But, it may he objected that even though emigration, rack rents—and their natural result—low farming, are equally rife under every description of tenure, and cannot therefore wholly be set down to the pernicious influence of the owners of landed property, yet, some human agency must be accountable for the perennial desolation of a lovely and fertile island, watered by the fairest streams, caressed by a clement atmosphere, held in the embraces of a sea whose affluence fills the noblest harbours of the world, and inhabited by a race—valiant, generous, tender—gifted beyond measure with the power of physical endurance, and graced with the liveliest intelligence.
It is to the discovery of this enigma that I now address myself, and in its solution it is possible we may find an answer to the famous question originally put to the Kilkenny Parliament, and lately repeated with considerable point by Mr. Bright,—"How is it that the King is none the richer for Ireland?"
he has taken it in defiance of Mr. Hickson; . . . but, notwithstanding, he is going to lay out £250 upon it. I hold some land from Lord Lansdowne. He gives me the glebe, and there was a field adjoining the lawn before the house I was anxious to get, but I should not think of getting it without the full consent of the proprietor. I could not drain my lawn without draining his field. I sent to him to know what he would let me have it for. He was under ejectment at the time, and he wanted £20 for it, though it was not worth 5s. I thought I should get it for £3 or £4. I could have got it from Mr. Hickson without paying anything for it; but, of course, I could not think of that."—Digest, Dev. Com. p. 309.
