ces, both as regards the moderation of their rents
and the length of their tenures, are generally more wretched in the
appearance of their dwellings, and more neglectful of the cultivation of
their farms, than those at the mercy of landlords, represented to be the
most tyrannical on earth--we must seek the cause of the degraded state
of the people elsewhere than at the door of the owners of the soil.
Until within the last few years, (and those are the years in which the
landlords have most exerted themselves, and in which the tenantry, who
would be influenced by them, have most improved,) leases of _at least_
twenty-one years, and one life, were always given, which not
unfrequently prolonged the tenure to sixty or seventy years. And nothing
can be more erroneous than to suppose that the refusal to grant leases,
latterly practised by some Irish landlords, has been the cause of any
hardship or suffering to the people. The contrary is the fact; and no
men know this better than those who so loudly exclaim against the
practice. It is a great mistake to imagine that leases are in no
instance granted: the truth is, that they are still very generally
given; and that in a great majority of those instances where they are
withheld, they are so withheld, not with the intention of taking
advantage of the tenant's improvements, or depriving him of his
political rights, (as the English people are led to believe,) but for
the purpose of compelling him to improve and to live comfortably, in
spite of his own predilections. On the best managed estates in Ireland,
and those where green-cropping has been most generally brought into
operation, there are no leases; yet on those properties the tenantry are
invariably the most independent and contented. On the estates of the
Earl of Gosford, and other proprietors in the north, under the able
superintendence of Mr Blacker, (whose conduct is the theme of universal
approbation,) no leases are given until the tenant shows, by his
industry and his exertions, that he deserves one; and then, after he has
for some years cultivated his farm in a proper manner, and is taught to
estimate the value of an improved system, he gets his lease as the
reward of his industry, without the slightest advance in his rent. From
the bad feelings implanted in the minds of the peasantry, they generally
prefer living in comparative misery, and allowing their land to remain
in a state of nature, whether they have leases or n