settle the Irish land question in such a manner that it
would speak to the people of Ireland in the words of holy writ:
'And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant
vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another
inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat.' Mr. Dobbs says:--

'How can a tenant improve his land when he is convinced that, after
all his care and toil, his improvements will be overrated, and he
will be obliged to shift for himself? Let us place ourselves in his
situation and see if we should think it reasonable to improve for
another, if those improvements would be the very cause of our being
removed from the enjoyment of them. I believe we should not. Industry
and improvements go very heavily on when we think we are not to have
the property in either. What can be expected, then, from covenants to
improve and plant, when the person to do it knows he is to have _no
property in them_? There will be no concern or care taken to preserve
them, and they will run to ruin as fast as made or planted. What was
it induced so many of the commonalty lately to go to America but high
rents, bad seasons, and want of good tenures, or a permanent property
in their land? This kept them poor and low, and they scarce had
sufficient credit to procure necessaries to subsist or till their
ground. They never had anything to store, all was from hand to mouth;
so one or two bad crops broke them. Others found their stock dwindling
and decaying visibly, and so removed before all was gone, while they
had as much left as would pay their passage, and had little more than
what would carry them to the American shore.

'This, it may be allowed, was the occasion of the poor farmers going
who had their rents lately raised. But it may be objected that was not
the reason why rich farmers went, and those who had several years in
beneficial leases still unexpired, who sold their bargains and removed
with their effects. But it is plain they all went for the same reason;
for these last, from _daily examples before them_, saw the present
occupiers dispossessed of their lands at the expiration of their
leases, and no preference given to them; so they expected it would
soon be their own case, to avoid which, and make the most of the years
still unexpired, they sold, and carried their assets with them to
procure a settlement in a country where they had reason to expect a
permanent property.'

It is a