Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/140

Rh question. To drive a hard bargain is a failing not confined to that class of persons; and it has leases. You have no control over them with a lease. You may put stringent clauses, but presently you find a barn or stable occupied; and you find a field with a tenant, and he says, 'This man is a labourer or a servant of mine.'

"Have you attempted to enforce any of those clauses?—Yes, several times; and succeeded once on a farm of fourteen acres of ground, at an expense of £220. It was twice referred to the upper courts, and two trials at the assizes. I had enough of it, but I succeeded. The rent was about 22s an acre, upon fourteen acres of ground.

"Explain in what manner these enormous costs were incurred?—Points were raised by the defendant's lawyer with regard to the proceeding. There was a new trial, and points reserved a second time, and it went up to Dublin a second time. The tenant sold his interest in the farm; he was a drunken blackguard sort of a fellow, and I was aware before it actually took place, that it was intended to be done. I formally told him before a number of persons, that he ought not to do so, and cautioned the purchaser, who gave him ₤150. for his interest in the land; that I should proceed upon the lease, and if he persuaded the other man to dispose of it, I would turn him out. This was openly done, but still the purchaser gave him £150. for his interest in the land. I had to prove the subletting; and there were some difficulties I had to encounter, that I cannot call to mind."—''Digest, Dev. Com. p''. 436.

Evidence of Robert O'Brien, Esq., Land Proprietor, Tenant, and Agent.

"The subletting of land has long been a grievance, and those landlords who first broke through the system of letting their lands to middlemen were at that time hailed as benefactors to their country; but now the rule has become so general, and the class of middlemen so nearly passed away, that the evils of it are nearly forgotten, and the occupiers are now getting up a cry against the landlords as if they were unkind and hard taskmasters, forgetting that in nine cases out of ten