possession of it. I have besides taken under the same landlord several
fields as town parks, which were in very bad order. These fields I
have drained and very much improved. I have always punctually paid the
rent charged for the several holdings, and, I think I may venture to
say, performed all the duties of a good tenant. At the last election,
however, I exercised my right as a citizen of a free country,
by giving my votes at Hillsborough and Lisburn in favour of the
tenant-right candidates, without reference to the desires or orders of
those who have no legal or constitutional right to control the use of
my franchise. I have since received from the office a notice to quit,
desiring me to give up possession of all my holdings, as tenant
from year to year, in the counties of Down and Antrim, without any
intimation that I shall receive compensation, and without being able
to obtain any explanation of this conduct towards me except by popular
rumour.' At the same meeting Mr. Hugh M'Call said that he had looked
over some documents and found that the individuals in Lisburn who
had received notices to quit held property to the value of 3,000 l.,
property raised by themselves, or purchased by them with the sanction
of the landlord. In one case the agent himself went into the premises
where buildings were being erected, and suggested some changes. In
fact the improvements were carried out under his inspection as an
architect. Yet he served upon that gentleman a notice to quit. Some
of the tenants paid the penalty for their votes by surrendering their
holdings; others contested the right of eviction on technical points,
and succeeded at the quarter sessions. One of the points was, as
already mentioned, that a dean and rector could not be legally a land
agent at the same time. It was, indeed, a very ugly fact that the
rector of the parish should be thus officially engaged, not only in
nullifying the political rights of his own Protestant parishioners,
but in destroying their tenant-right, evicting them from their