, against them. It is piteous to see the hopelessness of three
sub-commissioners in the midst of a crowd of Irish attorneys. And the
law, as it exists at present, can be made to act only on holdings
possessed by tenants for one year. And the skill of the lawyers is
used in proving on the part of the landlords that the land is held by
firm leases, and cannot, therefore, be subjected to the law; and then
by proving, on behalf of the tenants, that the existing leases are
illegal, and should be broken. The possession of a lease, which used
to be regarded as a safeguard and permanent blessing to the tenant,
is now held to be cruelly detrimental to him, as preventing the
lowering of his rent, and the immediate creation for him of a tenancy
for ever. It is not to be supposed that the sub-commissioners can
walk over the land and straightway reduce the rents, though the
lands would certainly be subject to such reduction did not the law
interfere. In a majority of cases,--a majority as far as all Ireland
is concerned,--a feeling of honesty does prevail between landlord and
tenant, which makes them both willing to subject themselves to the
new law without the interference of attorneys, and many are preparing
themselves for such an arrangement. The landlord is willing to lose
twenty per cent. in fear of something worse, and the tenant is
willing to take it, hardly daring to hope for anything better. Such
is the best condition which the law has ventured to anticipate.
But in either case this is to be done as tempering the wind to the
shorn lamb. The landlord is anxious if possible to save for himself
and those who may come after him something of the reality of his
property, and the tenant feels that, though something of the nobility
of property has been promised to him by the Landleaguers, he may
after all make the best bargain by so far submitting himself to his
shorn landlord.

But on estates where the commissioners are allowed their full swing,
the whole nature of the property in the land will be altered. The
present tenant, paying a tax of L8 per annum which will be subjected
to no reduction and on which no abatement can be made, in lieu of a
L10 rent, will be the owner. The small man will be infinitely more
subject to disturbance than at present, because the tax must be
paid. The landlord will feel no mercy for him, seeing that the bonds
between them which demanded mercy have been abrogated. The extra
L2 or L4 or L6 will not e