“It is well known that in England and Scotland before a landlord offers a farm for letting, he finds it necessary to provide a suitable farm-house, with necessary farm buildings for the proper management of the farm. He puts the gates and fences in good order, and he also takes upon himself a great part of the burden of keeping the buildings in repair during the term; and the rent is fixed with reference to this state of things. In Ireland the case is wholly different. It is admitted on all hands, that according to the general practice in Ireland, the landlord builds neither dwelling house nor farm offices, nor puts fences, gates, &c., into good order, before he lets his land to the tenant. The cases in which the landlord does any of these things are the exception. In most cases whatever is done in the way of building or fencing is done by the tenant, and in the ordinary language of the country—dwelling houses, farm buildings, and even the making of fences, are described by the general word _improvements_, which is thus employed to denote the general adjuncts to a farm, without which, in England or Scotland, no tenant would be found to rent it.” Effects of Political and Economic Changes on the Relations between Landlord and Tenant during the Nineteenth Century. In the early part of the last century the landlords, for political as well as commercial reasons, encouraged the increase of the tenantry. The political system that prevailed gave the landlord who had a large number of tenants considerable power. The economic conditions of the time made small tillage farming productive, and the demand caused by an ever-growing agricultural population increased the competition for land, and enabled the rents to be raised. About the middle of the century all these conditions altered. The combined influence of the Famine and of the introduction of Free Trade made it the interest of most landlords to get rid of their small tenants as expeditiously and as completely as possible. Now came the era of pasture and larger farms. Although the population rapidly decreased, the consolidation of farms kept up the competition for land, and rents rose rapidly. The clearances so common from the Famine to 1870 were made in many cases quite irrespective of the non-payment of rent. Attempts at Reform.—Land Act of 1870.