letting his land except on disadvantageous terms, he will naturally prefer to keep it in his own hands. Bad husbandry and non-payment of rent constitute, even according to Mr. Butt, just occasions of eviction.[1] By the inflexible application of these principles there is no property in Ireland which would not be cleared of a large proportion of its occupants in ten years, and the immediate effect of his beneficent efforts would be universal discontent and an enormous stimulus to emigration, counterbalanced perhaps by a rapid improvement in cultivation and a brevet promotion for some hundreds of thousands of agricultural labourers at the expense of a corresponding number of tenant farmers.
With regard to the minor principle involved in Mr. Butt's plan of fixing the rent of land by a Government officer, I need not trouble my readers. A moment's reflection will show how impossible it would be for any one but those immediately inter-
- ↑ "The interest in the soil thus conferred upon him he should retain only so long as he proves himself a punctual and improving tenant. Non-payment of the rent should be followed by forfeiture of his interest. I propose to make the ejectment for non-payment of rent an absolute one. At present the eviction is subject to redemption by the tenant at any time within six months. This privilege I propose to abolish, and to make the eviction absolute at once.
"I propose to bind the tenant to proper cultivation of the farm, and to the maintenance of all improvements; and, in the event of his failing in either of these conditions he incurs, in like manner, the forfeiture of the interest which the statute confers upon him."—Fixity of Tenure, by C. Isaac Butt, p. 5.
