hat we
can discover, which would give us any correct idea of the present
average rent of land in this country;[31] but we think, from all the
information we have been able to acquire, by enquiries directed to
competent and well-informed persons, that it cannot be set down at less
than 25s. an acre. From the last Irish census we learn, that Ireland
contains 20,399,608 statute acres, and that the estimated rental is
L12,715,478--yielding a trifle over 12s. as the average rent.[32] When
it is taken into consideration that the English tenant pays
tithes--which, in many localities, amount to more than the entire
average rent produced by Irish ground; that he pays the poor-rates, and
that he is heavily taxed with turnpikes and other local assessments: and
that the Irish tenant pays no tithe, and only half the poor-rates; that
no turnpikes exist, except solitary ones in the neighbourhood of cities
or very large towns; that, in fact, the only tax he pays is the county
cess, varying in different counties from tenpence to one and sixpence
the acre half-yearly; and that this assessment is being considerably
reduced by the new grand-jury enactments, under which the towns and
gentlemen's houses are valued and taxed;--when, we say, all those things
are taken into consideration, and besides, that the land in Ireland is
naturally better and more productive than the English soil, we think we
have satisfactorily disposed of one grave charge against the Irish
landlords; and that we have shown that it cannot be the exorbitance of
the pecuniary burdens under which he groans, that causes the vast
difference between the social condition of the Irish and the English
occupier.

It will no doubt be said--"Ah, but the English tenant is housed, and his
farm kept in repair, by the landlord, while the Irishman is obliged to
do all this himself!" This is true; but certainly the outlay of the
Irish tenant on his farm, makes but a small addition to his other
engagements. Gates and fences he has, comparatively speaking, none; and,
if they be erected for him, they are soon suffered to go to ruin. He
requires few outhouses; for in the poor and disturbed districts (and it
is those which we are now attending to) he uses his domicile as a
receptacle for his pig and his cow, as a matter of choice; we say as a
matter of choice--for, if he had the inclination, _all_ writers admit he
has abundance of unoccupied time to construct habitations for them. Now,
thoug