sweet and sour milk and eggs, and each man is allowed a right of turfary on Mr. C's bog, to supply his own house with fuel.

All these men are tenants at will, because as Mr. Chad no wish to establish any political interest in this county, he thought by giving no leases he would have his tenantry more completely under his own command, in case any neglected to keep his family and his ground in the condition he requires, and also to prevent new settlements on the land by marriage without his consent. In the particular instance, and under his judicious management, this system has wrought admirably well; but it is obvious it would answer only where the landlord makes the expensive improvements himself, and throws the burden on the tenant in the shape of increased rent. In so poor a country as Ireland this, however, seems much the most rational way, at least wherever the landlord is content to pay sufficient attention to his estate to prevent the tenant from wasting his land. But you will ask, is it possible that the mode of living I have just described is a fair specimen of the general condition of the agricultural population of the country? Would to God I could answer yes. The truth however is, that their general condition is nothing nearly so comfortable, but there is no earthly

reason why it should not be quite as much so. If the landed proprietors had only the common sense and common prudence of Christian men, to reside, were it but a month or two in summer, on their own estates, and make themselves thoroughly well acquainted with their own tenantry, and be a terror to evil doers, especially those who do evil to themselves, though it be to themselves only, and a praise to them that do well. Of all nations whom I have known, the lower orders in Ireland most require the stimulant of praise, when deserved, and most profit by it when judiciously given; they are certainly a sensitive people, and they love and appreciate justice to a degree that exceeds belief. I do not so much mean justice dealt out for money in a court of law, though they have a hankering after that too, as equity in the breast of a landlord or an employer. The man, who living amongst them, fails not to show, were it but in kind words, his sense of the patient continuing in well-doing of the good, and who exercises harshness only towards those who deserve it at his hands, may be certain of being not only respected, but beloved by them even in the moment of his chiding, and all those who will become, like Homer's heroes, the shepherds of their people, may rest assured they will equally with them be honoured by their people like a god.

LETTER V.

Cosa non detta in prosa mai, ne in rima.

THE rent of land in Ireland has been decidedly increasing during the last twenty years, I mean permanently increasing, independently on any adventitious circumstances, such as war prices, or any other unnatural stimulant. It is commonly asserted, that with us the utmost farthing which the land will afford is wrung from the tenantry; that only the minimum which will support existence is left to the cultivator of the soil, and that minimum in the lowest species of human food, namely, potatoes. There is a fallacy here. It is true that the cultivator gets much less from the land for himself than he should do; but it is not true that this evil arises from the landlord receiving too much. The real cause is, that the land is not made to produce nearly so much as it is capable of producing; and the real remedy is, not to reduce the rents, but to make the land produce more by better cultivation and more judicious management. It is now an established fact, that lands in Ireland pay a much lower rent, in proportion to

their real value, than lands in England do; that is, that the Irish landlord receives as rent a smaller proportion of the crop his land is capable of producing than the English landlord does. I know that this statement differs very much from the opinion entertained not very long since both in this country and in England. Indeed some six or seven years ago it would have been deemed almost madness to have made such an assertion, yet we have since discovered it to be undeniably true. However, the sticklers for Ireland's measureless misery enter a demurrer to our statement here, in these terms: "True, it has been proved that land in Ireland pays less in proportion to its capability of producing than it does in England; but then, with reference to what it actually does produce, it pays a much larger proportion, and it is with this, and not with capabilities, which are never called into action, that the cultivator has to do-if his own share be insufficient, the misery to him is not a jot the less, because the rest is not all in the pocket of the landlord, but partly there, and partly in the bosom of the earth." Now there is some truth in all this, but in whom lies the defect of the present state of things? Surely in the tenant, and not in the landlord. Surely the remedy must come from improving the tillage, not from diminishing the

rent.

In truth the tillage has improved within the last dozen years, and that most amazingly; but there is yet room for immense further improvement, and the way to bring it about is to keep the rents high. I am here deliberately advising a line of conduct, on the part of the landed proprietors, which, if adopted without the accompanyment of any means of mitigating the hardships of the case, must needs be productive of a great deal of individual privation even to misery, yet I do advise it even in this uncompromising shape, rather than not at all. Listen to a short story. A poor blind old woman, or, as she called herself, "a dark and desolate widow," who lived in our neighbourhood, came to me one day, to tell me that some pious ladies had offered her some warm blankets for the winter, which was then setting in, if she would undertake to attend the reading of the Scriptures and of prayers, which took place daily in their great hall, but, she added, that she was "afeard" to go. I advised her by all means to take the blankets and the prayers, as pleasant and profitable for her body and soul; but if she felt scruples of conscience, to obtain first the priest's permission, which I was sure he would not deny, considering the urgency of the case. begging, when this

Some days after, I met her brief and pithy dialogue