CORRESPONDENCE.
EXPERIENCE IN IRELAND.—IL
EPROM a CORRESPONDENT.] Ix my last letter, I took occasion to observe that even with the reduction in rents which the new Land Bill would probably bring about, Irish landlords will be better off than the majority of English landlords. Take, for instance, the terms of settle- ment proposed to the tenants of the O'Grady estate, in County Limerick—terms which the tenants will probably accept—a reduction of 25 per cent. on judicial, and 15 per cent. on non- judicial rents. How many English landlords are there who would be only too glad to secure tenants on these conditions Much, of course, depends on the character of the land—for bad land is dear at any price—and the rents that were paid before 1881; but assuming the one to be of average quality and the other to have been "fair," I should say that the proposed reduction fails to meet the justice of the case ; in other words, it is not commensurate with the fall in the prices of stock and agricultural produce. I know of a farm within fifteen miles of London, mostly grass, and held under lease, of which the rent was lately reduced from £180 to £80 a year; and at Tip Tree Heath, in Essex, there is a property which the owner, after expending on it £3,000 in permanent improvements, has been forced to sell for 22,000. Analogous instances might be adduced almost ad libitum.
In Ireland, again, there is land which is literally worth less than nothing, which in England could not be let if something were given with it. Of this character is much of the land in the neighbourhood of Glenbeigh and Glengariff, along the shores of Dingle Bay, and between Caherciveen and Kilorgan. As an old woman who had transferred her holding to her son, and retired from the farming business, said to me,—"It is all rooks and water." Unless well manured and dug over every other year, it relapses into bog. The rental of a holding is computed not by the acre, but by the number of cows it will keep,—small Kerry cows, costing some £4 apiece, which give little more milk than a goat. At Glengariff, most of the tenants seem to be paying their rents ; at Glenbeigh, I met with only two instances of any rent having been paid for a considerable time. The tenant in one case is a widow, who keeps a little grocery-shop, and appears to be in comfortable circumstances. Her house is weather-proof, and her daughters wear shoes and stockings. Her holding, moreover, being near the sea, is easily accessible, and the land is of fair quality. It is supposed to keep six cows;. the rent is 217 ; and the rates, payable by the tenant, I was told (though I can hardly believe it), amount to 10s. in the pound on the Poor-Law valuation. As for the other ease, the rent, though paid, has not been paid by the tenant. The holding in question is a few miles beyond the village of Glenbeigh, and lies between the road 'and the sea. Hard by it is a bridge where, at the time of the Fenian rising, a policeman was shot in cold blood by a party of ambushed rebels. The tenant (now an old man) and his wife took the poor wounded fellow into their house and did all they could for him. In February last, when the Glenbeigh evictions of which all the world has heard took place, this tenant's rent was paid by the police themselves, in recognition of his humanity to a member of the force.
It is sometimes said that these small tenants are less affected by the fall in the price of produce than larger farmers. To a certain extent this is no doubt true,—when a man lives on potatoes which he himself grows, their money value is a matter of indifference. In point of fact, however, potatoes do not last all the year round. There comes a time when their place has to be supplied with food that must be paid for, to say nothing of rent, taxes, and clothing. At the best of times these cottier tenants, with their three or four cow-holdings, have a hard struggle to pay their way, and when the prices of stock, oats, and butter fall as they have recently fallen,—it is all they can do to buy the Indian meal on which they subsist between the exhaustion of the old stook of potatoes and the gather. ing of the new crop. On my way to Coomasam Lake,
I went into a cabin which, if possible, was more squalid than any which I had seen at Glengara Its inmates were a woman, a baby, a cow, and a pig. The furniture consisted of a broken chair and an old table. This woman and her husband are living entirely on Indian meal, obtained on credit from a "merchant," who, when the pig is old enough, will take it against his account. I learnt that a family of four or five persons consume about a sack of Indian meal in a fortnight, and that the average cost of this food per head per week is from eightpence to a shilling. Flesh meat these people never touch, and only the comparatively prosperous can afford tea, sugar, or oatmeal. The Indian meal is kneaded with yeast, and baked on a griddle into fiat cakes. This diet certainly lacks variety, but judging by the healthy looks of the children (who get nothing else), it is not unwholesome, and great as is their poverty, their lot is not nearly so deplorable as that of the juvenile population of a London slam.
On the excursion to Coomasarn Lake (in a wild, mountainous region above Glenbeigh), I was accompanied by two Englishmen whose acquaintance I had made en route. When we reached a point about a mile from the lake, we heard a great shouting, and saw children running in all directions. It reminded me of the uproar sometimes heard in the Alps when the cattle are being driven down from the mountain pastures. The watchers had taken us for emergency-men, and were giving the alarm. But when it was seen that we had no police escort and our intentions were peaceful, the women came out of their houses and the men emerged from their hiding-places, and explained how matters stood. The tenants, like many other tenants in the neighbour- hood, had been evicted early in the year, and readmitted as caretakers. That is to say, they were granted a respite of six months in which to pay their arrears ; and as they bad not been able to do this, the landlord could turn them out for good, after serving them with the usual notices. It was to avoid receiving these notices, and so put off the evil day, that the men concealed themselves, and, for the same reason, they sleep out in the open every night, like German soldiers daring a campaign. A few days previously, a party of bailiffs had tried to serve some notices, but not finding anybody at home, they had to go back with the documents in their pockets. One of the men told me that his father was lying perdu in the corner of a field, and at my request he fetched him, lifting the old fellow, who, being ninety-six, was rather stiff in his joints, over a wall. After this, we had a long talk, and the men expressed great gratitude for the sympathy shown for them in England, and the help they received from English people. For their position, they are very intelligent, and almost as courteous as South American peasants. I asked how deep was the lake. " Fifty fathoms, " said one. " I beg your pardon, it is sixty or seventy," said another. I told them what Lord Salisbury said,—that if Irish tenants could not pay, they could at least go. " Did Lord Salisbury say that I?" said the old man's son ; "it would be bard to leave the place where we were born; but if we had the means, we would go willingly." He then told me that he had one brother in Queensland and another in America, who would pay his passage to either of those places.
But I have an old father and mother," he added; "and while they live, I must stay here and take care of them." These people, I need hardly say, are Nationalists to a man, not from any sentimental considerations, but because they think that Home-rale will better their condition and be "good for Ireland." Gladstone, rather than Parnell, is their hero. At the mention of his name, their eyes kindle and their faces glow with enthusiasm. The Crimes Acts they both fear and detest, probably because they believe it to be more trenchant and severe than it really is. They have an idea that its main objects are to imprison defaulting tenants and put an end to public meetings ; and they think that if Lord Salisbury had come amongst them and seen for himself, it would not have been passed.
Bosbeigh, August 5th.
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