Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/37

27 was the feeling of contentment it gave to the people. Their minds were at ease. The anxiety as to the future, which had previously oppressed them, had disappeared. They had no fault to find with the new conditions; if misfortune came their way, it was accidental and could not he helped; in a few years they hoped to be on their legs again. Even in the poorest districts evidence of improved circumstances was found in the better clothing and greater neatness of the people.

The feeling of security that accompanies ownership was seen to have an excellent effect on the character of the purchasers. According to the parish priest of a district in Cavan, which before the sale to the tenants was in a state of turbulence, "Purchase has brought peace. The people are more industrious, more sober, and more hopeful as to their future prospects"—and his testimony was confirmed by the local constabulary and the Land Commission Inspector. Similar evidence collected from all parts of the country confirmed the belief that a spirit of self-help, self-respect and contentment was the natural outcome of Land Purchase.

Side by side, however, with these encouraging examples of progress there was an appreciable minority of cases in which it appeared that the tenant had derived no lasting benefit from the purchase of his holding. The land had deteriorated in value, the owner was heavily in debt to shopkeepers and moneylenders, his family were starved-looking and ill-clad. The general neglect of the buildings furnished a sad index to the decline of the occupier. Sometimes a whole estate had become submerged in this way. No purchaser could assist his fellow, for all were equally impoverished. They were worse off than then neighbours under the non-purchase system, for they had lost hope and self-respect, and had sunk despairingly into idleness and squalor.

Investigation into such cases showed that in some instances the lack of prosperity was due to unavoidable misfortune, the dying of cattle, sickness in the household, the death of the working member of the family, or such other casualties as might be considered amongst the normal accidents of life. But apart from these casual and unexpected misadventures, two opposite reasons were given by purchasers as to why they had not prospered. One class said that their holdings were not large enough fully to employ their labour and capital, while the other had not capital enough to work and stock the land they possessed. The first class had to buy or hire additional land to use then available labour to advantage and secure a reasonable living. The second started in poverty, and were never able to recover themselves. Either they borrowed money from the local banks at high rates of interest, which were increased by renewals up to 20, 30 or even 40 per cent, of the original loan, and thus accumulated a load of debt which they were never able to shake off—or else to acquire the necessary capital they let their lands