incurred by gambling on the turf and elsewhere. Every transaction of
the kind brings a fresh demand on the agent, and even if he be not
unscrupulous or cruel, he must put on the screw, and get the money
at all hazards. I have been assured that it is quite usual, on such
estates, to find the tenantry paying the highest rent compatible with
the maintenance of bare life. There is in the county of Down a great
number of small holders thus struggling for existence. As a specimen
let us take the following case:--A man holds a dozen acres of land,
for which he pays 2 l. 10 s. per acre. He labours as no slave could be
made to work, in the summer time from five o'clock in the morning till
six in the evening. He can hardly scrape together a pound beyond the
rent and taxes. If a bad season comes, he is at starvation point: he
falls into arrears with the landlord, and he is forced by the bailiff
to sell off his small stock to pay the rent.

Without the excuse of pecuniary difficulties, the merchant landlord is
not a whit less exacting, or more merciful. He looks upon the tenants
as he would on so many head of cattle, and his sole consideration
is what is the highest penny he can make out of them. Not far from
Belfast lived a farmer who cultivated a few acres. Sickness and the
support of a widowed sister's family forced him into arrears of rent.
Ejectment proceedings were taken, and one day when he returned to his
house, he found his furniture thrown out on the road, the sister and
family evicted, and the door locked. He was offered as much money as
would take him to America, but he would not be allowed to sell the
tenant-right. Here is another case illustrative of the manner in which
that right is sometimes dealt with:--A respectable man purchased a
farm at 10 l. an acre. It was very poor land, much of it unfit for
cultivation. Immediately on getting possession a surveyor came and
added two acres to the former measurement. The incoming tenant was