there is scarcely a tenant that would not conform to the wish of his landlord: the chief objects to attend to are, the site; levels of the floor of the house and yard; arrangement of the offices; a prevention of dunghills in front of the house; and the roof so contrived as to project at least two feet beyond the wall of both house and offices.

SECTION III.

NATURE OF TENURES-GENERAL STATE OF LEASESAND PARTICULAR CLAUSES THEREIN.

LEASES are generally for thirty-one years, or three lives; but lately leases for twenty-one years, or a life, have become more general. Very few landlords are now so blind to the interest of their children, however imprudent their ancestors might have been, as to grant leases renewable for ever. Formerly leases for thirtyone years and three lives were sometimes granted, but I imagine not lately. A good deal of land is held by bishops' leases; an uncertain kind of tenure, that gives rise to many bickerings between landlord and tenant, and prevents all manner of improvement. A power to plant is reserved by many landlords, but it is a power, I fear, that is too seldom used. Too much of the land of this county is let in partnership; this wretched mode of letting land must have originated at a remote period, when the state of agriculture was very low, and the means of stocking a farm still lower. Whilst the war

more of any sum they choose to expênd in building, and in many instances expends the whole amount.

continued, a high price for every kind of agricultural produce enabled village tenants to pay their rents punctually; and many landlords, not adverting to the sudden fall there must be on the conclusion of the war, nor on the taxes it must create, insisted it was the best mode of letting land. Happily we are now at peace, and they are convinced that this cause (the peace) and an unthought of increase of population far beyond their means of support, have rendered it the very worst mode of letting land, and instead of being the most punctual tenants they are the reverse. At the rate at which population has encreased, if the land of many villages was even given rent free, the tenants in a few years could not exist. Surely landlords must, or at least ought to have seen that the permission either openly or tacitly given to villagers to subdivide their shares amongst their children, or with strangers who tempted them with a trifling profit rent, must ultimately have the present effect. It is a very general custom with village tenants, and indeed with those who hold separate tenures, to give a part of their division of land as a marriage portion with a son or daughter, and this so often repeated, that ground sufficient to maintain them has not been had by any of the parties. On an estate that I had the superintendence of in this county, I knew many villages that originally consisted of six families, now have above twenty: and on another estate, one village has increased to six. There is another evil attendant on this erroneous system, the great decrease of bog for fuel on many estates. In the original lease above mentioned, turf banks sufficient for six houses were allotted. Now there are twenty necessary, and very frequently others from adjoining estates are permitted to cut turf. This has been unobservedly decreasing the value of many estates. How How many cir

cumstances tend to prove the great necessity of a resident agent? Those who do not understand the nature of turf bogs (Dublin agents) imagine they are inexhaustible. According to the improvident mode of cutting and managing bogs, the carriage every day becomes more difficult and expensive. Landlords too often, instead of laying out the line for cutting with some system of improvement in view, permit their tenants to act at random; not adverting to the certainty that bogs will hereafter, and probably at no distant period, be some of the most valuable part of their estates. Very few leases are taken, especially by graziers, without a clause of surrender, to prevent a loss if the price of land or produce should fall. At the same time I do not see why a clause of re-assumption should not be inserted in favor of the landlord; always making full remuneration for any permanent improvements; and if to a certain amount, probably the clause should be void.* I shall probably be thought visionary by at least one party, but I do not write for any party. I apprehend too many took advantage of the late sudden depression of the value of agricultural produce, and worked on the fears of timid landlords to obtain a permanent abatement of their rents; and some, I am informed, took advantage of the pecuniary obligations their landlords were under to them, to force them to give leases at a rent far below the value of the land.

That any land taken within the last ten years at least, was entitled to a temporary abatement was but fair;

• A farmer in this county waited on his absentee landlord, in Westmeath, to get a renewal of his lease, and, as an inducement, he stated, that in addition to the other improvements he had made, he had planted a great number of trees; his intelligent landlord curling up his nose, “Sir, I give you no thanks for planting trees, my agent tells me they only encourage sparrows to destroy the corn!"

but why the proprietor of the land should not have a reciprocal chance of a rise, is not consonant to my idea of the compact that should exist between landlord and tenant. Many, I am well aware, are biting their nails that their surrenders were accepted. Fee simple estates frequently sell for upwards of twenty years purchase; the rate depending on various circumstances. Freehold property much the same as in Clare, sixteen or seventeen years purchase. A very large portion of the county is let, especially to cottier tenants, without any lease; they universally assign this uncertain tenure as the principal cause for the non-improvement of their farms and houses, and doubtless this, added to the reasons I have before given, will account for the ruinous state of the village systein. As to the length of the tenure which should be given, I apprehend twenty-one years, or a life, a very fair term for any land that is delivered to the tenant in reasonable good order, with a comfortable house and offices on it, always holding in remembrance to give a decided refusal to the former tenant leaving his farm, house, and offices in an untenantable state. Nothing could ever tempt me to give a renewal to the tenant that run the ground out of heart the last years of his lease. Where improvements are to be made, and an house and offices built, a term of thirty-one years, or three lives, seems to be mutually advantageous; this very much depends on the sum expended; in many cases a longer term would be necessary. The clause against burning is very necessary in the present state of agricultural practices; but if the clause was only against over cropping, the burning in most cases would be highly beneficial. The clause also against breaking up more than a certain proportion of the land until that formerly broken up was laid down, has been to my knowledge most shamefully evaded;

in those cases there was unfortunately no restriction as to the number of crops, nor the state of the ground when laid down. I have seen the clause also evaded by sowing hay seeds after the plough, without harrowing, and with that most worthless of all grasses called in the seeds shops white English hay seeds (Holcus lanatus). An attention to those matters forms a very material part of the duty of an agent. Dr. Lawrence says, "It is to be la"mented, both on public and private grounds, that "estates are ever superintended and leased out by other "than able judges of cultivation." I know many agents

that do not know the difference between St. Foin and Lucern.

Many landlords exact the payment of their rents a few months after it is due, some in a few days; but the usual mode is to leave half a year's, often a whole year's rent in the tenants hands, called the hanging gale, and many are often obliged to take their rent in small sums, as the tenant receives it at fairs or markets. Non-resident agents cannot do this, and very often the money is dissipated. Probably no money laid out by a proprietor of land would make a more ample return than that laid out in the improvement of the farm previous to letting it. In most cases, at least in this county, a tenant getting a farm in an impoverished state, is neither able nor capable of improving it; and I have no doubt many would be better able to pay an ample interest annually, as an additional rent, than expend the money the first year or two of his lease; besides, the superior productiveness of the farm would give him such a lift, as would enable him to keep up his farm in the good state in which he got it. It must be understood I mean here that the landlord should fence, drain, repair the house and offices, and leave a crop of clover and grass seeds in the stubbles; a power to sow which