agrarian outrages to which some counties of Ireland are subject; but many counties in Ireland in which tenantright is unheard of, are entirely exempt from agrarian outrage-every man's own experience will convince him of this. We have referred to the table of agrarian offences for the year 1844, as handed in to the Land Commissioners by Col. Miller, late deputy inspectorgeneral of constabulary in Ireland, and we find that the counties of Dublin, Kerry, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Mayo, and Wicklow, will compare advantageously with the same number of counties in the province of Ulster, as regards exemption from this class of offences. There is but one county in Ireland which can compare with Kildare in this respect, and that is, the county Londonderry-three agrarian offences being the number returned in each; and any one of the counties which we have enumerated are infinitely freer from such crimes than either Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, or Tyrone, which have, any one of them, more offences of this nature than Wicklow, Mayo, Louth, and Kildare, put together; being, in this respect, on a par with the Queen's County, Galway, Kilkenny, Longford, Waterford, Westmeath, and Wexford. So that it is quite idle to claim for the tenant-right of Ulster the merit of protecting that province from agrarian outrages.

But, from the very nature of this custom, it is quite apparent that it can only exist in a country where the very best feeling exists between landlord and tenant-where there is a complete identification of interest between them -it is the creature of custom, and can never be enforced by law. And yet, in obedience to the popular clamour, no less than four bills were brought before parliament on the subject in the present session-one of them by Lord Devon, another by Lord Lincoln, a third by Mr. Sharman Crawford, and a fourth by Sir William Somerville. Now what is the tenant-right which the people have lately been goaded on to agitate for? It was thus defined by Mr. John O'Connell to the people of Cashel -" Tenant-right," said he, "is this, that a tenant, whether he be a tenant-at-will, or a tenant with an expired lease, shall not be obliged to leave the land until he has

sold the possession of it to the highest bidder he can find; and if he cannot find a bidder, the landlord shall not turn him out." And again, the opposite section of popular leaders, the physical force men, by their or gan, the Nation newspaper, tell us"In plain English, tenant-right is an absolute perpetuity, in a farm subject to a fair rent, to have and to hold to the tenant, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns for ever." We need not say that none of the bills before parliament went to the length here called for, that of making the Irish landlords mere rent-chargers on their estates, divesting them of all control over its management, interest in its improvement, or selection of its tenantry, but certainly simplifying the various and complicated tenures of Ireland, by reducing them all down to a fee-farm grant. None of the bills which were submitted to parliament contained anything so ruinous and revolutionary as this; they merely professed to be measures for doing that which is most just-namely, securing to the outgoing tenant compensation for his unexhausted improvements. But in the mere attempt to reduce to the precise and rigid rules of an act of parliament, a thing so subtle and changeful in its nature, they aimed at that which, in our judgment, is wholly beyond the compass or reach of an act of parliament. They contained, no doubt, abundant provision for valuations, arbitrations, registrations, umpires, and awards; but legal arbitrations and awards are at all times the most unsatisfactory decisions to the parties, and furnish in themselves the most fruitful subject of litigation. And what must be the effect of arbitration on a subject so difficult to appreciate, as the relative value of agricultural improvements to the landlord and the tenant, and the time in which the tenant should be repaid his outlay in such expenditure, varying, as it must, with the manner in which the improvement had been effected, and the skill and diligence with which the tenant had availed himself of it, and embracing a knowledge of all the particular circumstances of the farm and the tenant, and all the various branches of husbandry? And then, as if to illustrate the absurdity of the whole procedure, some of these bills give an

appeal from the decision of the arbitrators to the assistant-barrister, whose qualifications, acquired by six years' legal standing, are thus presumed to fit him to be a competent judge of all the mysteries of subsoiling, green-cropping, thoroughdraining, and such like. We are satisfied that if anything were wanted to perpetuate variances between landlord and tenant-to keep alive bickerings, disputes, and irritation, and to provide against confidence ever cementing this relation-it would be the forcible extension of tenant-right to Ireland, and its establishment by law. The custom itself, and the mode of administering it, has grown up with the people of Ulster. Injurious as we believe it to be, it may yet be tolerated in that province; but we entirely concur with the opinion pronounced by the excellent member for our University, Mr. Napier, on a recent occasion, in the House of Commons, that "it is the test of the peace of Ulster; it is the effect, not the cause, of its prosperity." And again, let us repeat, that all the legislation on this subject is but a submission to the clamour of the demagogues of the day. Important as it is that the tenant should be protected in his improvements, there is no such urgent need for legislative interference-first, because, unfortunately, he rarely improves, and, secondly, because his interest in such improvements is still more rarely violated. Captain Pitt Kennedy, the compiler of the "Digest of the Devon Commission," tells us"There have not been brought for. ward many cases to show that it has been the practice of land proprietors to take advantage of improving tenants, who had invested money, without a lease or other security." again" On the other hand, it has not been shown that tenants, possessing long and beneficial leases of their lands, have in general brought them to a high state of improvement; whilst, on the contrary, some of the evidence brings forward the fact, that lands let upon very long terms, and at very low rents, are in a worse condition, and their occupiers even more embarrassed than others."

And

There is but one way in which the difficulty can be met, and it is a simple and an obvious one. First, let the

universal practice of England and of Scotland be adopted, that the landlord shall put the tenant into occupation of the farm with all the lasting and permanent investments, as house, barns, fences, gates, piers, &c., already effected; and, secondly, let him give the farmer a lease, certain in its termination, and of such reasonable duration that it shall abundantly repay all the outlay of the tenant before it expires. Thus the capital of the tenant, his whole time and exertion, can be applied to developing the resources of the soil; and he will not be obliged either to cripple his resources by such outlay as he can never expect to reap the full benefit of, or to resort to those wretched substitutes which have spread filth, indolence, and recklessness over the land. The inability of many of the Irish proprietors to incur such expenditure, has hitherto precluded the possibility of their following the example of the English and Scotch landlords, and thus all the evils and agitation which has followed on the assertion of the tenant's claim for compensation, convinces us more strongly of the urgent necessity for such measures as we have proposed, for giving to the soil of Ireland a solvent proprietary, and for rendering the existing proprietary efficient.

We have said that every tenant should have his lease, and this lease should be certain in its termination. Nothing can possibly be more ruinous than the prevailing tenancy in Ireland for lives, or for lives concurrent with a term of years: three lives or thirty-one years is, perhaps, the most general lease in Ireland. If the lives survive the term of years, the duration of the lease becomes thenceforth uncertain; it may expire at any time. The tenant feels that all exertion or expenditure on his part further than what is required to raise the next succeeding crop, is done at his peril. He racks the land to the uttermost, in order to get the most that he can out of it, to the destruction of the landlord's reversionary interest, and to the ruin of all good husbandry in the district; for nothing is more contagious than a bad example. It is impossible for a tenant to advance in agricultural skill or knowledge, who has such incentives to disregard them. As to what the duration of the lease ought to be,

that, of course, should depend upon the circumstances of the farmer and of the country. It is a subject which falls more within the province of our cotemporary, "The Agricultural and Industrial Journal," than of ours. It should be sufficient to repay fully the outlay of the tenant on the land. In England, wherever leases are given, seven or fourteen years is the usual period. This would be altogether too short for Ireland. In Scotland, where no farmer holds but on lease, nineteen years is the usual term. cannot forbear quoting the following passage on this subject, from a recent number of that excellent publication, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. When will we see such apublication emanating from Ireland? It would be in the hands of every farmer in the country who could read, in a twelvemonth, if

We

his attention were but called to it, and

if he were not preoccupied by the vile stimulants of political excitement, with which he is so industriously supplied:

"No Scotch farmer starting with a new lease, grudges that he has to pay a somewhat higher rent than formerly. This may seem paradoxical; and yet there is nothing unreasonable in it. A lease for nineteen years is understood to clear all scores. For the first few years, nearly all is paying out; for the fatter years, nearly all is coming inthe cost of working the land being much more than covered by the large crops which are produced. It is very interesting to observe the patience with which a Scotch farmer will wait for returns. For years, you will see him with his men toiling to eradicate huge stones from the ground, blasting rocks, digging open ditches, draining with tiles, levelling rude heaps, ploughing, liming, and otherwise improving the farm. At first the crops are poor; then they begin to look a little better; about the eighth or ninth year they are abundant. Now comes the period of repayment. Ten years of heavy crops, with little outgoings, set all to rights. At the end of the nineteenth year the land does not owe the farmer a penny. Such, in usual circumstances being the case, the farmer has no pretension to consider the land as his, or to say, 'I have a claim for making the property what it is.' True, he made a garden out of a wilderness; but he has been more than paid for it. If he has been a sagacious farmer, and not engaged to pay too high

a rent, the land and he are quits. When the lease refers to land already improved, the nature of the tenure is not altered: the lessee in such instances runs less risk, and bas less toil than on a highly improvable farin; but he pays rent in proportion, and looks alone to the fourteen or nineteen years' possession for a redemption of all outlays."

We give this extract merely in confirmation of our view of the manner, and, as it occurs to us, the only manner in which the tenant can be amply secured in its investment, without any collision or conflict of interest with the landlord. We by no means advocate, in its full extent, the spirit of the Scotch system. We would be sorry

to see the relation of landlord and tenant, in this country, reduced to the cold, commercial calculation which is

here described. We believe that there kind in that relation, which it is allexist moral elements of a much higher important should be developed to the uttermost; and that in the connexion of landlord and tenant, there is presented a field for the exercise of numberless duties, charities, and amenities, which should never be cast aside. It is in their full, free, and uncontrolled exercise, when the proprietors of the soil shall be placed in a position to fulfil them, and when the intelligence, independence, and good feeling of the tenantry, will enable them to resist all incentives to sedition and to crime, that we see the greatest hope for the country.

Few things would, perhaps, more promote the social improvement of the country, than to introduce the practice of selling estates in small lots, as might readily be done in sales under the courts, and thus laying the foundation for a small proprietary of the middle class, who would thereby be enlisted, by their interest and their sympathies, in the cause of order and conservatism. Such a change should, of course, be effected gradually. It is not to be expected that the men who now sit five months of the year idle, with their field undrained before their door, and their gates swinging off their hinges, would all at once, by the mere ownership of a small parcel of land, exhibit the industry and intelligence which has made the peasant proprietary of Lombardy, Switzerland, and the Low Countries so prosperous. Agri

cultural knowledge must first be dif fused, and then a habit of industry; and both can be accomplished, and can only be accomplished, through the landlords of Ireland. It is for them, by the judicious management of their own estates; by employing qualified agriculturists; by imposing conditions of management in their leases, whereever the good feeling subsisting between them and their tenantry will allow of it (it is the universal practice in the Lothians, and in the best cultivated counties of England); by agricultural schools and premiums; by liberal wages, and giving their people an opportunity and encouragement to better their condition, to disseminate these qualities. The desire of bettering their condition will spread among the people as the power of doing so is afforded them. "The power of bettering themselves by the public works," says Sir John MacNeill," has created the strongest desire for improvement. It is visible in their cottages; they have attempted and succeeded in making them better and more comfortable; they are better clothed themselves, and their children are better clothed. There is nothing like listlessness or carelessness: an Irishman is the most active fellow possible, if remunerated for his work; there is no idleness among them, if they can turn their work to a fair remuneration." If concurrently with the growth of this spirit, which, we again repeat, it is for the landlords of Ireland, and for them alone, to develop, the opportunity be presented, by the sale of small properties, of forming a race of yeomen in Ireland, we would have in such a body, a stedfast foundation for social improvement, and a sure barrier against anarchy and revolution. There is no security for good conduct like having something to lose. "Pay that boy something, that I may be able to fine him," was the exclamation of an irritated manager towards the elder Kean, when he was a supernumerary at the theatre. The principle applies universally.

One great difficulty in writing on Irish affairs, or Irish interests, consists in this, that the evils of Ireland, social, moral, physical, and political, are so various and so complex, that no one article, or no one volume, can ever embrace them all, much less illustrate the full extent of their perni

cious influence. But it is impossible to let our attention rest, even for a moment, on the miseries of the country, without being arrested by that which is its chief curse-absenteeism. The importance which we have attached to the efficient discharge of the duties of proprietorship-the rank in which we have placed those "imperfect obligations" of which Dr. Longfield has spoken-the conviction which we have expressed that it is through the landlords of Ireland alone that the country can be saved, and the extent to which we have gone in advocating legal measures for putting the proprietors of the soil in a position to discharge those duties duties upon the faith of which the soil itself is entrusted to them by the state-will prepare our readers to expect that we will advocate with all the zeal which our humble opportunities offer, any wellconsidered measure, which may either enforce the residence of those proprietors, or appropriate a certain amount of their income to compensate to some extent for the wrongs which is occasioned by their absence. We will revert to this subject again, when, by taking it singly, we will be enabled to give it the attention which it demands. The estates of many of these absentees was conferred on the express condition of residence. So long ago as the reign of Richard the Second, a law was passed enacting "that all manner of persons whatsoever, who have any lands or tenements, offices or other living, ecclesiastical or temporal, within Ireland, shall reside or dwell on the same." In the reign of Henry the Eighth, the estates of absentee proprietors were declared to be forfeited, and the properties of the Duke of Norfolk and other absentees were seized by the crown, and conferred on persons who undertook to reside on them. In the reign of James the First, all the properties of absentees were vested in the crown. Taxes on absentees have fre quently been imposed, and at this moment the income-tax of 7d. in the pound is imposed on absentee Irish fundhold. ers. There are but two difficulties in the consideration-first, as to the measure which would be most efficient; and secondly, as to the class of persons who are to be regarded as absentees-whether a person having an estate in Tipperary, and residing in Tyrone, or one having

an estate in Kilkenny and residing in Shropshire, is to be considered as an absentee; or whether the term should be limited to those persons who, without any claim of property in any other part of the kingdom, choose, for purposes of comfort or enjoyment, to live away from their properties. It is impossible to deny that many absentee estates as that of Lord Lansdowne, Lord Devon, Lord Stanley, and many others, are well managed; and we cannot shut our eyes to the many and great advantages which are derived from the identification of interest with the various parts of the kingdom which the possession of large estates in both naturally gives rise to. Perhaps the mode by which the evils of non-residence could best be obviated, and at the same time the advantages of a common feeling between the proprietors of English and Irish estates preserved, would be by a measure authorizing, or obliging, if necessary, the English proprietors to cut off the entail of their Irish estates in favour of their second or other son; but such a measure would need great consideration, and it is altogether impossible for us to discuss it now. We will take an early opportunity of resuming the subject.

And here we would have brought this article to a close, except for an article which we lately observed in an eminent English journal-the Morning Chronicle. That article, after forcibly commenting on the miseries of the country miseries which, it stated, were now likely to be fearfully aggravated by the prospect of another famine (which may God in his mercy avert, but to the likelihood of which we dare not shut our eyes)-went on to propose a comprehensive scheme of emigration, as a remedy for our evils:

“We can imagine," the writer said, "but one method of solving this fearful problem-namely, by promoting the emigration of a sufficient number of the Irish labouring population, to enable the remainder to earn an honest livelihood at home."

Now, it is right that all men, both English and Irish, should know that such emigration is impracticable. Let

us hear what Sir Robert Kane says upon this subject-we quote from an article by him, on the size of farms, in the "Agricultural and Industrial Journal" for July:

"It is a very reasonable estimate to allow that five pounds per head will land them in the new world, and we will put the more remote colonies out of the question: then what are they to do when there? You must recollect that other countries will not let you inundate them with Irish paupers for your own convenience; they must have some way of subsisting until they find work and can provide for themselves; that will take five pounds more; for you must not drown them, or starve them, or let them die of fever bred in confined ship-holds, under the name of emigration. There is, therefore, required for any emigration that is not an inhumanity and a crime, ten pounds sterling per head; and for the number which your large farm-system requires you to remove* you must pay thirty-three millions sterling. Practically impossible not only from want of money, but from want of ships also. One-tenth of that emigration would double the price of passage. The thing simply becomes physically impossible.

Emigration is excellent for clearing a particular locality. The promotion of tralian matronhood is excellent and truly wild Irish girls to the dignity of Ausmoral; the emigration of the pauper children whose parents died during the last two frightful years, is also a good and a wise step; but for removing the surplus population of Ireland, it is only preserved from being a failure by the utter impossibility of its being even tried."

And, in confirmation of this view, we have also the authority of Mr. Pim, in his excellent book which we reviewed in our last number:—

"But those who look to emigration as a means of relieving the labour market of its surplus, must anticipate its being conducted on a very extensive scale, as in this way alone can it effect any sensible diminution of the present pressure. It would require at least a million of persons to be sent away. How is it possible to transport such a number at once? or to provide them with the