By Irish law, the tribe was owner; the tribesmen
were joint proprietors, and the forfeiture of the chief did not involve
the forfeiture of the land occupied by the tribesmen. By English law,
however, these latter, such of them as were not expelled or exiled,
suddenly found themselves transformed from joint-owners into tenants at
will. Further, the difficulty of dealing direct with tenants,
experienced by landlords who were in very many cases absentees, led to
the abominable "middleman" system by which the owner leased great
stretches of land to some one who undertook to "manage" it for him, and
who in turn sub-let it in smaller patches at rack-rents to those who, to
get back their money, had to sub-let again at still higher rents. The
result was, as an official report in the eighteenth century states: "It
is well known that over the most part of the country, the lands are
sub-let six deep, so that those who actually labour it are squeezed to
the very utmost." And Lord Chesterfield, when Viceroy, complained of the
oppression of the people by "deputies of deputies of deputies.
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