en guilty of perjury for their own injury; but those who assisted
and abetted them must have been aware that they were encouraging
them to commit a grievous sin."

_At that time_ it was Mr O'Connell's object to attain political power,
by proving the lands were set at a _cheap_ rate; _now_ it is his object
to obtain popularity, by declaring that they are set at a rate far too
dear. Which of his assertions are we to believe?

It may be said that only a few, comparatively speaking, of the
landholders registered their votes; and that, from the value of the
holdings of a few, it would be unfair to draw a conclusion as to the
terms on which the land was held by the bulk of the people. This
objection could only be urged by a person unacquainted with Ireland; for
any man who attended the quarter-sessions there, must know that, if all
the persons for whom the priests and liberal clubs served notice, and
whose qualifications they were prepared to support, had come forward to
claim and establish their rights to the franchise, the number on the
register would have been quite as great as (if it did not exceed) that
of the old forty-shilling freeholders. If the claims of those who did
apply, and who, although rejected, were most vigorously sustained by the
agitators, had been substantiated, the constituency would have been
quite as numerous as the most ardent patriot could desire.

From whatever causes the wretched condition of Ireland may arise, want
of tenure cannot be included amongst them; for if length of tenure
secured prosperity, Ireland should have been prosperous indeed. In no
country were such long leases heretofore given: from three lives and
thirty-one years to three lives and sixty-one years, were the terms
usually granted; and at this moment there are many leases still in
existence, in all parts of the country, made towards the close of the
last century, and held directly from the owners. And although the lands
held under these are at a rent very much below even the present
depressed value, and of course greatly under what they would have
fetched in the time of the war, still we do not find their possessors
generally comfortable or independent; but, on the contrary, they are in
most instances in a worse condition than those tenants whose rent has
varied with the times, and been influenced by the rise or fall in the
value of agricultural produce. Seeing, then, that men placed in the most
favourable circumstan