify their demand for security, and I am quite certain that unless it be granted we may as well abstain from all legislation in reference to the land of Ireland. In giving instances of abuse within my own experience, I purposely confined myself to the extreme cases of actual eviction, and abstained, in order to avoid complicating my statement, from adverting to the endless minor forms of oppression and annoyance which are possible, and if possible, could not fail to arise, under a system which admits of the greater and more intolerable grievance.* * There are estates where a notice to quit is printed on the back of each half-year’s receipt for rent, so that the tenants are under perpetual notice. In the agreements for yearly tenancies, which the tenants on a property, referred to in this essay, are forced to sign, the landlord, besides reserving the imposition of enormous tines by way of liquidated damages, for certain breaches of covenant, 14 Studies of the Land and Nor need I mention, except in passing, how much the custom, almost universal in Ireland, of entrusting the management of property to agents, though extremely beneficial when an honourable and educated gentleman devotes his whole time to its administration, tends at other times to promote corruption and to intensify all the evils of tenancy at will, so open to abuse under the most favourable conditions. I could give instances of large bribes refused, on being offered as a matter of course to gentlemen assuming the management of estates, in con- sequence of their predecessors having done nothing without such inducements ; of tenants who were compelled to till the farms of the agents ; of cases where all improvement ceased on the appointment of an agent, and has been resumed on his removal, and numberless other incidents of a like kind, all tending to produce irritation and distrust, and to retard agricultural progress. But there are two considerations which must claims 1 that all the top-dressing, compost, or manure of any kind remaining on the land at the termination of the occupancy shall belong to the landlord/ a previous covenant having for- bidden their removal during the occupancy, under a penalty ot 5/. per load. Tenantry of Ireland. 15 be borne in mind in order to understand the position of the ordinary peasant-farmer. The first is, that if he loses his farm, he has only one of two resources, especially at this time when consolidation is the rule — descent into the ranks of the agricultural labourer, which he abhors and refuses, or emigration. The next, that, except on the estates of some large proprietors, he or his predecessors have made every im- provement, have erected the house and stead- ings, have built every fence, have drained the farm more or less perfectly — in many cases have reclaimed it from the mountain or bog.* No doubt the exceptions from this kind of management of property, or rather absence of all management, unless receiving the rent can be called by that name, are more frequent in the present day than formerly, but the rule is that which I have stated ; and it is entirely at * On a ten-acre farm in Westmeath, in regard to which an action of ejectment has been brought, and will be tried imme- diately, the last two tenants, both parish priests, lowered the bed of a mill-stream by blasting, built a bridge of commu- nication with the high road on the opposite bank, reclaimed a swamp, and converted it into valuable tillage land, erected a gate and stone piers, planted, built walls, drained, and improved every part. The improvements of the last tenant are estimated at more than 300/. 16 Studies of the Land and the option of the landlord, so far as the law is concerned, whether, in the event of eviction, he will himself make an allowance to the tenant for any or all these improvements, or let him dispose of them to his successor ; or whether he will confiscate them as his own property. Small farms are constantly being vacated on every estate from a variety of causes, and it is important to inquire whether it is desirable that they should be added to adjoining occupations, or whether a new tenant should be procured for them. After making ample deduction for accommodation land in the neighbourhood of towns, excluding altogether the 50,000 cottier allotments not exceeding one acre, allowing for the cases where two or more small farms are held by a single tenant and for the few hold- ings, still remaining in Ulster, of farmers who with their families earn part of their livelihood by manufactures, there remain upwards of 200.000 farms of less than 15 statute acres, and 130.000 of between 15 and 30 acres, whose tenants depend on them exclusively for support. The absorption of one of these farms means the Tenantry of Ireland. IT loss of a family from the population of the country ; for, in spite of the attractions of America, no labourer, or peasant farmer’s son, except in the very poorest districts of the west, will emigrate if he can find a farm in Ireland ; and I met with more than one case of returned emigrants who were contentedly occupying little holdings in the old country. For this reason amongst others I made it a special object of my journey to observe every-; where the condition of the small occupiers, and the state of their farms. I need not say that it varied infinitely, but it was rare that a holder of from 10 to 12 statute acres had not the means of procuring comforts superior to those enjoyed by the agricultural labourer of the southern counties of England. I say he had the means, but I found also that he rarely exhausted them, but rather laid aside a part as the wedding portion of a daughter, or as a gift to the son who should succeed him on the farm, and provide him witli the ‘ bit and sup ’ when he became too old to continue its cultivation. Not unfrequently I found men of this class who were known to have saved their 150/. or 200/. or more. I do not speak now of tenants occu- 18 Studies of the Land and pying the magnificent dairy farms of Tipperary or of the Golden Yale, but of ordinary light land farms, such as one meets with in Kildare, in Carlow, in Meath, on the medium lands of Limerick and elsewhere. I took every oppor- tunity of verifying the opinion which I had formed, and I was particularly glad when I found that the accounts of a small farm attached to an endowed school at Oldcastle, 780 feet above the sea level, containing 16^ statute acres, and rented at 33/., have been kept with such accuracy from 1860 to the present time as to enable me to ascertain the precise results of its cultivation over that period, including some very bad and some very good seasons. The course of cropping is the usual five-course rotation, and the average return for labour and profit, after deducting rent and all expenses, is 75 l. per annum.* I examined each balance- sheet and valuation carefully, and noted that ample allowance had been made for deprecia- tion, and for every charge which ought to be put against the farm. I need scarcely point out now much greater the return would have been * The farm is not rated to the poor nor for the county cess, but the return which I have given is after a full deduction made by myself for these charges. 19 Tenantry of Ireland. if a peasant farmer, working for himself with his boys, with all the little aids of poultry-keep- ing, &c., had held this small place, instead of its being managed by a schoolmaster, whose time is necessarily absorbed in his more impor- tant duties, and worked by labourers having no interest in the result. I will not adduce the accounts of the peasant farm of five and a half acres, or the five-course system annexed to the agricultural college at Glasnevin, because Go- vernment concerns are always regarded with suspicion ; but I will say, at least, that it is well worth the voyage to see the crops of this little farm, and to enjoy the advantage of a conversation with Professor Baldwin, himself a farmer’s son, and as willing as he is competent to give trustworthy information on the condi- tion of agriculture in Ireland. If I were asked what is the farm on which I saw the heaviest crops, taking its soil into account, and the cleanest cultivation, I should point to one of seven Irish, or eleven statute, acres in Kildare, rented at IK. ; held by a youth of twenty-one years, and tilled by himself and a younger brother, who together support respectably a widowed mother and two or three 20 Studies of the Land and sisters ; and I met with many other instances of similar industry and skill in various parts of the country. It would be a bold assertion that such small farms are, on the average of the whole country, equal in productiveness to those occupied by capitalists ; but if they are not, it is due more to want of skill and means, both of which are being gradually acquired, and to the small farms generally consisting of the worst land, than to absence of industry on the part of the occupiers. They are as a rule respectable, painstaking, sober people, and have made im- mense progress in every respect since the bitter lesson of the ‘ bad years,’ as they call those from 1846 to 1851, induced them to abandon their reliance on the potato, and to adopt improved methods of cultivation. The outlay required to enable such small occupiers to provide the requisite accommoda- tion for housing their cattle is one of the great drawbacks to small farms ; very few landlords, even if they should be willing, can afford to erect them out of their income ; and, unfortu- nately, an absurd bye-law of the Board of Works, not sanctioned by Parliament, denies Tenantry of Ireland. 21 advances for building to occupations of less than 50/. annual rental. One is almost afraid to assert anything so strange to English ears as that small peasant- farms can be desirable or even tolerable. If the example of Belgium be quoted in their favour, it is answered, and with some truth, that the fertility of Flanders is the result of the accumulated toil and skill of long generations. But the small occupiers of France are also held up as a warning ; in this case, however, the report of the ‘ Enquete agricole ’ fully bears out the testimony in their favour of M. Leonce de Lavergne, who says : 4 La portion la plus divisee de notre sol n’est pas la plus mal cul- tivee. Bien loin de la, on peut affirmer qu’en regie generale, les terres de la petite propriete sont deux fois plus productives que les autres, de sorte que si cet element venait a nous man- quer, notre produit agricole baisserait sensible- ment and to show what special resources these small holdings afford, I may draw atten- tion to the statement in the ‘ Enquete,’ that, of eggs alone, which are essentially the production of the smaller farms, 1,000,000/. worth were exported from France in 1866, and 1,360,000/. worth in 1867. 22 Studies of the Land and Far from desiring, then, that the number of Irish peasant cultivators should be diminished. I would preserve as many of these holdings as are large enough to support a family. The punctuality with which these small farmers pay their rents is proverbial, and I am informed that they are equally prompt in the discharge of their trade accounts. Amongst the larger occupiers — that is, the holders of more than twenty statute acres — I found tolerable, and in many instances excel- lent dwellings, and the farm buildings are undergoing considerable improvement. Houses and steadings worth several hundred pounds may be found on farms of fifty or sixty acres, held at will, erected in nearly every case by the tenants or their predecessors. Occasionally, and in recent times, the timber and slates, or an equivalent sum of money, had been given in aid by the proprietor. Still more rarely, and only on very large estates, the buildings have been erected by the landlord. Amongst these exceptional cases I may do some service to the owners of property in Ireland by naming the farm-houses, cottages, and steadings newly erected near Queenstown, on the estate of Tenantry of Ireland. 93 ijfJ Mr. Smith Barry, M.P., by his agent, Mr. Garfit. I have nowhere else met with such ex- cellent buildings erected at a cost so extremely moderate. Of the entire number of agricultural labourers — which, according to the census of 1861, amounted to nearly 500,000 — more than one- half are doubtless domestic farm-servants ; but a very large number — probably not less than 200,000 — remain, who, so far as their wages are concerned, are greatly improved in their con- dition as compared with their circumstances only a few years ago. Taking into account the opportunity which they enjoy, according to Irish custon, of growing for their own use a considerable breadth of potatoes on the farm of their employers, they are better provided for than many English farm-labourers. But their cottages are vretched beyond description, and it would be extremely undesirable, if for no other reason, it any rate for the sake of the example which many proprietors have begun to set by the ertction of suitable dwellings for these poor people, that the landlords should cease to have my interest in their estates be- yond that of amuitants. It is quite true that 24 Studies of the Land and the improvement which has been begun by them is as yet very limited compared with the work to be done. But in a country where large and wealthy farmers are so few in number, I fear that generations must pass away before the labourers’ houses are improved, unless it be by the public spirit and humanity of the land- lords. The old Irish lease of three lives and thirty- one years is rapidly becoming extinct. It was this and similar forms of tenure, whei granted for large tracts, which led to the pernicious subdivision of holdings under the lessee, the middle-man, of the last and prececing genera- tions. But I have found instances of the sub- division even of small holdings uider tenures of this description. The danger of this abuse has not ceased to exist in the •emote parts, although emigration tends to dimnish it. Leases of twenty-one years are commoner than in England ; still they are are, especially of farms under forty or fifty statute acres. Tenants are said to decline then when offered. This is easily explained : the fery offer of a lease is a guarantee of permanency and fair play ; once granted, assistance for buildings or Tenantry of Ireland. 25 other improvements cannot be asked with a good grace ; whilst at its termination a break occurs which is likely to be made the occasion of a re-valuation. Leases are not offered on those properties where they are most required for the tenant’s security. But the rule of the country is tenancy at will, and if good landlords and good agents were immortal, nothing except possession in fee could serve the interests of the tenants so well. On a well-conducted estate the farm remains in the family from father to son at a fair rent ; the father charges it with dower to his widow, and portions to the younger children. If there is no son, and the widow has no son-in-law to assist her in managing the farm, she is allowed to sell the good-will, sometimes for as much as from hi. to 10/. per acre, to an acceptable tenant, generally the son of some farmer on the estate. He is sought in marriage, and his wife’s portion is applied in discharge of the purchase. It is easy to conceive the consternation of the tenantry on such a property, when the owner is compelled to dispose of it to the highest bidder in the Landed Estates Court. 26 Studies of the Land and When it is remembered that the ownership of land in Ireland presents every graduation, from principalities, often held in conjunction with equally splendid estates in England, to small properties, the rent-roll of which is still far in excess of the income of the nominal owner ; that these properties are managed with almost despotic power by agents whose conceptions of what is a fair rent differ widely ; that moreover one-eighth of the whole country has changed hands within the last twenty years in the En- cumbered and Landed Estates Courts, though it has frequently been purchased by old proprie- tors ; that of the tenantry some hold by descent, whilst others have obtained possession only since the famine years — it will not be found surpris- ing that rents vary extremely in proportion to the value of the farms. Upon the whole, I found the dearest farms on the thin soils near Cork and in the immediate neighbourhood of Galway. In Jar-Connaught, near the latter city, adjoining some of the most liberal, are to be found the most grinding, pro- bably because the poorest, landlords in Ireland. On one property not only are the tenants of land, covered with boulders, impossible to be Tenantry of Ireland. 27 ploughed, and capable of tillage only by the most formidable manual labour, rented 7 5 per cent, above the Government valuation, but each occupier has, in addition, to perform four days’ labour gratuitously in each half-year on the estate of the landlord ; to provide three persons for one day, also gratuitously, to cut his turf, and afterwards to carry it home and stack it ; and lastly, to find harvest labour to any required extent for a payment of 8 d. per day to adults and 6 d. to growing boys. On the other hand, I met with the cheapest farms near the town of Tipperary, and in the Golden Yale ; but near the former place rents vary incredibly. Adjoining farms under dif- ferent landlords, and, in some cases, even under the same landlord, all held at will, vary as much as 155. to 205. per acre, without any difference in value that I could appreciate. Distrusting my own judgment, I took pains to obtain the opinion of competent persons on the spot, who confirmed my impression without being able to account, on economical grounds, for such wide discrepancies. But so far as I could judge from the rents quoted to me by tenants at will, as well as from 28 Studies of the Land and the rent-rolls shown to me by the agents of several extensive estates, and making every allowance for the property which the tenantry ought, and are by all fair landlords acknow- ledged to have in their buildings and other improvements, land is on the average far from being highly rented in Ireland. A new genera- tion of prudent and solvent tenants would, as a rule, gladly give a fair sum for the good-will of the existing holders. It is not difficult to imagine what, under these conditions, would be the result, if the demand of the farmers’ clubs were taken literally, and all farms re-valued by a disinterested authority, as the basis of perpetual tenure. In the majority of cases, probably in nine out of ten, the rent would be increased ; on some of the older hold- ings the increase would not be short of 30 per cent. ; and an amount of disappointment and discontent would arise, to which the war against tithes could alone afford a parallel. On the other hand, under such a wide range of comparative rental, it would be unjust to many tenants and to many landlords to fix the present rents absolutely and for ever as the value, even if any satisfactory scheme could be Tenantry of Ireland. 29 devised for modifying the expression of that value in currency periodically, according to the variation of prices. If the proposal of others were adopted, that Government shall compel the landlords to grant long leases, whether on a re-valuation or at the present rents, the inconvenience and injustice would be similar in kind, though for the moment less in degree. And yet any security against arbitrary eviction will be illusory if the landlord has unlimited power to raise the rent, because it gives him the means of harassing the tenant until he is glad to yield up possession. The problem remains, then, how to secure the tenant against caprice or extortion, and to give him a legal property in his own improvements without injustice to the landlord, and with no more interference between the parties than is neces- sary to guard their interests from mutual encroachment. I have stated that on the best estates one or more of the following conditions prevail — farms are inherited, the property of the occupier in permanent improvements is admitted, the sale 30 Studies of the Land and of the tenant’s interest to a desirable successor is sanctioned, the rent is altered only when the value of produce changes materially. I should add that if the owner wishes to resume the whole or part of a farm, he makes fair com- pensation to the tenant. I do not think that the tenant-right of Ulster contains any principles which are not comprehended in these customs. The difference is, on the Ulster estates, where tenant-right prevails without limitation, these principles are carried to their utmost con- sequences, and every one of them enunciates a right of property on the part of the tenant, to deprive him of which is a theft, though one for which there is no legal redress ; whereas in other parts of Ireland all of them, except per- haps the right to be compensated for buildings, are regarded by the landlords more or less as ‘ privileges,’ which it is not right to refuse a tenant in ordinary cases, but which, on sufficient provocation, they need not hesitate to withhold. In Ulster, I visited the tenants on various properties in Antrim, Down, Derry, and Donegal, and I received valuable information from several proprietors and agents. Even in Ulster, on some exceptional estates, tenant-right, in its Tenantry of Ireland. 31 popular sense, is not acknowledged at all, but in these cases a system of equitable leases for lives to the occupying tenants has prevailed for many generations, which practically assured the inheritance of their farms and the enjoyment of their improvements. On some other properties, whilst the right of inheritance is fully admitted, a limit in put upon the sum which may be demanded for tenant-right on the sale of a farm ; with no other result, however, in the majority of cases, than a payment sub rosa in excess of the permitted maximum ; and this very fortu- nately, as otherwise the improvements made would be limited by the maximum sum allowed. On some estates the adjoining tenants have a claim of pre-emption. In any case the agent may refuse the purchaser as a tenant, but no man is refused in practice, except on valid economical grounds. The purchase-money is almost invariably paid through the Estate-office, and the landlord has a hen on it for arrears of rent. Subject to such well-known conditions as the custom of each estate imposes, the pro- perty is as complete as that of the landlord himself. On the large and well-managed estate of a nobleman in Antrim this is so fully acknow- 32 Studies of the Land and ledged, as I was informed by the agent, that he never hesitates to advance the dower of a widow, or the portion of a daughter, on the security of the tenant-right, when he can in this way prevent inconvenience to a small tenant inheriting a farm, and he has generally upwards of 1,000/., the property of the estate, floating in such advances. When he has found it desirable to resume a farm for the proprietor, he has purchased the tenant-right, either by agreement or by arbitration. The sums paid for tenant-right ordinarily vary from 71. 10s. to 15/. per statute acre; but it must be remembered that the purchase of a farm is rare compared with its transmission by inheritance ; so that there is far less force than would appear at first sight in the objection that tenant-right has a tendency to diminish the capital of the farmer. It is said that usurious interest is paid for money borrowed in order to purchase tenant-right. This evil would be diminished if the property of the tenant were protected by the law. The enormous and apparently unaccountable sums spoken of as being paid for tenant-right generally admit of some rational explanation. For instance, hav- Tenantry of Ireland. 33 ing heard that 900/. had been paid for a farm of 18 acres, I found on inquiry that it was bought from the agent of the estate, who had spent more than 1,000/. in erecting a house on it for his own occupation, and that it was, in fact, a pleasure farm. In other cases, when 20/. or 30/. per acre has been paid, it has been by some handloom-weaver or mechanic, for a small plot with a dwelling-house worth as much as the fee simple of the ground. The farmhouses of the north are better on the average, though not superior to the best on the farms of the south-eastern counties, the steadings larger and more complete, the culti- vation not cleaner, though perhaps more spirited as regards the use of artificial food and manures, than on good farms in Kildare and Carlow. I certainly did not come to the conclusion that the Roman Catholic farmers of the east and south are less industrious than their northern fellow-countrymen. Rents vary less on a given area in proportion to value than in other parts of Ireland, and I think that on the average they are lower. No public meeting in favour of a change in the law had been held in the north up to the D 34 Studies of the Land and time of my leaving Ireland, but the necessity for it was expressed to me as warmly, and is felt, I think, even more intensely there than in any other part of the country. Capitalists of Belfast have recently purchased estates on the basis of the old rents, and by raising them have confiscated very valuable tenant-rights. The intelligence of such acts spreads rapidly through- out the country. Several farmers who had expended 500/. to 1,000/. each in the purchase and consolidation of small farms, the number of which, owing to the extension of the linen trade, is decreasing in Ulster, told me they would gladly sacrifice a part of their outlay, if that were necessary, in order to procure some legal recognition of the custom. On the Ulster estate of a young nobleman, who has large properties in other parts of Ireland, I found the tenants in consternation because it was reported, and I believe truly for a time, that he intended to offer that one for sale in the Landed Estates Court. Many complaints were made to me of the conduct of the great London companies towards their tenantry in Berry. Some of these were frivolous, but in other cases great hardship had been sustained by arbitrary limitations on the Tenantry of Ireland. 35 sale of tenant-right and of improvements, pur- chased and executed at great cost by the tenants. I must say, in justice to some of these com- panies, that of all the properties in Ireland, there are none where so large a portion of the income is re-invested in the improvement of the estate, and none on which money is expended so liberally for education, the erection of places of worship, and the payment of ministers. The policy of allowing English corporations to be the proprietors of estates in Ireland is, however, open to doubt, and if the compulsory purchase of freeholds by the tenants at a fair valuation be at all admissible, it should be peculiarly applicable here. But I do not see how this fair value can be ascertained until the interest of the tenant has been first determined — a difficulty which applies even more strongly in Ulster to Mr. Bright’s proposal that the State shall assist the tenants to purchase the properties of those land- owners who are willing to sell ; for it must be evident that, whilst strangers can be found who have the capitalisation of the tenant-right as a margin, no tenant can purchase from a willing seller, unless he is prepared to pay for a greater 36 Studies of the Land and or less proportion of what is already his pro- perty. I am far from stating this as a perma- nent objection to Mr. Bright’s plan, which, though slow in its operation, and limited in its efficacy by the great rise in the price of land which it would infallibly produce, would create in Ireland the class which in every country has been, beyond all others, the advocate and pre- server of peace and order. I have stated that some form of tenant-right, complete in one part of the country, rudimen- tary in another, prevails throughout Ireland, not, it is true, on every estate, but in every neighbourhood ; though I doubt even whether there is an estate on which it is not acknow- ledged, at least in words, that the son ought to have a preference above other claimants to the farm of his father ; and that the family is entitled to the permanent improvements which it has made, or for which it has paid, with the knowledge of the proprietor or his agent. It would appear, then, that the remedy for the grievances of the tenantry, insecurity of tenure, and confiscation of the property in their Tenantry of Ireland. 37 improvements, is indicated by the custom of the country. Instead of converting the land- lords into annuitants, or depriving them of any power which a liberal landlord would desire to exercise, I would give the force of law to that custom — the custom of tenant-right. Its money value would vary indefinitely, because it would depend, as in Ulster, on the customary rent of each district, and of each estate ; but unless the landlord asked an increase of rent, or demanded possession of the farm, the change of the law would never be felt by him. But in either of the preceding cases, the tenant should have power to require the pur- chase of his interest by the landlord, and it should be valued generally, on the basis of existing rent. If, as I would suggest, the valuation were made by local valuers, one act- ing on behalf of each party, any cases of extremely low or excessively high rents would be corrected in practice. The valuers should be bound by as few rules as possible, but ought in every case to give some value for disturbance, even where no interest of the tenant appeared to exist, on the valuation ; and they should regard all permanent improvements as belong- 38 Studies of the Land and mg to the tenant, unless they were satisfied that they have been made or purchased by the landlord. In case of capricious dispossession, the value of ‘ disturbance ’ would undoubtedly be put at a high figure. The counter demand of compulsory purchase by the landlord, on the part of the tenant, as a check upon the demand of an undue increase of rent, appears to be the simplest, if not the only effective remedy against confiscation of the tenant’s interest ; and I think it is perfectly fair to both parties. No tenant likes to give up his farm ; and he would rather pay a moderate increase of rent, in conformity with any general increase of values, than tender possession, even if his interest be purchased. On the other hand, a landlord will hesitate before he asks an un- reasonable rent, or disturbs a solvent tenant, if he knows that he will have to pay the full market value of the farm, and, in the event of capricious or tyrannical resumption, probably something more. If the arbitrators did not agree, an umpire, appointed by public authority, should decide summarily in the case of all holdings below a certain, not very low, value. Tenantry of Ireland. 39 This plan is not my own. I have compiled it from long discussions with many of the most experienced agents and farmers ; and if the former, representing the landlords, and some of the most intelligent and respectable tenants, would assemble and endeavour to devise a law which would work smoothly and be fair to both parties, the legal recognition of tenant-right, with guarantees resembling those which I have proposed, would probably be the result of their deliberations. The operation of such a law — the details of which as to leasehold interests, and a variety of minor considerations and re- servations, can only be worked out by persons intimately acquainted with Irish law, customs, and circumstances — would cause no violent disturbance of existing arrangements. It would be silent and gradual. Probably when the landlord and tenant felt that they were thus placed in a position to deal with each other on equal terms, they would of their own accord devise plans of mutual security and aid supe- rior to any which are now in operation. But in the meantime the interests of each would be guarded, and the tenant more especially would have courage to improve, the enjoyment of all 40 Studies of the Land and his labour and expenditure being fully secured to him and to those whom in the course of nature he would leave behind him. I refrain from entering at length on a dis- cussion of some minor enactments, which would, in my opinion, be of service to the classes in- terested in the land ; but I will mention curso- rily one or two which I consider of importance. Limited owners should have power to grant long leases, especially for building, at the best rent, without the sanction of a superior court ; injustice to tenants, like that in Lord Digby’s case, should at any rate be obviated by main- taining in favour of the tenant leases granted to him by an ostensible owner, though ultra vires — if without collusion on the part of the tenant. The county cess should be divided between landlord and tenant, like the poor-rates ; and the election of associated cess-payers should be so modified as to make them real representatives of that body. This would not only be just in itself, but it would give the persons elected habits of business which would gradually per- meate their class. Tenantry of Ireland. 41 Lastly, the whole island should be specially surveyed, and divided into districts, for the pur- pose of arterial drainage ; and ample power should be conferred on each district to carry out the necessary works for the benefit, and at the charge, of those interested. I believe that a bright future is in store for the land of Ireland. Its agricultural capabilities are unrivalled, and, except in those districts where rash consolidation, more especially into grazing farms, has caused a desolation which it is grievous to behold, they are being developed with great rapidity. Bare fallows have dis- appeared ; small farmers are partners in the purchase and use of machinery ; the straw for- merly wasted as thatch is being converted into dung, and artificial manures, manufactured in Ireland, are increasingly used. The sulphur ore, which was until lately exported from Wick- low, is now almost entirely converted at home into vitriol, used by the native manufacturers of phosphate of lime for the farmer, and of che- mical products into which the salt of Antrim enters, which latter are consumed not only by E 42 Studies of the Land and tlie bleachers of the north, but exported to Lan- cashire. Its mining resources are not only un- developed, but almost unknown. The geological and mineralogical survey of Galway, Mayo, and Donegal is still in progress, and the latter county is rich in indications of metallic wealth. Iron ores are exported largely and increasingly to Wales, North Lancashire, and Scotland. The linen products of the north of Ireland, which may be said to be exclusively the result of Irish labour, for the imports and exports of flax balance each other, are valued at eight millions sterling. Domestic manufactures, encouraged by the cheapness of labour, are springing up in remote districts. At Glenties, in Donegal, I found that about 200/. weekly were paid as wages to the peasant women by a young and enterprising manufacturer of hosiery. The South of Ireland Fishery Company have doubled their operations with profit since last year. If the peace of Ireland be not again broken by insane agitations, she will, under Providence, increase from year to year in prosperity and power. Tenantry of Ireland . 43 NOTE. Many writers have endeavoured to find a pre- cedent for legislation on the land of Ireland in that of Prussia from 1807 to 1858. Unless the guarantee by the State of bonds issued in redemp- tion of fixed rents, and of payments substituted for compulsory service, should be preferred as a precedent for State assistance to the Irish tenantry in redemption of their rents, I can see no analogy between the cases of the two countries. But the magnitude of the operations carried out in Prussia may afford some encouragement to those who are appalled by the task of legislation for Ireland. In eight provinces, each having its own customs differ- ing as widely as those of independent States, the Commissioners redeemed the compulsory labour of 1,600,000 peasants, comprising 23J million days, with million teams, valued separately on their merits, by money payments of 5,000,000Z. capital, 800,000Z. fixed rent, and 315,000 bushels corn rent, and by the transfer of one million acres of land from the peasants to the pro- prietors. The total quantity of land affected by their operations was 37^ million of acres, of 44 Land and Tenantry of Ireland. which 35^ million were specially surveyed. The total value of the capital paid, fixed rent subse- quently redeemed by guaranteed bonds, rent of Crown lands in course of similar redemption, and of land transferred, was 32,000,000Z. 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