Every hovel paid rent, or was under eviction for failing
to pay.
The landlord has no duties in the way of repairing a roof or making a
house comfortable. Such a thing is utterly unknown here. To fix the
rent, to collect the rent, to make office rules as whim or cupidity
dictates, to enforce them, in many instances with great brutality, is
the sole business of the landlord; and the whole power of the Executive
of England is at his back. This is not a good school in which to learn
loyalty. Submission to absolute decrees or eviction are the only
alternative.
The tenant has no voice in the bargain. He has no power to be one party
to a contract. This irresponsible power of an autocrat over serfs of the
soil is bad for both parties. I will try to tell these people's side of
the question as nearly in their own words as I can.
When the native population was driven off the good valley lands to the
hills of Donegal during the confiscation times, they built their cabins
in groups, like the Scotch _clachans_, for company, perhaps even
for protection. Each man broke up, clearing off stones and rooting up
whins, the best patch within his reach. He ditched and drained pieces of
low-lying bog, and paid for what he cultivated, all the rest being
common.
By what title the Clemens of Leitrim got lordship over the wild hills as
well as the fat lowlands I cannot tell; but all the country here, for
miles and miles, up hill and down vale, is his. The people have
absolutely no rights, far as the land is concerned.
The first move towards this dreadful state of things was called
"Squaring the farms." This was done to compel the people to pay for the
wild as well as the cultivated lands. Under the old system a man might
have a few goats or sheep, or a heifer, on the hills, and, if his crop
was not good, or a hail storm threshed out his oats, he could sacrifice
these to pay the rent. When the farms were squared each man drew lots
for his new holding. I am speaking of Lord Leitrim's estate. This was a
hard decree, but the tenant had no alternative but to submit. A man
often found himself squared out of the best of his clearing, squared out
of his cabin and all accommodation for his cow or horse, and squared on
to a new place without any house on it at all.
I made particular enquiry if Lord Leitrim had ever made any allowance or
compensation to a man deprived of the house, which he or his fathers had
built, after this summary fashion. No compensation. Every fixture put
upon the land belonged to the landlord absolutely.
"Was there ever any help allowed to a man in building a new house?"
"In a very few instances a man got a door and a couple of window-sashes
as a charitable assistance, not by any means as a compensation."
After some time the wild mountains, where there was nothing but rocks
and heather, were fenced off. Before this the goats and sheep grazed up
there. A new office rule made the price for a sheep or goat picking a
living among the heather. It was one shilling and sixpence for a sheep
with a lamb at her foot, and other animals in proportion. Still the
wretched men of the hills struggled to live on in the only homes they
had, or had ever known. Then the rents were raised. In one instance from
L3 11s 4d to L6 5s for 6 Irish acres, the increased value being the
result of the man's own hard labor. In another instance from L1 9s 4d to
L13. Another office rule charges five shillings for the privilege of
cutting turf for fuel even if cut on the little holding for which he is
paying rent.
Now, when every nerve was strained to pay this rack rent, and cattle
were high in price, if the unfortunate tenant failed, why, he was
evicted. He might go where he liked, to the workhouse or the asylum, or
the roadside, his little clearing would make pasture, and this, at the
price of beef cattle, would be still more profitable. For any landlord
in this part of Donegal to speak of freedom of contract is a fallacy. It
does not exist.
The oppression at present exercised by Captain Dopping on the Leitrim
estate, which he can carry out safely under the protection of bayonets,
would raise up Judge Lynch in America before three months. Lately, the
people told me, he visited the farm-houses in person, pulled open the
doors of the little room that the better class strive to have, without
permission asked, and walked in to inspect if there were any signs of
prosperity hidden from the eye that might warrant further extortion.
This act was resented with a feeling that found no relief in words. I
noticed that there was no word of complaint or denunciation anywhere.
Facts were stated, and you understood by glance and tone that the time
for mere complaint was past.
I was taken to see a paralytic schoolmaster who had dared to build a
room next to the school-house out of which he was helped into school
every morning, for he could teach, though he had lost the use of his
limbs. No sooner did Lord Leitrim know this than he had the paralytic
carried out and laid on the road, and the room which he had built with
his earnings and the help of his neighbors, was pulled down - not one
stone was left upon another. He then lost his situation which was his
living.
