The all-important fact is, that, in playing a part worse than Cromwellian, he, _acting according to English law, was supported by all the power of the state_; and if the men who defended their homes against his attack had been arrested and convicted, Irish judges would have consigned them to the gallows; and they might, as in the Cromwellian case, have ordered a placard to be put on their persons:-- 'FOR NOT TRANSPLANTING!' In fact the Cromwellian commissioners did nothing more than carry out fully the _principles_ of our present land code.

Nine-tenths of the soil of Ireland are held by tenants at will.

It is constantly argued in the leading organs of English opinion, that the power of the landlords to resume possession of their estates, and turn them into pastures, evicting all the tenants, is _essential_ to the rights of property.

This has been said in connection with the great absentee proprietors.

According to this theory of proprietorship, the only one recognised by law, Lord Lansdowne may legally spread desolation over a large part of Kerry; Lord Fitzwilliam may send the ploughshare of ruin through the hearths of half the county Wicklow; Lord Digby, in the King's County, may restore to the bog of Allen vast tracts reclaimed during many generations by the labour of his tenants; and Lord Hertfort may convert into a wilderness the district which the descendants of the English settlers have converted into the garden of Ulster.