Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/129

Rh of middlemen became constituted in this manner, there is no doubt that sometimes they were " This tendency to sublet even discourages the building of cottages."—''Dig. Dev. Com. p. 49."Some proprietors felt disposed to build cottages for them, (the cottiers on their estate) with small allotments, held direct from themselves; but the chief difficulty in this case is, to secure that the original evil may not thus be increased by still further increasing the glut of the labour market, which would be the effect, unless the farmer can be restrained from still bringing in additional people for the mere profit he may derive in letting to them a house or garden; this tendency has long been felt, and is likely to continue the chief difficulty in the management of property."—Ibid. p.'' 130.The following is a fair example of the history of most Irish estates."This estate has been for ages in the family."Between the years 1777 and 1787, James Lord Caher let great portions of it on sixty-one years' leases. Lessees were conditioned in all cases not to sublet, and in most cases to build a good house on the farm."It is almost needless to state that there is scarcely an instance of a house being built by the lessee of the slightest value; and every lessee has sublet generally to a great extent."These farms at the time they were let were all in grass, with scarcely any inhabitants on them, and the lessee held the whole farm."There was no use in the head landlord attempting by law to have the clauses in the lease observed, as no jury would find a verdict against a tenant, for the probability was that some of the jurors were in the same state as the defendants as regarded subletting."—''Dig. Dev. Com. p.'' 437."Subletting was barred in all these leases; but the landlord never could have found a jury to put the clause in force. The late Lord Glengall endeavoured to break some of these leases thirty years ago, which were proved to have been forgeries by connivance of the agent, after the decease of the late lord's predecessor; but, though judges charged in favour of the