The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-23 00:00:00

mild and humid, and money advanced for that object
would be productive of great benefit. It had, besides,
a collateral effect, for every acre of drainage employed
160 labourers a day, who were employed by task work,
while it also enabled many who had no capital but their
labour to get their own land drained, and many small
tenants accepted it as an equivalent for wages. He (Mr.
Napier) wished this object to be attained more by private
loan than public grants, though he was sure that public
money advanced for such purposes would be well laid out.
Still, however, he wished the money to be advanced by
private proprietors, who were able to do so, and also that
facilities for such loans
should be given to the Bank of
Ireland, and that such loans should be made the primary
charge on the land, thus affording a perfect security to the
lender. The act provided that, in the first instance, a me-
morial should be presented by the borrower, giving a de-
scription of the land to be drained, and the increased value
which was expected to arise, and the Board of Works,
which had officers in every county in Ireland, would be
enabled to examine the land and test the accuracy of the
statement as to expected value, and unless those officers
wore of opinion that such improvement would amount to
at least 6 per cent. they were to reject the proposition.
The expense of such investigation would be from ss. to 15s.
per cent. The officers of the Board of Works were also to
see that the drainage was properly carried out as regarded
depth, and to exercise an equal supervision over other classes
of improvement. The improvements were to be registered
by means of the arrangement adopted in the Ordnance
maps, so that the farm of each individual intended to be
improved would be marked in every townland division and
the nature of the improvements stated. (The right hon.,
gentleman here illustrated the system proposed on a plan
which he had of the improvements on the estate of the
honourable member for Limerick, and-by means of which
regular registry would be obtained.) The working of the
act for facilitating drainage had given great satisfaction in
Ireland, and a proof of it was to be found in the fact,
that upwards of two millions had been expended ; and the
provision by which the commissioners were entitled to
adjudicate in cases of differences between landlord and
tenant, had only been called into exercise in four cases.
All disputes had been amicably arranged, and the old
rants had been continued and paid in consequence of the
increased productiveness of the land. He had taken
that act as the basis of the measure he had proposed. There
was to be considered—firstly, the question of settlements
for life on the land, and the difficulty of equitably adjust-
ing the interests arising out of them • and, secondly, the
interests of the landlord and the tenant. The bill as pro-
posed made the sum borrowed payable by 22 yearly in-
stalments, which would have the effect that, as the pay-
ment would be in the nature of a rent-charge, every owner
would pay in proportion to what he enjoyed, which was an
improvement of the Montgomery Act. If a tenant for
life borrowed the money either from a private individual
or the Bank of Ireland and died, the loan would be a
primary charge on the land, which would have the effect
of enabling improvements to be carried out fully through
all Ireland, increasing the productiveness of the soil,
employing the population, and diminishing the poor-
rates, while the proprietors would have the benefit
of the assistance of an experienced staff of officers, who
worked out the Drainage Act, which would materially
assist them in doing what was essential. Take the
case of the flax crop, which, in his opinion, was a most
important feature. As in the case of agriculture there
could not be green crops without drainage, and the expen-
diture attendant on it, so it was with flax. The supply of
flax was not a third of that which was necessary for home
consumption in Ireland, and if thousands of additional
acne were drained and sabsoiled, the result would proba-
bly be that the supply of flax would not only be sufficient
for Ireland, but afford sufficient for export to other coun-
tries, and the consequence (perhaps one of the effects of
unrestricted competition) would be that each country would
find out the article to the production of which the soil was
adapted, and its cultivation and export would tend to the
advantage not only of each particular country, but of the
civilised world. (Hear, hear.) He hoped that there would
be found no objection to the principle of the bill he pro-
posed to introduce. The next provision he came to was
one to which he attached great importance. He found
that there were in Ireland some sixty scattered statutes,
giving power to persons and corporations to make leases for
special purposes. Some enabled a tenant for life to make
a lease of three acres of land, and then enabled a rector, or
a bishop, or any other corporation to make a lease for a
year. The bill now proposed recognised theprinciple—,
which was also recognised by the Devon Commission—that
persons with limited estates making charges on them should
not derive any advantage from fines, and also reduced all
leasing powers to one uniform principle. In the Montgo-
mery Act there was a provision which was productive of
some mischief, by placing restrictions on the cultivation of
the land; and there were other acts, some of them containing
enabling powers, but he thought that it would be best for
Ireland if all arrangements with regard to leases were
made. beforehand, and not after they were granted. (Hear,
hear.) In the bill the classes who had such powers of
leasing as he had stated, namely, tenants for life, tenants
in tail, corporations and trustees of public buildings, were
specified; and although he wished to continue limitations
on land for family uses, so long as they were consistent
with beneficial leases to tenants, yet it was a great object
to have the terms regulated by the purpose for which the
land was leased. When it was let for agricultural pur-
poses the term was not to be less than 31 years ; improve-
ment leases were not to be less than 61 years ; mining
leases than 91; model farms for longer terms, and indus-
trial schools and public buildings for 999 years. With re-
gard to public buildings and industrial schools, he had
found front documents in his office that attempts had been
made in Waterford and Kilkenny to erect industrial schools
on property which belonged only to tenants for life, which
had caused them to be given up. It was of the utmost im-
portance to Ireland that industrial and agricultural educa-
tion should be promoted, and this bill was intended to carry
out that object. He had set forth the various terms of leases
for different purposes to which the act was intended to ap-
ply, and all of them would enable leases to be granted for
those purposes. There were also provisions setting out the
conditions of leases granted under the act. There were
provisions for covenants for agricultural improvements,
and covenants with regard to mining. There was one
provision which might be the subject of discussion,
though he (Mr. Napier) thought it an advisable one. It
was a clause enabling that in agricultural leases the rent
should be made subject to variation, founded on the gene-
ral value of tenements in Ireland. The Act that was
passed last session for the valuation of tenements was
based on that principle. The valuation was to vary ac-
cording to the rise and fall of prices, and the rent was to
rise and fall according to the valuation. (The right hon.
gentleman then related a remarkable case, applicable to
this principle, which had been furnished by the present
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and which occurred on an
estate in Scotland, of 1,170 acres, divided into 12 farms,
on which the occupiers were tenants at will, and who after
the Currency Bill of 1819, got into arrear, and• when,
after some difficulty, a gentleman undertook the manage-
ment of the estate, and leases of 16 years were granted to
the tenants, and the rent regulated by the prices of the
preceding four years, the tenants took the leases on those
terms, and drainage being just then introduced, the land-
lord and tenants subscribed a sum for that purpose • that
arrangement took place in 1830 ; from 1843 to 1848 the
rent paid for the whole 12 farms was 12,715/., but in 1848
the leases expired ; when all the tenants took their farms
again, the property was revalued, and a rise in the rent
took place of 24 per cent., nevertheless, all the rents had
since been punctually paid, and, instead of the proprietor
being involved and the tenants poor, as they were in
1830, since 1848 they had both been prosperous, and
the tenants were eager to get leases on the estate.) (Hear,
hear, hear.) That was done by the co-operation
of landlord and tenant, both the parties and the
country at large were benefited, and that was brought
about by a sensible agent, who saw the capabilities of the
property, and used the best means which Providence had
afforded and blessed to the production of this result. The
agent in question had sent this statement to the present
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, saying that he did not see why
the same state of things should not exist in Ireland. Nor
did he (Mr. Napier) see why they ought not, if all parties
co-operated, and honestly and seriously had the good of
their country at heart. Another case illustrative of the
principle of regulating rent by valuation was given by the
Rev. Mr. O'Sullivan, in his examination before a committee
of the House of Lords, in which he stated that in the centre
of Tipperary there was a townland so peaceable that it had
never been touched by the insurrection acts, and there the
rents had been regulated by prices. It might be observed
that in Ireland the process of subsoiling wont on with
drainage, although it was difficult to know when the sub-
soiling was properly done, unless the workmen were
watched ; but when the tenant co-operated with the land-
lord in that respect,- and saw it properly done, it was of
great importance in the pulverising of the soil and its pre-
paration for the crops. Provisions were also made in the
bill regulating the stamp duties. It was also proposed to
provide a local registry. There was a provision as to the
making of leases under powers. He (Mr. Napier) had
himself been concerned in a case which showed the ne-
cessity of such provision*. There was a property in the
township of Ballycastle held by trustees with leasing.
powers. The tenants took leases which were only executed
by one of the trustees, the other being absent, and some of
them expended 7001. or 8001. in buildings. The property
belonged to a lunatic, and the Court of Chancery, in deal-
ing with it, decreed, that the leases so executed were inva-
lid, and ejectments were brought against all the tenants,
and but for his learned friend the Solicitor-General and
himself, who were the counsel in the cases, defeating the
ejectments on a point of law, the tenants were within an
ace of losing their property. He had provided in the bill
that such leases should be valid, and the parties thus se-
cured. There was also a provision that persons taking
leases of that kind should be entitled to an agreement with
regard to improvements. In some towns in Ireland, by
reason of the defective powers of owners of property, im-
provements were prevented. There was one remarkable
case of a person who wished to build a factory near a turf-
bog, which would afford him fuel ; but the tenant for life
was only able to lease three acres, which, not being suffi-
cient for his purpose, he went to another place, and the
neighbourhood in question lost the benefit of having build-
ings erected on it, and the population employment. The
improvements contemplated by this act were from farm-
buildings, from the reclamation of waste lands, from
thorough drainage, from making outer boundary fences,
or from internal fences, enclosing ten acres at least, from
durable improvement by marling, or from temporary im-
provements by the use of manure. A certain number of
years were specified as being what he would call compensa-
tion periods; for it was admitted that in a certain time the
'tenant would compensate himself for the outlay he might
make in improvement. He had not taken the shortest
period for which precedent in the example of 'other coun-
tries might be found; but he had fixed upon 10 years as
the maximum, leaving it to agreement between the parties
to regulate the periods within that margin as they might
think most desirable in the several cases. As much as pos-
sible he left all the relations between landlord and tenant
to be determined. within limits by mutual agreement; for
the interests of these two classes were, he believed, the
same; and he was proceeding throughout on the assump-
tion that there was a common object to effect. (Hear.)
Hence he invited leases of specific agreement for particular
classes of improvements. In these cases there would be
provision for getting a certificate of completion of the im-
provement, which certificate would have to be registered,
and after the expiration of a certain short period in which
there could be appeal to the assistant-barrister or judge of
assize, this certificate would be deemed final. The next
atchinely would defend landlord against tenant, and ten-
ilo42.l3' against landlord, in the event of dispute or
provement al
Ile pay,t he provided, while the tenant is entitled, if
eriod,
which he
to hold the land until the expiration of the
hhe would have compensated himself f
deducting it from the,otalletuheher handth at f the landlordshoulodr
possess him
landlord should payhim compensation,
ent of rent ; for clediispossession provoked bythe non-pay
allow compen
ationifserrent due. At the same time he would not
prove with the landloTclis the tenant had no right to int-
japital ; the provision was only
for disp?ssession under
circumstances which the tenant,
have contemplated. From
snaking improvements celiac llu,Tt,
advantages,cil in re-
these provisions he anticitated
Moving impediments to t e profitable
soil ; and in proposing them, his hope :as !tit
airhoef,
7,t.haee