The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-07 00:00:00

LAND TENURE IN IRELAND.

The Earl of Granarcl recommends the settlement
of the Irish land question by applying the custom of
Ulster to the whole country. It is to the principle of
tenant right, which has long bad all the force of law,
that this nobleman ascribes the exceptional pros-
perity of the northern Irish province. In Ulster
agrarian outrages and wholesale evictions are prac-
tically unlino,vn. In the many land bills which for
a period of scveral years have been brought before
Parliament by successive Administrations, both
Whig and Tory, the value of this custom has been
fully recognised in the proviso which recurs in every
one of .them, " That nothing herein contained shall
affect the custom of Ulster." Tenant right, says the
earl, is no new doctrine or experiment. It has been
tested for three centuries. It is suited to the tastes
of the people and simple in its application :
" For these reasons, therefore, I entertain the convic.
tion that the true solution of the land question lies in the
passing of an Act which would give the force of law to
the custom of Ulster, extend its beneficial provisions to
the whole of Ireland, and, at the same time, provide for a
periodical Government valuation for letting purposes,
with power of appeal in case of dispute to a local and in-
expensive tribunal, such as the Court of Quarter Sessions.
Were such an enactment as I have sketched to become
law, I firmly believe that the southern and western
counties, with their milder climate and more fertile soil,
would soon equal, if not outstrip, the prosperous courlftior
of the north."

The Times commissioner has entered Queen's
County, beginning with Maryborough. His observa-
tions on the region round about are, in most respects,
the same as those called forth by the state of the
Tipperary districts. There have been vast improve-
ments of late years ; but divers grievances yet remain.
Queen's county has been enormously drained by
emigration; in twenty years the population has fallen
from 153,000 to 90,000; and, consequently, the
wages of agricultural labourers have greatly risen:
The agriculture is excellent in some parts, but back-
ward in others. The drainage is very defective.
The farm buildings are not generally good, and the
farmers are less prosperous than in Tipperary • mud
cabins and poorer dwellings abound. The landed
system is that which prevails throughout this part
of Ireland. Landlord and tenant differ in race and
rclig7on, and there aro many absentee o..ners.
"In the overwhelming majority of casas, in-
deed, as the ordinary rule, the occupiers of
the soil in this neighbourhcoA have done nearly
everything that has been done for the benefit of the
land during many years, especially in the marshy
tracts, where they have reclaimed thousands of acres
of bog by a slow and almost imperceptible proceLs.
Yet here, as elsewhere, " the whole class is
without any durable tenure." The system
is productive of numerous evils, of which
the most important is that pointed out by
Mr. Fitzgibbon, an Irish Master in Chancery :—" As
soon as the poor tenant has brought his farm to that
degree of fertility which enables him to pay a rent
and live, all further improvement is studiously
avoided, as a thing which the tenant believes will
only increase his labour to produce a larger rent for
the sole benefit of the landlord, whom he regards as
a vigilant spy upon every symptom of ability to pay
more rent." The representative of the Times endorses
this statement.

TIIE ALIIERT ASSURANCE COMPANY.

So far as the bolding of numerous meetings can
avail, the policy-holders of the Albert Company arc
energetically protecting their interests all over the
country. But the one great difficulty- is to secure
united action amongst a vast number of victims who
are scattered all over the kingdom. The absolute
necessity of overcoming this obstacle was fully recog-
nised at a conference of the Hull policy-holders, on
Saturday evening, and it was recommended that a
strong committee representing the whole king-
dom be formed. The chairman was instructed to
communicate with the chairmen of the local com-
mittees with the view of establishing a central
representation from the whole number. The Mull
policy-holders are against any voluntary winding-up,
and are disposed to present a petition to obtain a
compulsory order. They seem inclined also to do
everything in their power to pro;•e the liability,
not only of the Albert shareholders, but the
shareholders of all the companies that had bcei
incorporated into that society.