Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/221

Rh voyage concluded, the lease expired, both ship and field revert to their respective owners.

It is hardly reasonable to deny the analogy on the ground that the ship is a manufactured article, but the earth is the gift of God. The land I have bought is probably itself as much a manufactured article as the ship: and the iron or wood of which the ship is built is as much the gift of God as the land: the labour or enterprise by which the land has been rendered valuable is as clearly represented by the money I gave for it, as the industry and ingenuity exercised on its construction is represented by the price the owner has paid for the ship. It is true the country of which my estate is part belongs to the nation, and consequently my property in that estate is over-ridden by the imperial rights of the commonwealth. But this fact cannot invest the individual who may happen to hire my land, when once his tenancy is terminated either by lapse of time or by the violation of his contract, with any peculiar rights in excess of those which may be inherent in the community at large.

Of course, in the case of land, the desirable duration of a tenant's occupancy may vary with circumstances, from one year to a hundred; it might equally suit him to take, and me to let, a corner of my park for a single crop, or a bit of pasture for a few months grazing, or a tract of heather under a reclamation lease of sixty years. But if the principle of the arrangement is to