Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-11-24
NO. 3.
A REVELATION In IRELAND.
How the Irish Tenamtry are Treated

! From the Pail Mall Gazette
|. Common forms are not, as a general rule
particularly interesting; but those who wish
to understand one side, at all events, of the
Irish land question, would do we'll to cast
their eyes over the common form which was
published in yesterdays Times of the leases
which are henceforward to regulate the po-
sition of Lord Leitrim's tenantry. It will
enable them to appreciate to certain ex-
tent some of the feelings with which the
Irish tenantry look at the question of the
relation between their landlords and them
selves. The substance of this document is
as follows - ae.
The lease is from year to year, determin-
able by six months notice ending on either
rent day, and not, as in common yearly
tenancies, on the day from which the letting
began.
It reserves all timber, bogs, mines,
'sgame, hares, rabbits. wild fowl and fish, "
with the right of shooting, &C., to Lord
Leitrim, ''his heirs and assigns, his and
their nominees, servants and followers,
and gives him power to enter for the pur-
pose of surveying, searching for minerals,
and making roads and drains.
| The tenant is restrained from making
new roads, fences or drains on the land,
and from building and altering any hodse
thereon to be used as a dwelling house ex-
cept that in which he himself resides, and
he is also put under very stringent condi-
tions indeed as to tillage.
The tenant is to keep in repair and yield
in repair all buildings, &c. He is ''to dig
up or cut down all thistles, docks and 9TH
er weeds, before they go to seed, or at any
time when desired to do so by the said
Earl of Leitrim, his heirs or assigns or his
or their agent or other person duly author
lied for the time being" =. ~.
The tenant is also 'tto assist to the ut
most the said Earl in prosecuting
trespassers. He engages 'snot at any time
to take out, or suffer to be taken out, any
dog or dogs, or destroy or injure, or suffer
to be destroyed or injured, any game, or
the eggs or young of any game, hares, or
rabbits, or wild fowl" On the contrary, he
is to preserve and protect the same"
! If he breaks any of these conditions, he
is to be subject to a further rent, IN the ma
ture of iquidated damages; nothing in the
lease contained is to entitle the tenant ''to
any payment or compensation for any farm
or other building, for agriculture or other
wise, or for any fixture or improvement of
any description, unless the making of such
work or Improvement shall have been pre-
viously stipulated for and specified by an
agreement in writing" a
These are the terms upon which Lord
Leitrim is willing to permit his tenants to
pay him rent for his lands. One of them,
the provision which requires the tenant to
protect the eggs of hares and rabbits ap-
pears J. us unobjectionable enough if Lord
Leitrim cares about it; but the general ten
or of the whole document throws a strong
and a most dismal light upon the causes of
Irish discomfort. We do not know how
many tenants there may be on Lord Lie
trims estate, but we are quite sure of one
point whether they are many or few, the
land upon which they, and their ancestors
before them, were for the most part bred
and born, is the sole fund to which they
can reasonably look for support.
They must either starve or else live by
it's cultivation, or else attempt to get work
as laborers or to emigrate. The demand
for labor is scanty and uncertain. Emigra-
ton is not only very expensive, but is to
the last degree repulsive to their feelings.
Practically, therefore, they are forced to
/ cultivate Lord Leitrim' estate on the terms
which Lord Leitrim chooses to impose.
We see by this lease what those terms are.
They are in substance that Lord Leitrim
and his agents are to be their absolute mas
| ters. ,..LF