Page:Letters to Lord John Russell on the Further Measures for the Social Amelioration of Ireland.djvu/46

43 just (and nothing more than just) concession to them of that property which they now hold in practice, however much in defiance of law. It must, therefore, fail in attaining the object above referred to, as first to be considered in framing a legislative measure which shall not be altogether ineffectual.

It is impossible to dispute the pact that the great bulk of the occupying tenantry of Ireland have acquired for themselves an actual possessory property in their farms, far beyond what the law allows to them. The custom of the sale of tenant-right or good-will, even in the case of farms held from year to year, is declared by the Devon Commissioners to "prevail in most parts of Ireland" (p. 290, Digest).

Few persons perhaps have considered how large an amount of property in the aggregate this custom covers. Supposing the goodwill of farms throughout Ireland to be worth on the average ten years' purchase, which is certainly below the average of Ulster; and taking the rental of Ireland at fifteen millions only, the total value of the tenant-right will be a hundred and fifty millions, distributed in amounts of from ten to a few hundred pounds among nearly a million of persons—the bulk, in fact, of the people of Ireland!

If this be considered too high an estimate, still, under any supposition, the amount must he very considerable. And this, which constitutes the chief, almost the only, property of the middle class of Ireland—a property continually bought and add, in-