No, Nor One Of Your Breed, Seed Or Generation
Ever Was, You Proctoring Thafe You!"
Now the line of demarcation between the people trained by ages to stand
with open hand expecting a gift, and those to whom a gift is an insult
is hard to find sometimes.
A young lad, a sharp boy, had been my guide
to two or three places and carried my bag for me. I offered him pay, for
pay had been expected from me by every one with whom I came in contact
from the moment I landed. Tears came into the poor lad's eyes with
mortified anger. One feels bad to hurt anyone's feelings, and between
those who have a desire for a gift and are hurt if they do not get one,
and those to whom offering a gift is the worst form of insult, one is
sometimes puzzled to know what to do.
I find a very strong feeling in some places where I have been in
connection with the contempt which some owners of the soil feel for the
cultivators of it. A landlord - lately an attorney in a country town -
who has succeeded, most unexpectedly, to a great estate, takes no pains
to conceal the contempt in which he holds his tenants. He sauntered into
a shop, also the post-office of the town, and in the course of
conversation informed them that his tenantry were a lazy lot of
blackguards. Two of his tenants were present standing in the shop. He
did not know them, but they knew him. To the eyes of an outsider like
myself the tenants seemed the more gentlemanly of the two parties. This
gentleman, it was explained to me by his tenants, was not a specimen of
the usual landlord, who, whatever the fault of the land law might be
which they believed in and ruled their conduct by, they were gentlemen
who would not degrade themselves by such an utterance.
The idea is brought forward to me again and again that the best landlord
clings to the power to oppress, absolute unquestioned power to do as he
likes with his tenantry though he might never exercise it. The
Protestants of Derry, Donegal, Tyrone, farmers with whom I have had the
opportunity to converse, all refer to this fact. The good landlord
considers it an infringement of his rights as a landlord, to take away a
power he is too kind to use, although he will admit that some have used
it unmercifully.
A recent speech of Lord Lifford's complains that things are now claimed
as a right that used to be regarded as a favor on the part of the
landlords. There is a strong, deep feeling among the best of the tenants
against such utterances as these and the spirit behind them.
XIX.
LANDLORD AND TENANT - THE LAND QUESTION FROM BOTH SIDES.
As far as I have travelled yet, in the mountains of Donegal, through
Derry, Antrim, Tyrone and Down, I have seen no trace of what Dr.
Hepworth lays to the charge of the Irish - laziness, never cultivating a
holding up to the line or into the corners. What excited my wonder again
and again, is the fact that up to the boundary ditch or hedge, into the
corners, up to the very edge of the rocks the tillage extended. I saw
men dig up little fields entirely with the spade among the sudden rocks
of Port-a-dorus. Some of the patches a horse with a plough attached
could not turn in, yet they were tilled; there was not a spade's breadth
left in any corner. And they paid high rent for this ground, rocks and
all. They fell behind in famine time - not so very far - and humbly
grateful were they for the help that came from outside in that time, and
a mercy that forgave a little of the rent. I saw men digging on the
mountain-side on the Leitrim estate, and wondered how they could keep
their footing. As far as I have seen, it is a slander on the people to
say they are averse to labor. On the contrary, they are very laborious,
and singularly uncareful for their personal comfort. I heard a fellow-
countryman at Moville talk of Paddy's laziness. I pointed out to him how
carefully mountain-side and rough bog were cultivated. He admitted it,
but spoke of want of rotation of crops and absence in many instances of
fall-ploughing. This, I humbly consider, is want of skill, or maybe want
of means - not laziness.
Every one says that the country depends almost solely on agriculture;
agriculture rests on farm labor; farm labor pays rents high enough to
produce periodical famine. The L90,000 rental of one estate, the L40,000
of another, is all produced by these lazy people. If there were any spot
so rocky, so wild, that it was under no rent, one might think them lazy
if they failed to make a living out of it, but they make a living and
help to support a landlord, too, out of these rocks and morasses. I hope
to see life farther south, and see if these lazy people exist there.
They do not exist in the north so far as I have seen.
It seems to me that the tenant-farmers have been out of sight
altogether. Now they have waked up, and there is no power to put them to
sleep again. I am more than astonished to find not one intelligent
person to defend the Land laws. There is no possibility of understanding
previous apathy from an American standpoint unless we think of the
thoughtlessness with which the Indians have been treated. The
thoughtless landlord has looked upon his own needs according to the
requirements of his station, not thinking whether the tenant could pay
so much or not, and, whether, if the rent was raised, it left the means
of existence behind. I met with very estimable people, who were taking a
very high rent; higher than any man could honestly pay, and at the same
time laughing at the poverty-stricken devices of their tenants.
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