Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/158

Rh whom it has been the intention of Parliament to debar from such exactions. Now, it is not pretended that the imposition of rack rents is at all a general practice with proprietors. The high value of the goodwill on many estates is the index of the landlord's moderation, and his virtues are put up to auction in the same lot with his land. The rents of Ireland are comparatively low, and fines, which is the worst form of rent, are never taken: to transfer therefore the power of exaction created by competition from the landlord, against whose interest it is to enforce it, and to hand it over to the tenant, who would never fail to do so, would hardly be a change for the better; yet so little is this question understood