advantageous in the lesser transactions in which the members of a community may be engaged, it must be of far greater importance when applied to matters of vast moment. But many who admit the accuracy of this argument, in an economic view, maintain that although the community would unquestionably gain by the extension of free trade" to land, there is another and more important side to the question. The people, they say, are too poor and too ignorant to take care of their own concerns, and the landlord having a manifest advantage over them, the laws must protect the weaker. The remedy for this appears plain. If education gives one an advantage, elevate the other in the social scale by the same means. But if it be the wealth of the landlord that enables him to tyrannise over the penury of the tenant, and to dictate terms to a starving man, the answer is still plainer a starving man has no business with land, any more than he would have with a steam engine which he was too poor to supply with fuel, or too ignorant to turn to industrial ac count. In Ireland, not only our own popu lation, but the English tourists that annually visit our country, seldom look at a tract of dreary landscape without expressing their regret that land so capable of being reclaimed should still be suffered to continue in a state of nature. This they often ascribe to the want of some complicated bill, such as the one before us. But they seem always to forget that this cannot be done without capital; and that you cannot embark money in one channel without withdrawing it from another. Any legal enactment that holds forth extraordinary temptations for the investment of capital in land, might, with perfect truth, be called "an act for the discouragement of Irish manufactures and commerce." It is because the thoughts, energies, and capital of our country have long been too much fixed upon the land that our manufactures have made so little progress; and we have often speculated, as we looked from a distance at the tall dusky chimneys that told our approach to some English manufacturing town, upon the wonderful change that would have been produced had unseasonable Acts of Parliament diverted the capital there represented out of its natural channels to the less ambitious pursuits of the cultivation of the soil. The tenants in this country are now of a higher class; superior in educa tion, wealth, and skill. Legislation must acknowledge this. They are able to manage their own affairs. America holds out its temptations to them. Thousands are leaving our shores, large tracts of country are unoccupied. The farmer is at a premium-land at a discount. The landlord is in reality more in need of protection than the tenant. Under these circumstances it seems most unadvisable and dangerous to introduce such a bill as the one we have been considering, founded upon principles which appear, and we say it with all possible respect to the eminent gentlemen by whom the bill is introduced, to approach too closely to that broad line of demarcation that should ever distinctly define and boldly protect those private rights, without a hallowed respect for which prosperity and order must soon give place to anarchy and ruin. The LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW AMENDMENT BILL is the last of Mr. Napier's four bills. Its object is to consolidate, amend, and simplify, the mass of confused legislation regulating the law of landlord and tenant in Ireland. These acts amount to nearly 200; all which, it is proposed, to repeal and wipe away from the statute book. The object of this bill is, as far as possible, to present a complete code of law on the subject, in such a form as to be accessible and intelligible to any country gentleman or educated tenant. And as the other bills of the code are designed to facilitate contracts and create rights, the object of this bill is to facilitate the enforcement of those contracts, and the observance of those rights. As this bill embodies most of the provisions of the present acts, relating to the tenure of land-a subject we have often considered in our columns→→→ it is only necessary to dwell upon some of its principal deviations from former has been accepted and dealt with by the landlord. Where a tenant has underlet with consent, the sub-tenant is protected from the inconvenience of being harassed by two or more landlords; and whilst the head-landlord is permitted to require the sub-tenant, if the premises be in arrear, to pay his rent directly to him, the sub-tenant is also permitted to elect to pay the head landlord. Where the lease contains an express covenant not to sub-let or divide the interest, it is provided, that, in case of intestancy, the landlord shall elect among the next of kin, as to which he shall accept as his tenant. The laws relating to waste, have been a constant source of injustice and complaint. Several important alterations are made in the bill upon this subject. Hitherto, when a tenant was committing waste or dilapidation, the only remedies were by an action, &c., against a person almost always a pauper; or by an injunction in Chancery a tedious and expensive process. By this bill the magistrates will be authorised to grant a warrant on affidavit against the offending party. It empowers local tribunals to enforce the covenants that in reality form the principal considerations in the lease; and a civil bili ejectment is given against the tenant, where he has forfeited his interest by assigning, under-letting, burning, or over-cropping. The process of ejectment in the superior courts is also simplified and stripped of much unnecessary prolixity. The most extensive alteration effected by the bill is in the law of distress. Mr. Napier has made some most important reforms, for the benefit of the tenant; but we regret he did not go a little farther, and wholly abolish what we must consider the remains of feudal barbarism. Even if the power were never abused, there is something repugnant and humiliating to manly feeling to that independent spirit which it is the interest and duty of the legislature to foster and respect-in the knowledge, that if you have omitted to pay your rent, your landlord, without notice to you, or legal process, may seize upon, and place in the custody of irresponsible persons-selected by himself, perhaps all your earthly goods. It is a power that has been constantly abused in this country, converted into an instrument of injustice, and not only used as a hasty means of redress, but often employed, too, as a vehicle of vindictive oppression. The late Attorney-General proposes that no distress shall be made for sums under £5, or for rent due more than one year and a-half before; and that the warrant shall, in every case, be granted before distress by a magistrate, or other person in autho rity, upon a proper affidavit. These and other minor alterations are, doubtless, important and most beneficial changes; still we regret the measure was not a little more liberal. One step more would have wiped this blot out of the Landlord and Tenant Bill. The old law of distress was not only the cause of much injustice and heart-bickerings, but it also materially assisted in degrading the tenant classes. It gave the landlords such facile powers of recovering rent, that many soon ceased to care so much about the solvency or character of their tenants-matters in which they were no longer so materially interested. The proposed bill also contains some most judicious clauses, to facilitate and regulate the gradual growth among us of a class of cottagers, or labourers, as distinct from farmers, similar to the same class in England. The uncertainty of the law made it very difficult to give a house, and a small allotment of ground to a labourer, without his becoming at once a tenant from year to year, entitled to notice to quit, &c. These difficulties are removed by a few simple and mutually beneficial provi sions. As already remarked, it would be quite impossible, as well as useless and tedious, to attempt to place before the reader more than a superficial sketch of this great measure that consolidates and repeals nearly two hundred heterogeneous acts upon the same subject. We believe, however, that we have drawn attention to those leading features, in which the public will feel most interest. Many questions that have been the subject of doubt and conflicting judgments, have been happily decided; law quibbles have been annihilated wholesale; the Augean stables have been swept; prolixity, special pleading, vain repetitions, and endless recitals, have all been knocked on the head. These topics, however, are So surrounded with technicalities, and so intimately connected with court practice, that whilst the public will reap the benefits, professional men alone would take an interest in their discussion. In drawing this article to a close, it is impossible not to be struck with the boldness of the mind that planned a design so vast. For generations past, as alterations became necessary, each preceding statute was patched and tinkered by a newer one; till, at last, these acts formed a confused mass, such as few men had courage to plod through, and scarce one ability to master. Ireland owes a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Napier, for the efforts he has made to bring the land question to a final settlement. We cannot conclude more appropriately than by an extract from the right honourable gentleman's speech upon the subject, in the House of Com mons: "I have endeavoured to meet the exigencies of Ireland in a liberal and generous spirit. In preparing this code-in considering every suggestion submitted-I have added many an hour of toil to a life of labour; and every suggestion which may hereafter be offered, from whatever quarter it may come, will be accepted, and considered in the same spirit in which the measure has been now submitted to the house. The voice of mercy has resuscitated Ireland; the flush and flow of returning life reanimates her frame; but still is she bound in the grave-clothes, in which severe policy and sore affliction have enwrapped her. Loose her, and let her go." AND So, my dear Anthony, you have thought fit, in violation of all honour and friendship, to make public that which I did, as it were, outpour in a whisper into your ear, sub sigillo confessionis. To what end was it, pray, that I marked my communication at the very outset "private and confidential?" To none that I can see, except to instigate you through some diabolical perversity-diabolo tentante, as the lawyers say to run counter to my earnest request. Had I known that you were possessed of such a spirit of feminine contradiction, I should never have enjoined secrecy, unless, indeed, I wished the very result that has happened. Did you ever hear what the humorous, but eccentric, Toby Glascock once proposed at a great popular meeting, when it was moved that the proceedings should be published in all the papers of the day? "By no means, sir,” said Toby, addressing the chair with great gravity, "tell them to one woman with an injunction to silence !" Well, then, now that I know your mood, I shall deal with you accordingly; and I now entreat you to publish what I am about to write, through the length and breadth of the land. A few days after my last arrival in town, I was sitting late one evening in my bedchamber in the hotel, looking over some papers, previous to retiring to rest, when I heard a knock struck heavily on the door. "Come in," said I. There was no other response than a repetition of the knock. Again I repeated my invitation, and was answered by a third knock more emphatic and more solemn than the former. Surprised and a little alarmed at this mysterious proceeding, I arose, and, after a short pause, I opened the door; but my wonder was much increased to find that there was no person within sight. I looked along the corridor, upwards and downwards, but I saw nothing save at either end a gaslight within a muffed globe, gleaming white, and cold, and mistily, like the eye of a spectral giant, and falling on some brackets supported by dragons and other fabulous monsters, projected their shadows along the wall and upon the floor in shapes the most grotesque and horrible. I turned to re-enter my room, when something white against the door caught my eye. What was it, think you, that I beheld? Ah, Anthony, you know well, sly dog. 'Twas a square piece of paper nailed to the door, if I may be allowed the expression, by a fork! both down, not without a feeling of solemnity, for it reminded me forcibly of that secret and terrible brotherhood, who, in a like mysterious manner were wont to command men to appear before them, leaving at their door by night the dread summons, pierced by a dagger. I entered my room, shut the door, and examined VOL. XLI.NO. CCXLII. I took L 'Twas an envelope addressed to myself, within which was written as "Die Mystiker-Bruderschaft. "IN THE NAME OF THE MYSTIC BROTHERS. "You are required to appear upon the third day herefrom, "At two hours after sunset." Beneath this there was a further writing which it is not necessary now to disclose. You may be sure, my dear Anthony, I was delighted to receive this missive, and that I determined to obey the summons. Accordingly on the day and at the hour indicated, I stood beneath the portico of the Temple of Euterpe. You know well the whereabouts. Attached to the ponderous door was a massive brazen cornix, or, as the moderns call it, knocker, lifting the which, I smote stoutly upon a circular plate of the same metal. I heard the sound ring startlingly upon the silent night without, and pass away in solemn echos through the vast halls within. Then the door opened, and I entered. "Der Hochmystiker! der Hochmystiker!" "Silence!-order-listen to the chair!" of These words proceeded from every part of the festive board, in consequence the Chief Mystic, or his High Mistiness, as the chairman was more familiarly called, having risen and tapped the table with his hammer. This proceeding took place, my dear Anthony, after the dinner had been utterly demolished and driven from the field by the vigorous assault of some thirty trenchant trenchermen. Even the lingering Stilton and double Glo'ster that hovered upon the skirts of the mainbody of eatables, had given way. the clatter of heavy arms, that peculiar sound which knives and forks make upon the Wedgewood, had entirely ceased. The popping of the corks from the champaign flasks was, alas, now heard but at long intervals; but the clear ringing of the drinking-glass was frequent, as some one pledged his neighbour, and that most agreeable of all after-dinner sounds, the concordia discors to which each knot of speakers sends its contribution in a different tone, floated through the room, now swelling, now falling, like the murmuring of the sea upon a fresh night in spring. "Der Hochmystiker! der Hochmystiker."" Hear the chair." Silence was soon established after the usual amount of vociferous protestations against noise, when the Chief Mystic, with glass in hand, looked for a moment around him. "Twas a face that at once attracted and arrested attention. Thin and angular, with high cheek bones and a mouth somewhat prominent; a nose slender, but remarkably well defined; a forehead of admirable intellectual development told of a mind acute, enlarged, and accurate; while the pallor of his features, the light of his keen grey eye, and the flow of his brown hair, thrown somewhat carelessly back from his forehead, spoke of energy, and inquisitiveness and labour, and a thorough and absorbing devotion to science. Such was the estimate which an observer, upon ordinary occasions, would form; but he who saw him to-night the eye glittering with the brilliancy of some happy fancy, and a smile of infinite sweetness and humour, playing over every feature and lighting them up as with a sunbeam, would feel little wonder that Will Wilddrake could be as delightful a companion amid his social friends as he was a leading authority in his own profession, and a largely informed scholar before the world. "Fill your glasses, brothers," said the Hochmystiker. "Are you all ready?" For a moment one might hear a running fire along the table, at either side, as the bottles passed from hand to hand. Then all was stilled in silent expectation. "Are all ready. How say you, Herr Kleinmystiker?" "All ready," replied the Vice-Mystic, having satisfied himself of that fact by a survey of the table. "Brothers," said the chief, waving both his arms with a gesture familiar to him, "Brothers, to-night we hold a chapter to inaugurate a new member of our most |