Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/271

Rh them to 63? We have already seen the fervent advocates of the leasing system deprecate the extension of leases to such small areas as 15 acres; others of even greater experience, and no less friendly to the tenant, have raised the minimum to 30, 40, 50 acres.* Even Mr. Bright takes a man paying 50l. of rent as his typical yeoman. In the face of these opinions why should any one seek to stereotype a condition of affairs confessedly detrimental to the interests of agriculture? One of the greatest benefits to Ireland has resulted from the legal machinery invented to transfer the estates of incumbered proprietors to the hands of persons with sufficient capital to improve them. Surely the same policy ought to be pursued in facilitating the transference of farms from the impoverished agriculturist to the man of energy and capital? Yet Mr. Butt, like the malevolent fairy in the tale of the "Sleeping Beauty," would curse us with the doom of rigid immobility for the greater portion of a century, without the prospect of that magic "after-glow" of renewed life and vigour which completes the story.

Again, though this is his intention, the means he adopts would lead to another result. With a fatal ingenuity, he contrives to make it the imperative interest of the landlords to get rid of their tenants, and at the same time furnishes them with ample facilities for the process. He plucks the lion's beard with one hand, and whets his fangs and talons with the other. If the landlord is precluded by law from