They consequently had no respect for the rights of property, in
the vindication of which their homes had been demolished and their
families sacrificed, because they were not able to purchase fixity of
tenure.

It was, however, very fortunate for Belfast that the landlord was
obliged to sell it; that the head of the great house founded by the
conqueror of Ulster, enriched with territory so vast, should have been
under the necessity of giving a perpetual property in the soil to
some of the sons of industry. By that simple concession he did more to
advance the prosperity of the town, than could have been accomplished
by centuries of fostering care, under the shadow of feudalism. Belfast
shows, on a grand scale, what might be done on many an estate in
Ireland, in many a town and village where the people are pining away
in hopeless misery, if the iron bonds of primogeniture and entail
which now cramp landed property were struck off. The Greek philosopher
declared that if he had a standing-place he could move the earth. Give
to capital the ground of perpetuity of tenure, whereon to plant
its machinery, and it will soon lift this island from the slough of
despond. Then may it be said more truly than Grattan said it in 1782,
that Ireland had got nearer to the sun.




CHAPTER XXIII.

LEASE-BREAKING--GEASHILL.