APPENDIX Z.

Remarks respecting the Sale of Landed Property, and the advantages which would result from its being more frequently sold in small lots.

Extracted from Report of Commissioners on Occupation of Land in Ireland.-Par. Rep. 1845, vol. xix. page 27.

It now rarely happens that land in Ireland is brought into the market for sale in lots of a moderate or small size. Estates are so generally encumbered by family settlements or otherwise, that the expense, delay, and difficulty which would attend the dividing them, so as to sell in separate or detached portions, deter a proprietor from taking this course, although a larger sum might be raised by it in the whole.

We believe that there is a large number of persons in Ireland possessing a small amount of capital, which they would gladly employ in the purchase and cultivation of land, and a still larger number, now resident in different parts of the country, and holding land for uncertain or limited terms at a rent, who would most cheerfully embrace the opportunity of becoming proprietors. The gradual introduction of such a class of men would be a great improvement in the social condition of Ireland. A much larger proportion of the population than at present would become personally interested in the preservation of peace and good order; and the prospect of gaining admission into this class of small landowners, would often stimulate the renting farmer to increased exertion and persevering industry. We think that some facilities may safely be given towards making out titles to land, so as to lessen delay and expense, particularly with reference to the searches necessary under the system of registry now established in Ireland.

APPENDIX AA.

Remarks respecting the Con-Acre System and the general condition of the Labouring Classes in Ireland.

Extracted from Report of Commissioners on Occupation of Land in Ireland.-Par. Rep. 1845, vol. xix. page 35.

In adverting to the condition of the different classes of occupiers in Ireland, we noticed, with deep regret, the state of the cottiers and labourers in most parts of the country, from the want of certain employment.

It will be seen in the Evidence, that in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water, that their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather, that a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury, and that nearly in all their pig and manure heap constitute their only property.

When we consider this state of things, and the large proportion of the population which comes under the designation of agricultural labourers, we have to repeat, that the patient endurance which they exhibit is deserving of high commendation, and entitles them to the best attention of Government and of Parliament.

Their condition has engaged our most anxious consideration. Up to this period, any improvement that may have taken place is attributed almost entirely to the habits of temperance in which they have so generally persevered, and not, we grieve to say, to any increased demand for their labour. We deeply deplore the difficulty which exists in suggesting any direct means for ameliorating their condition. We trust such means may be found in the general improvement of the country, and in the increased demand for labour, which, we hope, will follow from the adoption of the suggestions we have already ventured to offer. But there are one or two matters from which, although they may be thought by some of trivial importance, we are of opinion that some direct advantage might be derived by the labouring population. We have already adverted to the con-acre system. It will be seen in the Evidence, that the contracts between the labourer who hires, and the farmer who lets the plot carried into practice as far as circumstances will admit. The risk to be apprehended is not, that the proprietors of land should be insensible to these considerations, but that they should in some cases proceed with too much rapidity.

"So far from its being for the interest of the landlord to sublet, and so far from there existing any inveterate habit of sub-dividing farms for the sake of acquiring higher rents, experience has shown that personal interest imperatively prescribes a contrary mode of proceeding. It is a mistake to imagine that these clearances of estates have originated with the subletting act, or with the statute that raised the franchise; on the contrary, they existed more than ten years before those measures had been adopted; but it is undoubtedly true that both statutes have given motives or afforded facilities for pursuing a course previously adopted on the ground of private interest. If the condition of the landlord and of those tenants who remain in possession of the soil are alone considered, the change is undoubtedly one of unmixed good. But the situation of another class remains to be considered, that of the ejected tenantry, or of those who are obliged to give up their small holdings in order to promote the consolidation of farms. Their condition is necessarily most deplorable. It would be impossible for language to convey an idea of the state of distress to which the ejected tenantry have been reduced, or of the disease, misery, and even vice, which they have propagated in the towns wherein they have settled; so that not only they who have been ejected have been rendered miserable, but they have carried with them and propagated that misery. They have increased the stock of labour, they have rendered the habitations of those who received them more crowded, they have given occasion to the dissemination of disease, they have been obliged to resort to theft and all manner of vice and iniquity to procure subsistence; but, what is perhaps the most painful of all, a vast number of them have perished of want.'

"Your committee cannot help hoping and believing that the foregoing powerful statement is one which describes an extreme case; still, there can be no doubt, that in making a change, in itself important and salutary, a most fearful extent of suffering is produced."

The cause which most frequently, at the present day, leads to the eviction of a number of tenants on a particular estate, is the wish of the proprietor to increase the size of the holdings, with a view to the better cultivation of the land; and when it is seen in the Evidence, and in the Returns upon the size of farms, how minute those holdings are frequently found to be, previous to the change, it cannot be denied that such a step is, in many cases, absolutely necessary, and called for by a due regard to the interest of both landlord and tenant.

Some witnesses, who put forward most strongly, as matter of complaint, the consolidation of small holdings, into what they call large farms, in answer to the further question, "To what size were the farms brought?" describe them as enlarged to the extent of twenty-five, twenty, or even ten acres. We give this, of course, only as the general result of our inquiries. There have been, undoubtedly, cases in which large numbers of tenants have been removed, with a view to create much larger farms, or with a view to the occupation of land in some manner more agreeable to the landlord; but these are the exсерtions, and not the general practice. In either case, the feeling that is engendered amongst the parties removed, and the surrounding population, as well as the opinion which impartial persons will form, must depend, in a great degree, upon the mode in which the removal is conducted.

It now frequently happens, that upon the expiration of a long lease, a landlord finds his property occupied by a multitude of paupers, who had obtained an occupation of a few roods or acres, either through the want of a clause against subletting in the former demise, or the failure of the landlord through some legal defect, or his own neglect to enforce that covenant if existing. Many of these poor people are found living in a most miserable way, and quite incapable of managing their land properly, or so as to derive from their small holdings a sufficient supply even of food for their subsistence.

It becomes absolutely necessary, with a view even to the condition of the people themselves, as well as towards any general improvement in the country, to make some change.

APPENDIX Y.

Remarks respecting the Management of Estates by the Court of Chancery.

Extracted from Report of Commissioners on Occupation of Land in Ireland.-Par. Rep. 1845, vol. xix. page 26.

At an early period of our inquiry, we directed our attention to the situation of estates placed under receivers in the Court of Chancery, or Court of Exchequer, and we obtained some returns, showing the extent of property so circumstanced.

According to the usual practice, when a farm under a receiver came out of lease, a sort of auction was held in the master's office, and the land was let to the highest bidder; and as great difficulties were experienced in obtaining the sanction of the Court in making any outlay, or taking any necessary step in the management, these circumstances necessarily caused all property under the courts to be left in a very unimproved state, and placed the tenants in an impoverished condition. Many complaints on this subject will be found throughout the Evidence. The present Lord Chancellor and the Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, have recently issued orders, which will tend to remove some of the evils consequent upon the former practice, on the properties of lunatics and minors; and as the attention of both these learned judges is fully alive to the subject, we have no doubt that such further improvements will be made, as may be necessary to make the new system work properly for the advantage of the property and the tenants. Some difficulties occur in the case of properties brought into court, to be administered for the benefit of creditors; but it has been strongly recommended, and is, in our opinion, highly desirable, that a similar system should be made applicable to these cases, if the powers of the court be sufficient; but if this should not be the case, we trust that the learned judges will not hesitate to cause application to be made to the legislature, for such alteration in the law as may appear to them necessary, in order to enable them to administer an estate for the benefit of all persons having an interest in it.