[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR. ")
Sin,—In Mr. Bence Jones's letter he relinquishes the discussion of the "practical difficulties" suggested in his first letter, and relies upon the more hackneyed, but less persuasive objections,—(1) that the Land Act affords "absolute protection" to tenants' improve- ments ; (2), that fixity of tenure would " rob the landlord of his reversion ;" (3), that the Irish peasantry are " indolent and ignorant." Permit me to write a few words on each of these objections.
1. The assertion that the Land Act affords " absolute protec- tion " for tenants' improvements is untenable. The Act does not do this, even theoretically. It only gives the improving tenant, when evicted, the right to go to law with his landlord for "com- pensation,"—quite a different thing. Practically, it fails to give " absolute " or any sufficient " protection." • Cases of the gravest injustice are still of frequent occurrence. The process of absorption of tenants' improvements by increase of rents is in
steady operation. But it is obviously illusory to speak of a tenant who is liable to be evicted, or to have his rent increased, at a few months' notice, as being " absolutely protected."
2. The assertion that to give the tenant continuity of occupancy subject to a fair rent (modified according to valuation every twenty-one years) would " rob the landlord of his reversion," is one of those " loud and lusty statements " which Charles Lamb said "sound well after dinner." But it does not bear the day- light. Unless the landlord proposes to till the land himself— obviously an exceptional case—his " revision " means only his right to a fair rent. But this right, so far from being " robbed," would be secured and ratified ; and in addition, he would have all the increase in value that comes to an estate with the prosperity and contentment of its tenantry. A tenant-right estate in Ulster is worth nearly half again as much as an estate in the " Golden Vein" of Tipperary. Some of the shrewdest Munster landlords adopt, of their own accord, an analogous system, and they reap the reward in the increased value of their estates, in the punctual payment of their rents, and even in that legitimate influence with their tenantry which " the sword of eviction" fails to obtain. In truth, if there were no interests to be considered but those of Irish landlords, the barbarous tenancy-at-will system should be abolished, and the agriculturist afforded that security of -occupancy which, under some form, is the ordinary condition of agricultural prosperity and social peace.
3. It seems to me to be scarcely generous of Mr. Jones to in- dulge in such repeated and unmeasured abuse of his humbler and less fortunately placed fellow-countrymen. He boasts, not without reason, of his own agricultural improvements. Would he have effected them, if it were in the power of another to evict him at a few months' notice? " Of all modes of escaping from the con- sideration of moral and social influences on the human mind, the least reliable is that of attributing diversities of character and conduct to inherent natural differences " (Mill).—I am, Sir, &c., River View, Cork, April 16. JOHN GEORGE MACCARTHY.
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