You must choose
which side you will investigate."
Considering this advice good, I determined to go among the people and
from that standpoint to write my opinions of what I saw and heard. I
made up my mind to tell all I could gather of the opinions and
grievances of the poor, knowing that the great are able to defend
themselves if wrongfully accused, and can lay the land question, as they
see it, before the world's readers.
I hear many take the part of the landlords in this manner: "You are
sorry for the tenants, who certainly have some cause of complaint; can
you not spare some sympathy for the landlords who bought these lands at
a high figure, often borrowing the money to buy them and are getting no
return for the money invested?"
Land hunger is a disease that does not attack the tenants alone. The
poor man hungers for land to have the means of living; the rich man
hungers for land because it confers rank, power and position. As soon as
men have realized fortunes in trade they hasten to invest in land. That
is the door by which they hope to enter into the privileged classes. Men
accustomed to "cut things fine," in a mercantile way, are not likely to
except a land purchase from the list of things which are to pay cent.
per cent. The tenant has created a certain amount of prosperity, the new
landlord looks at the present letting value of the land and raises the
rent. This proceeding extinguishes or rather appropriates the Tenant
Right. The landlord thinks he is doing no wrong, for, is he not actually
charging less than Lord So-and-so, or Sir Somebody or other? which is
perhaps very true. All this time the tenant knows he has been robbed of
the result of years, perhaps of generations of hard and continuous
labor. It is impossible to make such a landlord and such a tenant see
eye to eye.
A gentleman asked a lady of Donegal if she would shut out the landlord
from all participation in profits arising from improvements and
consequent increase in the value of the land. I listened for the answer.
"I would give the landlord the profits of all improvements he actually
made by his own outlay; I would not give him the profits arising from
the tenant's labor and means." Now I thought this fair, but the
gentleman did not. He thought that all profit arising from improvements
made by the tenant, should revert to the landlord after a certain time.
I could not think that just.
As a case in point, a brother of Sir Augustus Stewart said to a Ramelton
tenant:
"My brother does not get much profit from the town of Ramelton."
"He gets all he is entitled to, his ground rent, we built the houses
ourselves," was the answer.
These people are safe, having a secure title, not trusting to the Ulster
Custom or the landlords' sense of justice.
I have not been much among landlords. I did sit in the library of a
landlord, and his lady told me of the excessively picturesque poverty
prevailing in some parts, citing as an instance that a baby was nursed
on potatoes bruised in water, the mother having hired out as wet-nurse
to help to pay the rent. There was no cow and no milk. I had a graphic
description of this family, their cabin, their manner of eating. The
mother cannot earn the rent any longer and they are to be evicted. I was
told they were quite able to pay, but trusting to the Land League had
refused.
Naturally what I have seen and heard among the poor of my people, has
influenced my mind. I could not see what I did see and hear what I did
hear of the tyranny wrought by the late Earl of Leitrim, and the present
Captain Dobbing, or walk through the desolation created by Mr. Adair,
without feeling sad, sorry and indignant.
XX.
LORD LIFFORD - THE DUKE OF ABERCORN - WHOLESALE EVICTIONS - GOING SOUTH -
ENNISKILLEN - ASSES IN PLENTY - IN A GRAVEYARD.
On the banks of the Finn, near Strabane, was born the celebrated hero
Finn ma Coul. I think this just means Finlay McDougall, and, therefore,
claim the champion as a relative. Strabane lies in a valley, with round
cultivated hills, fair and pleasant to the eye, swelling up round it.
Near it is the residence of Lord Lifford. I have heard townspeople
praise him as a landlord, and country people censure him, so I leave it
there. His recent speech, in which he complains of the new Land Bill,
that, if it passes into law, it will give tenants as a right what they
used to get as a favor from their landlords, has the effect of
explaining him to many minds.
Leaving Strabane behind, went down or up, I know not which, to Newtown-
Stewart, in the parish of Ardstraw (_ard strahe_, high bank of the
river). In this neighborhood is the residence of the Duke of Abercorn,
spoken of as a model landlord.
The Glenelly water mingles with the Struell and is joined by the Derg,
which forms the Mourne. After the Mourne receives the Finn at Lifford it
assumes the name of the Foyle and flows into history past Derry's walls.
At the bridge, as you enter the town of Newtown-Stewart, stands the
gable wall of a ruined castle, built by Sir Robert Newcomen, 1619,
burned by Sir Phelim Roe O'Neil along with the town, rebuilt by Lord
Mountjoy, burnt again by King James.
Upon a high hill above the town, commanding a beautiful view of the
country far and wide, stand the ruins of the castle of Harry Awry O'Neil
(contentious or cross Harry), an arch between two ruined towers being
the only distinct feature left of what was once a great castle.
