cipal ordered him to grant
leases to any one who wished for them; that he announced this to the
tenantry, and that on an estate containing 19,000 acres only six or
seven parties made application, and not one of these afterwards took
them out." We could adduce other testimony. We have selected Mr Maher's,
because he will not be suspected of any undue leaning against the
people, and because his estate is admitted to be most reasonably let. It
is further proved, and every man who has any knowledge of Ireland knows
the fact, that the most comfortable and improving tenantry hold at will.
Mr Guinness, the extensive agent, holding employments in twenty-seven
counties, and himself a proprietor in Tipperary, confirms the fact of
leases being generally granted in that county; and contrasts the state
of the inhabitants with that of Wexford, one of the most improved
districts in Ireland, where the land is much worse in quality, the rents
much higher, and the tenantry peaceable and independent, and _almost
universally tenants-at-will_. And Mr Kincaid, the head of one of the
largest agency houses in the kingdom, says in his examination--"I may
state generally, that I never knew a case of a tenant inclined to
improve, who declined making such improvements for want of a lease." But
if the causes to which Mr O'Connell assigns the state of the disturbed
counties be untenable as regards Tipperary, they are still more so as
regards the others. It is admitted by all the witnesses who have been
examined before the land commission touching the condition of Clare,
Limerick, and Roscommon, that the tenant-right or "good-will" is
recognized in these districts; that the evictions of the tenantry, or
consolidation of the farms, have not been carried to any extent; and
that, when such have taken place, most liberal allowances were given by
the landlords.--Our space will not permit us to give extracts. But as
regards Leitrim, the county next in criminality to Tipperary, there is
not a shadow of any such excuses for agrarian disturbance in that
district. There have been neither evictions nor consolidation, even to
the most trifling extent;[6] and yet in this county, in which there is
nothing to qualify agrarian outrage, we find, according to Sir James
Graham's statement, the number of crimes committed in 1844 to be 226,
and in 1845, 922. Amongst those who have spoken to the condition of this
county, and who reside in the most disturbed parts, is the Re