Excerpt from Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. 29: January, 1865

In any other transaction anything like the claim for tenant-right would be thought too absurd for argument. Mr. Patrick Murphy takes a fancy to my hunter and Offers me 120 guineas for it. He gets it, and then complains that the horse is too dear. I Offer to take back the horse and give him back his money. He wont agree to that. He says that the horse suits him, and that he is determined to keep it, and only to pay such a price as will enable him to sell it the next day at cent. Per cent. Profit. This would be exactly analogous to the claim of-tenant-right. In the case of the sale of land the_ injustice of the demand would be equally apparent: Mr. Murphy Offers me 3000 for my land, and induces me to give him up the possession Of it. He then complains that the price is too dear. I am ready to give him back the money, if he will give me back the land, or I find a person who will gladly give him 100 for his bargain. He refuses he says he must keep the, land, and refer the price to some friends of his who will value it on this novel principle, that the price which every man in the country would be ready to pay for it shall not be taken into consideration in estimating the value. This is the supposed tenant-right, substituting merely a setting instead of a sale.

Some reason must be given for making land an exception to the ordinary rules ofrcommerce, and fixing the price by law, instead OI letting it be arranged by mutual agreement between the buyer and the seller, the landlord and the tenant. The reason formerly assigned was that the possession Of land was a question of life or death to the tenant, that he had no other resource to preserve himself and his family from starvation, and that therefore he was obliged to submit to any terms which an avaricious landlord might impose. That the parties to the contract stood on such unequal ground as to make it necessary for the law to interfere to protect the weaker party. It could not be pretended that this argument ever was applicable except to the case Of small pauper tenants. It never could have had any bearing on the case of those tenants who hold the greatest part of Ireland, viz. Men who have capitals of two or three hundred pounds, and who are farmers, not from necessity, but from choice because they find the occupation of a farmer more profitable, or more suitable to their taste or education than any other employment. The introduction of poor laws and the increased demand for labour, now put it out of any man's power to say that he 1s obliged to offer an exorbitant rent for a farm in order to preserve himself from destitution.

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