ey may have, which will require to be most
strenuously guarded against.

It is of no use assigning to a man forty acres of land to get a living
out of, if he immediately sublets some of it to a less fortunate
friend, or takes all his remotest relations into partnership. It
requires no prophet's eye to discern that the instant the tenant's son
got married he would bring his wife home to his father's roof, and
that if the energies of the united family did not suffice to cultivate
the whole of the forty acres, part would be let at "conacre," that is,
for the period of one harvest, to a man with or without a holding of
his own. The tendency to bring several families together in one cabin
is almost irresistible, and has, as mentioned above, not been wisely
and firmly met by proprietors, but taken a mean advantage of to wring
money out of tenants.

Subdivision of holdings has in many cases been, not sternly forbidden
on pain of eviction, but made the occasion of inflicting a fine. This
shabby and extortionate kind of protest against subdivision has long
obtained on certain estates. If one may believe evidence given on oath
in a court of justice, as reported in a local newspaper, there was
within the last twenty years on at least one estate a custom of
exacting a fine from tenants who married without leave. Probably this
originated in some clumsy attempt to prevent the subdivision of
holdings and the accumulation of population in certain places--in
itself a laudable and necessary precaution. Whatever shape any attempt
to settle the unfortunate peasants on fresh holdings may take, the
tendency to subdivide and sublet must be sternly resisted--and
prevented. A thousand excuses will be made for taking partners, for
subletting on the "conacre" and other systems. "Sure I was sick, your
honour, and the farrum was gettin' desthroyed;" or, "I was too poor to
buy seed for the whole of it, and let some at conacre to Thady
O'Flaherty, that's a good man, your honour, as any in Galway!" or "Wad
ye have me tur-r-r-n my own childther out like geese on the mountain?"
are a few of the replies which would, I am assured by a native, be
made to any inquiry or reproof concerning the subletting of land or
the accumulation of people. But if any attempt be made to help the
West, nothing of the kind must be listened to. The young bees must
depart from the parent hive and begin life on their own account. This
may appear the harsh judgment of a half-i