n time purchase his
freedom. The tiller of the soil in Ireland found, on the contrary, that
the greater his industry, the greater was the sum he had to pay for the
right to exercise it. We saw that there never was any pretence of free
contract in the feudal land-tenure of England; that there never was any
pretence of an honest bargain between farmer and landlord, for their
mutual benefit. The tenant paid the landlord for services rendered, not
to him, but to his Norman conqueror. So it was, in an even greater
degree, in Ireland. There was no pretence at all that tenant and
landlord entered into a free contract for their mutual benefit. Nor did
either law, custom, religion or opinion require the landlord to make any
return to his tenants for the share of the fruit of their toil he
annually carried away.

The tiller of the soil, therefore, labored from year to year, through
droughts and rains, through heat and cold, facing bad seasons with good.
At the end of the year, after hard toil had gathered in the fruit of the
harvest, he saw the best part of that fruit legally confiscated by an
alien, who would have been speechless with wonder, had it been suggested
to him that anything was due from him in return. Nor was that all. This
alien was empowered, and by the force of public opinion incited, to
exact the greatest possible share of the tiller's produce, and, as we
saw, he was entitled to the whole benefit of whatever improvements the
tiller of the soil had made; and could--and constantly did--expel the
cultivator who was unable or unwilling to pay a higher tax, as the
penalty for improving the land.

It may be said that bad as this all was, it was not without a remedy;
that the cultivator had the choice of other occupations, and might let
the land lie fallow, while its "owner" starved. But this only brings to
mind the fact that during the eighteenth century England had legislated
with the deliberate intention of destroying the manufactures and
shipping of Ireland, and had legislated with success. It should be added
that this one measure affected all residents in Ireland equally,
whatever faith or race. There was practically no alternative before the
cultivator. He had the choice between robbery and starvation.

It would be more than miraculous if this condition of things had not
borne its fruit. The result was this: it ceased to be the interest of
the cultivator of the land to till it effectively, or to make any
improve