26. Do the old leases you have spoken of contain any covenants Extracts from against subdivision ?-Yes, they do, but they are thought of little use, and the old covenants are never enforced. 27. Did you ever know an instance of an attempt to enforce that covenant? No, never. The only thing you have to do is, to bring an action against a pauper tenant, and incur costs which you can never recover. The Honourable F. Cavendish, newspaper proprietor. Evidence. Mayo. 12. Is there much land held in rundale in the county?—Yes, all 472, Q. 12-15. the mountain farms are held in rundale. 13. What is the effect of it?-Perpetual squabbling and fighting; it gives the magistrates a great deal of trouble, and attorneys a great deal of business too. The only divisions are made by the tenants themselves; and when the land is chequered there is a great deal of difficulty in making the divisions between them, because they are obliged to take a piece of good here and a piece of bad there, and there is an ownership to be exercised over every particular division. 14. Are you aware of any usage with respect to changing those lots -Yes; they do it for the purpose of their own convenience: but they do all this without any lease or license. 15. Is that a prevailing custom where lands are held in that way-Yes, for their own convenience; and I conceive that the bulk of the petty sessions work here arises from squabbling about mearings and the subdivisions of land. 1064, Q. 42. Alex. C. Lambert, esq., land agent and county treasurer. Mayo, Gal42. Have you ever endeavoured to enforce the clause against sub- way, Sligo. letting?-Not to my recollection. In that part of the district I am now referring to I have heard it has been acted upon. In other counties, the county of Mayo for instance, I am sorry to say that subletting has been carried on to an extent which has impoverished the country. In Galway it has not been so. In Sligo it has been avoided very much. Charles King O'Hara, esq., land proprietor and chairman Sligo. of Board of Guardians. 23. Is subletting carried out to any great extent ?-It is in gene- 356, Q. 23. ral practice when not prevented by the landlord; the great object being, to obtain land at as low a rate, and sublet at as high a rate, as possible, and exist on the profit rent-becoming an idler and a pauper; but it is practised against the consent of the landlord, who endeavours to prevent it by enforcing the penal clauses of the lease, or ousting the tenant, if at will. It is injurious to the interest of all parties, for it lessens capital, increases population, and impoverishes the land; but, at the same time, there are exceptions. When a tenant has proved himself to be industrious and trustworthy, and has acquired capital, the landlord is by no means averse to place under his management improvable land, with a promise of a lease when improved; reserving to himself a controlling power over the subletting and management of the sub-tenants. Such middlemen are necessary, and, under proper control, become salutary links in the chain connecting the lord of the soil with the humblest occupier Evidence. Extracts from thereof; they co-operate with the landlord in maintaining peace and good order, being equally interested therein, and become a check to general combination, so likely to prevail where the landlord, unsupported, has to contend singly with one uniform mass of small tenants combined for a common object and interest: they afford a support and protection to the landlord, of which, latterly, he stands much in need. I do not think you can act upon any one decided principle; you must bring all into practice. You will find some middlemen very well intentioned, and improving, and valuable members of society; and on the other hand, they may be otherwise. Sligo. 11, Q. 13. Joseph Kincaid, esq., land agent. On the lands comprised within those leases, when they expired, we found 280 occupying tenants. 14. Can you state the extent of the ground?—I, myself re-set the land to those 280 tenants. I did not turn out a single tenant, and the average of the size of the holdings was under five acres, comprising altogether about 1,400 acres. 15. Do you know whether those leases had been granted originally to individuals, or to partners?-To individuals in every case. I stated that it was the custom on that estate, fifty or sixty years ago, to grant leases for lives and years. The effect of that is seen by the result upon the population in those six leases; and on all the others, with one or two exceptions, the results were nearly similar. But about twenty years ago, it being an object with his lordship to make freeholders, he granted a number of leases for twenty-one years or two lives, to enable the tenants to register freeholds. Those will expire next November. 16. Are the lives in those leases dead?—Yes, they are; but in not one of those cases have the tenants taken up the leases and paid the stamp duty. The tenants have not taken from the under agent, any of the leases, although they have only to pay the stamp duty, so little value do they put upon them. 17. Then the 280 occupying tenants are now tenants-at-will?— Yes, they are. 18. What is the state of the subdivision as to those leases granted twenty years ago?-In consequence of those leases being about to expire next November, I have been making preparations similar to those which I made with regard to the other six leases, with a view to square and consolidate the holdings. In those cases the holdings were generally formed into parallelograms, having a road fronting each holding; and it will be necessary to do the same upon the townlands of which the leases will expire next November. I have got a return of the occupiers of those townlands, one of which I hold in my hand, it is the townland of Mullaghmore, which gives a fair general view, but perhaps one a little exaggerated. 19. How many leases, twenty years ago, did Lord Palmerston give?-About 300; they were executed and registered, and the tenants voted under them, but did not take up their counterparts. 20. Can you state the extent of the land which was let twenty years ago in the manner you have stated by lease?—I should think about 3,000 acres. I was going to give a statement of the townland of Mullaghmore as an evidence of the state of the holdings of which Evidence. those leases were made twenty years ago, and which were made in- Extracts from discriminately, in order to make freeholders; and there was not the same care taken in seeing that the tenant had his holding to himself, which there otherwise would have been. I find in Mullaghmore there are 201 Irish acres, and upon that there are now 135 tenants. 21. Does that include the town of Mullaghmore?-There are twenty houses of that number in the town of Mullaghmore. 22. How many leases were there twenty years ago?—I think about twenty. 23. Were those leases joint leases, or leases to individuals ?—They were leases to individuals. 24. Can you, from any information you possess, inform us how many were holding and paying rent directly to Lord Palmerston, and how many were in the situation of cottiers or under-tenants?I think I can. I may state in the first instance, that there are fiftyone persons, of that 135 who have nothing but a house or a room; and have no land whatever; they are fishermen. I should suppose about fifty pay rent directly to Lord Palmerston. The twenty leases I spoke of, have become divided between sons, and sons-in-law, and daughters, and they generally each come in with their proportion of money upon paying the rent; there are now about fifty persons paying rent, where twenty leases were granted. 25. Those fifty represent, in some shape or another, the original lessees -Yes, and the others under-tenants to them, most of them fishermen, each occupying a house or a room. 26. Were there any persons, so circumstanced, having only a house, or a room, of the 280 tenants you spoke of previously?—I think not. 27. Then, in giving a separate holding, or tenure, to each of the 280 tenants, none were in the situation of having a house or room only?—None, whatever, in the new setting; there might have been one or two upon the former setting, but not more. 28. You stated the average size of those farms to be about five acres?—Yes. 29. Have they any other mode of subsistence but agriculture?— Many of them are fishermen; the property is on the sea-coast; and though a comparatively small number obtain subsistence by fishing, the advantage of the sea manure is so great, that they can raise potatoes in large quantities, so as to export part of them, after providing a sufficient supply for the population. 30. Do you conceive that a holding of five acres, with their mode of agriculture, can support a family?—Yes, in ordinary seasons. 31. Do you make that observation generally, or where there is sea manure?—I make it at present with regard to places where there is sea manure. Robert Atkins Rogers, land proprietor. Sligo. 12. With respect to subletting, does that system still continue in 746, Q. 12. the district-Subdivision, I should rather call it, is still going on in this district; and until it is discontinued you cannot have any thing but wretchedness. I had a property near Sligo, and I never went near it till the other day, fancying that the leases which I have there were only six or seven in number. Mr. Cooper has one-fifth, Extracts from and I have three-fifths; and I found, instead of my having six whole Evidence. leases left to me by my father-in-law, that the agent, who had been there for fifteen years, never told me that the lives had dropped, and that he had divided the lands among forty tenants; so that now it is not worth holding. 13. What extent of land is there?-I should think the extent may be 300 acres. I went there and looked at it, and was quite ashamed to see it. To do any thing with it would be utterly impossible. I have almost despaired of it; so much so, that I appointed an agent, Mr. Robinson, of Sligo, feeling quite satisfied in my own mind I should have no wish to visit it again. The farmers of this country cannot be brought to think that it is absolutely necessary to put their sons to some trade or occupation connected with land. It arises from their natural indolence. From my observation, they are quite satisfied to cut up their land into quarters, according to the extent of their families, never exerting themselves to put them away to other trades, and letting the original tenure stand CHAPTER XII. CONSOLIDATION OF FARMS. Summary of Evidence--Extracts from Evidence, viz. :-ULSTER WITNESSES-Mr. For syth, How effected-Mr. Prentice, How accomplished-Mr. Hancock, Effected by purchase Mr. Kennedy, Lord George Hill, Systems of effecting-Mr. Harvey, Effected by purchase of tenant-right-Mr. Johnson, How accomplished, and its effects-Mr. Durham, Effected by purchase-Mr. M'Carten, Landlords desirous of, but difficult to effect-Mr. Hamilton, Practice on Lord Erne's estate-Mr. Orr, How effected on Lord Waterford's estate-Mr. Humphreys, Successful arrangement on Marquess of Abercorn's estate. MUNSTER WITNESSES-Mr. Maloney, How accomplished, and consequences of Mr. O'Callaghan, Case of, mentioned — Mr. Crowe, Mode of Effecting, adopted by him-Mr. O'Brien, Effected by him-Mr. Keane, Mode of effecting Mr. Shea, Consequences of Mr. Carnegie, How effected— Mr. Alcock, Extent and object of--Mr. Brennan, How and to what extent effected--Sir Richard Burke, Advantageous, when humanity and discretion observed-Mr. O'Brien, Desire of, exists, and cause of-Mr. Galwey, Causes which led to-Mr. Bolton, How effected in Tipperary without creating disturbance- Mr. Galwey, How effected generally, and results. LEINSTER WITNESSES-Dr. Grattan, Amicably effected-Mr. Sargeant, Cause and extent of-Mr. Swan, Cause, and how accomplished-Mr. Hamilton, Cause, effects, and how to be accomplished. CONNAUGHT WITNESSES-The Hon. William Le Poer Trench, Extent accomplished - Mr. D'Arcy, How accomplished-Dr. Duke, Landlords anxious for Mr. Kelly, How effected-Mr. Lloyd, How and for what object effected. 571, Q. 52 p. 459. THE phrase, "consolidation of farms," is, throughout the 220, Q. 96, 97 evidence, applied to two operations of very different character: the one, the increasing the size of holdings by the removal of some of the occupiers, and uniting the lands they had held to other farms; the other, the re-arrangement of property held in detached parcels, or rundale, giving to each occupant a compact holding equivalent in value to his former scattered lots. Much evidence of a most contradictory character was given upon the consolidation of small farms into large. Many statements were made of cases in which such consolidation had been effected; but these statements were, in general, met by counter statements, denying the general truth of the accusation, or alleging great exaggeration in it. It seems to be hardly the province of a digest, such as this, to enter into the question of the veracity of the witnesses in each 278, Q. 22- p. 457. |