ing against the cultivators of the
soil--the chief producers of national wealth--is a deep, resentful
sense of injustice pervading this class, and having for its immediate
objects the landlords and their agents. The tenants don't speak out
their feelings, because they dare not. They fear that to offend the
_office_ in word or deed is to expose themselves and their children
to the infliction of a fine in the shape of increased rent, perhaps at
the rate of five or ten shillings an acre in perpetuity.

One unfortunate effect of the distrust thus generated, is that when
enlightened landlords, full of the spirit of improvement, like Lord
Dufferin and Lord Lurgan, endeavour, from the most unselfish and
patriotic motives, to make changes in the tenures and customs on their
estates, they have to encounter an adverse current of popular opinion
and feeling, which is really too strong to be effectually resisted.
For example: In order to correct the evils resulting from the undue
competition for land among the tenants, they limit the amount per acre
which the outgoing tenant is permitted to receive; but the limitation
is futile, because the tenants understand one another, and do what
they believe to be right behind the landlord's back. The market price
is, say, 20 l. an acre. The landlord allows 10 l.; the balance finds
its way secretly into the pocket of the outgoing tenant before he
gives up possession. As a gentleman expressed it to me emphatically,
'The outgoing tenant _must_ be satisfied, and he _is_ satisfied.'
Public opinion in his own class demands it; and on no other terms
would it be considered lucky to take possession of the vacant farm.

CHAPTER XIX.

TENANT-RIGHT IN ANTRIM.

I find from the Antrim Survey, published in 1812, that at that time
leases were general on the Hertfort estate. There were then about
3,600 farmers who held by that tenure, each holding, on an average,
twenty English acres, but many farms contained 100 acres or more. Mr.
Hugh M'Call, of Lisburn, the able author of 'Our Staple Manufactures,'
gives the following estimates of the rental. In 1726, it was 3,500
l.; in 1768, it was 12,000 l.; and for 1869, his estimate is 63,000 l.
Taking the estimate given by Dean Stannus, as 10 l. or 12 l. an acre,
the tenant-right of the estate is worth 500,000 l. at the very least,
probably 600,000 l. is the more correct figure. This vast amount of
property created by the industry and capital of the tenan