Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/179

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The Difficulties of an Irish Landlord's Situation.

The following extract from the Summary prefixed to the Digest of Evidence taken before the Devon Commission; describes very clearly the difficulties with which an Irish landlord has to contend when dealing with a property which has been subdivided and over-populated during the continuance of a long lease.

"It is quite evident that if the gross produce derived from a limited holding amount to £8, and that it be occupied by a family of five persons, in a district where there is little or no assistance for them in the way of profitable or casual labour, we find a most difficult and embarrassing situation to be presented, both as regards the land proprietor and the tenant; and yet this is by no means an exaggerated or uncommon case. The most moderate calculation of a year's maintenance for such a family would amount to £24, to pay which, together with the rent, the taxes, and the seeding of his farm, there is only the value of the gross produce, £8.

"Thus the gross produce would amount to only one-third of the sum requisite to support the family, without allowing for either rent, seed, or taxes. The seed and taxes must, however, come as a charge prior to maintenance—they are inevitable. The landlord then looks for his rent. His just claim is not the point which the debtor or the public considers when he seeks for its liquidation. The broad fact of a rich man pressing a wretchedly poor man for a payment of money is the point that arrests attention; it matters little whether the rate of rent be in fact low; any claim, however moderate, made by the landlord, appears exorbitant, not from its disproportionate amount