Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/180

Rh as a rent, but from the utter destitution and inability of the tenant to meet it, however small it may be! Goods are distrained, or legal proceedings instituted, and the landlord at once acquires the character of an oppressive rack-renter. Inattentive management permits the subdivision of farms to increase: the £8 worth of gross produce must now provide for two or three families. This needy class of tenants increases in number and destitution, and the landlord's character for oppression increases in a like proportion, although his land may be let much below the rate that well-circumstanced tenants could pay with ease; and although his list of arrears may prove that a considerable portion of that rate has not been levied!

"The evil grows to an extent that threatens the annihilation of the landlord's income a clearance of the tenants, or consolidation of farms, is resorted to, and forms the climax of tyrannical landlordism, from which a sacrifice equal to the fee value of his estate could not cleanse him. Nor would his granting their holdings to such tenants free of rent, materially mend their case, as although it might raise the annual means of support for a family from £3 to £4, or from £6 to £8, it must be recollected that from £15 to £24 would be required to supply them even with the necessaries of life.

"Numerous witnesses have proved the extreme tendency that there is amongst the tenants to subdivide their lands below the quantity that will maintain the occupiers in comfort. They concur in describing the unremitting vigilance required to prevent a rapid recurrence of this evil, even after the estate has gone through the distressing ordeal of correction."

Digest Devon Commission, Summary, p. 8.