Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/402

366 gentleman for tenant, and never suffer any land to be let to a tenant who rents land adjoining, as it always produces disputes about the boundaries.

"Suffer no tenant to take possession till both parts of his lease are executed, and suffer no agent to keep possession of any lease. For all the ordinary purposes, a memorandum, which he will keep of course, will suffice. If it is wanted in case of any lawsuit to be produced in court, it is always enough to produce it when the trial comes on, and it may be immediately returned to your depot of papers. There is a general persuasion in Ireland that there is no Englishman who may not be bribed or duped.

"3rdly. To grant no long tenures.—There are not only all the reasons against it in Ireland that have been already stated against it in England, but this strong additional one; that in Ireland nothing has taken its value, and everything is necessarily in a more progressive state than in England. In looking back, it will be found that our family have lost not less than 15,000l. a year by Sir William Petty's sons or their agents being drawn into acts of which they were not aware, the extent of which they never comprehended, and which after several expensive lawsuits commenced by themselves, as soon as they saw, terminated in establishing against them the several perpetuities in Dublin, Meath, King's County, Limerick, and Kerry, which appear distinctly upon the rental to exceed the above-mentioned sum; a sufficient warning to the family (especially if you take the trouble to examine the several proceedings now remaining in the office) to take care how they give anything under their hand, or make any profession or assurance which can be converted into a promise.

"As to lives in Ireland, it is all a fallacy. First three lives, which is the tenure contended for, is, as is well known, capable of being reduced by the tenants, though not to a certainty, yet to something very like it. Next, the fact is, men do not improve so much upon leases of lives as on leases for years, for this plain reason: the