he delinquent, that public
opinion sided with public justice. In Ireland it has been, time
immemorial, common with tenants, who have had advantageous bargains,
and who have no hopes of getting their leases renewed, to waste the
ground as much as possible; to break it up towards the end of the
term; or to overhold, that is, to keep possession of the land,
refusing to deliver it up.

'A tenant, who held a farm of considerable value, when his lease
was out, besought my father to permit him to remain on the farm for
another year, pleading that he had no other place to which he could,
at that season, it being winter, remove his large family. The
permission was granted; but at the end of the year, taking advantage
of this favour, he refused to give up the land. Proceedings at law
were immediately commenced against him; and it was in this case that
the first trial in Ireland was brought, on an act for recovering
double rent from a tenant for holding forcible possession after
notice to quit.

'This vexatious and unjust practice of tenants against landlords
had been too common, and had too long been favoured by the party
spirit of juries; who, being chiefly composed of tenants, had made
it a common cause, and a principle, if it could in any way be
avoided, never to give a verdict, as they said, against themselves.
But in this case the indulgent character of the landlord, combined
with the ability and eloquence of' his advocate, succeeded in moving
the jury--a verdict was obtained for the landlord. The double rent
was paid; and the fraudulent tenant was obliged to quit the country
unpitied. Real good was done by this example.'

Edgeworth objected strongly to a practice common among the gentry,
'to protect their tenants when they got into any difficulties by
disobeying the laws. Smuggling and illicit distilling seemed to be
privileged cases, where, the justice and expediency of the spirit of
the law being doubtful, escaping from the letter of it appeared but
a trial of ingenuity or luck. In cases that admitted of less doubt,
in the frequent breach of the peace from quarrels at fairs, rescuing
of cattle drivers for rent, or in other more serious outrages,
tenants still looked to their landlord for protection; and hoped,
even to the last, that his Honour's or his Lordship's interest would
get the fine taken off, the term of imprisonment shortened, or the
condemned criminal snatched from execution. He [Edgeworth] never
would, on