The Land-War In Ireland (1870) | Page 8

to the people, who think only of the percentage on
their capital. We had heard much of the necessity of capital to develope
the resources of the land. The capital came, but the development
consists in turning tillage lands into pasture, clearing out the labouring
population and sending them to the poorhouse, or shipping them off at

a few pounds per head to keep down the rates. And yet is it not possible
to set all our peasantry to work at the profitable cultivation of their
native land? Is it not possible to establish by law what many landlords
act upon as the rule of their estates--namely, the principle that no man
is to be evicted so long as he pays a fair rent, and the other principle,
that whenever he fails, he is entitled to the market value by public sale
of all the property in his holding beyond that fair rent? The hereditary
principle, rightly cherished among the landlords, so conservative in its
influence, ought to be equally encouraged among the tenants. The man
of industry, as well as the man of rank, should be able to feel that he is
providing for his children, that his farm is at once a bank and an
insurance office, in which all his minute daily deposits of toil and care
and skill will be safe and productive. This is the way to enrich and
strengthen the State, and to multiply guarantees against revolution--not
by consolidation of farms and the abandonment of tillage, not by
degrading small holders into day labourers, levelling the cottages and
filling the workhouses.
If the legislature were guided by the spirit that animates Lord Erne in
his dealings with his tenantry, the land question would soon be settled
to the satisfaction of all parties. 'I think,' said his lordship, 'as far as
possible, every tenant on my estate may call his farm his castle, as long
as he conducts himself honestly, quietly, and industriously; and, should
he wish to leave in order to find a better landlord, I allow him to sell his
farm, provided he pleases me in a tenant. Therefore, if a man lays out
money on his farm judiciously, he is certain to receive back the money,
should he wish to go elsewhere.' He mentioned three cases of sale
which occurred last year. One tenant sold a farm of seventy acres in
bad order for 570 l., another thirty acres for 300 l., and a third the same
number of acres in worse condition for 200 l. The landlord lost nothing
by these changes. His rent was paid up, and in each case he got a good
tenant for a bad one. Lord Erne is a just man, and puts on no more than
a fair rent. But all landlords are not just, as all tenants are not honest.
Even where tenant-right is admitted in name, it is obvious that the rent
may be raised so high as to make the farm worth nothing in the market.
To give to the tenant throughout the country generally the pleasant
feeling that his farm is his castle, which he can make worth more

money every day he rises, there must be a public letting valuation, and
this the State could easily provide. And then there should be the right of
sale to the highest solvent bidder.
This might be one way of securing permanent tenure, or stimulating the
industry and sustaining the thrift of the farmer. But the nature of the
different tenures, and the effect of each in bracing up or relaxing the
nerves of industry, will be the object of deliberation with the
Government and the legislature. It is said that, in the hands of small
farmers, proprietorship leads to endless subdivision; that long leases
generally cause bad husbandry; that tenants-at-will often feel
themselves more secure and safe than a contract could make them; that
families have lived on the same farm for generations without a scrape
of a pen except the receipt for rent. On the other hand, there is the
general cry of 'want of tenure;' there is the custom of serving notices to
quit, sometimes for other reasons than non-payment of rent; there are
occasional barbarities in the levelling of villages, and dragging the aged
and the sick from the old roof-tree, the parting from which rends their
heart-strings; and, above all, there is the feeling among the peasantry
which makes them look without horror on the murder of a landlord or
an agent who was a kind and benevolent neighbour; and, lastly, the
paramount consideration for the legislature, that a large portion of the
people are disaffected to the State, and ready to join its enemies, and
this almost solely on account of the state of the law relating to land.